PERFORMANCE REFLECTION ...

I played out on the Sunday as planned.

I enjoy the ambiguity of radio- any one could have been listening, joining in somewhere, making up their own story...

First let me set the scene-  this could have been any kitchen anywhere- this is mostly my kitchen with other's kitchens thrown in- its 7 o’clock Sunday evening- the dinner is over- Artuad has fallen asleep in front on the telly, Helen Cixious has gone for a walk, Dimanda and Christof have both gone home, a bit pissed, happy, full, I am actually alone, though I have dishes to do...  Such company has inspired me, to imagine, try to stretch, exercise this washing up moment- pull it open- find the gold there, beneath rote and the rule that it is not much fun, and life will begin again when the dishes are done...

some things became evident through the broadcast-

The jamming between a listeners' live washing up event and the broadcast, might not have been to the advantage of my work... Although this was a focus of assemblage, the delicacy of the production, such as the low volume moments and subtlety of voices, might have been lost under the louder sounds of real-time washing up. I do not feel I made the work robust enough to 'ride out' the sited noises.

Sink Play was made with a audience in mind and was focused on making work that was open for dialogue- I really wanted to follow the broadcast with a on-air discussion, live in the studio or with listeners able to phone in, but this plan failed. I was suffering from ...exhaustion :-O  and did not organise this properly... I wanted to gather feedback  this way, but evening access to busy women is not easy- 7.30 is bed time for little ones, and the radio station being a little way out of town also conspired against a group meet manifesting. I sometimes think of radio work as similar to telepathy- the broadcasters' voice or the constructed sound environment entering the mind (through the ears) of the listener, sought or imposed, and influencing and effecting life in unexpected ways even after the radio has been turned off. William Burroughs(1959) said:  

Telepathy is not, by its nature, a one-way process. To attempt to set up a one-way telepathic broadcast must be regarded as a unqualified evil.

 My desire for an after-show discussion was a desire for making radio 2/3/4/5/-0000- way, and facilitating more voices and opinions onto the radio platform. Any debate around ideas of 'woman's place' and 'domestic art' would have been beautifully underlined by the siting of those voices on the public airwaves.  Gregory Whitehead says in his Radio Radio interview with  Martin Spinelli, that Inscribed inside every technology is always a set of ideas. He goes on to celebrate radioart and radio use which explores, challenges and moves beyond these.   'inscribed ideas' could be another way of saying, 'radio has been owned like a domain by corporate mentality'. Different users might bring very different approaches to its' usage. This is in support of Bertolt Brecht's call for radio to be two or more way- or, given that we now have the Internet and mobile phone technology- that radio be 'open' as a place for talk, chat, dialogue and sharing.

The weeks running up to my performance were filled with a unusually high (publicised) amount of murder, war, bravery and revolution. Whilst I recorded and composed Sink Play, my mind would often turn (I would stop work and actively seek news) to the developments in the far east-  Egypt,  Libya- street battles, army brutality, media frenzy, public solidarity... I listened to the Democracy Now daily radio programmes.  Would these citizens succeed at dethroning their despots? Along side the facebook and twitter campaigns that were so obviously helpful to the revolutionaries, I wondered did radio have a place in their on-the-ground freedom fight?

Where did I place my work in relation to this 'larger picture'? We are always encouraged to consider context.... This seems particularly pertinent given radio's border and social status crossing capabilities.

Dan Lander (1994), writing in Radio Rethink, terms radioart as decadent, comparing his own country with others to illustrate,  

In politically embattled countries, there’s little –or more or likely no – radio art, while relatively untroubled Canadians are the most prolific producers or works of art exclusively for broadcast, followed by Americans and Western Europeans.

This made me consider the work I was making closely- not wanting to make indulgent art but work which can be part of a social solution, a movement toward equality, genuinely, consideration. I feel myself questioning its worth- are words/script too formulaic and constrictive?   Sound/art can liberate and radio is a powerful tool- so why the hell am I messing about with fairy tales set in kitchens? Again, so as not to be stunned by the immensity of being in such a confusing world, I have to reassure myself that small steps are still valuable if they are in the right direction... Elaine Aston (2000), Writing on Bobby Baker's Take A Peek! praises Baker's ability to expose, and so weaken the internal Policing matronizing voice that keeps women fearful of making a spectacle of themselves.  I hope that the listener might recognise this struggle, and be inspired to think of radio, washing up and one's own self's experience in new ways.

Arrianne Rich,(1980)  in Towards an Politics of Location, writes that 

the need to begin with a body- our own- was understood [ … ] as locating the grounds from which to speak with authority as women. Not to transcend the body, but to reclaim it. To reconnect our thinking and speaking with the body of this particular living human individual- a woman.  

I locate this project here- I am so glad to have had the opportunity (freedom) to exercise my voice and creativity through this project :-)

cited work:

Aston, Elaine (2000) Transforming' women's lives : Bobby Baker's performances of 'Daily life'. New Theatre Quarterly, 16 (1). pp. 17-25.

Burroughs, William (1959), quoted in Three Recievers, Douglas Kahn, p 78 in Radio and Experimental Sound (2001) ed. Allen S. Weiss,The MIT Press, Massachusetts 

Lander, Dan. Radiocasting: Musings on Radioand Art in Radio Rethink Art sound and Transmission, ed. Daina Augaitis and Dan Lander (1994), Walter Philips Gallery, Cananda
 

Rich, Arrianne (1980) Towards an Politics of Location, (p 638) Literary Theory, An Anthology,(1998) ed Julie Rivkin and Micheal Ryan, Blackwell Publishers Ltd, Oxford
 

Whitehead, Gregory. in interview with Martin Spinelli on Radio Radio, viewed 27/02/2011 at http://www.ubu.com/sound/radio_radio/ The series debuted on 104.4 Resonance FM in London, England 2003