Project Proposal - sink play

SP304 Sonic Arts Practice 2: Project Proposal 

 Student name: Jennifer Wellwood

audio outreach : sink play

70% performance, 30% documentation

Description of overall project Idea:

But then, what is philosophy today- philosophical activity, I mean- if it is not the critical work that thought brings to bear on itself? In what does it consist, if not the endeavor to know how and to what extent it might be possible to think differently, instead of legitimizing what is already known? Michel Foucault

I propose to make a study of a listening situation, and compose a 20 minute radio work around the material and themes arising. Using script and sited recordings, and other sonic elements to explore the possibilities of my subjective experience, hopefully crafting something broadcastable. Main elements for consideration:
Voice - I use mainly monoglossic performances - [ I have asked other women to read my words whilst washing up, in their own home.] I am using radio like its 'live'- which it 'is', though of course I am not washing up live in the studio. (That would be a electrics hazard to health and safety). I want to look into radio as a means for 'publicising the personal', and as medium for direct address. This ties to my interest of Ecriture Feminine, and the writings of Helene Cixious, and my attempts to frame writing that flows form the wrist like blood into spoken words? Feminine Ecriture is not something dry to be studied, but a kind of attention and expression to be lived- and this project for me hopes to be wild whist aware of its own vulnerability? This is why I choose to aim it at a female audience primarily – not because of the setting, but because of the feeling that drives it- wishing to sonically reassess the chore, and make 'expression' to break silences... Radio which is getting personal instead of generalizing the listener as 'audience'- with lowest common denominator setting standards for homogenized requirements. This is 'radio' which is meant to be a service- I think radio is not used pro actively enough- Radio is beautiful, a tool, a plaything – what is left after the specialisms have been claimed and removed professional standards is anyone’s' guess- this work forwards the reclamation of the radio by its listeners-as-producers.
Field study of the site - I am a user of radio- this takes place commonly in the kitchen whilst washing the dishes. (The majority of listening takes place in 3 environments- the car the domestic situation or the work situation. I don't drive so car radio is not something I have had the pleasure of much, and my work is currently at college, or in my home). I am going to write about that which I know- The listening environment I am interested in is specifically a session of washing up in my kitchen- and this project arises form a desire to make something I would wish to hear but have not yet encountered whilst doing this chore-and which I hope will work as a recognition and a celebration and a re-imagining of what can be considered as 'me time'- scrubbing pans....Me time in the kitchen. This is, if you are fortunate, a place which you have set up so that it's use is economic, within reach, accessible and as pleasurable as possible- there is a easy movement that can come from the arrangement of your tools and utensils and pans, dishes and food stuffs which might manifest into a sonic score? There are natural rhythms that surface and are developed through the repetitive acts of a chore if you have used the same space for years.- a choreography I hope to record ( Hip to drawer, foot to bin, bag store, window down, radio on , plates to rack, scrub plonk plinp pop sqeeeze, dry hands on trousers, kettle on).
In my mind radio is as experiment- I have been fortunate enough to work with and learn form producers that use radio in this way. I have a opportunity to play my work live from the Soundart Radio station in Dartington, Devon.- Instead of the medium as a 'platform for the dissemination of qualified work' , the media is seen as a site of humanity (human, raw, - whatever the instrument- voice, field recording, remix). Especially since the arrival of 'community radio', self conscious/art radio is finding space to play out- rather than a play of personality 'ego', there is a opportunity to share sonic approaches to listening and expressing in diverse ways. 
Always, I am wondering about work that is very personal, from the artist, and the use of artwork to forward a sociality that is not afraid to be awkward, or difficult, or unusual or even... boring! Working with themes - breaking the idea of license of expression (i.e. air time) being a specialism or something that should be 'earnt'. That too easily is the specialized authoritative opinion, and... well, we can see where that’s got us (is attempting to keep us) just by flicking through any radio dial/watching the news...

Context(s)

The kitchen is political as much as it is personal. A contested environment: the scene of woman hood, childhood, family hub, where the water does flow and the fire is ready to be lit. Radio has many contexts too- this is 'radio art' with has a rich and interesting history, and will be broadcast on a government monitored 'public' medium. I am an artist- but also a student, a mother, white, working class, Devonian, etc etc etc- these are contexts that can't be avoided in my processes. For me this work is partly being made as an attempt to overcome the distinctions 'contexts' can be cast as- I want to make a work relevant to women in kitchens- what ever their personal situation? This is a shared experience (however many billion women wash their dishes by hand? The dishwasher is a myth propagated by Whirlpool).

“Media are not fixed natural objects; they have no natural edges. They are constructed complexes of habits, beliefs and procedures embedded in elaborate cultural codes of communication. The history of media is never more or less than the history of their uses, which leads us away from them to the social practices and conflicts they illuminate”. Carolyn Marvin (1988) When Old Technologies Were New: Thinking About Electric Communication in the Late Nineteenth Century.

This project considers the “conflicts they illuminate”, though I do not propose to be militant about the subject- the idea of 'woman's work' , domestic slavery and repetitive obligatory duty are contexts, but the theme of 'chore' has other possibilities which I wish to explore: 20 minutes at the sink = 20 minutes of contemplation, imagination, relaxing, centring, reflection, focused attention, ritual and a 'labour of love.'

“Let's start with your own familiar space. Change in a tiny space could resonate to larger space but without microscopic change no radical change would be possible.”Tutsuo Kogawa, Radioart Manifesto

The representation of the domestic situation, as with much of media content, is set to 'standard', often with a consumerist agenda. Particularly we see with the kitchen the seat of happy family life, or girly gossip, and a place of competition- through cookery, gadget ownership, 'mastery of procedures', décor- all which I see as manipulative representations focusing on branding domesticity and corrupting womanhood. Why? Only /maybe because there are not many alternative ideas being forwarded? Or maybe I am just too busy washing up to have noticed them?!

Pragmatics: methodologies and realisation

I am recording the washing up! And scripting different approaches to the subject for voice.. I am seeking permission to go wash up at friends', to sample different tones, room acoustics (hard water soft water?), rhythms of movement etc., and asking these women to participate in voice recordings, to make a work that is as relevant to 'any woman's kitchen' as possible. When I have enough sonic materials I will play, and craft something.

My research is around intimacy (personal address) on the radio, and live art and theatre in the home.

Technical requirements

I will be crafting using zooms, binaural microphones, Cubase editing software, and I would like to spend some time in the recording booth at the PC specifically for exploring my own voice. This is how I generally work- it suits the project very well- I enjoy making that is a lo-fi as possible, wishing to make work that is in some form a kind of dialogue, approachable and in style replicable or easy to respond to by listeners if they so wished?

Details of intended output and final presentation

"Exhibiting sound art poses challeges to  the white cube  sound epitomizes slippage, sound confirms the posrosity of space. Even prior to an intentional sound entering the equation, every space has its own soundtrack, its room tone. Every space is sonarous , every pace has breath. Here we shall weight the propensity for sound to displace, multtiply, heomogenize the topos, p[lace, site. We shall also pat attentioon to the volume of the unheard, the volume which activates the synaptic , the insiduous volume of gray matter, the realm of unsound."Christof Migone :Volume of Confinement and Infinity (A History of Unsound Art) Ubuweb Papers

I use this quote to give a indication of the excitement I feel when considering the possibilities of making a site specific work for the radio – I think placing the site of 'final presentation' into the home/hands/ears/mind of the listener, and making work that seeks somehow to dislodge distinctions between home life and sonic art is central to this project. This follows closely to my interest in Tutsuo Kogawa's miniFM- radio for a building, a school, a market place- radio as a reforger of everyday social possibilities... I don't suppose there will be many listeners doing the washing up when this is broadcast, but there might be some, of which I am one :-)

This work is radio- specific- I have a invite to broadcast on Soundart Radio 102.5FM on a Sunday evening, which broadcasts over Dartington and Totnes (my home town), and which can be listened to on line at www.soundartradio.org.uk. I am happy to give this work to other radio stations (Falmouth's Soundwave and the Souce), but do not expect them to show the work to my scedule- 7pm is a primetime slot, with high demand form regular program makers, so of course, any radio sation will honour its contracts with its regular DJ's and producers firstly. I will be entering this work to the source FM's Resound festival in March, but this is an aside my college work.

I will provide a CD to tutor and class so they can 'recreate' the radio listening experience while washing up if they so wish. This is slightly contentious, since this work is some focused on the radio experience as part of it's materiality and subject- radio work reproduced on CD is lacking the dynamic that 'live listening' can deliver, but I am happy for the performance of the work to be specific to FM listeners and not the gallery or studio environment.