listening booth: end of residency

i've been quite the boringly busy blogger this year, haven't i? 

constantly apologising for blogging about things way after they've passed.

so 'tis with the end of the residency at collingwood housing estate.

as the end of the residency loomed,  i really wasn't sure the best way to 'mark' the occasion. my initial idea was to put on a concert, with the local band, some experimental music peeps and some vocal groups from the local area.
whilst i don't think it's a stupid idea, the failure of the movie night helped me realise that my resources (time, money, skllls and patience) were too limited to be able to pull of something like that on the estate. and it just felt like i was going to make a work that kinda failed.

so i cancelled the tentative plans i had made, but that left me with a bit of a hole in my plans and a sense of impending anticlimax. 

thankfully i was able to chat about it with sue kent, the administrator and person who started collingwood neighbourhood house. she suggested, very sensibly, that i join the community safety day which was planned for the weekend after our conversation. it was a super-quick turnaround, but a great idea: the community would be out, it was going to add to a  sense of safety and awareness (listening, that is), and i'd be included in an event that already had community support, promotion and context. perfect.

the only problem was the i wasn't sure the best way to include some of the art community in that end-of-residency rah-rah. it wasn't a sexy event and i also didn't feel like making into a typical art event with a bunch of artists who aren't really into community-engaged practice.

thankfully my friend lucas came to the rescue - he suggested exactly the right thing, which resulted in two quite private tours for invited arty guests as well as members of the estate. perfect.

finishing touches

having brought my finale 10 days forward, i had to work really hard to bring everything to completion, but thankfully i just put my mind to it, and employed an assistant. mark, a local in transitional housing and main guy for the men's shed was my assistant for the week and he was amazing. he helped me put together the listening booth and string up all the wiring for the underground sound listening stations.

i worked my arse off writing up the sound wall, compiling the CD, getting maps printed and sorting out the logistics of inviting people to a one-off tour. all whilst  talking to loads of people from the area about what was happening. it was pretty intense, but amazing week. and it was really satisfying. those posts about each of the artworks will give you an idea of the meta processes of the whole work, but the overall fervent activity about all the works really brought everything together and did make it feel like a finale. the locals got a sense of what i was doing, and i started to see what my work was about and how it fit.

the listening booth and tours of the housing estate

thankfully the listening booth was the perfect device to bring all the works together on the one day.
i gave out CDs, maps to the estate and it was a great site from which to leave the tours.

the tours were great! a really nice mix of locals and arty-visitors and each person took something different away about the residency and the estate itself.

each group started with underground sound listening stations, to the sound wall, through one of the tower foyers and back to harmsworth park. i spoke a little about my experience on the estate, some about the work, about the significance of the places we passed (including the neighbourhood house and the DHS office0  the first group was overflowing, with quite a lot of the local peeps joining in (including a couple of kids) and we were treated to an outstanding tirade about public housing by a resident as we passed through the foyer of 229.

the second tour was slightly smaller, but later in the day. it was still a great little tour and some great questions asked about the nature of sound on the estate. I think most of the visitors really enjoyed all the works, and the chance to have them placed in context with a bit of a story and a chance to compare and contrast.

during the week afterwards, i was able to give people who couldn't make the main tours a consolation tour - with out the booth and vibe of the day, but still a glimpse into the sound works, the wall and a copy of the CD and maps.

i was so flattered at all the people who came and the great feedback i got about the works.

i also feel incredibly honoured that i was able to make the work that i did, and to be able to connect with such a wide variety of residents and locals to the collingwood housing estate.

mad props to 

the wurundjeri elders and their ancestors who allowed me to make work on the country and who were generous with their time and blessings

mark ryder, who was a total rock; 

to sue kent and john bainbridge who ended up totally backing me, even though i was an upstart early on; 

to kaukau who helped me and really befriended me

to my guest listeners: eddy carroll, jed from VACRO and travis marke with his year 8 music class

and to lucas, who helped me reason it out.

the sound wall

last weekend was the culminating event for the residency i've been doing at the collingwood housing estate. i have much to write about - a lot to reflect on and update, but have been quite busy showing people around and attending to other paperwork i neglected in the lead-up.

but i just wanted to post this pic of the sound wall. i think it's my favourite image of all the projects so far.

from two months of daily listening projects, the sound wall is an artifact to all the sounds on the estate.
it has had the most amazing responses from locals and visitors alike.
i have specific stories to tell about people's reactions to it, and more to explain but for now here's just a little pic.

The Listening Booth

I'll be wheeling this baby out to Harmsworth Park on the weekend for the final project of my residency at the Collingwood Housing Estate.

I'm running guided tours, which are for residents, but if you'd like to come along, leave me a comment and i'll see if I can save you a place. If you're reading about this on here you're probably partially interested in what i've been up to and likely interested in socially-engaged practice of sorts.

the sound of the underground

As well as the daily (or at least regular) process of listening to the estate, and the compilation of people's favourite songs (song of the day), i'm also capturing the sounds of the actual underground car park.

acoustically, it's amazing and i wish i had more concrete sound skills to be able to work with it better.
but, failing that, i've put a stack of mics up around the space, plugged them into the neighbourhood house's mix desk and have been listening to a beautiful mix of all the sounds of the space at once (perhaps a bit like what i do above ground, but more technical - less conceptual).

i'm from that i'm going to plug the mix into a headphone amplifier and fix a stack of headphone jack cables to the areas that are accessible from above ground: grills, grates, doorways, drains, etc.

so that peeps on the estate can come and listen to the sounds of the underground by plugging their own headphones in.

i'm a bit stuck as to how to have a nice finale now. it keeps changing, based on the difficulty i'm having in a) organising basic things and b) my motivation.

for some reason, i'm struggling with it at the moment and i'm not sure what that's about. annoying, actually, as there's rather a lot to do.

writing about it helps a little, which is handy. because then i get to tell you peeps all about what i've been doing at the same time.

there'll be more info at hand, but put these details into your diary:


ARTIST TALKS/PANEL DISCUSSION

Art and The Housing Estate
Friday 4th November
3pm - 5pm
The Underground

with artists from the AURA Project, Greyspace, Tony Reck and panel moderated by Benjamin Cittadini.


LISTENING PARTY/OPEN DAY
Culmination of my residency at Collingwood Housing Estate

Saturday 19th/Sunday 20th November (TBC)
2 - 6pm

Listen to the Underground through the in built listening stations
Pick up a copy of the Collingwood Playlist - everyone from the estate's favourite songs
See the Sound Walls - lists of all the sounds heard on the estate, as the Listener-in-Residence

today was a busy day

- 1 wall of the men's shed painted black (in preparation for a sound wall)
- a listening project done with the year 8 music class from collingwood college
- emails sent about upcoming artist talks and panel discussion
- all 3 panellists locked in (although i just realised they're all blokes. hmm)
- 6 favourite songs discussed
- PA delivered again (mics up next week)
- fairy lights bought in preparation for a shoot tmrw
- some lines mostly learned.
- plus plenty of discussion with local arty types

my favourite song is

during the residency, i have been asking residents and locals what their favourite song is. i'm compiling them and will be making a CD/mix tape/playlist. it's an audio snapshot of the area and a great way to get people talking about their relationship to music.

so many times i end up being serenaded by impromptu singing - it's actually really beautiful. and i often wish i had a film crew with me to capture my interactions.

i've also noticed that children and teenagers respond immediately to the question. they don't even think about it - they know that they have a favourite song and they know what it is.

no umming and ahhing, blocked about all the songs that have every meant anything. they're absolutely in the moment.

and i realised that i really am old.

i have NO idea about most of the songs that the kids and the teenagers love.
justin bieber rates highly, much to my chagrin. as does LMFAO. hilarious.

another interesting piece to note has been the prevalence of love songs. most people's favourite songs are about love. i've been writing up a song of the day on the blackboards outside the towers (that also convey the weather, anything on in the estate and the date), and most of them have had love in the title.

unsurprising when you think about it.


image credit: pinched from nikki's blog

movie night. not.

well, that was a bit of a failed attempt at doing a nice little thing for the residents.

saturday night was slated for a silent movie to be shown on the doorway to the underground. it didn't pan out. actually it bombed out in spectacular fashion - and i don't know if i can even learn any more lessons from it, apart from the fact that shit happens sometimes.

thanks to friday spent having to put out (miscommunication-instigated) spot fires and remove this wall work, i only had saturday to properly prepare. i was still sewing the white screen at 5pm on saturday night - breaking 3 sewing machine needles in the process.

i wasn't really handling it well already.

plus i was trying to organise it all on my own. not a good idea, actually.  i should have organised for mark or one of the others to help.

anyway, in the process of putting up the screen (with tony reck's help), i buggered the roller door.
and then the projection wasn't as good a throw as i remembered.
and then it started to rain.
i realised then that i was going to have to cancel. and it was 7:30 already.
and then kamil the security guy showed up. dammit!

flustered, i managed to run to the ATM to get kamil half his money, seeing as he had showed up. then i rang kaukau to find out what to do about the busted roller door, which she thankfully handled.

i began to take down the projector and speakers, etc and in there somewhere burst into tears. it was kinda ugly. and sad.

anyway, thanks to the shit weather (and not a lot of notice, truth be told), no one really turned up. which was ace and despairing at the same time.

my saturday night ended up being spent sitting with security, chatting about the state of the world, waiting for damian from maintenance to arrive so that he could fix the door.

quite the debácle.

however, i do still think a movie night is in order, so i'll reschedule it. i might try it in a different spot - only because the street light really drowns out the projection. or i'll make sure i get a better projector.

sigh.

listening poem

i never thought of what i did as poetry at all. until i had to explain to DHS what i did. saying it was a 'poem' was the quickest, simplest and easiest was to talk about the list of sounds i hear. then i went to electrofringe and the peeps from australian poetry and the new young writers festival said it was totally poetry. interesting. on tuesday i started writing up the list of sounds i've been listening to on the glass in the foyer at 240 wellington street. i did another installment of it this morning and two people came up to read what i was doing. and aesha, a girl who lives in the wellington street block said that it was a poem and she liked reading it. when i talked about how i came to the words, she agreed that when you break it down like that, we listen to a lot, don't we. in fact, she liked the idea so much she's going to join me listening tomorrow afternoon! what a great result that is.

listening as a public act of kindness

today was a beautiful day outside.

on the way back from the toilets (which are in harmsworth hall at the moment - a bit of a walk), i saw one of the young african boys i spoke to this morning, sitting on his own, on the parkie's bench.

i veered over, planning to ask him again about his favourite song*. and when i got close, i realised that i had his face in his hands. when i asked him if he was ok, he started crying. poor love.

i sat down next to him and listened to him cry and tell me, sobbing, about what happened. i didn't quite catch the whole story, but i did understand
'ah fffound a handbbag ffuh mmuh mum and mmmuh cuzzzin tttookit and guh-guh-ggave it tu-tuh his mmuh-muh-mumm...hoo hoo hoo..'

he found a handbag for his mum and his cousin stole it from him. and punched him when he tried to get it back.

poor love.

i consoled him, sympathised with him and told him he didn't have to let his cousin speak to him like that. i let him sniffle along for a bit and then i took him back over to harmsworth hall, let him wash his face and i grabbed him some tissues to wipe his face.

his name is KK and he was quite reserved still, but trusted me, mostly. which is good. i'm a stranger.

i suggested that, instead of focusing on the missing handbag, he make his mum something instead and that she'd probably like that just as much (if not more) than a handbag. i'd meet him back at the park benches in 2 minutes.

he liked that idea, so i came back to the underground, grabbed a very expensive art magazine, some paper, scissors, textas, glue and headed back to where i agreed to meet him.

there we both sat and cut out things from art & australia - he made his mum a card with an ad from this exhibition by joanna lamb, with "i love you mum" on it. i started cutting out from articles about the john kaldor foundation, fashion exhibitions and romance was born.

i think the process was cathartic for both of us.

it was such a lovely gesture and it felt like it was still within my project of listening to the estate. rather than listening to the ambient, collective sounds, i listened to KK and his story.

the story of him maybe having to stay in melbourne because his mum couldn't afford the ticket back to mildura (where he lives - he was just visiting).

the story of him being third in the top 3 goal scorers in under 10 soccer and having scored a goal in under 12s. he's 8.

the story of him not knowing much about sudan, where his parents are from, but having lived in frankston, cranbourne (the last station in melbourne - his words), doncaster, footscray and now mildura. he thinks mildura's OK. it's not the greatest, but it's not the worst.

and his favourite song is by LMFAO.

by the time we finished making pictures, i felt pretty good and KK felt a bit better. art didn't save the world today, but it did help him feel a little better and it gave him something nice to give to his mum. and an interesting story to tell her when he gets home.

smiling

boy i've done a lot of smiling since i 'moved in' to the studio. whenever i got 'top side' i make sure i smile and say hello to as many people as possible. it feels like the most important task i can do in any given moment: smile.


i had a fabulous talk with tony today about the estates and that the flats are full of frightened people. it never really changes, apparently.

tony lives in the flats in richmond. he has been there for 7 years and lived in rooming houses for 7 years before that. in his words, 'i wouldn't recommend it'. tony is also a director and writer for theatre. he's directing a play that is rehearsing in the underground at the moment and will be performed early next month.

i always thought collingwood was the more sinister of all the flats (there seems to be a natural desire to compare them all: richmond, wellington st, collingwood and fitzroy). turns out, i'm so wrong. people get murdered in richmond. three in the time since tony has been there. and the smack is worse there, apparently.  who knew! from tony's perspective, it's more secretive - not so transparent there. which of course leads to a feeling of fear.

sometimes i feel like the fear is tangible in collingwood. like i can touch it.
smiling releases it. and a happy, friendly 'hello!' changes the tune so quickly and so entirely.

collingwood offerings

i've been ill for the past 2 days and only just managed to get to collingwood by lunchtime today. i was feeling a bit sad and sorry for myself until i popped in to see bobbi from The Wellington.

They run a fantastic program there - multi-purpose church and hall like it ain't no thang - she showed me through the place, told me about all the programs they're doing there, introduced me to some regulars and volunteers (including my gal wendy who is going to teach me to play guitar soon).



thankfully i also got to meet alan, who made my day by giving me 5 PC speakers. alan has parkinson's disease, but is still sharp-as. he told me he was taking the speakers to parliament, because god knows they need some there. in return for my taking them, i offered to speak in parliament instead, to which he replied that i couldn't be worse than what they've got now.

best compliment i've had all week!


then, on the way back, i met nahad. nahad is from lebanon and has been here for 4 years. he's quite lonely it seems - he invited me to his place to drink tv, watch dvds, etc. i'm not so sure about the ethics of doing that (or my personal safety), but i did take nahad's phone number. he may be interested in the listening booth i'm hoping to set up in a few weeks' time, for that precise purpose: so that people can come and drink tea, talk to me, maybe practice their english with me and my role is just to listen.





then, just when i thought the gods of collingwood couldn't smile any wider on me, i went to get the studio key from the key box (our system for accessing the underground), someone had left me a step so that i didn't have to reach up quite so high!

i have a sneaky suspicion it's one of the builders who are hovering about, waiting to de-asbestos-ise the place, so to mr anonymous builder person, from one ms short-arse: thank you.


this post is cross-posted at she sees red

kittehs!

Skip Day from sheseesred on Vimeo.

today was the big clean-up in the underground. wow! it was super busy, everyone was hepped up, shifting stuff.

jed from VACRO, bill posters (another artist in the underground space) and john from CNH were all gun-ho, with gloves and vigour and sweaty methods. they did the bulk of the work, shifting years of stuff into 20 cubic metres' of skip.

we contributed a little - we ditched some of the stuff from ben and craig's installation, and turfed some remains from michal and laine's time here - although there's still a big pile of polystyrene that is being recycled on wednesday.

we're almost cleared out of the old space and into the new.





kittehs!

in the process of clearing out, marc from the men's shed stumbled upon a box of kittens! literally.
the stray who hangs out down here had obviously climbed in there to give birth to 5 gorgeous looking things that were never going to survive down here.

i was super sad, but the yarra city council animal person was called and promptly picked them up within the hour. if they couldn't house them, the lost dog's home would take them and if after a week no owners, then probably death.

mamma cat has been hanging around my studio a bit more lately - she marked her territory over my suitcase, which was lovely of her. and then she discovered the open container of milk i had on my desk, which i had put out for her and the kittens. she kindly helped herself all over the application i was preparing.

but thankfully i am a complete sap when it comes to cats.

she may not be able to fill in a feasibility study, but i have a feeling i will be making a small difference to her life as a collingwood cat in the next 3 months.

locality

in this first week of my residency, i've given myself time to set up and acquaint myself with the underground again, with local characters, with the personalities and organisations and with the patch of land i find myself walking across on a daily basis.

 at the moment, all these things are new and fresh and exciting. i spend a lot of time putting them into context, or thinking about them: wondering how they fit in with other ideas, localities, assumptions i have, prior experiences i have, outcomes of the project and my own values, thoughts, and aims for my particular project.

 in a way, it's little wonder that i'm exhausting at the moment: i'm writing a new locality for myself, based on new experiences.

 but at what stage will this become old hat? how long will it take for the walk between The Underground and the $2 shop in smith street to become just a thoroughfare, where i'm no longer noticing things.

and at which point do i then put my headphones on and aestheticise it, or make it meaningful again?

spring residency sprung

yesterday was the first day of the next residency. and i've gone from being a catalyst start-up person to a fully fledged artist-in-resident, 2.5 years after the first conversations with carla about the possibility of having art in the underground. the first couple of days have been quite exhausting - we moved the actual studio space from our original space in The Cage to Phil's old studio, in the main bank of workshop spaces. It feels good and i feel pretty lucky to be the first one in that space. i've given myself this first week as 'orientation week'. i've moved the studio, met with quite a few people, reconnected to the CHEAC peeps, who all know me reasonably well by now and have started to put down ideas. i've had some good conversations with laine, from the winter residency, touching on some of the wider issues of the residency and making work in a community setting, and have planned two important things for next week: afternoon tea with ben and craig, and a skip run. these feel like important ground-laying things and a good preparation for 3 months of hard work. tomorrow (wednesday) i'll be meeting with kieran stewart, an artist and sound/tech guy who is going to hopefully advise me on how to go about my super-ambitious task of turning the underground car park into an instrument and/or amplifier. it's pretty exciting. and the other project i'll be working on is my listening projects, a regular feature of my practice. i'll likely start those next week - after o-week and giving the department of housing some notice. i'm looking forward to having the studio for 3 months and to work solidly on a variety of works about sound in public. i'll also be updating this and she sees red fairly frequently.

Underland - delivery of recycled styrofoam

The tip of the iceberg

A huge quantity of materials, yet it still looks small in comparison to the scale of the Underground Car Park.

Underland - was struck by Roarawar Feartata and the roots of the Tower

10/03/11

Behind the Tower, beneath the ground, secrets are absorbed like moisture. Whilst people with dogs curse as they beat the paths above, below the tinkering of arcane visions keeps rhythm with the seeping water. The roots of the Tower descend deep into mystery.

While reading through Roarawar Feartatas written responses in this blog to the estate during their autumn residency. It was striking to find this section refering to 'the roots of the tower descend deep into mystery.' A nice synergy in view of Underland being a labyrinth root system for the towers above.

Underland is a Craft Cubed Festival Satellite Event

Underland will be open to the Collingwood Housing Estate community and the public at a culminating event on Saturday 13 August, 2011 from 5-8pm.

Underland - materials research

Artist, Laine Hogarty collecting

During the process of mapping the Collingwood Housing Estate some materials began to occur more frequently, particularly the packaging from electrical equipment. Recycled styrofoam material due to its strength, lightness and moisture resistant qualities became an obvious choice to use for the construction of the Underland labyrinth.

Underland - rainy day waterfalls

Waterfall

Add caption

When it rains the Collingwood Underground Car Park comes alive with the sound of water dripping and babbling through pipes. Being an underground space it has it's own unique ecosystem where at times plants and fungi can be found growing.

Underland - Livewires workshop

Flouro pipecleaners AKA chenille sticks being made into 'treasures'

Livewires is an after school care program for children living in the community. Laine Hogarty and Michal Teague ran a workshop with the children, asking them to make 'treasures' that will be embedded within the Underland labyrinth.

Underland - local character cars

Car with a hand made antenna map

Colourful character

The cars in the surrounding area reveal aspects of their owners personality providing another way to 'map' the Collingwood Housing Estate and its surrounding environment. The car above was painted during the Melbourne Stencil Festival.

Underland - mapping continued

Tiger and cat surveying the view from the tower

From the singular window to multiple patterns of homes

After spending some time on the Estate, you begin to notice a community of pets, cats and dogs, looking out of windows and being taken for walks. Another interesting aspect to living in the community is that residents tell of how higher up in the towers, they can be felt to move in strong winds, a common feature of the design of taller buildings everywhere. This has given rise to considering how the labyrinth under construction can potentially move in response to the movement of people through Underland.

Underland - mapping the towers and surrounding environment

During the progress of Underland Laine Hogarty and Michal Teague have been documenting the visible and invisible elements of the Collingwood High Rise estate community. Traces and items left by people.

Underland - the beginning

The site prior to construction

Artist Michal Teague, sweeping, sweeping, sweeping...

The scale of the Collingwood Underground Car Park provides a unique opportunity to create a site specific public artwork with the Collingwood Housing Estate community. The site is filled with multiple layers of imagery on the floor, walls and ceiling of previous artists interacting in the space, the graffiti in view in these images are from the Melbourne Stencil Festival.

Underland - Root made during early community pop up studios

Root made by community participant in the Collingwood Underground Car Park

In the development phase of what was to become the AURA Project, a series of artist pop up studios was funded by Yarra City Council. The pop ups assisted in devising what kind of projects might work with the Collingwood Housing Estate community. An initial interest in suspending artwork from the ceiling to emphasise the experience of being underground, developed into creating a community root system which could be walked through like a labyrinth.

roarawar feartata: The Tower Anagogues

performed on thursday June 2nd by roarawar feartata (craig peade & benjamin cittadini)

sound by Nick Beer

photo's by Nick Stephenson & Brigid Jackson