variousing

Cheers Roj. * son, * - who is a drummer, singer, and producer - was kind enough to furnish me with lots of top-notch *. I have lots now; still the small matter of getting to know how to use the blessed things, however. I haven't made anything with that stuff yet. The prettysoundartworks - la! - that I have finished and published/circulated were made with the frankly shite * and, the last one, with the, useable but limited, *. These are both intuitive devices; so there's ease-of-use but crudity in equal-measure. In the end, one has to learn the new instruments like the old ones if one wants sophisticated results. Having said that, though, those pieces have a certain rustic charm and immediacy, as early efforts can do. I think 'Onement' has something; and it's nice the way 'Around the Sickbed' turn in on itself after a few seconds. I think eventually, I'll produce something acceptable. Your closing comment, 'new medium for the future', references something Brian Eno said on The Culture Show about an integrated, undifferentiated DVD as artwork, being the new step. Weirdly, that was my idea behind the 'Sinking the Belgrano: Our Lives as Machine Parts' film and sound thing I made with Dave's help toward the end of my time up North. I wanted the sound to function not as a soundtrack - and thus, logically and perceptibly separate/separable from the images; but as part and parcel, intertwined, integrated, intrinsic. There would be images, sound, artwork, and my usual quasi-fictitious concept around that, the array of characters, allusions, suggestions, associations. I've had this notion of an artwork called Sinking the Belgrano since about 1990, whilst on foundation in St. Helens. I did things in and around it on my degree, and kept it as a part of what I did whilst on the PhD. You're younger than me, so you might not know the reference in enough detail to see how it relates to its subtitle: Our Lives as Machine Parts. Basically - and with a cheeky reductivism, I have to say, and I'm paraphrasing, too - when Thatcher sunk the Belgrano during The Falklands War in 1982, probably illegally, she assured her place as British PM for the 1983 election. After that landslide - beating Michael Foot, and beating the whole idea of Labour as a Socialist party in essence - Thatcher really got into changing Britain into that 1980s mammon monster. Thus - albeit reductively: Sinking the Belgrano: Our Lives as Machine Parts. The artwork I conceived of was basically an improv session Dave and me did up in Wigan; with visuals Dave shot at my suggestion at work, in *, during the nightshift, on a low-grade camera, which added aesthetically to the whole thing actually. The rough thing Dave put together after I moved up here works really; and if we'd've worked on it some more it would have been interesting, I feel. The soundtrack was a bit unsuitable, in retrospect; but Dave's visuals are right on the button. They capture that dreamy, tedious nightshift thing; and - as a metaphor - kind of ape the way Britain sleepwalked into Thatcherism. The idea won't go away, too! I reference it on the blog; so it is still topical! Oh, and the cover I made for the Dave package had pictures of Thatcher and another Tory politician (possibly Keith Joseph) on the front. These where monochrome, photocopier quality. Each had horrid blue eye shadow and lurid red lipstick magic-markered on, punk-style! Thatcher was labelled 'Anthony Donovan' and the other was labelled 'David ********'. Nasty! Very eye-catching! Best wishes, Anthony