This came out adhoc- the pre-organized introduction crashed and burned- my musical files refused to play, and i had to launch straight into the spoken work because I hadn't loaded my tracks onto the play out computer properly...
I was planning on dropping in 20 seconds on odd parts of these tracks-
Earlier I had been feeling very alarmed- i have committed to do a show- I leap at the opportunity, i am grateful for the chance to perform my own work, learn to run the desk, speak my mind.... and find, come Tuesday night 630, I have no script/performance/anything ready to roll.... where have i been all week?!!! (this flags questions of responsibility and privilege, re Simone Bourgeois, sentiment: Art is a privilege, a blessing, a relief/ the whole art mechanism is the result of many privileges/ The privilege was access to the unconscious ) This week i have been- up, down, a good mum, a bad girl, causing trouble, sticking my nose in where it wasn't welcome, hanging out with dear friends, cooking for loved ones, to Torquay to pass my driving theory test, to the last ever graduation at DCA, and the ensuing party, to the allotment, to the cafe to read and .... Ah! To the Cafe to Read!!! I have been absorbed in life, and in plenty of texts too, on behalf of my studies, on behalf/with my kid .
I arranged a mix, a splice of texts that have been used in studies and bedtime readings this week- works that inspired me, made me laugh, confused me, reminded me of my childhood, works i am desperate to share, to discuss, to imbibe.... I got to pay homage to William Boroughs, Grand Master of the Cut-Up- through this piece- who wrote, as Mr Martin " Human activity is drearily predictable. It should now be considered that what you considered a reality is the result of precisely predictable because prerecorded human activity. Now, what can louse up a prerecorded biological recording?" Indeed! Through it all down and see what comes up.
Unfortunately the accompanying sounds not working (my fault) resulted in listeners missing out on the wonders of one of Boroughs' works, and others by Gregory whitehead and Christof Migone... being flustered without the hiding place of minute of track-respite, i also forgot to read off my list of sources.... naughty- - funny to be so keen to push those authors that mean so much to me, and forget to give them credit on air for reading their works-
It was strange to see reoccurring interests laid out-subjectivity, intelligibility, intuition, imagination, collage, voice,- the excerpts were photocopies and arranged in a loose heap on the floor, so the selection process was incidental- reach out and select at random- though as so often is the case with such processes a thread of a theme tied the subjects together.
Scrolling through radio bandwidths reveals interesting connections- I felt I could mirror this effect by creating a montage of literature as a script. I have experimented with radio 'as orracle' a device of personal address- ask a question, scroll through the bandwidth, listen to relevant/pick up on unexpected responses to your question...
Following Ferdinand De Saussure, ‘Language is not a function of the speaker; it is a product that is passively assimilated by the individual’, we can recognise that culture is the agent of this assimilation, and that a individual learns the basic patterning of their native conditioning- we learn concepts and contexts as we learn ways of hearing, seeing, communicating. the reading that i am using in this piece is a form of input- I am an assemblage of this work (and innumerable other works and experiences ;-) Input that informs us informs our output. I wanted to make a work that showed some of the input I had been working with- ideas, narratives, manuals- socially acquired information in paper text form, in through my eyes, then out through my mouth, into the ears of others ( via the mic). ‘It is the social side of speech, outside the individual who can never create or modify it by himself; it exists only by virtue of a sort of contract signed by the members of a community.’ Ferdinand De Saussure, Course in general Linguistics, 1916 assembled form class notes, p 59, Literary theory: An Anthology, ed Julie Rivkin and M Ryan1998, Singapore, Blackwell Publishing. These works fulfil a desire in me- I was hoping to honour them (particularly the theoretical works calling for ambiguity and practices of dislocation) by making a radio piece that playfully made them further available- if listeners wished to enter into 'contrac't with my work and listen.
The failing of this work was the reading- some of the works were particularly theoretical, and the enunciation and lilt of the voice was not necessarily in keeping with the information- a shame that content was compromised by my inarticulation of certain phrases, where a more measured reading might have kept the themes more alive. I have read that because of radio's ephemeral nature, information needs to be stripped back to basics, for the 99% of listeners that are not solely concentrating of the program they are listening to, but also because the continuum needs to be simple to be 'kept up with'. I do not agree this- my skills as a orator are still undeveloped- but i think work heard can be just as influential as work read. Poetry might highlight this better than anything else- speech brings language to life...
(see page: 'audio outreach story time' for the script).
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