“You never quite know [how the project will be] until you’re installing it and you see it run for the first time; how the space is going to shape the project.” — Marcus Cook

For our third assessment, each group was given the opportunity to meet different artists, individuals who have previously utilised the Testing Grounds space for their projects. Marcus Cook of Shogun Lodge Services was our designated artist, and we had the honour of arranging an interview with him. We were unable to find much information about Cook off the Internet, so meeting up with him and listening to his stories and experiences was indeed a privilege.

Having had a dinner party at Testing Grounds with my fellow classmates a couple of weeks back, I kind of had an idea of what it felt to be in that sort of space, using it in unconventional ways. In Cook’s case, he set up a distance-based sensory project in which several sensors were placed around Testing Grounds. Brandon LaBelle (2004) describes “sound installation art” as work in which “sound [is positioned] in relation to a spatial situation, whether that be found or constructed, actualised or imagined”, and how it has reimagined the social-spatial power. As people moved around, and noise and sounds from the environment took their course, information was then collected on a network and sent back to processing computers that in turn, modified video projections that were displayed on the walls of Testing Grounds.

According to musicologist Helga de la Motte-Haber (1999), she suggests, “Located beyond the realms of the traditional art world, installations created a new consciousness of our perception of reality. Here, the public was also granted a new authority”. This was evident in Cook’s project at Testing Grounds. He talked about how he can never predict how people would interact with his invention. “There is a feeling of [the project] being a larger thing in that particular sort of space because of its flexibility and openness … If you’re building things you want other people to use, it’s one of the things you have to sacrifice very quickly – or, it gets taken away from you,” Cook says.

In Born’s Music, Sound and Space, Ouzounian (2013) talks about the “extended spatial imaginings within music” and how it brought about new relationships and experiences with audiences, especially the “repositioning of audiences as co-creators of music”. She emphasised a particular course at the New School for Social Research and how it essentially proposed audience-interactive works. Much like Cook’s installation, he was able to see people do things completely different from what he intended, and how that was actually one of the greater things about his discovery. “It reminds you that you don’t know everything,” he said with a smile.

Cook also mentioned that he used to see these things as somewhat fleeting; something that you had to experience for yourself as you are in that moment, knowing that it wouldn’t always be there. In the same way, Ouzounian (2013) talked about sound as sculpture, and how they were sometimes “particularly ephemeral, consisting of actions so incidental or brief”. Cook’s approach towards Testing Grounds was an experiment, and he found great pleasure in watching people interact with his work, seeing how the visuals projected on the walls would change, shift, and shape. More than anything, they were moments that happened once and were significant for that segment in time; sequences that changed every other second.

Listening to Cook talk about his experience with Testing Grounds, as well as sharing about some of his fellow artist friends’ works, reminded me that art is an important, collaborative effort that brings people together. His source of inspiration does not only lie in the people who come across his installations, but also the people who have utilised Testing Grounds just as he has, like his friend Keith Deverell. These artists have “imagined new interactions with their publics” (Ouzounian 2013) and thought of ways that these audiences are able to work hand-in-hand with what the artists themselves have created.

Overall, this documentary project was a fascinating experience as it opened my eyes to the various artists and their capabilities; their wild ideas and determination to make it work. By relating Cook’s work to Ouzounian’s take on sound installation art (together with her usage of ideas from various professionals), I gained a better understanding of how his work found its place in the world, and how interactions are formed and regulated to create brand new discoveries. More so, it has further sparked my interest in Testing Grounds as a space (and place), and how so many artists have once formed a temporary home in its margins, not forgetting the many collected encounters that have come together with it.

REFERENCES

Cook, M 2015, Shogun Lodge Services, online, viewed 13 September 2015, <https://www.facebook.com/shogunlodge>.

Ouzounian, G 2013, ‘Sound installation art: from spatial poetics to politics, aesthetics to ethics’, in Born, G (ed.), Music, Sound and Space, Cambridge University Press, UK, pp. 73-89.