Sitting in Vida’s studio. Listening to one of Rolf Julius’s CDs. This particular piece doesn’t have that direct “back to nature” feel that I like so much. Communication. Code. Language. Insect-like sounds. Forest-like. Depth-of-field.I wonder if it helps to approach listening to this work in terms of figure and ground. I come back to the ideas “back to nature” and “forest-like”. Yes. How to describe the spatial qualities evoked by this work? And now I am trying to recall how I felt with the work in situ. Also how I felt during the performance. What was he doing during the performance? Was any of it “live”? What does he use as raw material? How does he make this sound? How does he compose? Sound environments. I have to give thought to the sculptural and installational aspects of his work. Am I listening to an element of a sound installation or am I listening to a song? And now I am making a link to the sculptural piece at Oboro right now. I am thinking about how elements of the work bare a metonymic relation to things we encounter out there in the real world, outside of the art gallery. With the piece at Oboro right now I am thinking about the “receipts” that spit out of the architectural model. With Rolf’s work there are the cricket sounds. I wonder why he stays with the high-pitched sound? Why this particular fascination? Materiality and time: how the materiality of this work cites a particular time. Above ground. Floating. Voices. These are the voices of other life forms. The inhuman. We have to give thought to the machine. Ok, I feel like I am sitting in a tropical forest. Listening. Listening closely. Attentive. Focused. Open. I am forced to try to identify the source of these sounds. Words? A foreign language?
Why does this work, Rolf’s work, seem so trite compared to the pieces I like that are installed at Oboro right now? What is the motivation here? With the pieces at Oboro right now the political is front and centre. The relationship between form and content makes perfect sense. Form. Singularity. I remember saying to Vida that it might help to situate Rolf’s work within an historical context. He is one of the pioneers of electronic music. Sound art seems like an appropriate classification.
But I want to move on. I am not really with this work now. I am finding it difficult to listen to this particular piece. I feel closer to the other works. I want to be with them.
This morning, wondering how to respond to presenting my work. I want to resist thinking of this as work. I want to approach this project in a relaxed and open way. No censorship. Movement. Drift. Follow the lines and rhythms of thought. This particular piece is driving me nuts. On the one hand we hear the machine at work, the transfer of data, electronic code. And now, again, I am thinking of sources, origins, and the referent. I am thinking about nature. Yes, origins. Origins as they relate to the materiality of the work. The mimetic and/or figurative qualities as well. Singularity is an issue as well. I haven’t heard anything like this before, and for that reason alone I want to support the work, give it time, take it seriously. I so admire artists that follow their own path. Concentration. Concentration is so evident hear. Here. I was just now thinking of “repetition.” Yes, there is repetition, but…. Crazy sounding stuff. This particular piece feels like it could go on forever. It feels like a ground, an ever-present ground within late modern or postmodern urban space. So now I am thinking about differences between urban and rural environments. This piece: its form cites the urban and its content cites the rural. This is how I hear it. Yes, in terms of the sculptural/installational qualities of the work, I look to urban life. I told Caroline that I would compare Rolf’s work to Malcolm’s. Why?