Today we took an excursion to a nearby RMIT gallery space to experience Nathan Gray’s work (follow link for footage of its exhibition setup), a soundscape created from various industrial objects on Cockatoo Island. Having already been exposed to this work briefly in class a few weeks ago, where the footage and sounds were sequentially edited in a single piece, it was definitely worth comparing to the exhibit, which was comprised of a number of screens and speakers each feeding different sequences into the space at the same time. There was a choreography to the edits, although the effect felt quite spontaneous and tied to our being in the space itself. This inspired me to think about ways the sort of work we’ve been doing, which has thus far been necessarily tied to a sequence, could be adapted into more immersive spatial experiences.

Also exhibited in the space was a film created by Daniel Crooks, in which he took natural imagery and contorted it with lines of code, creating these meditative and monolithic structures. The human body was similarly contorted in this piece and appeared to be in the process of a twisted dance with itself.

After visiting this space we began walking directly to the atrium/lobby room of building 12 where we initiated the observation process in our first week. Robbie revealed that we have this space booked and that following our presentations we will be hosting our exhibition there. Robbie explained that the exhibition was open entirely to our input but had the potential to be an additional piece involving and incorporating all of our input as a celebration of the studio. Georgia suggested a structure to the presentation, envisioning a linearity that would evoke the way our own pursuits developed throughout the course of the studio – that is, from the home out into the world, from the familiar to the unknown. Daniel proposed that we establish a group document wherein we could store the words that each group had formulated in the last class to establish a consistency across the board that would provide a springboard for a class collaboration. Before leaving, Daniel and I spoke about the possibility of facilitating spontaneous events, such as live audio recording of the space and live abstract video footage, that could be presented in a way that emphasises the sacredness of the current situation. While ambitious, I think this could be a worthwhile project and I’m glad that we’re considering it at this stage.

I borrowed a Zoom Recorder after class with the intention of heading to The Tote on the weekend to record some band presence. After watching Daniel Crooks’ piece, I’m inspired to create an amorphous sound piece composed of various moments in several different performances at The Tote as a way of embodying the diverse presence of the venue.