Echoes Catalogue.pdf

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Table of Contents DIRECTING NIGHTMARES ..................................................................................... 3 An Introduction to „Echoes‟: A Curatorial Project (Research Questions) ............................. 4 BORN AGAIN ............................................................................................................ 6 The Chair: Method, Temporality and Sonic Framing ......................................................... 8 Hidden Amidst the Noise: Context and the Critic. ........................................................... 11 SELF-IMPOSED ASSASINATION ........................................................................... 17 Improvised Listening: Poetry and Electronic Music Syncretized ....................................... 20 Conclusion:.................................................................................................................... 22 DEAR ENIGMA ........................................................................................................... 24 Interview Appendix: ....................................................................................................... 26 Glossary of Terms: ......................................................................................................... 29 References:..................................................................................................................... 30

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DIRECTING NIGHTMARES No thought too right. Just an overly alert mind full of doubts. A heart that won’t stop racing, Insomnia that makes all my bad habits the villain. I have said this before. I am: worn. wearing. weary. wry. wrought. wrong. robbed. raw. maybe just raw. and about to get ruckus. Someone. Something. unhinged here. No, Here Or Here Maybe here God! I am having an allergic reaction. I swear!

Koleka Putuma 3

An Introduction to ‘Echoes’: A Curatorial Project (Research Questions)

The question posed by „Echoes‟ is: how do we position Electronic Music and poetry in such a way that it is meaningful, without subsuming either forms under visual art in the gallery context? In an attempt to answer this question, the exhibition poses a method, while the essay explains why it is necessary and important to place poetry and Electronic Music in the gallery context. The project as a whole is informed by: the syncretism of music and poetry; the need for a more informative critical language in Electronic Music; and the lack of a critical space for Electronic Music. „Echoes‟ is an explorative curatorial project that looks for a critical space for Electronic Music to be experienced and listened to, as opposed to hearing (where listening is a cognitive act of consideration). This space encourages listening as the primary point of engagement, where Electronic Music will be able to begin a search for an accurate critical language capable of relaying meaning between people and music. „Echoes‟ is an attempt to insert Electronic Music as a critical art form in the gallery context. This is achieved through a multimedia artwork consisting of a chair, recorded poetry, a piece of written poetry and pre-produced music. The gallery space is informed by a wealth of history. This space is loaded with preconceptions: ideas about what the gallery space means; and expectations as to what one might see in the gallery space. Music often tends to enter the gallery space as an intervention: to intervene and generate new meaning, which might add to, or affect an artwork or piece that has stagnated in time. Due to its emotive and invasive nature1, sound can add elements and stories to artworks that were not previously obvious. The role of the sound artist has, since the 1920‟s, become increasingly relevant in the context of the gallery2. However, given its pervasiveness, both the sound artist and sound in general, struggle to find real permanence in the gallery space. Sound is ever replaceable and only valuable insofar as it serves the role of the intervention. In terms of the role of music, it is often only used as a tool for enhancement. By enhancement, I am referring to the role of music as a tool used to encourage emotion, or to provide ambiance within a space. For example, William Kentridge‟s Refusal of Time (2015) features an intense and loud ambient track composed by Philip Miller. The track does not have value as an artwork in itself, 1

Sound is invasive because it can permeate physical obstruction, due to the fact that it is a mellifluous and supple, it can move. – Effectively, there is no privacy from sound that is loud enough. (Goodman, 2012; Pp133135). 2 The rise of the Italian Futurists and specifically the writings of Luigi Russolo in The Art of Noise (1913) urged that sound be considered.

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but rather is used to create a sonic ambience in the space. The act of listening is not encouraged here, but rather the act of experience, where the sound only serves a purpose in relation to the rest of the installation. In my opinion, there is a misconception that a piece of music cannot stand alone as an artwork, in its primary form, as something one might listen to, in the same way that a painting can. The rhetoric of the gallery context implies that an object/artwork on display is worth looking at, both aesthetically and intellectually and the object on display is given a kind of agency within the gallery context. In terms of text and/or poetry, its role is similar to that of music – as a kind of visual enhancement, employed as an aid or deconstructed to generate or assist visual meaning. In an exhibition space, can music and poetry have their own meaning? Or can they only form part of some great visual puzzle? I believe that, should the sole purpose of sound within the gallery space be the accentuation and enrichment of visual art, it will remain the serving class of the art world. I believe that, without subsuming one for the other, the solution to this bias is simply a matter of allowing Electronic Music and the broader context of sound, to be centralised and isolated from the visual. Once this is achieved, listening can take place, and critical conversations can be had regarding the subject of Electronic Music and sound within the gallery space. In my opinion, to consider poetry as a solely visual construct is to entirely miss the essence of poetry, which is at its core a sonic art form made manifest through writing. The act of reading is a sub cognitive method of listening, and in view of sub vocalisation3, it becomes apparent that we consider meaning through the sonic realm: we read; we listen to ourselves reading; and through that act of listening we generate our understanding. Joshua Mailman‟s (2012) explanation of listening in 7 Metaphor’s for (Music) Listening, positions the act of listening as the ultimate point of thought and consideration. By applying the act of listening to different metaphors, Mailman (2012) highlights that listening is an almost omnipresent act utilised in nearly everything we do, because listening is an abstraction – a plurality that can only be understood from a point of cognitive reference (Mailman. 2012). Thus the gallery space encourages listening, as one might understand it as a cognitive act of consideration. It is with this understanding that I make the point that both music and poetry deserve consideration as objects of some kind of aesthetic value and vehicles for meaning. The gallery, as opposed to a general space, changes the rules of engagement due to the preconceptions of what it means to enter a gallery space, in terms of both attentiveness and critical thinking. Hence, this project acts as a prototype for a new kind of critical listening space.

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The voice we hear when we read. A modern occurrence, previously all reading was vocal (Saenger, 1997,

1-3).

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BORN AGAIN

We are Biological descendants of incest. Children of norms and religion Our upbringing copulates with liberal thinking Thus, disfiguring our identities to be aborted foetuses Configured from the child lock. Consider: Two schools thoughts Bound in an institution for the sake of eternity, For the sake of sparing us from hades. Up above my head, fired men knew the drill Flushed extinct faiths with dehydrated tongues Crumped in hollow stumps, Saved lost stems, Laid hands on fresh oxygen with infected phlegm, As demons coughed in attempts to avoid the subject, Distort the subject, Making the man downstairs the verb of the subject. When the cries of the condemned became unbearable They pointed their index fingers at cockroaches 6

Clapping “evil! Out of my house-creepy four legged darkness” They realised that the devil never knocked their door, Or ever knew them by name. They memorized biblical documents Like the alphabet on an abacus. Yet still didn’t know how to spell belief And read between the lines, But I suppose That is another kind of skill Another kind of indoctrination.

Koleka Putuma

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The Chair: Method, Temporality and Sonic Framing

The process of the creation of „Echoes‟ consisted of a call and response conversation between myself and Koleka Putuma (the poet), where I gave her a piece of music (produced by either myself or another producer) and she responded with a poem, after which I responded with another piece of music and so forth. The conversation began with Burial‟s musical piece Southern Comfort (2006) and Koleka responded with the poem Directing Nightmares (2015), to which I responded with Lapalux‟s musical piece The Dead Sea (2013) etc. This is the linear structure of our call and response exchange, and is carried out using only poetry and Electronic Music. The idea was that the response was to be entirely organic and informed by each respective persons first instinct in relation to either the poetry or the music. The act of this exchange was based more on affect than on comprehensive understanding. Following a feeling found in the form and flow of Koleka‟s poetry I selected or composed a piece of music that I felt amplified, enhanced or showed an alternative perspective on that feeling. While this structure is not obvious in the actual exhibition, it is important to understand that the exhibition is informed by this exchange and that it is not an arbitrary selection of poems placed next to an arbitrary selection of Electronic Music, but rather different aspects of a larger conversation, creating a movement of sorts. Using poetry, „Echoes‟ places a particular kind of abstract critique on the Electronic Music, and the music does the same for the poetry. This is because of the nature of the exchange and the curatorial frame work of the call and response in the process of making the exhibition. „Echoes‟ should however place an emphasis on critique and appreciation for both the Electronic Music and poetry as well. It does this by placing both forms (poetry and music) in the gallery context. For more information regarding the process, please see the interview appendix (page 27).

As an exhibition, Echoes explores a duality between Electronic Music and poetry. It affirms the two forms as syncretic, with emphases on sonic quality. This means that while both Electronic Music and poetry are sonic art forms, and they are syncretic because sonic quality informs them both, there is a duality in how we consider them. Electronic Music requires an act of direct listening in order to be considered, while poetry can be read or listened to and the act of-

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listening can be sub cognitive4. It is a matter of curating the duality of poetry and Electronic Music, by placing two things that are similar (often governed by the same rules, such as tonality and rhythm) yet worlds apart, in how we interact with them. Acknowledging this duality creates an echo between these two forms, illuminating their similarities and forging an understanding of their differences.

The physical manifestation of „Echoes‟ takes the form of a rocking wingback armchair. The chair has two small speakers installed into the wings. The chair is what one might call a Comfortable Listening Station (CLS). This form of presenting sound in the comfort of a chair has been employed in other works as well, such as James Webb‟s Autohagiography (2007). The creation of the chair was a process of prototyping a physical station for listening. Ideally there would be several of these chairs in the space, however, given the context of the exhibition, this was not possible. Both the music and the majority of the poetry are heard through the speakers in the chair. Initially the idea was to have separate listening stations5 with each poem presented on the wall in correspondence with the music. The plan to use listening stations was put to rest after I saw the „Sounds of Creation: Paintings + Music‟ collateral event at the Venice Biennale (2015). The show featured paintings by Beezy Bailey in collaboration with ambient music composed and produced by Brian Eno and was curated by Luca Berta and Francesca Giubilei. The project was interesting, however practically, I felt it was lacking. The temporality of the sound did not match the quickness with which people would view the paintings because most of the sound was played through headphones. This meant some people would listen for short periods of time while others would listen to the entire track, often leading people to skip the audio and only look at the paintings if someone else was already listening at that point. Furthermore the headphones were too close to the paintings and the wall in general. This proved for me, that headphones and the idea of a standing listening station was unviable. It was after this that I considered the act of sitting and ways in which sound could be heard in intimacy without the use of headphones. It was under these circumstances that the idea of the CLS was born. The premise of the chair is based on the idea that comfort is paramount to maintaining the attention of the listener where temporality is a factor. An obvious case for this point would be a cinema or a theatre and even the music concert hall. 4

I assert that we do not consider that we are listening when we read poetry. Instead, poetry is considered more of a spectacle exercise (it is external viewing rather than internal listening). In fact as it was at university during my undergraduate degree in theatre and performance, the performance of poetry was part of the curriculum. However, experiencing poetry was always referred to in terms of being a „spectator‟: as the watching of poetry, as opposed to listening to poetry. was part of the curriculum – however it was always referred to, in terms of being a spectator, as the watching of poetry, as opposed to listening to poetry. 5 A basic Mp3 player to headphones, model, no chairs so the listener would stand.

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The chair, which as stated before is a rocking armchair, stands as a symbol for intimate comfort and is the vehicle through which the music and the poetry can be heard, with the ear high wings creating the perfect space into which the speakers could be incorporated. The chair has a radio deck built into its base from which an auxiliary (aux) cable or Universal Serial Bus (USB) runs out the face of the chair. The chair is powered using a car battery. This provides the chair an autonomy of sorts as it is capable of being moved and used anywhere. Most of the poetry and all of the music is recorded. The choice here was to embrace the temporality of sound, instead of trying to figure out methods for truncating the temporal elements of both the music and the spoken/recorded poetry. The remaining poetry is typed, and placed on a side table next to the chair. The reason for the typed poetry is to allow for sub vocalisation, to encourage an understanding of how written poetry still has the capacity to inform us of the sonic qualities and criticalities even when it is not „heard‟ in the conventional sense. The rocking of the chair works as a physical rhythmic element, aiding the overall movement of the piece.

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Hidden Amidst the Noise: Context and the Critic.

Electronic Music dates back to the beginning of the 20 th century, beginning primarily with the invention of tape recording. In a Western context, Electronic Music has existed in the gallery space since its primary conception in the work of the Italian futurists, such as Luigi Rusollo (1913) and Balilla Pratella (1911). Rusollo wrote The Art of Noise which was a Futurist manifesto, outlining a then unheard of musical paradigm which is rich with noise: “We want to score and regulate harmonically and rhythmically these most varied noises” (Rusollo, 1913: 5). The popularity of noise in music was further seen in Pierre Schaffer‟s Musique Concrete (a musical movement post the Italian Futurists) which, amongst other things, sought to create music with noise sound, outside of the „do-re-me-fa‟ music sounds (Khan, 1951: 110). Both of these movements emphasised the aspect of noise in sound, and sought to create a kind of noise music. These movements were pioneering when it came to the notion of sound or noise art. Music was previously often only considered seriously if it was classical/operatic. This can be seen in the way Futurists such as Rusollo and Balilla Pratella, who wrote the Manifesto of Futurist Musicians, condemned the conservatories (traditionally schools for classical music, with the exception of jazz post 1950), for being stagnant (Pratella, 1911). They wanted to embrace the notion of a new noise orchestra, through which noises of machines would be woven together to create complex noise music. It is through this condemnation of the classical form and practice, that we see the Italian Futurists urging for a new kind of critical music. As previously stated, this is the precursor for Sound Art which has managed to find a space in the gallery and art museum contexts, through the works of artists and composers such as John Cage. However it has had little effect on Electronic Music as it is today. Instead the primary model of influence for contemporary Electronic Music is that of the Black Atlantic6. This finds itself in another Futurist context and philosophy, which is that of the Afro-Futurists. In Sonic Warfare (2011) Goodman draws the conclusion that the Italian Futurists were misguided in their restriction of sonic intensity and relevance to speed and volume, and that the „futurhythmachine‟ of the Afro-Futurists has a better understanding of the sonic and its affect (Goodman, 2011; 5759). In Kodwo Eshun‟s More Brilliant than the Sun (1998), Eshun proposes the idea of the „Futurhythmachine‟ which Goodman considers a juxtaposition to the „noise‟ pursued by the 6

The ‘Black Atlantic’ refers to the network of the diaspora ( Goodman, 2011; 1).

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Italian Futurists (Goodman, 2011; 59).The Futurhythmachine considers noise only as a fractal. The Futurhythmachine is the whole piece of music, composed of sonic fractals, micro-sounds, frequencies, music sound, noise sound, the physical aurality of sound as well as sound cultures in their entirety as points of reference and inheritance, all contribute to the sonic entity that is the Futurhythmachine. The Futurhythmachine is an intricate web of unlimited sonic potential, where each sound is capable of communicating with the next, the Futurhythmachine is the culmination of a thousand calls and responses. Imagine each sound as an individual part of a much larger whole. Then understand that each minute unit of sound is a part of this shifting sonic entity, they move together and on their own, they call out to one another and they respond to each other‟s call. When Considering Burial‟s Southern Comfort: from around one minute thirty to approximately two minutes into the piece; we can hear the sample of a horn drenched in reverb and tailed with a delay. We can also hear the slow growl of a saw. Each time the sampled horns call out and resolve at the edge of the scale, out of the muddy textures of rain and percussion the growling saw responds to the horn. It is important to understand what is happening here, both the saw and the horn, have their own history7, that is; each sound existed autonomously of each other in another time and in a different context. Now the crux of understanding the Futurhythmachine is to understand that both sounds live in multiple contexts, they are sounds in and of themselves, and they are sounds in the broader context of the piece, and they are sounds in the broader contexts of their cultural ecologies and that within all these contexts there are multiple rhythms occurring between them. This means that the space between the sounds is not dead.The sound does not leave a void, or an empty space. No matter how clear the frequency, the nature of the call is that there will be a response, even if that response is the echo of the empty universe. And so even if the frequencies are clear and silence is heard, the tension that follows the call, this so called „silence‟ carries volumes of information. And this same consideration that we have given to the charged silence must also be given to the noise. Noise is sound compounded into a dense sonic thicket, but even the densest noise can be considered as a collection of multiple sounds instead of a single noise. And that between these sounds, rhythms are playing out, speeds and frequencies can be read and considered, dissonances can be felt. Ultimately, contemporary Electronic Music resembles the Afrofuturist Futurhythmachine, a collective space of sounds made of many parts, with a complex and intricate play between them, instead of the Italian Futurist‟s Noise Art which perceived noise as a single big sound only oscillating in speed and volume (Goodman, 2011; 57-59).

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Given the nature of Burial‟s process it is likely that both the saw and the horn were sampled

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But it is not only the Afrofuturist‟s sonic theory that needs to be considered in contemporary Electronic Music. The practical techniques developed across the Black Atlantic directly inform how Electronic Music is made, and the practical elements it consists of. Across the Jamaican Diaspora the notion of the „Sound System‟ comes into play8. This is effectively the beginnings of Electronic Music as we understand it. The influence of the Jamaican music styles from the 1940s up until the early 1990s is undeniable. Reggae, Dancehall and Dub all contributed to understandings of rhythm, the timbre of percussion, as well as physical effects, such as the „Delay‟ echo. These contributed not only to new Electronic Music coming out of the UK particularly in the late 80s early 90s, but also to the entire idea of the remix. The remix was conceptualised by the pioneer of Dub, King Tubby who would emphasise different instruments and create new soundscapes within the „versions‟9 using effects such as the Delay, the Reverb and Equalisers. Ultimately these advances in understanding and technique greatly contributed to Electronic Music as we know it today. Critical thought has surrounded the arts for centuries. The arts play an integral role, in memory, feeling, thought, social reflection, politics and progress. With new technology come new forms in which the arts can be explored and practiced. One such, relatively, new form is Electronic Music. This is, in its most simplistic definition, music where the overall sound is generated electronically instead of acoustically. With new modes of artistic practice, comes the need for public spaces with which interested parties can engage with the art. For Electronic Music, the current space is problematic and unsustainable. This space is the Electronic Dance Music (EDM), festival and club scene. EDM is currently a billion dollar enterprise with festivals selling out thousands of tickets before the line-up of musicians has even been disclosed. Music has been listened to in several settings since the beginning of mankind and the number of spaces where one might hear music increases all the time. EDM is not Electronic Music practiced and performed as an art form; it serves no cultural purpose, it doesn‟t promote intellectuality, creativity or ingenuity. It is a giant corporate machine capable of drawing in millions of dollars a year, and it succeeds at this. In 2013 the November edition of „Music Trade‟; The EDM Market the point is made, that there are hundreds of EDM festivals across the globe drawing in anywhere between five thousand and one hundred thousand people per festival (Music Trade, 2013; 69-74). The term EDM was not a term popularised by Electronic Musicians, rather it was popularised by corporate America, as a means of better 8

The Sound System was a term coined in Jamaica. It referred to a group of people filling various roles in the live playing of music, from the ‘Selector’ who selected what music to play, to the engineer who would add effects to the music as it was being played. The term Sound System comes from this Jamaican origin as most of the equipment was made up from scraps, such as Television speakers, built by the collective and then used as the device through which the music was played in the Dance Halls across Jamaica (Goodman, 2011; 28-29). 9 The ‘version’ was the instrumental of a piece of music often recorded onto the B-side of the record.

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understanding the product being marketed. EDM is a marketing trope. Another successful homogenisation of musical culture for the purposes of profit, This is not the first time corporate society has honed in on growing musical phenomenon in order to control and ultimately profiteer off it is growing popularity. It happened before in the 1970s with the rise and fall of disco, as well as the punk and subsequent grunge movements of the 90s and the 80s as well as Hip-Hop at large (Pangburn, 2013). Ultimately EDM has moved into the space of economic bubble, on the verge of bursting as soon as popular speculation and disinterest set in. Ultimately EDM has caused widespread misunderstanding of Electronic Music as an art form, because how can something be considered an art form when its practice only requires one to download a template from which to backwards engineer and work forward from, no practice required. Everything is given to you, from the sound to the structure, „EDM is entropy in action: Electronic Music succumbing to market forces before our very eyes‟ (Pangburn, 2013). Aside from the economic nature of the EDM scene, Electronic Music lacks a sufficient academic language. The critical language surrounding Electronic Music is abstract and unplaced, the difference between a press release and a review is hard to establish, and the focal point of the writing is generally geared towards unnecessary personal preference on the part of the writer. Stating whether one likes or dislikes something is irrelevant because music like anything else is subjective. Steve Goodman (2012) AKA Kode 9 says that the critical thought surrounding music is „uncritical‟ and polarised between a state where either everything new is bad in comparison to what it was, or that everything is ground-breaking and brilliant. Furthermore as Intelligent Dance Music (IDM) producer, Venetian Snares AKA Aaron Funk (2014) points out in an interview that the state of contemporary critique tends towards recalling in exact detail what sounds are heard in the music and then deliberating whether or not the writer likes the music, very little emphasis is given to the meaning and semiotics of the sounds being heard or the music in its entirety. In fact, as Aaron points out, that modern critique slams Electronic Music that makes one uncomfortable or feels emotions that are considered negative. Ultimately in this paradigm, only pleasant music can succeed. But it is not just the pointing out of arbitrary sounds exactly as we hear them, that hampers our understanding of Electronic Music. There is an almost complete unwillingness to engage with the complexities that Electronic Music employs. Because one cannot speak of Electronic Music without referring to its rhythm, a complex interplaying of music sound, noise, percussion and melody. The rhythm, as Kodwo Eshun states in More Brilliant than the Sun is locked down by a “retarded innocence”, where Electronic Music journalism (the current forerunner of critique), asserts that this complexity cannot be analysed without killing its positive effects on the body (Eshun, 1998; 7-8). If the criticism of Electronic Music is failing to engage with the complexity of 14

it, it is because criticism understands sound as singular, and even the abstract highlighting of sounds in music as mentioned before (which appears to acknowledge the individual parts), does not take into consideration that each sound is effectively made up of more sounds and that each sound is in conversation with other sounds and that the piece of music cannot exist without the sonic relationships of all its parts. It fails to acknowledge the tensions between sounds and the intricate web of rhythms that make up a piece of music. Ultimately, there seems to be a critical ineptitude regarding Electronic Music and critique. This is seen both by musicians such as Venetian Snares and Kode9, as well as by critical theorists such a Kodwo Eshun. It is with this information that I make my proposal: to search for a new space in which Electronic Music can be listened to, appreciated and critiqued. A space that promotes critical thought and intellectual engagement with Electronic Music, not driven by commerce to the point where the artist becomes irrelevant as is the case with the EDM scene. In order to begin the search for a listening space, one needs to explore areas that are successful in their pursuit of critical thought. One such area is that of the museum/gallery space. The gallery space is capable of opening a dialogue through exhibitions. A dialogue that in the Electronic Music scene is not necessarily engaged in; from production and practice, to sonic semiotics and philosophies, meaning the affect and effect of music on the body and the brain. Some music cannot be listened to in the context of the EDM scene; in fact the nature of nightclubs and festivals detracts from the capacity of the listener. Alcohol and narcotics run in parallel to the emotion dished out by the music. Ideas of escape and forgetting permeate these spaces; they are not designed for listening they are designed for feeling. The space being searched for encompasses ideas of feeling but give preference to listening. There are several ways in which one can listen (Mailman, 2012). I posit that currently the state of critique tends to swing toward Mailman‟s idea of listening as recording, where there is simply a dictation of the sonic elements of music as pointed out by Aaron Funk (2015). Instead there should be a shift into what Mailman refers to as listening as improvisation. Listening as Improvisation with regards to Electronic Music would be an engagement where as one listens one performs an act of thought; the thought is impromptu, informed by past pedagogy and sonic theory, but ultimately new. This kind of listening is engaging and difficult, it requires stamina and a specific mind set to be able to contribute to the sound being heard instead of simply pointing out the sound being heard. The music contributes to the way we perceive the world and engage with society and theory at large. To be clear, this is not an act of subverting music to theory, instead it is about finding the nexus between theory and music, both are capable of contributing to one another, in fact as Goodman (2009) says „Sound comes to the rescue of thought rather than the inverse, forcing it to vibrate, loosening up its organized or petrified body.‟ This however does not mean that the two need to be disengaged and separate which is 15

how the Electronic Music world views critique at large (Bradshaw, 2010). The project I am proposing seeks to find a critical space for Electronic Music. A „sonic gallery‟ that promotes critical thought when creating and engaging with Electronic Music, a new academic and critical language that moves away from Listening as Recording and toward a state of Listening as Improvisation. In „Echoes‟ this kind of improvised listening is achieved through the centralisation of the sound, the positioning of the listener to this sound (sound aimed at each ear, through the speakers in the wings), and the chair itself as a comfortable vehicle for sound. Then there is the actual sound; music, and poetry both spoken and unspoken. Through centralising the sound, and by creating an echo between the music and the poetry we can see a reflection of something as seemingly abstract as Electronic Music, in the words of a poetry we understand.

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SELF-IMPOSED ASSASINATION We break like humans, but we rebuild like Gods -Jasmine Mans

They will assume you are seeking attention. Don’t plaster your dirty laundry on social media. They do not know of the epilepsy that came before, The willpower it took to sit at your computer and tttt-tttttt-type this Transparency has never been one of your strengths anyway Don’t show your wounds to people They’ll get awkward around your bruises Don’t post a selfie of your abortion or self-mutilation God forbid your status reveals that you are lost or breaking When everything yells escape. Do not try to make sense of the drowning Don’t panic in quicksand. Don’t entertain the isolation either. Try to sleep. Try to breathe. When everything yells escape. Smell the ocean. Do not think of Ingrid Jonker.

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Don’t tell people you thought of Sylvia Plath standing in front of your oven, 3 days ago Something’s rattling in your bones. In public you talk above the rumbling in your stomach, The anxiety in your chest, the knocking in your head, the grinding of your teeth, the potatoes mashed in your throat, the acne in your sanity, the imbalanced walk on your stumps, the shedding of your skin every time you muster the guts to write this. I see you. You are never present. You scan your body through the room, past their gaze and yapping. Everything still yells escape. You wonder if it’s true, that we break like humans and rebuild like Gods. Maybe it’s the other way around. You think about walking toward the scent of the ocean. When you contemplate turning back, don’t think of Ingrid. When you contemplate baking muffins, don’t Think of Sylvia They’re not listening to your absence anyway They will immediately dismiss it and ask “Why do people plaster their dirty laundry all over social media?” And months later they will find your nerve decomposing in the water, Or your oven Then turn around and read this over And ask, “How did we miss it”

When It was just a poem, An ambiguous poem. Koleka Putuma 18

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Improvised Listening: Poetry and Electronic Music Syncretized

Knowledge, far from being a sterile purity, is rather a righteous fertile promiscuity.Joshua Banks Mailman (2011) Mailman poses that listening can be made manifest in many ways, two of these include listening as recording and listening as improvisation (Mailman, 2011). The world of Electronic Music specifically regarding its critique stands in the realm of listening as recording with critique being reduced to pointing out the sounds being heard in a piece of music rather than exploring the affect of the sound on the listener, or the possible concepts and stories within the piece of music (Funk, 2015). To simply point out what has been heard, to refer to something as a „gittering synth‟ is futile. It cannot serve to enhance our understanding of the music, if anything it might just confuse us more. This is not to trying to assert some kind of homogony on Electronic Music so that it is easily understood by all in the same terms, but rather that we develop a method of communicating with the music, drawing from it, decoding it for its meaning. If Electronic Music is currently only listened to on the state of listening as recording, then a change needs to be made, a shift in the paradigm of listening to one that is improvised. A mode of listening where we are forced to be quick on our feet, forced to listen and engage with what is being heard, allowing it to affect us, thinking on this affect and then engaging with that. If we want to develop a critical language for Electronic Music, then we need to begin exploring methods writing and speaking that can assist us, looking outward to sonic forms that can bridge the cognitive gap between recorded listening and improvised listening. Mailman (2011) states, that improvised listening is the act of free form response to a situation, however the response is informed; by what has happened, what might happen and a previously acquired skill set (a knowledge of rules and understanding). Therefore, listening as improvisation utilises the notions of Logo10 and Legein.11 Because one cannot improvise without a previous knowledge of the thing in which the improvisation takes place, it requires the listener to both listen for specificity as well as the larger context of the sonic environment. Thus a truly active sense of listening occurs, and the response which can be born from such a state of listening, is cognitive. Thought out and felt out, the information is truly considered, not just that which is physically heard but, rather what it means to hear that sound in the greater context of a 10

Logo is the act of listening for something specific, and notable, in the case of danger, one would associate the sound of a gunshot with danger, therefore hearing a gunshot falls into the category of logo 11 Legein in the same situation as above, would be the act of listening to the entire soundscape in anticipation for something that might sound dangerous.

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piece of music. How does that sound affect the other sounds? How does that affect one? What resonates between oneself and the piece of music being heard?

The task of drawing meaning from something as abstract as music can be a difficult one. How do we speak about what it is that was felt and what was heard when the form of the thing is illusive, capable of conjuring up multiple meanings and no meaning at all. It is not about putting lyrics to music. Lyrics serve an entirely different purpose in a sense at least that is the case with music that is sung.12 Even where hip-hop and all its sub-categories are lyrical, there is a relationship between the words and the music that cannot be severed; this relationship makes it impossible for the music to be critiqued by the vocals. This is why in „Echoes‟ the role of Koleka‟s poetry is paramount in the critical reading of the music, its language is based in sound and its making considers sound; assonance, alliteration and onomatopoeia are testament to this. Poetry is cognitively easier to understand than the abstract compositions of sound that make up music. Poetry can lead us to a critical language, one based in sound. This is because poetry in itself is based in sound. The sound of words, the relationship between those sounds and the affect and imagery it conjures lends itself to be the ground point for developing a critical language for Electronic Music. Electronic Music and Poetry; specifically rap, slam, and spoken word poetry, are entirely syncretic being able to coexist without disrupting one or the other. Furthermore, poetry is verbal expression. The kind of verbal expression that is capable of delving into and exploring affect. It is therefore under this premise; that poetry can assist us in developing a critical vocabulary for Electronic Music. In „Echoes‟ Koleka‟s poetry stands as an act of improvised listening, informed by an affinity for the sonic, each poem is a response to affect and feeling brought about and imposed by the corresponding music, and each song is selected based on responses to Koleka‟s poetry, building between them, a call and response – an understanding between the two forms of music and poetry is created. But the poetry is not only a mediator of information, some kind of linguistic sonography. It stands as an opponent, capable of contributing different ideas and thoughts while speaking about the same thing, instead of speaking about the music. The poetry can give form to the abstractedness of Electronic Music, while not homogenising it. The poetry works as an opinionated interpreter, bridging the gap between language and music, giving spoken or written form to something that before could not be explained except to have its individual parts picked out to be classified. 12

Sung Lyrics, form part of the overall arrangement, therefor it cannot be considered a critical response, to the music, because the music is unlikely to be the same without the lyrics. Also sung lyrics seldom reflect upon themselves or the music accompanying them.

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Conclusion: The curatorial project, „Echoes‟ seeks to understand Electronic Music, it looks to make meaning out of something that has, as of late, been homogenised under the umbrella of EDM as a dance music meant for feeling. It rejects the notion that what is felt should not be understood for fear of killing the feeling. Instead it asserts that understanding and feeling are two sides of the same coin. One cannot feel without an understanding and that through understanding we can better learn to appreciate those feelings, unpack them and know why and where they are coming from. How it is that this sonic affect came about and what that means in the broader context of the sound as well as our own personal understandings and contexts. „Echoes‟ posits, that despite the understanding of the Futurhythmachine of the Afrofuturists, that the emphasis in critique still resembles the singularity of sound as it was considered by the Italian Futurists. „Echoes‟ acknowledges that sound is not singular, and thus a shift needs to be made regarding the actual practices of listening from a state of recorded listening to improvised listening. Finally „Echoes‟ encourages that these shifts in listening, understanding and critique can occur if we change the public space in which we experiences Electronic Music from the EDM festival to something that more closely resembles the gallery. „Echoes‟ achieves this by centralising the listening experience to a chair that is capable of producing sound through speakers built into its wings. This creates a kind of sonic containment field, where the intricacies of the music can only be heard when seated in the chair. The nature of the two speakers on either side of the head creates a similar effect to that of headphones, without the discomfort of wearing them. This means that subtle sonic details can be heard that would not be possible in the EDM festival context. Notions of panning, layered soundscapes, depth, speed, rhythms, and interpolated sounds can all be heard in the chair. „Echoes‟ acknowledges a gap in meaning and understanding with regards to Electronic Music. Positioned around the ideas of improvised listening, affect and meaning, and the lack of substantial critique that is both the cause and the effect of a lack of understanding, „Echoes‟ uses the sonic relevance of poetry to inform a new kind of critique, one that is close to sound because it in itself is sound-based. It understands that poetry is a duality between feeling and meaning and that poetry successfully weaves these two modes together. Poetry can make us feel a certain way because we understand its language, a language which is enhanced through the sonic devices of assonance alliteration and onomatopoeia. The poetry then is the medium through which the meaning is read. And it is physical as much as it is aural. This is why the poetry can either be heard or read, because the writing of the poetry is as important to the sonic qualities as is hearing it spoken.

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Ultimately, through the critical lens of the gallery context, „Echoes‟ centralises Electronic Music outside of its currently problematic space, the focus is shifted from feeling to listening. By creating an echo between poetry and music, a new critical language can emerge, one that does not disregard rhythm, and does not fall into the singularity of naming noises. „Echoes‟ is a prototype for a gallery of listening.

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DEAR ENIGMA

Dear enigma: Did you give up your Son to be a man of charisma? If Jesus were a diva, And heaven a seizure- Hula-hooping to a standstill – Still, his lineage would be shifted into convictions and monitored into observations. Once they observe how proud postures are thereafter Cut like umbilical cords, Then only will they correctly horde his scriptures. Picture: a resident of a wooden Crucifix Kneeling to a temple of sticks and bricks With all his fixed eternity. What devil with translucent horns Would have modesty nibble on a crown of thorns And born to a virgin mother? This is how/when/why other gatherings will peacefully picket The meeting of trinity and multiple perspectives; Revelations without a preaching preceding its reaching Will merely become views without points Yet still points of views (However they chose to view the point of the Genesis hypothesis, The blood of the lamb, And the word of their testimony, And mere Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy) The discrepancy script Will be seen as a gift And unwrapped on easter and christmas. While some may predict That they may have missed The rapture,

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That the disciples may have captured and deferred The Second Coming, Baptised a cunning prophecy in a red sea that was never parted, And if creation was never started? Then what monument will they religiously unveil on the Sabbath For the one who resurrected or ascended But still breathes amongst them? Regards, The Pastor’s daughter.

Koleka Putuma

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Interview Appendix: Below is an interview, recorded on the 25th of October 2015, between myself (in Bold) and Koleka Putuma. It interrogates, Koleka’s process within the ‘Echoes Process’

1. In your work how important is the role of sonic textures, in other words, how important is the role of sound devices such as assonance and alliteration, onomatopoetics? It is very important. Assonance, alliteration and onomatopoetics is how we form the rhythmic structure of the poem as well as its images. The texture and image trajectory of the poem is dependent on how its sound is created. 2. What impulses did you follow when listening to the music before putting pen to paper, that inspired you to write? I always close my eyes first. The image I get as the song is playing is the impulse I follow. I write from the picture that the music creates, or the scenery that it paints. 3. Thematically the conversation we had seemed to take a rather dark turn, can you describe what it was about the tracks particularly that might have had a dark ‘effect’ on you? I think the lack of lyrics in the music was the thing that allowed the music to live in its own form, and not guide my emotional reaction too much. Technically, I can‟t pin point what exactly about the music was dark or made me respond with supposedly dark material, But listening back to the music now, I think the quality that most of the music possessed was this melancholic arrangement attached to this gothic sound, and the combination always seemed to, in my head, create this limbo state. In retrospect, I see how or why the poems were all afterlife, loss, and death related, based on the rhythm and structure of the music. 4. In the poem, ‘Directing Nightmares’ you created quite an interesting visual rhythmic structure what was it in the music that caused you to do this?

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For me, the song felt like it was bouncing all over the place. Like it didn‟t have one thought. That then became the spring board for the poem‟s structure. 5. Ultimately the purpose of the exhibition is to provide a space for Electronic Music to be heard. In this I pose the idea that there isn’t a decent critical language for speaking about Electronic Music and instead posit that a sonic literary art form (in this case your poetry) be used as a jumping point into the engaging with music critically. What do you think of this? It can be hard to understand Electronic Music on its own, and then pairing it with a literary art form could be complicating or muddling that understanding rather than making it easier. However, I do think that providing a literary art form (in this case, the poetry) to accompany/support it may provide the listener or audience member another or alternative avenue to engage with Electronic Music, in a language or form that is most accessible for the human mind; which is reading/speaking. 6. Obviously your poetry is both heard and read, but what about hearing it, or rather listening to it, enhances the poetry itself? Firstly, you hear the voice that it was/is written in. Secondly you hear the writer‟s interpretation of every comma, semi-colon and full stop. How the speaker‟s tone nuances the images and where the stresses are. The listener is provided with the emotional texture of the poem through the speaker‟s voice. 7. To add to this how will listening to the poetry engage a sonic criticality against the music Perhaps this will help the listener to gain a better understanding of the poem‟s rhythm and the emotion behind it. 8. How did you find the process of listening and then writing, having something from which to write about or in response to, was this process valuable? Very much. I think or write in images. And most of the time, for me, images are created by sound or music.

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9. The project is titled echoes: I see this in the process itself but also in the nature of music, poetry and communication- because we aren’t using the same language, the way in which the poems and music engaged with one another was more a resemblance of an echo, carrying more or less the same meaning but with subtle differences that allowed for it to spin off in different directions, could you relate to this or did it work differently for you? If you could relate, how would you describe those subtleties? Were they conscious, were they based of affect? I think of it as releasing a sound through a tunnel or on top of a mountain. So the sound that reaches the listener at the bottom of the valley or the other end of the tunnel is different from the sound or quality that was released by the caller; because along the way it has come in contact with other materials and obstacles that has asked of it to morph into something else. The relationship between music and poetry, for me, is the same. There is so much morphing and interpretation that has happened between the moment I hear or heard the music and when I write or wrote the poem. The poem is an extension of the sound. It‟s an interpretation of the image or texture the quality of music possesses; the poems attempt to echo its meaning or the world it seeks to create, this is something I became aware post the process of writing.

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Glossary of Terms: Delay: A delay is a sonic effect that causes a single sound to repeat itself, the sound becomes less and less clear each time it repeats. Equaliser: An equaliser is an effect unit that allows the user to place emphasis on specific ranges of frequencies with in sound, this also means that frequencies can be silenced as well as amplified allowing for an equalising of the various frequency ranges as well. Music: Sound composed and arranged with the purpose of being musical. Music makes use of ideas such as melodies and chords. Music Sound: Music Sound is all sound that falls into one of the “do, re, mi, fa,” sounds Noise Sound: Noise Sound is sound where music sound cannot be discernable Reverb: A Reverb is a sonic effect that resembles the reverberation and resonance of sound in various spaces. Saw: The saw sound, takes its name from its shape, which resembles the teeth of a saw. Sound Art: Sound Art Is the use of sound as an artwork that does not focus on the musicality of sound or where music is not the central point of the artwork. Often utilises noise, speech and ambient sound.

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References:

Bradshaw, M, 2010, Black Sky Thinking: Hyperdub 2010 and Kode9, The Night of the Living Bassheads. [Web] The Quietus.com. [Accessed on] November 12th 2015. [Available at] http://thequietus.com/articles/03493-hyperdub-2010-a-state-of-the-bass-nation-address Eshun. K, 1998, More Brilliant than the Sun: Adventures in sonic fiction, Quartet Books, London England. Funk. A, 2015, „Venetian Snares Hates the Music Industry, Hates FACT‟s Singles Club and Hates You’, Interviewed by Laurent Fintoni, FACT Magazine. August 13th 2015, [Web] Factmag.com. [Accessed on] November 12th 2015. [Available at] http://www.factmag.com/2015/08/13/interview-venetian-snares-hates-the-music-industry/ Goodman. S, 2011, Sonic Warfare: sound, affect and the ecology of fear, MIT Press, Massachusetts USA. Kentridge. W, 2015, The Refusal of Time, 5 channel video installation, moving sculpture and a soundscape, Exhibited at: The IZIKO South African National Gallery, February 19 th – September 6th 2015. Khan. D, 1951, Noise, Water, Meat: A history of sound in the arts, MIT Press, Massachusetts USA. Mailman, J.B, 2012, Seven Metaphors for (Music) Listening: Dramatic. [Web] Journal of Sonic Studies, [Accessed on] November 12th 2015. [Available at] http://journal.sonicstudies.org/vol02/nr01/a03. Music Traders, (November) 2013, Just How Big is EDM. [Web] Digital Editions.Sheridan.com, [Accessed on] Novemeber 12th 2015. [Available at] http://digitaleditions.sheridan.com/publication/index.php?i=180656&m=&l=&p=68&pre= 30

Pangburn, D, 2014, EDM is the new American Bubble. [Web] Death and Taxes Magazine, [Accessed on] November 12th 2015. [Available at] http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/199160/edm-is-the-new-american-bubble/ Pratella, B. (1912), Manifesto of Futurist Musicians. [Web], [Accessed on] November 12th 2015. [Available at] http://www.unknown.nu/futurism/musicians.html Russolo. L, (1913), The Art of Noise: A Futurist manifesto, trans. Filliou. R, Great Bear Pamphlet, Something Else Press, New York, USA. Saenger. P, (1997), The Space Between Words: The Origins of Silent Reading. Stanford University Press, California USA. Webb. J, (2007), Autiohagiography, Installation: chaise longue, speakers, CD player, cables, audio, Sound material: recordings of the artist under hypnosis, Exhibited at: the Michael Stevenson Gallery.

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