Reflections On Process in Sound - 2017

Contents
1 Editorial
Iris Garrelfs
2 The Making of Medium

Trish Scott
17 Re-performing the Role of the Female Backing Singer

Jude Cowan Montague
24 On Dis-location: Listening and Re-composing with Others

Ximena Alarcón
38 All the Unseen Things

James Webb
59 A Manifesto for New Listening

Cathy Lane
Editorial
Iris Garrelfs
Dear reader,
This current edition of Reflections on Process in Sound, amazingly, are produced as the result of the interactions between people
is the fifth issue since 2012, when I started the journal as a means in improvisatory sound practice when listening and performing
to solicit a wide range of contributions on the topic of process as it remotely via networked technologies.
manifests in relation to the sonic. Cape Town based James Webb considers All the Unseen Things
Although it has been a long wait since the publication of issue 4 via two of his ongoing pieces, namely Prayer and There’s No Place
in the winter of 2015, I hope that it does not disappoint in presenting Called Home. Amongst others, he addresses issues of religious
stimulating practices, and hopefully also stimulating discussion about expression, migration and environmental concerns.
the topics on offer here. Last but not least, Cathy Lane contributes her Manifesto For
New Listening, set out as 20 hand drawn statements. Whilst
To begin with, you will be able to follow The Making of ‘Medium’ by framed as a manifesto, in practice this too is an ongoing work,
Trish Scott, an installation developed for the Whitstable Biennale 2016. which began in 2014 and examines the politics and aesthetics
It arose out of working with psychologist Dr Ian Hocking, and is based involved in the process of listening.
on predictions by a number of psychics, who were asked to foretell
what kind of work the author might produce for this commission. As always, I would like to thank all contributors for their generosity
Improviser and poet Jude Cowan Montague takes to the stage and for investing a considerable amount of time into making their
as a backing singer for quirky rock quartet, The Windsors. However, thoughts and process transparent! Thanks also to Peter Smith
rather than falling into predictable routines, she explores a subversive for designing the journal and to Karen Stone for maintaining the
approach to the role, the topic of her contribution Re-performing the website at reflections-on-process-in-sound.net.
Role of the Female Backing Singer.
In On Dis-location: Listening and Re-composing with Others, London, October 2017
Ximena Alarcón reflects on her creative process working with aspects iris@reflections-on-process-in-sound.net
of migration and dislocation. She focuses on the aesthetics that
The Making of
Medium
Trish Scott
Trish Scott makes videos, performances and events which

explore the production and authorship of cultural knowledge.
With a background in social anthropology Scott works
experimentally with others, often setting in motion
collaborative or participatory encounters which aim
to unsettle conventional patterns of thought and
behaviour. The resulting artworks create narratives
from the space between these encounters and their
documents.
Based in Margate, Trish Scott has undertaken

projects and exhibited internationally including
at Tate Britain; Tangency, Osnabruck; Binaural/
Nodar, Portugal; Ethnographic Terminalia;
Washington DC; Crate, Margate; Flat
Time House, London, Space Station Sixty
Five, London and CCCB, Barcelona. Trish is
completing a practice based PhD at Chelsea
College of Art, for which she was awarded a
Rootstein Hopkins Scholarship, and is a part time
Research Curator at Turner Contemporary. She has
an MA in Fine Art from Camberwell College of Art
and a BSc in Social Anthropology from the London
School of Economics and Political Science.
Study for Medium, 2016. 2 trishscott.org

Image by Trish Scott.
Reflections on Process The Making of Medium
Medium is a nine-channel surround sound installation To develop an artwork for the Biennale I asked a number of
commissioned by the Whitstable Biennale, installed, for the psychics to predict what I’d make, then edited their answers
duration of the 2016 Biennale in a beach hut at Whitstable Harbour. together to create a sound piece, which explored how different
predictions coincided and diverged in identifying the medium,
Up to six people at a time could experience the work on timed content and location of a future artwork.
entry. The experience involved sitting in a small blacked out space
and listening to voices, from all sides, describing the form of an Medium is deliberately ambiguous. Experiencing the work involved
artwork still to be made. In saying voices there was only once being presented with countless options for what could come to
voice, and it was mine, revoicing, verbatim, the words of nine pass, without any of the ideas assuming a concrete physical or
psychics I’d spoken to. visual form.
In focusing on the descriptive language of psychic readings my

intention was to explore potentiality within the artistic process,
working with the articulation of psychic predictions, rather than the
actual content of predictions made.
In experiencing the work myself I was transported straight away

to the conversations I’d had that had informed the work. I ‘heard’
past my own voice to the tone and mannerisms of the psychics
I’d consulted and their perceptions of me. Many people in the
audience had a similar experience, they ‘heard’ different voices,
assuming there to be various speakers.
For a few, however, the experience was different. My four-year-

old son described the installation as ‘lots of mamas talking to
each other in the dark’. He ‘heard’ only my own voice; sometimes
agreeing with, sometimes contradicting itself. This interpretation
Trish Scott in front of the beach hit housing Medium, 2016. Image by Julia Riddiough.
made me think of the internal chatter I regularly experience at

critical junctures of any artistic project, where momentarily anything
and everything feels possible. For me, particularly at the start of a
process all sorts of ideas enter my head, vying for attention. Yet this
sense of potential is always coupled with a sense of being in the
dark, (metaphorically speaking); of not knowing what will unfold.
In terms of audience experience I was interested in how the

work was both about the internalization of external voices (me
embodying psychic predictions) and the externalization of internal
chatter (sharing the head space of confusion, contradiction and
potentiality) that’s often part of my process.
In being commissioned to make a work for the Whitstable Biennale

I had no intention, initially, to work with psychics. My interest in
forecasting emerged in a convoluted way, via an invitation to work
with a psychologist, Dr Ian Hocking,1 who wanted to observe me
as I developed an artwork for the Biennale as part of his ongoing Screenshot, 15 October 2015. Image by Trish Scott.
research into creativity.
Hocking’s approach was to break down and measure creativity
Having had a longstanding interest in questions of agency and in terms of four discrete variables (fluency, flexibility, quality and
authorship (particularly at the intersection of different social originality). To me this raised two questions; firstly around the
encounters), the notion of becoming a research subject for a potential impact of having these terms applied to myself, i.e. what
scientist intrigued me. However, this intrigue was tinged with a it might mean for a work of mine to be labeled as say 41% original,
sense of unease around Hocking’s desire to quantify creativity). and secondly whether my acceptance to being observed would
make me an accomplice to scientific positivism.
1 See https://www.canterbury.ac.uk/social-and-applied-sciences/psychology-politics-and-
sociology/staff/Profile.aspx?staff=e0fe64b03fece667
4
Observation laboratory, Psychology Department, Canterbury Christ Church University (2015). Image by Trish Scott
Screenshot sent to Ian Hocking, 16 December 2015. Diary extract, 5 September 2015.
Image by Trish Scott. Image by Trish Scott.
My curiosity won over, and I chose to accept Hocking’s invitation, being too personal or intrusive for me, and ii) enable me to challenge
seeing it as an opportunity to influence, or at least problematize what the empiricist framework he was proposing.
felt like quite reductive terms of debate around creative practice.
In agreeing to be studied, I was conscious of the power dynamics Hocking and I were in dialogue for a year in the run up to the
inherent in an artist and scientist working together, (particularly in Whitstable Biennale, and over this time period his attention to how
terms of me being ‘the participant’) and in the different institutional I made creative decisions, prompted a new self reflexivity on my
frameworks we were both aligned to. I chose to move forward part. In addition to recording all conversations we had, building
cautiously, wanting to find a way of fully complying with Hocking’s up a sound archive of our interactions, I started to write a diary,
research requirements but which would i) keep the experience from consisting of quick, unedited typewritten notes.
6
Particularly at the start of the process

much of what I was contemplating
felt too raw and unformulated to offer
up for scrutiny to Hocking. What I
chose to share initially were carefully
edited reflexive texts, supplemented
with visual responses, which were
deliberately obscure.2
I also offered up screen grabs, including

of my search history, to further illustrate
my research trajectory.3
In processing and writing I started

to think increasingly about my own
creativity and how/whether I could
define and articulate it. I started to
analyse decisions I was making and
what informed these. I also started to
contemplate the extent to which my
creativity (i.e. in relation to artworks I
might produce) was actually attributable
to me. Hocking’s research seemed to be
2 See also https://vimeo.com/141342319

3 In keeping with how I was sharing visual material
with Hocking, screen grabs form the majority of images
accompanying this written text.
Edited screenshot, 25 October 2015. Image by Trish Scott.
7
based on an assumption that my artwork for the Biennale would

demonstrate my creativity and involve a series of decisions that I
would make. In response I started to wonder how Hocking would
respond if I made something which a) didn’t require any decisions
on my part b) wasn’t easily attributable to me.
It was through contemplating forms of outsourcing and distributed

authorship, (along with wanting to introduce a sensibility into the
process that was directly at odds with scientific positivism) that led
me to work with psychics. It felt like a way to delegate decisions,
and hence distance myself from scrutiny, but actually (if you follow
psychic reasoning) only by jumping to the place I would have
reached anyway, just ahead of time, disrupting the normal order
of events.
My intention, to start with, was to consult a single psychic, and Screenshot 3 October 2015. Image by Trish Scott.
then make whatever it was they foretold. I initially looked for
someone to speak to locally, and located a medium in an adjoining
town who was ranked second, in terms of user reviews, on a UK I ended up becoming particularly fascinated by the language and
wide online psychic directory. logic of the encounter I’d had. What started as a provocation to a
scientist evolved into a much bigger area of research.
On route to the appointment I almost faltered: Knowing myself to
be impressionable I was wary of going ahead with a reading in case Having never had a psychic reading before, in initially posing the
this would involve being imparted any bad news (which might then question ‘what artwork am I going to make?’ I assumed I’d be given
become a self-fulfilling prophecy). However, I nervously pressed quite general information, and the onus would be on me to connect
ahead, and in the event, there was little to worry about. Whether for broad statements being made to actual events in my life. However,
commercial or psychic reasons nothing bad was forecast. Instead,
8
this wasn’t what happened. The projections relayed to me were

specific and detailed. For example Denise (name changed) said:
I feel like I want you spot welding. I keep seeing that scene from
Flashdance.
But I’m also seeing pottery.
You’re dwarfed by what you’re working on and I can see the frame or
outline. It’s metal or wood or something on a large scale and I can see
you working on one corner of it. Also I keep seeing someone with a
broom. Like they’re pasting paper on to a billboard with a broom.
Is this scenery you’d make for a theatre show? Perhaps some kind
of backdrop. That would explain why I can see stately homes. I
definitely see old buildings because I’m being shown Longleat House
Going to the psychic (2015). Image by Trish Scott.
down in Bath.
When we’d started the reading Denise said she didn’t know much scale structure, what would the short and long-term effects be both
about art, but rather than her prediction being a generic one of paint on myself and on audiences to my work?
and canvas, she articulated a specific vision. Many elements of her
forecast felt a long way removed from experiences I could relate In terms of determining my fate it was in my hands to make the
to, and yet at the same time I entertained them as provocations, prediction I’d witnessed come true, or not. Yet, rather than treating
perhaps an incitement to try something new. I wondered what the words I’d heard as an instruction (as I’d initially imagined I
it would it mean to my practice and artistic identity if I suddenly would) and moving straight into the production of an artwork,
created an enormous theatrical set? If I was to deviate from I realized I was actually more curious about the nature of the
working with video, performance and live events to make a large- prediction itself and started to wonder what other psychics would
9
make of the same question. Would the initial reading be re-inforced As I collected predictions, I also collected recordings. Many
or undermined? websites have a recording service allowing you (for a small
additional fee) to access and listen to readings you’ve purchased
With this in mind I started to collect further predictions, speaking again and again.
to a number of different psychics (most of whom identified as
clairvoyants) whom I accessed online and which meant speaking In giving me readings via ‘remote perception’, where contact was
over premium rate phone lines via a call back system. live, but not face-to-face, each psychic worked from the same
starting question (‘what artwork was I going to make?’) and the
Screenshot 3 March 2016. Image by Trish Scott. signals in my voice. There was nothing visual for them to access, e.g.
no body language cues to work with, and I tried to hold back from
offering too many words myself, which meant they were essentially
offering up monologues, punctuated by ‘uh ha’s’ from me when
asked for affirmation. Many of the psychics I spoke to used tarot
cards (I could hear the noise of cards being turned over the phone)
presumably as a narrative aid in order to scaffold conversations.
Putting aside the question of whether the readers I consulted

were in any way genuine or phony, what interested me was the
verbal improvisation occurring, the riffing I witnessed, sometimes
delivered in in softly spoken hesitant terms, and other times fired
off as a confident stream of words, with hardly a pause for breath.
Even more interesting was the language of the reading itself, the
rich mental images being conjured up and what these revealed
about each reader’s understanding of contemporary art.
A lot of similar ideas came up (generally around the artwork being

big, colourful, and bound to make me a lot of money) as well as
10
similar phrases (‘does that make sense?’) and similar greetings Trish: So are you saying that my ‘original’ artwork will come from
that felt rather too intimate for people who were actually strangers my spirit guide, who, following your logic we might imply is a
(‘big hugs’ and ‘lots of love’ being a common way to sign off). former artist who has died and is now telling me what to do from
However, it was the detail, specificity and certainty of visions that the spirit world?
continued to intrigue me, and debates I got into e.g. about psychic
explanations for originality. Jenny: Yes. Guiding you as to what is creatively within your own
powers to do…They are far more advanced than you will ever be.
Jenny: If you want to make original work which will be
accepted by your peers as something outstanding you have Trish: How come?
to communicate with your spirit guides. You’ve heard of
Mozart, yes? Jenny: They are geniuses. They are master teacher guides. It’s
not like you…. How old are you…. It’s not like you die today,
Trish: Yes spent 10 years in heaven and become a master teacher guide. No,
we’re talking about master teacher guides of anything up to 4000
Jenny: The composer…. He was inspired by a Spirit person. Now years old.
this is someone who originally took human form and had a normal
life as a musician on the earth and then died and went to the spirit Having collected lots of different readings, in contemplating next
world. What you might call heaven. That person then became a steps I realized I wanted to create an artwork, which placed at its
guide to Mozart when he was alive. So all Mozart’s inspiration, all centre the psychic readings themselves, working from recordings
his music was given to him directly by his spirit guide, and that was I’d accumulated.
how he was able to compose.
In the past a lot of my work has involved playing on the gap
Trish: So are you saying Mozart’s music wasn’t actually written by between sound and image, and I considered creating a video
him but by his spirit guide. How is that then original? suggestive of having produced what the psychics were predicting
but without actually doing so; creating an impossible proposition
Jenny: It was original because people on the earth at that time had in a not dissimilar way to Hayley Newman’s work Performance
not heard it….
11
Connotations (1998) (where she presents the documentation of the layers and multiple sound sources, I was approaching a form I
performances that were never made) or David Critchley’s Pieces I wanted to refine and continue working with.
Never Did (1979), a non existent artwork, foregrounding the fictive
space of the document. I was interested in the line between Having experimented initially with the original recordings I’d
imagination and actualization and creating an artwork that sat amassed, my next step was to re-record each reading using just
between the two. my own voice. Through embodying and re-performing the words
of others I wanted to merge the notion of endless overlapping
However, as soon as I actually introduced a visual element to the predictions being made by multiple psychics with my own internal
process (i.e. through juxtaposing recordings made with moving dialogue, muddying the boundaries between external and internal
image clips from my digital archive), the predictions started to influences on the artistic process (if those are even distinctions
occupy territory that was too literal. Deviating from sound also worth making). In reworking recordings I listened to each in turn
moved the focus away from the phone conversations I’d had,
and I realized that it was these, and just these, which I wanted to Screenshot 3 March 2017. Image by Trish Scott.
foreground, in pure audio form.
Going back to the drawing board, I decided to re-listen to each

of the conversations I’d had to try to find a way to transform or
represent them in a way that would enable a future audience
to experience something of the experience I’d had in consulting
psychics. Setting up multiple speakers I started to listen to
tracks out loud, firstly in order, and then, on a whim, in different
combinations simultaneously. In layering up recordings I found
interest in the clashes and co-incidences occurring, both in terms
of the content and language of predictions but also in terms of the
quality of different voices; all differently paced and accented, soft
hesitant tones punctuating loud, more assertive statements, the
balance changing as I moved around the space. I realized that with
12
and simultaneously re-voiced the words I could hear, mimicking the In producing Medium I attempted twice to use a professional
rhythm and intonation of each psychic speaking. Having recorded recording studio. However, the recordings I eventually chose to
these re-vocalisations, I then edited them together to create a work with were those I’d made sitting under a duvet, in the dark, on
narrative taking the listener through the process of a psychic the kitchen floor.
reading and the story of an imaginary artwork, bringing multiple
interpretations together in a single piece. Through internalizing the I found being in a professional studio stunted my ability to
readings I’d been given, I found the psychics’ words became my improvise, my voice sounded self-conscious and forced, slightly
words. Their readings had always been ‘for’ or ‘about’ me, but in sing-songy. Reverting to a known, domestic space with an
re-voicing them, I started to author them and my agency shifted improvised sound shield worked much better for me in terms of
enabling me to essentially ‘own’ the words being spoken and producing recordings I was comfortable with. Furthermore, the
assume the role of storyteller for an onward audience. intimacy and familiarity of recording in the space of my home
resonated with how I’d accrued recordings in the first place; sitting
at my desk or curled up on the sofa, quietly focused on the voices
Screenshot 2 June 2016. Image by Trish Scott.
of different clairvoyants in odd corners of the house.
In finding a venue for Medium at the Whitstable Biennale, I wanted

to re-create this sense of intimacy. I wanted the audience for
my work to be present with the voices alone, without any visual
interference. I was therefore keen to find a small space which
would enable me to carefully spatialise the different sound sources
through multiple speakers, but which I could also black out. In the
event the venue ended up being a beach hut at Dead Man’s Corner
at the harbour.
Once installed, my focus shifted from the form and spatialisation

of Medium back to the content of predictions. In spite of not
having deliberately ‘made’ any one of the predictions I’d received
13
(and having felt many of them to be completely

implausible), once the sound installation was up
and running, certain comments suddenly gained
poignancy. For example one psychic I’d spoken to
had said with conviction that the work would have
a strong connection to industry, quoting Lowry as
a reference. Knowing Whitstable, at the time of
our conversation, this observation had made little
sense to me, and I’d completely dismissed it, until I
stepped back from the beach hut half way through
installing Medium and observed it’s position right
to the side of the cement factory, a feature of the
town I’d forgotten about months before.
In being devoid of visual referents, audience

members did the work themselves to physically
locate the ‘imaginary artwork’ described in
Medium. Peoples’ minds roamed, seeking visual
and conceptual connections, which seemed to take
them beyond the dark space of the work itself into
observations about those around them, the location
of the hut and more.
In so doing the parameters and emphasis of the

work were constantly shifting. Certainly each time
I experienced the installation I noticed different
things. Once I was in there with a friend who has
14
Medium, view from inside the installation looking
out, 2016. Image by Emma Wilcox.
long standing links with Russia, and was about to head to Moscow moment where a voice said ‘I can see green’, someone entered the
to start a new job. It made me wonder whether this was the space, with a green bag flashing in the light.
‘Russian connection’ one of the psychic’s had mentioned. It wasn’t
something that had occurred to me before. Someone else recalled Both for me, and audience members, many co-incidences therefore
how the dimensions of the work matched the dimensions of the came to pass in spite of not having intentionally set out to make
beach hut, something I hadn’t really thought about in making an connections happen.
audio/time-based work. Someone else recalled that at the exact
Trish Scott and Ian Hocking, Mean, Mode, Medium, 2016.

Image by Bernard G Mills.
15
Conversely, some words spoken remained a mystery, for example, which the audience to the event were able to randomly sample
the suggestion that my work ‘could be a horse’. And I’m still waiting from the archive of sound recordings, video clips, blog posts
for the artwork to end up in Bolton! and diary extracts we’d accrued. In terms of the outcome to
Hocking’s research, he switched methods part way through
Post script: In terms of how the story ended with psychologist Ian from a quantitative approach, to studying me via Interpretative
Hocking, it’s ongoing. There were many avenues of exchange and phenomenological analysis (IPA); a qualitative technique focused on
collaboration that we tested, within the parameters of Hocking how research participants make sense of their personal and social
studying my creativity as I made an artwork, and alongside worlds (Smith & Osborn, 2008). IPA, which he’s hoping to publish
my installation we did a talk about our research situation in later in 2017.
> end of article <
© Trish Scott, 2017. All rights reserved.
16
Re-performing the Role of the
Female Backing Singer
Jude Cowan Montague
Jude Cowan Montague is an improvising artist based in London. She is a published poet and
worked for ten years as an archivist on the Reuters television network which has informed both
her poetry and her composed sound works. She is the creator and host of the weekly show The
News Agents: experiments in arts and news on Resonance FM.
Jude has a doctorate from Birkbeck College, University of London in Film History, concentrating
on the early years of the British feature film industry. She is currently working on a series of
novels fictionalising adventures of a young Alfred Hitchcock in the East End. Since May 2016 she
has been having a new adventure performing as a backing vocalist Bing Selfish and the Windsors,
and has been reflecting on this out-of-character experience.
judecowanmontague.com
17
Introduction
My practice is to find stories and work with them

in performance. I combine vocals with electronics,
mostly a variety of synthesisers and drum
machines. This creates a genre-defying environment
which draws on pop, jazz, instrumental, vocal and
classical traditions. The output appears, at least
superficially, to have a connection with the work
of experimental popular musicians such as Frank
Zappa, Laurie Anderson and 1980s synth-pop
innovators such as the Human League.
I usually perform solo or in improvised groups. As

a soloist I can control my own stage environment
and not fit into a role in a pre-organised group. This
allows me to explore improvisational elements.
Because of being comfortable with an organic,

self-directed performance approach, I was initially
reluctant when earlier in 2016 I was asked to
provide backing vocals for The Windsors who are
Matt Armstrong (bass), Phil Bartai (keyboards),
Simon King (guitar) and Tom Murrow (drums) in a
collaboration with singer-songwriter Bing Selfish.1
1 Here a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-mpYxmw8eM

Reflections on Process Re-performing the Role of the Female Backing Singer
The Windsors are known on the DIY music scene in London for potentially lead to an inflammatory situation, but as I could walk
their excellent musicianship and craft. The band grew out of the away at any time I decided to let events take their course.
Kenny Process Team2 who performed in and around the London
Musicians’ Collective in the 1990s. I began to bring my improvisational practice and allow dramatic
unpredictable movements to enter the band’s stage performance.
The Windsors worked as Bing’s band for selected songs from his This provided a theatrical element and also taking on audience
repertoire for some live performances and for an album which is engagement, relocating this to the role of the backing singer.
now being released as a test run, ‘Selfish Sentiments’ (El Frenzy,
2017). However, I found that I felt quite resistant to the role of Bing was very supportive of my refusal to confirm and attention
backing singer. Bing and the musicians were all supportive of me provoking antics. It provided a more entertaining spectacle and we
and understood my reluctance, which was fortunate as I was very discovered that women in the audience responded well to having a
reluctant. I reflected on this experience as a piece of informal creative female presence on stage among the male musicians.
personal analysis.
In the alternative rock gig it used to be expected that certain
A Personal Challenge performers would break down the conventional relationships
of performer and audience. At times we have seen a desire for
The challenge I set myself was how to create a new role for myself anarchy to be embedded in perceptions of rock and roll. Jimi
within the limitations of the role. As the band were already aware of Hendrix burning his guitar in his ‘wild thing guitar sacrifice’ is an
my work, they were keen on the idea and asked me to go ahead to iconic example of a performer pushing the experience of music
play with the role in order to make the stage act more interesting. performance beyond music. I did not feel I could match anything
However I could imagine that Bing would be concerned that I might similar, but I kept the image of rebellious performers in my head to
upstage the focus on his performance. Rather than discuss this counteract the overriding temptation to confirm.
beforehand and come to an agreement I decided to let any conflict
and negotiation take place during the process. I suppose this could As a backing singer I was able to take advantage of the lack of
necessity to be an important part of the musicality of the band. The
band are very good musicians, otherwise distracting the other band
2 see https://www.facebook.com/pg/KennyProcessTeam/about/?ref=page_internal members could have been an issue.
19
Observing the faces of audience members and their surprise of great pianists and in his films explored many amusing takes on
at the subversion was rewarding. Various comments after the different piano styles.
performances convinced me that people appreciated the intent. In
particular women appreciated the stretching of the role. Audience It is odd how the women who worked with Groucho Marx took
comments from our gigs at The Railway in Winchester, The on a straight role and were not respected for their comedic value.
Underbelly in Hoxton and The Others in Stoke Newington included: The actress and classical singer Margaret Dumont was a butt of
‘That female backing singer stuff is such rubbish, anyway’ and many jokes which part she carried off with aplomb contributing an
‘That was the best backing singer dancing I’ve ever seen.’ I do not essential element to the humour. She was known as the fifth Marx
think my dancing is impressive as I am not a trained dancer but brother. The blog ‘Sistercelluloid’ describes her as ‘the haughty,
I do create in a cheeky, subversive style for which I look to other
artforms than popular music or dance traditions.
Celluloid Music and Humour Margaret Dumont and Groucho Marx.
As a historian of silent film I am very interested in the performance

strategies of the comedians of silent film and early talkies, most
particularly taking influence deliberately from the gags of the Marx
Brothers, Charlie Chaplin and the dances of Laurel and Hardy.
The Marx Brothers are interesting for their musical interventions
such as in A Night at the Opera (1935). This film is full of strong
examples of disruption. At the beginning of the overture Harpo and
Chico tap with their batons in the pit and sets off an exchange that
Groucho describes as ‘a brace of woodpeckers in the orchestra’.
Harpo tries to play his trombone with a bow, then waving the bow
he ends up fencing with the conductor. A lifelong interest in music
by the brothers and technical training underpins their musical
humour. In particular, Chico Marx was a famous musical imitator
20
the practice of the Marx brothers particularly interesting as I can

perceive a clear improvisational quality to many scenes. These
scenes are often physical comedy. As a child I was very impressed
by Harpo’s use of scissors and horns in Duck Soup (1933). I like
to be subversive on stage, playing other band member’s musical
instruments, appropriating stage props, always looking for an
unexpected usage of materials.
Contemporary Vocalists and Influences

The Windsors live in Winchester. Image by Roberta Kabowski.
Influences Another influence on my work has been the
high-handed, wholly immovable object against which they threw contemporary vocalist Camille Dalmais (Camille) who combines
every unstoppable force (including, in Duck Soup, tomatoes).3 humour with avant-garde and brings multiple unexpected
influences together in composing and performing. Dalmais works
Yet Groucho derided her for her lack of a sense of humour. Writer with elements of live performance that are not normally part of
Simon Louvish made the point in Monkey Business, his biography the pop singer’s repertoire including drawing on her body during
of the Marx Brothers that it is not ‘Margaret Dumont who failed singing. She uses multiple facial expressions from comedy and
to see the joke, but the Marx Brothers, their interpreters and acting to challenge expectations that a female singer’s face should
biographers, who have been unwitting victims of a desperate be romantic or expressionless. Journalist Dorian Lynskey summed
practical joke played upon us for three-quarters of a century by that up Camille’s video for her single ‘Money Note’ for the Guardian:
greatest of dissimulating comediennes’ (Louvich 1999).
Camille Dalmais wears a flesh-coloured boy suit and a giant mirrorball,
Such recent appreciation of Dumon’s comedy is reassuring to me let’s off fireworks and grips a neon hula hoop with her teeth. When she
that women’s contribution to comedy is beginning to be publicly performs a spot-on impression of Mariah Carey’s vocal acrobatics and
acknowledged. Dumont is an important role model to me I find hits an F sharp 7 (the ‘money note’ of the title), she rolls her eyes like a
cartoon character hit by a frying pan. (2008)
3 see https://sistercelluloid.com/2015/08/14/heres-to-margaret-dumont-who-always-
got-the-joke/
21
This circus approach to performance is intelligent. Dalmais is a Progression

conscious director of her own theatricality. She studied at the
Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris. She uses multiple facial Bing Selfish is still performing with The Windsors and I continue in
expressions from comedy and acting to challenge expectations that my role as a backing singer, however I am concentrating on creating
a female singer’s face should be romantic or expressionless. a new album of original songs based on an art residency in Manora,
Goa, India (February 2016). In 2018 I will be revisiting the villages
Another female pop artist who fused theatricality, contemporary around Madgaon, Goa to perform these alongside some classics
dance and performance is Kate Bush. Bush was educated by from Bollywood of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
Lindsay Kemp who also taught David Bowie the art of movemen.
Bush and Dalmais use multiple sounds too as part of their work
for example Bush mimics donkey brays and other animal sounds
to create new vocal expressions on her fourth studio album, The
Dreaming (1982).
There is a playfulness to the pop theatre of Bush and Dalmais that

does not inhibit either artist from engaging with serious themes.
For example the title song Bush’s album The Dreaming is about
the destruction of Aboriginal homelands by those white Australians
seeking weapons-grade aluminium. Dalmais recent track ‘Fontaine
de Lait’ explores the transformative properties of a woman’s body
in motherhood. These relates to my own practice of performing
international news stories, developed through working as an
archivist on the Reuters television news collection for ten years.
The Windsors live in Winchester.

Image by Roberta Kabowski.
22
Related Recordings References

Lewis, Tim (2016). Lindsay Kemp: ‘I was destined for stardom… I’m still waiting for
The video to Jude’s album #1 Caretaker of Animals around it’. Guardian online. Available from https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/apr/24/
the World (2016) contains footage visuals from a live lindsay-kemp-destined-for-stardom-david-bowie-kate-bush [Accessed 1 Aug 2017]
performance with The Windsors, Bing Selfish and Chris Louvish, Simon (1999). Monkey Business: The Lives and Legends of the Marx
Cornetto (The Others, Stoke Newington, 2016). https://www. Brothers. Faber & Faber
youtube.com/watch?v=J9phZcWTb3Y Lynskey, Dorian (2008). Crazy is believing you’re normal. Guardian online. Available
from https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/jun/24/popandrock.art [Accessed
bING selfish and the Windsors: right side of my brain, video 1 Aug 2017]
for single release late 2016 Sister Celluloid (2015). Here’s to Margaret Dumont—Who Always Got the Joke.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-mpYxmw8eM Available from https://sistercelluloid.com/2015/08/14/heres-to-margaret-dumont-
who-always-got-the-joke [Accessed 1 Aug 2017]
> end of article <
© Jude Cowan Montague, 2017. All rights reserved.
The Windsors, Bing Selfish and Chris Cornetto live at The Others, Stoke Newington, 2016.
23
Reflections on Process On Dis-location On Dis-location...
Listening and Re-composing

with Others
Ximena Alarcón
Ximena Alarcón is an artist who engages in listening to migratory spaces,

connecting this to individual and collective memories. Her practice involves
deep listening, sonic improvisation, and the creation of online environments
to expand our sense of belonging and place. She is interested in creating
telematic performances, derived from listening in interstitial spaces, such as
dreams, underground transportation, and the ‘in-between’ space in the context
of migration.
Ximena completed a PhD in Music, Technology and Innovation at De Montfort

University, and received a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship from 2007 to
2009. In 2012, she was awarded with a Deep Listening Certificate and now is a
tutor for the Deep Listening Training Program, led by the Center for Deep Listening,
at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. From 2011 to 2017 she was Research
Fellow at Creative Research into Sound Arts Practice (CRiSAP); she is now a Marie
Fig 2. 4 4 Flow free improvisation at Skłodowska Curie Fellow at the University of Oslo.
Chisenhale Dance Studio.
24
ximenaalarcon.net
Reflections on Process On Dis-location...
Since 2012 I compose telematic1 sonic performances using long- and times, and play with the words to re-compose myself, opening
distance bi-directional transmission of sound through the Internet: a to new sounds and meanings.2 This brings a heightened awareness
mediation that strengthens metaphors of migration and dislocation. of my own voice, regarding the use of multiple languages and
I am interested in the situations of connection and disconnection memories, as a form of finding a location. I like to experience the
that are created and in the ‘in-between’ sonic spaces, which defy fragmentation of this voice, and to establish conversations with the
predictability. In the performances (Fig 1), geographical migrants many fragments that create a feeling of wholeness. I am interested
participate as well as other people with interest in the experience of in how technology can aid the creative weaving of these fragments.
cultural dis-location. I invite them to work with spoken word and vocal
expression and pre-recorded or acoustic sounds, as driving forces In improvising with other artists such as in 4 4 Flow (2014),3 (Fig
for their exchange. With this work my intention is the exploration of 2, see title page) and using algorithms for pre-recorded voice
sonic spaces that support the search for sense of place, healing the fragments’ random choice with Ron Herrema in Mezcla (2015),4 (Fig
contradictory feelings associated with the migratory experience. 3) I have tended to abstract words when these acquire too much
Here, I am reflecting on this creative process, and the aesthetics weight, creating a sort of made-up language using non-verbal vocal
produced as the result of the interactions between people, through sounds, body gestures and silence. This language feels perhaps
improvisatory sound practice when listening and performing in the more fluid than my speaking in any of the languages I know: my
distance, and the mediation of networking technologies. native Spanish, my second language English. Fragmentation opens
space for feelings overcoming meanings. My telematic sonic
Drafting alone: on relations, migration and sense of place performances are born from these experimentations, as a form and
intention of re-composing the self with others.
I am from Colombia and a migrant living in the UK for 16 years
now. This experience greatly informs my artwork and research. In an analysis regarding the conceptual and artistic expressions5
Recently, I have become interested in relationality and how this of relationality, the scholar Isabel Hoving (2007) speculates on a
contextualizes my individual and collective artistic practice. I write
poetry, text scores, and play with words. I improvise alone using 2 Happy Birthday played as part of SPUR platform at Tate Britain January 2015 https://
PD patches, through which I can hear myself in alternative spaces soundcloud.com/speakingof/happy-birthday-fragmented
3 An excerpt of 4 4 Flow is at https://vimeo.com/91291563
1 Telematic sonic performances involve telecommunications and computers in the 4 See https://soundcloud.com/speakingof/mezcla
transmission of unidirectional or bidirectional streaming of audio. 5 In Caribbean writers such as Édouard Glissant and Jamaica Kincaid.
25
6
In Transglashphõné In Transglashphõnē
Triskele: Escuchar en
(London - São Paulo), July (London - Cambridge), Oct 15, 2016
Espiral (Bogotá-Medellín;
9
6, 2016, CMMR2016,
Medellín-Bogotá), July 14
University of São Paulo,
and 18, 2017
Brazil
7 Suelo Fértil (Esquiule - REMember (Bangalore

11
London - Reading - (Goethe Institute -
Mexico city), Aug 17 2016 Majestic Market)), Dec 22,
Suelo Fértil (México -
8
2016
London - Linz), May 11
10
2016
1
Bangalore: Aural
2
Transitions (Srishti New Migratory Dreams (London - Bogotá), August 3rd 2012
and Old Campus)’ Dec
3
18th 2015
5 Tasting Sound Listening to

Taste (London - Troy), July
13th 2014
Listening and
Remembering a co-
located networked
4
performance for four
commuters (Mexico City
26 June 2008; Morelia June
Letters and Bridges (Leicester - Mexico), May 12th 2012 2008; Paris Jan 2009)
Fig 1. Sample of telematic sonic performances by Ximena Alarcón.
migratory aesthetics as “characterized

by its success in interweaving and
interconnecting the fragments,
disengaged from older structures
and discourses, into a pattern woven
from the active experience of the new
global processes”, or rather “shaped
by the tensions between the desire
to know world-wide movements of
migration and creolisation, and the
desire to renounce all knowledge
altogether” (p.189) for a new start.
Reflecting on my personal and

collective work aesthetics and
intentions, I assert connections as
fundamental, both as a metaphor
and as an actual technical possibility
between distant locations (Fig
4). Equally, the interweaving that
happens in the performances with
others, supporting own individual
re-connections.
I also draw on Jennifer E. Cross’

(2015) useful interdisciplinary Fig 3. Improvisation Mezcla. Ximena Alarcón and
framework of sense of place Ron Herrema in Lancaster Arts Centre.
27
focusing on the social interactions as

processes lived by people regarding
place attachment. Within her processes,6
I might say that my sensory work
interrelates narratives, some of which
have some historical links, fostering
spiritual bonds: intangible and hard to
explain links that are created by people
who don’t know each other but connect
within the creative process.7
I am interested in: listening and

performing as the practices that help
the weaving of different fragments
and narratives; sound as a generator of
space for questioning, searching and
asserting senses of place; and networked
technologies of sound transmission to
mediate the connections. I situate my
work within networked art, in which,
as curator and theorist Garrett Lynch
6 The seven processes proposed by Cross are:

Sensory, Narrative, Historical, Spiritual, Ideological,
Fig 4. Technical workflow for the telematic sonic performance Suelo Commodifying, and Material dependence.
7 See video showing the process of creation of Suelo
Fértil, Mexico-London-Linz. May 11, 2016.
Fértil [Fertile Soil]: telematic sonic performance at https://
vimeo.com/224248104
28
suggests, “[r]elationships are produced as a result of connections

which enable performative scenarios”.8
Sonically, these relations could be naturally located in the text

and graphic scores by Pauline Oliveros (2013), part of her Deep
Listening practice (Oliveros, 2005), which invite people to
discover relationships between the sounds that surround us,
and the sounds felt inwardly: real, imagined and remembered.
The addition of technological platforms and virtual spaces
stimulates both the reach and the focus of listening, and adds
more complexity to the sonic relationship with space and time.
This is how eventually I have encountered the term “relational
listening” as an inspiring concept, which has been explored
by Lawrence English (2015), where the psychological and
technological processes are part of the possibilities of listening
to others’ listening. Fig 5. Participants in the Migratory Dreams performance, pre-performance
workshops. Image by Laura Criollo.
Thus, to re-compose myself in the “in-between” space in the
migratory context, I find it important that we listen to the self and Creating with others
listen to and with others, using sound transmission and networking
technologies that make space and time relations more complex, By integrating Pauline Oliveros’ Deep Listening practice, including
and at the same time facilitate the making of connections through sonic meditations, dreams and body awareness9 in the creative
‘interfaces for relational listening’ (Alarcón, 2016). and performative process, I invite participants to engage with their
individual stories and feelings, and to exchange these with others’,
thereby generating sonic interrelations of experiences of cultural
dislocation (Fig 5). In previous projects, this process has lasted from
8 See http://www.asquare.org/profile [Accessed 19/04/17] 9 The Deep Listening practice led by Pauline Oliveros, IONE and Heloise Gold, must
include listening, sounding, dreaming, and body awareness, to fulfill the whole practice.
29
one week to one month. The practice helps to access “in-between” self and at once listening to the others – either in co-located10 and
sonic spaces, which are interstitial spaces in the body and mind. networked environments.
This reflection involves sounds of the environment, voice, language,
and also music, and the balance that occurs when listening to the Using networking software to connect with others, and sometimes
working in the same physical space, they practice listening
exercises that prompt reflections on their listening journals, which
they have been asked to keep during the whole pre-performance
Fig 6. Writing of listening journals as part of the pre-performance process process. These reflections are used as key materials that will inform
for Migratory Dreams performance. Image by Laura Criollo. individual narratives (Fig 6). I have invited participants to work with
loved ones’ letters,11 dreams,12 migrant food,13 fertility and soil
metaphors,14 urban space,15 nomadic voice,16 and listening rituals in
Colombia post-conflict.17 These can be seen as themes, departures,
triggers, but also as sonic spaces. For instance dreams are packed
with narratives, but in themselves they are interstitial spaces where
sounds are present, and might be amplified in the performance as
10 “Co-located” refers to the environment where performers are in the same physical
space, and to distinguish them from the those takeing place are in distant locations.
11 Letters and Bridges performance between Leicester and Mexico City, May 12 2012:
http://ximenaalarcon.net/lettersandbridgesperformance.html.
12 Migratory Dreams performance between Bogotá and London, August 3, 2012: http://
ximenaalarcon.net/migratorydreamsperformance.html.
13 Tasting Sound, Listening to Taste performance between London and Troy, July 13 2013:
http://ximenaalarcon.net/tastingsoundlisteningtotaste.html.
14 Suelo Fértil [Fertile Soil], Mexico-London-Linz, May 11 2016: https://vimeo.
com/224248104.
15 See http://ximenaalarcon.net/bangaloreauraltransitions.html.
16 For In Transglasphone see https://soundcloud.com/femalelaptoporchestra/in-
transglasphone-at-cmmr2016.
17 Triskele: Escucha en Espiral between Bogotá and Medellín, and Medellín and Bogotá,
July 14 and July 18 2017 https://soundcloud.com/speakingof/sets/triskele-escuchar-en-espiral.
30
if the performers were in a dream state. In that way, I welcome the questioning and unlearning aesthetic forms, achieved through the
improvisatory immersion in the experimentation with language and sharing and transformation of narratives. People free their voices,
other sonic possibilities that participants’ narratives have to offer. sometimes sounding assertive, nervous or hesitant, and these
Stories become abstract in the “in-between” sonic space and defy soundings evolve as if their subtle expressions were questioning
literal meaning. Meanings transform when the interrelations of their our relationship with listening and sounding. The transformation
stories and spontaneous aesthetics emerge, while sounding and in participants’ expressions sound to me like an empowerment of
listening with others. tacit intentions such as ‘let’s do it!’, the possibility to say ‘what I
want to say’ in the way in ‘which I would like to say it’. They are not
Participants with no training in sound performance bring their monologues, but original individual narratives that are supported by
voices into a diversity of forms, which come from various others’ listening and soundings, and are open to surprise.
traditions of communication, being on a public stage or in a
private conversation. I think of the performances as a stage for
Fig 7. Score #1 for Suelo Fértil for the Fig 8. Score #2 for Suelo Fértil for an Fig 9. Score #3 Suelo Fértil for the time
performers in conversation. active audience to support conversations. keeper who is wearing binaural microphones.
31
Framing a score for a telematic sonic performance awareness of the self and the others, and opens up a space for the
unpredictable to occur.
Long-distance communication embodies a telephonic gesture, we
expect that someone on the other side might respond, and her/ The telematic sonic performances in my work contain both
his response might inform the next expression. The philosopher improvisatory and composed components. After participants
Vilém Flusser (2014) envisioned the telephone network “as a model have followed a creative process, and as I respond to the
of a network that keeps branching out, for example, for reversible participants’ work, I listen in my mind to my intention with the
video networks and computer terminals […] moving toward a encounters that the performance will generate and create a score
telematic society of self-recognition and the acknowledgement of to trigger improvisatory actions between participants within a
others” (141). Departing from the telephonic gesture, improvising specific duration of time. The score takes shape according to the
with others between distant locations strengthens people’s technologies used, the venue, the location, and the narratives
listening attention, increases the level of surprise, enhances the produced by participants (Fig 7, Fig 8, Fig 9).
Fig. 10. Performance of Letters and Bridges between Leicester and Mexico City. May 12 2012.
32
Listening to the double way communication between performers In some performances, listening via headphones creates a shared
(bidirectional streaming) using loudspeakers for the amplification intimacy. A shared intimacy with others who are far away and
creates a live broadcast experience, where performers and also, in some cases, with people who are physically close. An
audience can respond with the freedom and playfulness of not example of this experience can be heard in the performance
being seen, while calling and waiting for a response from someone Migratory Dreams, which took place between London and Bogotá
unknown. An example of this playfulness can be heard in the (2012) (Fig 11).
performance Letters and Bridges, which took place between
Leicester and Mexico City (2012)18 (Fig 10). An improvisation by When listening and performing in a private space, far from a stage,
Sally and César, two performers, takes them and the audience people perform freely away from the audiences’ gaze; when
by surprise. listening and performing on stage, participants embrace their
nervousness to overcome the presence of an audience. Participants
18 For Letters and Bridges see https://vimeo.com/79626844.
Fig.11. Performance Migratory Dreams between London and Bogotá. August 03 2012.
33
have found such public performances as a public stage to catalyse disconnection; for instance, in the performance Letters and
feelings of dislocation through sounding alone and with others. Bridges, we experienced an interrupted internet connection of
about five minutes, after which we had to go through the whole
The question of how to incorporate the audience is still an open process of connecting again, which was an enjoyable part of the
one. In Letters and Bridges and Suelo Fértil I have tried to include performance itself, cheered along by the audience.
audiences in different ways, for instance by calling it an “active
audience”, where members of the audience become performers in Streaming Technologies
certain parts of the performance, or as an audience in the classical
sense. To be in tune with the performers’ work, in my most recent Each performance reflects on the streaming technologies used, the
performance TRISKELE (2017) (Fig 12), I invited the audience to experiences that they provide, and how these inform our gestures
do some warm-up body energy exercise, from the Deep Listening for listening and performing “in the distance”. At the same time
practice, to connect with the performance space. In this way, they are also informed by the audio quality, the venue’s approach
performers might feel more attentively listened to. to internet connectivity, and the cultural and social possibilities of
the performance. Technologies raise questions of control, which are
Performances such as Migratory Dreams and Suelo Fértil have inherent in the performance production, and which also parallel the
incorporated radio broadcasts. Live broadcasting positions the human migratory experience.
performative experience within a radio transmission. It is a one-way
transmission about a bi-directional telematic transmission, bringing The performances I created have used different software packages,
with it specific sonic expectations and the time frame inherent to different effects. Jacktrip,19 for example, uses uncompressed
in the radio format. Although with this approach it is possible to sound resulting in CD audio quality with no perceived delay–the
reach a larger audience, the focus can be turned towards this feeling of distance minimizes. This software demands high-speed
“one-way” transmission and away from the original “double Internet connection and a good bandwidth, which is usually
way” transmission, which belongs to a format of unpredictability found in larger institutions such as universities. I also have used
because in telematic performances internet connections might
be interrupted. Without a live broadcast, there is less fear about
Fig 12 (Overleaf). Performance Triskele: Escuchar en Espiral between Bogotá and 19 Developed since 2008, by Chris Chafe and Juan Pablo Cáceres at Stanford University.
Medellin, July 14 and 18 2017 https://ccrma.stanford.edu/groups/soundwire/software/jacktrip.
34
35
Tube Plug20 (no longer supported) and Soundjack,21 both of which Interface: to connect and create sense of place
work with high quality compression of sound and so offer the
possibility of networking through domestic Internet connections. Derived from these experiences, I am focusing on the body
Social VoIP networks such as Google Hangouts on air (stereo) as keeping memory of place. In “A taxonomy for Listening and
now offer a good sound quality, but still use inbuilt compression Performing ‘in-between’ spaces with mobile apps” (Alarcón, 2017),
that limits collective sonic vocal expressions by experiencing the I suggest the exploration and tracking of slow body movements
annihilation of one or more voices, when the sounds are more in space, together with the perception of physical space in local
varied than voice or with an unexpected amplitude. The recently re- and distant locations, to expand awareness of sound in space/
developed mobile app LiveShout by Locus Sonus and SARC offers time in the ‘in-betweeness’ of the migratory context. Thus, I see
bi-directional streaming from mobile phones, freeing up technical my artwork as evolving towards the creation of a system that
issues of network permissions, and promoting the mobility of interrogates the body as an interface for relational listening. With
participants – resulting in a more direct and continuously changing the current project INTIMAL, funded by a Marie Curie Fellowship
relationship with the physical territory.22 and developed at the University of Oslo, I am focusing on individual
stories as told by Colombian migrant women. INTIMAL will
Once the connection is established, the question of the ‘invisible’, be a “physical-virtual” embodied system, to support migrants’
simple or embedded interface, arises. Going further from interaction with body, voice, memories, dreams, and oral history
technicalities, I am interested in the creation of interfaces for archives, integrating all into a telematic sonic performative
relational listening which dynamically attempt to bring performers artistic practice. In this context the project will explore “relational
in the ‘in-between’ sonic space, departing from performers’ agency listening” in depth, incorporating technological innovations such
and own expressions generated in real-time, as well as with pre- as sonification-of-body-movement.23 This will help to explore
recorded material. individual and collective embodied memories of place, and will
serve as catalyst for healing and reconciliation within the context
of Colombian post-conflict and peace building. This is a case study
20 Tube Plug is by Jörg Stelkness. that will suggest with its findings the use of the INTIMAL in other
21 Soundjack is by Alexander Carôt. http://www.soundjack.eu/index.php contexts of migration and dislocation.
22 In “A taxonomy for Listening and Performing ‘in-between’ migratory spaces using mobile
apps”. In Wi: Journal of Mobile Media. Vol 11 No 1 (2017), I imagine options of performing 23 See the work by Alexander Refsum Jensenius at http://www.arj.no/tag/
“in-betweeness” with mobile apps. micromovement/.
36
Recalling migratory aesthetics, I would say that my work creates Cross, Jennifer E. (2015). Processes of Place Attachment: An Interactional
artistic platforms to weave fragments from the self, with focused Framework. In: Symbolic Interaction. DOI: 10.1002/symb.198
communities and real-time, improvisatory and pre-recorded English, Lawrence. 2015. Relational Listening: The Politics of Perception. In:
narratives. The aim is to re-invent a migratory space which acts as Ear Wave Event, Issue 2 Spring 2015 [online]. Accessed 29 September 2015,
earwaveevent.org
a space to perceive and create senses of place anywhere, made
from the intangible sonic virtuality, established through creative Flusser, Vilém (2014). Gestures. Translated by Nancy Ann Roth. Minneapolis:
connections, interactions, which are triggered by listening and University of Minnesota Press
relationality. Hoving, Isabel (2007). Between Relation and the Bare Facts: The Migratory
Imagination and Relationality. In: Essays in Migratory Aesthetics. Cultural
Practices Between Migrations and Art-Making. Editors: Sam Durrant,
References:
Catherine M. Lord. Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam-New York, NY
Alarcón, Ximena (2016). Tuning the Interface for Relational Listening. In:
Oliveros, Pauline (2005). Deep Listening A Composer’s Sound Practice.
Proceedings International Conference in Live Interfaces 2016. Edited by Thor
Lincoln, NE: iUniverse. Deep Listening Publications
Magnusson, Chris Kiefer, and Sam Duffy. Published by Emute Lab, University
of Sussex & REFRAME: Brighton Oliveros, Pauline (2013). Anthology of Text Scores. Kingston, NY: Deep
Listening Publications
Alarcón, Ximena (2017). A taxonomy for Listening and Performing ‘in-
between’ migratory spaces using mobile apps. In: WI Journal of Mobile
Media, Mobile Making Issue, 2017: VOL. 11 NO. 1. Edited by Samuel Thulin.
Published by Mobile Digital Commons Network (MDCN) in the Mobile Media
Lab: Montreal & Toronto.
> end of article <
© Ximena Alarcón 2017. All rights reserved.
37
Reflections on Process All the Unseen Things
James Webb is a South African artist based in Cape Town. His work, framed in large-scale
installations in galleries and museums, or as unannounced interventions in public spaces, often
makes use of ellipsis, displacement and détournement to explore the nature of belief and the
All the Unseen Things

dynamics of communication in our contemporary world. Webb’s practice employs a variety of
media including audio, installation and text, referencing aspects of the conceptualist and minimalist
traditions, as well as his academic studies in advertising, comparative religion and theatre.
James Webb Webb has presented his work around the world at major institutions and exhibitions, including
Wanås Konst in Sweden, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, UK, the 13th Biennial of Sharjah
(2017), 12th Bienal de la Habana (2015), 55th Biennale di Venezia (2013), the 2009 Melbourne
International Arts Festival and the 8th Biennale d’Art Contemporain de Lyon (2007).
38
theotherjameswebb.com
Intruduction
This text is a consideration of the unseen things: the processes behind the
ongoing artworks Prayer (1999, ongoing) and There’s No Place Called Home
(2004, ongoing). Both projects are iterative and made afresh in new locations,
and could be described as site-responsive, audio installation pieces with
relational concerns. Both use minimal visual elements, basic audio playback
systems, and are augmented by the context of the specific site to suggest
various poetic and political readings.
The thematics of these artworks include, but are not limited to, religion,
society, and multiculturalism (Prayer), and the materiality of field recordings,
environmental contingency, and migration (There’s No Place Called Home).
Prayer started as a reaction to the still very segregated, post-Apartheid
cityscape of my hometown Cape Town, and There’s No Place Called Home
to the northern winter that I found myself in on one of my first trips overseas
to Kitakyushu, Japan. Over the last decade, I have seen both artworks be
exhibited widely and garner new audiences and theoretical interpretations
from the different circumstances they have been shown in. Out of all my
formal projects over 18-years these two have travelled the most and show
signs of being able to be personalised by local audiences, allowing the works
to develop relationally and socially in ways that would have been hard to plan
or to do on my own. Herewith are some notes on the creative processes and
challenges of each project.
Audience member at Prayer, Johannesburg, 2012.

Image by Anthea Pokroy.
39
Installation view of Prayer, Johannesburg, 2012. Image by Anthea Pokroy.
Prayer
Prayer is a multi-channel audio installation comprising sound contemporary society and politics, influencing everything from
recordings of vocal worship collected from as many religious culture and law to fashion and diets, I believe it is an important
communities as possible found in the host city where the piece subject for artistic engagement. As I am based in Cape Town and
is exhibited. The artwork originally began with the question of the project requires local involvement, the process begins with me
what would it be like to listen to all the multi-faith prayers of a city working with the inviting art institution through an assistant there.
together? With religion playing such a strong role in historical and Researching and contacting the groups can take up to two months
before recording starts. The idea is to get as much participation
St. Mary the Less, recording location for Prayer, Johannesburg, 2012. as possible, and to get an in-depth insight into the religious and
spiritual life of the city.
I have a degree in Religious Studies from the University of

Cape Town, and this has proved a solid base for the theoretical
preparation of the project. Google is a good start, but input from
regional interfaith initiatives and university religious studies and
theological programs is a great help in finding out about what faiths
are represented in the city, and how to contact them. The process
is exhaustive, starting with looking for all religions that might be
present there, and there is–in my experience–always much more
than expected. Depending on the location, these have included
most schools of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism,
and Sikhism. The search expands by looking for denominations, off-
shoots and reform movements, as well as so-called minority group
faiths such as Mandaean, Yarsanism, and Zoroastrianism, and pre-
Christian, traditional religious practices and new age groups. All of
the faiths are further looked for in terms of community and location,
41
for example the Vietnamese Catholic and Buddhist communities

of Malmö.
Thuy Hoa Thiên Liên, Song To Guanyin – Prayer (Malmö)
Searching continues in civic organisations such as prisons, hospital

multi-faith centres, and other community organisations, for example
the Mission to Seafarers church ministering to visiting sailors at the
Cape Town harbour (Prayer, Cape Town, 2000). Remarkable sacred
spaces, such as the Johannesburg Shree Siva Subramaniar Temple
in Melrose, a safe place where Nelson Mandela purportedly hid
during numerous Apartheid-era raids, are approached to develop
the symbolic geographical and architectural elements contained in
the concept of the artwork.
Guru Shanmuga Sivam – Prayer (Johannesburg)
Lastly, well known individuals associated with local faith are

contacted directly, for example Imam Abdul Wahid Pedersen,
a noteworthy Danish Imam who was the first Muslim
leader to conduct Friday sermons in Danish in 1997 (Prayer,
København, 2010).
It would be good to mention here that I am not just looking

to record and include spiritual leaders; all religious people are
welcome to participate in this artwork. It’s useful to start the
research with leaders and organisations, so as to reach out
Shree Siva Subramaniar Temple

in Johannesburg.
reasons pertaining to representation and agency, no under-18s

are recorded.
Jaya Radhe Jaya Krishna – Prayer (Stockholm)
Contact is made by the inviting museum where the installation will

be presented, enabling the faith groups to identify an institution and a
local person with the project. This adds to the credibility of the initiative,
and also enables the museum to establish networks in and around
the city; networks that can remain after the installation has opened
and that could lead to new initiatives. Email works well, but nothing
beats a phone call to establish rapport, and to give immediate answers
to the questions and concerns someone might have. This is followed
by an email or letter with detailed information on the intentions and
Sri Devi Karumariamman Seva Sungam, recording location for Prayer,
practicalities of artwork, as well as references to other people within that
Johannesburg 2012.
faith that have taken part in Prayer in the preceding iterations.
to the greater community through their established networks Understandably, some people are initially skeptical about the project.
and congregations. All participants are seen as equal, and their Themes of religion and contemporary art in today’s Western society
assistance and contribution greatly appreciated and respected. In can trigger controversial references such as Andres Serrano’s Piss
this regard, more solitary and hermetic practices such as neo-pagan Christ (1987) or some of the installations of Damien Hirst and Banks
shamanism are proactively looked for as they can be harder to find Violette. Whereas I think the devotional and conceptual implications
compared to the statistically larger community-based religious of Serrano’s artwork are often misunderstood, Prayer needs to be
traditions. I specifically look for a gender balance in the participants, contextualised carefully and generously at all times.
and in cases such as Stockholm, Malmö, and Johannesburg – the 3
largest versions of the piece – have found it with ease. For ethical Even terms like “sound art,” a category I don’t readily identify with,
must be unpacked for clear understanding in the process of this
43
piece. Thanks to existing networks formed

from earlier versions of Prayer, new
participants can also be found and invited
to participate through mutual contacts.
The contribution from the Eckankar
community in 6 of the manifestations of
Prayer is thanks to Niels-Jul Yrvin and the
other Bergen members whose support
and encouragement in the 2010 edition
led to interest and involvement from
Eckists in other cities.
Birmingham Eckankar – Prayer

(Birmingham)
In a different way, the Sultan Bahu Centre,

a Sufi mosque in Mayfair, Johannesburg,
very kindly approached local churches
and the Sri Sathya Sai Centre in the
neighbourhood on my behalf. Here my
and the museum’s job is greatly aided
by people who understand and are
enthusiastic enough about the initiative
and its multi-faith aims to promote it
to others. It’s a fascinating and very
rewarding process, and the links made in
the research tend to generate more and
Shree Laxmi Narayan Mandir, recording location for Prayer, Birmingham 2011.
44
more links, and these become valuable participatory partners and

contacts for the museum and the people involved. A very wide net
is thrown, and we strive to be highly inclusive, and operate on a
very significant level. For art institutions and museums wanting to
broaden their community awareness and outreach, the process of
producing Prayer is a powerful way to do this. On average over the
last 9 iterations of the piece, more than 100 multilingual prayers are
recorded from an average of 65 different faiths in each host city.
The current exhibition of Prayer (Stockholm)1 exhibited at Historiska
Museet comprises 155 recordings from 172 people, totalling just
over 7-hours of working footage.
The recording period can take between 3 to 5 weeks. 3 weeks is

an absolute minimum, and would only be possible if we were very
organised and schedule 5+ recording sessions a day. 4 to 5-weeks
is more realistic, and would really make for some exciting results
as the project tends to gather more attention and interest as the
recording process goes on. At the arranged meeting, a brochure
is used to show the new participants the previous versions of
the installation, particularly what it looks like and explaining how
audience members access the artwork. Transparent communication Saint Nicholas the Enlightener of Japan Orthodox Christian Church, recording
is vital as the artwork is engaging with spiritual, personal and location for Prayer, Johannesburg 2012.
cultural views and representation, and as I am a visitor to that city
and this is a project that I wish to have continue in many more instances, my intentions and credentials need to be crystal clear
and accessible.
1 For details see exhibition notices on page 57.
45
I conduct all the recordings myself, with the museum assistant based on the comfort of the participant as well as sonic factors
present, often to help with bilingual translations in the case of such as acoustics, activity within the premises, and external traffic.
the 4 Scandinavian editions, and as well to have a representative The microphones are set up, and a volume check is done. We then
of the art institution there. Normally the recordings are private, in compose ourselves, I roll tape, and the prayer can start at their
as much as they are not sonic documentations of congregational convenience.
services, but are specifically arranged sessions–one-on-one–where
worship can be attended to properly with every care and attention. The conclusion of the recording is always quiet and introspective
The sessions take place at a location that is convenient to the in so much as a returning from somewhere else and reorientation
person being recorded, and often is their place of worship which in our day to day reality. There are a few moments after the prayer
allows for the acoustics of the holy space and its significance to concludes where the participant and I are silent, and in some
be present in the piece. There a suitable recording spot is found cases quite emotional. Thereafter we talk about the project and
other issues pertaining to the themes here, and if I am lucky I get
Trinity Methodist, recording location for Prayer, Birmingham, 2011.
to stay for tea and a tour of the place of worship. These pre and
post-recording interactions are in many ways as important as the
recordings themselves, and go a great way towards creating a
fellowship between the art institution and faith community, as well
as between artist and participant.
The material recorded falls under the general term of ‘vocal

worship,’ and this term is left to be interpreted by the participants.
No one style of prayer is privileged over another, and all forms of
spoken prayers–formal, extemporaneous, liturgical, and personal,
are recorded. Chants, hymns, nasheeds, nigun, and mantras are
recorded too, as well as readings and recitations. In the case of
organisations such as the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
who pray in silence, a reading is recorded, for example texts by
George Fox read by members of the Woodbrooke Quaker Study
Centre for Prayer (Birmingham) in 2011. The languages, accents, and project, nor will they be used by any third party. The recordings are
sonic forms of the prayers often differ, as does the subject matter, shared with the participants in digital and CD form, with them free
but are all marked with a deep sense of sincerity. No musical to publish their recording at will.Technically, I employ a Røde NT3G
instruments are used other than the voice. In any edition of Prayer, for clear and direct voice takes, plus a bespoke SASS unit designed
there could several interpretations of ‘vocal worship’ within just one by Alex Bozas housing 2 AT4022s for a full stereo array which is
instance, for example members of a mosque could offer recitations, excellent for prayer groups and choirs.
dua, na’at (poetic hymn), and an Adhan (call to prayer) as in the case
of the Stockholm Mosque (Prayer, Stockholm, 2016). Mar Yousif Syrisk katolska kyrkas kör i Södertälje – Prayer
(Stockholm)
Marrakchi Abdelaziz performing the Adhan – Prayer
(Stockholm) The prayers are used in full, with the top of the recording
starting at the beginning of the prayer, and extraneous bits pre-
The adhan recorded there is an important social document as it is and post- the recording removed. Light EQ is used to roll off
an internal call to prayer since Stockholm only has one public adhan low frequency rumble from passing cars. No further editing or
broadcast only for Jumu’ah prayers (Friday noon) at Fittja Grand Mosque transformation is done.
in Botkyrka, which incidentally has the tallest minaret in Europe.2
The presentation of the recordings is the next step. The artwork
There is no time limit, and some prayers like The Lord’s Prayer consists of a refined red carpet (4 x 16m) with 12 circular, black
are under a minute, while a Nasheed or Dhikr can last up to speaker cones arranged in a grid-like formation placed thereon.
20-minutes. No contribution is superfluous, and I use all the The audio wires run underneath the carpet to a series of standard
recordings made in the process, and everyone signs a release form amplifiers and unsynchronised, solid state, media players: basic
confirming their understanding of the artwork, and certifying that technology, perfectly satisfactory for museum purposes in terms of
their contribution can be used as part of the installation and its reliability and ease of use.
archived documentation. I specifically state in the contract the the
recordings made will not be remixed or taken out of context of the The carpet acts as a frame and a plinth, signifying a designate
artistic space. At any given time, all the speakers play at once,
2 Find and article about the tallest minaret in Europe at hurriyetdailynews.com and each speaker transmits a separate and unsynchronised
47
In looking for a way for the audience to choreographically participate

in the piece, I elected to have the speakers placed directly on the
carpet. I also decided to have the audience remove their shoes
before stepping onto the carpet–an act that denotes reverence
and hygiene in many cultures. More so, the haptic effect is one of
comfort: feet touching soft material. Once inside the work, they
may wander around the installation freely, able to move between
the different simultaneous playback creating their own mix of
the voices emanating from the speakers, or they can kneel down
to listen to individual prayers broadcast sequentially from any
single speaker.
This act of kneeling references genuflection, and can also be

considered as supplication: a further mark of respect with the
listener moving in close to attend to the words of the prayer. This
experience of focused listening to a single recording is always
kept within in the context of the multi-faith intentions of the work
Kneeling audience member at Prayer, Johannesburg, 2012. Image by A Pokroy.
as the other recordings can still be heard at the same time in
the periphery coming from the other speakers. The conceptual
implications in this spatialised, multi-channel technique is that
prayer recording from a unique selection of the recorded material the one can be heard in relation to the many, and depending on
particular to that speaker. In other words, each speaker has its where you are standing, vice versa. The visual and technical set up,
own selection of prayers played sequentially, resulting in an ever- amount of speakers, or logistical conditions of Prayer do not change
changing, polyphonous sound environment. I normally explain this with each version, only the local recordings do.
to participants as each speaker having its own unique “playlist” of
prayers, and to listen to the entire piece would mean spending time The prayers are not announced in the speakers, nor are the
at each speaker as the day progresses. speakers labeled in any way. This is to have the listener approach
48
each speaker with an open mind as to what they will hear. There
will be some recordings in a language that each listener can
understand, and others that the listener might not recognise. The
experience of Prayer’s audio has been fondly described as the
sound of (their) “God’s answering machine” by several participants.
Two text panels are mounted on the gallery walls to credit the
people and organisations that participated in the artwork, and to
offer curatorial and contextual, but not interpretive, information
on the piece. The minimal visual form, as well as the text panels,
provides a space where the audience can have a non-prescriptive
experience with the artwork and to consider its related themes.
Visually, the installation is exhibited in its own space away from other
artworks so as to create an encompassing and focused experience.
I have received requests to present the work outdoors or in smaller
spaces, but I have to refuse these. The work needs to be in a
dedicated gallery where it can be broadcast at the correct volume,
with enough physical room for the artwork to look and sound like
it should, and not be interrupted or taken out of its specific artistic Audience member at Prayer, Stockholm, 2016. Image by Katarina Nimmervoll.
context. The venue cannot have existing religious or political signs or
affiliations to affect the interpretation of Prayer. The only instance that This unique situation was curated to show the difference between
this rule was altered was for the History Unfolds exhibition curated how religion and art was expressed and displayed in the past–that
by Helene Larsson Pousette for Historiska Museet, the Swedish being predominately a visual and monotheistic spectacle–to how
History Museum in Stockholm. Here Prayer was placed in a gallery it could be presented now as a sonic, multicultural, and interfaith
to be in dialogue with the historical Catholic artefacts collected by relational experience. The symbolism of the multi-faith prayers
the museum. being exhibited at the Swedish History Museum, and thus seen as
being part of Swedish heritage, is very significant in the context of
49
dialogues as to what constitutes Swedish culture, as well as the members for the artwork, as opposed to the work being only
monotheistic and “exotic” curatorial gaze of the past. The importance viewed by regular museum audiences and critics.
of these issues was further addressed by the curatorial team by
creating a series of talks and tours of the museum’s collection Looking back at the progression of the work, it’s interesting to note
given by invited participants of Prayer responding to the museum’s that the earliest version started in 1999, before 11 September 2001
objects through the lens of their religious perspectives. Two special and its divisive religious and political implications. Over the years I have
highlights were Phramahaboonthin Taosiri, a monk from the Värmdö noticed new interpretations of the artwork relating to contemporary
Buddharam Temple administering a blessing on the famous “Helgö issues. Whereas the concept and technique of Prayer remains the
Buddha,” a bronze statue of the Buddha dated to 6th century same in each instance, the locality, contemporary politics, and current
Kashmir that was found in a Viking grave in Birka, west of Stockholm, concerns can refresh the work every time, and provide new challenges
and Imam Mahmoud Khalfi of the Stockholm Mosque identifying and and solutions. As time goes on, I feel that the previous versions
translating a hidden piece of Islamic calligraphy, disguised as a floral become a bit like time capsules containing the concerns and hopes
decoration, on a medieval Christian altar piece. from the period each edition was produced. There is also a sense of
the changing religious demographics of the city. Sadly, two of the
To honour the process of making the artwork, the recorded Rabbis that participated in the original Cape Town edition, Rabbi David
participants are invited to a special vernissage before the show Hoffmann, and Rabbi Elihu Jacob Steinhorn, have both passed away
is open to the general public and press. This is a very interesting since the exhibition. The same of Qari Yusuf Noorbhai, a venerable
and important part of the project as it is a kind of socio-physical Koranic teacher considered one of the finest reciters in South Africa,
manifestation of the theme of the work: the religions of that city died in 2016 with his contribution to Prayer (Johannesburg) in 2012
being together in one space; a situation that does not occur very being the last recital recording he made.
often. Here the participants can hear their recordings in action as
well as listen to the other prayers that constitute the installation. Hafez Yusuf Noorbhai – Prayer Johannesburg 2012
Furthermore, the participants can meet each other, and the
museum can officially take on its role as custodian of the prayers These events now give a historical perspective to the recordings
shared. I believe that this kind of event can also work towards and the artwork, and the memory of the late Rabbi Hoffmann,
celebrating and including the participants of a project as audience Rabbi Steinhorn, and Qari Noorbhai live on through the project
whenever it is shown.
50
My intentions with this piece are to initiate

an open-ended situation whereby the city
can be investigated through the make up
its religious movements and the many
subjects that links to. For me the techniques
used in the production of the piece and
the display allow for themes of identity,
migration, history, and communication
to make themselves present and be
questioned. In bringing all the faiths into one
space, the audience is accessing a socio-
political space: visitors are confronted by
statements of belief, as well as the diversity
of community, culture and philosophy
present in the city they are in. The audience
is in a position to listen and consider other
people’s points of view, and draw their own
conclusions, maps and connections through
the geography that the recordings create; a
process that is as important to the artwork
as its exhibition itself.
There’s No Place Called Home
Somewhat of a sibling to Prayer, There’s

No Place Called Home shares some of its
concerns with site-specificity, hospitality,
There’s No Place Called Home at Folkets Park Malmö, Sweden, 2016. Image by Ricard Estay.
51
and plurality, but is articulated through the media and subject of remote, rural locations. The incongruous audio is unannounced and
birdsong. This piece involves audio speakers hidden in trees and used unadvertised, and is staged as a hack into nature.
to broadcast recordings of birds not found in that location, for example
calls of a Taiwan Yuhina (Yuhina brunneiceps), endemic to the island Conceptually, I found my way to this artwork when I was an artist in
of Taiwan, relayed from the Folketspark in Malmö (There’s No Place residence at the Center for Contemporary Art in Kitakyushu, Japan,
Called Home (Folketspark, 2016). The piece is exhibited in outdoor in 2004. Faced with my first experience of a northern hemisphere
public spaces, such as parks, sculpture gardens, and in some cases winter, and a curiosity towards the common use of loudspeakers
in Japanese public space for advertising and municipal purposes,
I started thinking about matters pertaining to displacement
There’s No Place Called Home in Kitakyushu, Japan, 2004. and exoticism, as well as ways to both reuse and activate field
recordings. Growing up in the Western Cape province of South
Africa with its plentiful avifauna, I was always attracted to the
biological as well as cultural significance of birds. With their ability
to fly and the projected agency that suggests, as well as their
extraordinary vocal abilities, birds have captured the imagination of
humans for ages.
Aware that bird vocalisations are some of the most recorded

sounds on the planet, generally for conservation and categorisation
purposes, I was soon became interested in the very politics of the
vocalisations. What we might take as being melodic and musical,
with received cultural associations of relaxation like a kind of
natural Muzak, is in fact a series of mating calls, identity displays,
and the staking of territory. As Jacques Attali points out in Noise:
The Political Economy of Music (1977), birdsong is “inscribed
from the start within the panoply of power.” I was further
influenced by wanting to warp and challenge the often frowned
52
There’s No Place Called Home in Bergen, 2015. Image by Bjørn Mortenson.
upon ornithological practice of sonic “baiting” wherein an audio a foreign bird, but I believe it is deceptively simple idea, and has
recording of a local birdcall is sounded in the vicinity where that multiple interpretations. With the introduction of the vocalisations of
species might hear it and respond, with the hope of it making its a foreigner, the artwork seeks to symbolically turn the various sites
visual presence known. This lead me to think of broadcasting audio into meeting points for strangers, hosts and guests, and position the
recordings of birdcalls as a form of sonic graffiti. intervention site as a space of both refuge and invasion.
I sought to subvert these techniques and use foreign birds in a The image can be likened to a worst possible Lonely Hearts
local environment as an absurd version of returning the sound Column where the recording of foreign bird will not be recognised
to nature, but also as a means of defamiliarising the landscape, or responded to by the local birds. Or perhaps the foreign bird is
and interrogating certain human themes through the metaphor interpreted by the human audience as the symbol of an invader. In
of birds. It’s a simple image: the local broadcasting of a song of this instance I am reminded of the curious story of Hirō Onoda, the
53
Japanese soldier who didn’t realise that World War 2 had ended In each edition of this project I research the local birds to try and
and continued ‘defending’ or occupying the Philippine island of make sure that there will not be song that will be too similar to
Lubang. This is another potential view of the artwork–the lone the current species there so as to affect the birds. Where possible
vigilante out there–this solitary bird waiting it out, looking after its I consult conservationists or organisations such as the Bird
annexed turf. Protection League (Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux ) in France
(There’s No Place Called Home, Jardin da la Psalette, 2016). Birds
Since 2004, over the course of this artwork’s lifespan, analyses are extremely clever and would be able to detect the presence of
relating to the so-called migration crisis, ecological contingency an actual other bird through sight, movement, smell, as well as
and the Anthropocene, and auguries–the traditional notion that
the activity of birds can be construed as omens–have come into There’s No Place Called Home in Guangzhou, China 2005.
play depending on the context of the site and the issues of the
day. As Brandon LaBelle writes of the project’s Norwegian edition
in 2015 (There’s No Place Called Home, Bergen), “The narrative
remains mysterious, and yet unmistakably present: somewhere
something happened – which delivered this foreigner to Bergen”
(Labelle 2015).
Looking back at it now, I can also link the artwork to the history of
cinema. The 1938 film, Tarzan and the Green Goddess (directed
by Edward Kull) is set in Guatemala and, along with some rather
out of place african animals seen in cut aways, contains the calls
of a Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo Novaeguineae) used to signify
the dark and mysterious jungle, with all is psychological and racist,
colonial connotations. Kookaburras are not found in Guatemala;
they are only found in Australia and New Guinea, and even though
the tale is a fantasy, it is interesting to note the use of such a sound
in this context.
54
The project has been undertaken as an illegal intervention in public

space as well as an arranged public art exhibition. Similarly, the
work has been shown for as little as a few hours to permanent
versions in Amman, Johannesburg, and Reims that run daily. The
practical processes towards this piece begin with the choice of
tree and bird for each installation. I look for large, leafy trees that
can hide and support the weight of a speaker, and offer a way to
run an audio cable to wherever I can safely store the technology for
the artwork in a space that won’t be a visual distraction from the
tree and the experience of the audio. The choice of bird is a more
complex affair as it involves the type of species, its various sounds
and vocal techniques, and both the name and symbolic, literary, and
cultural references pertaining to that bird, as well as the recorded
species’s own habits such as its diet, mating, and nesting.
These factors influence the reading of the image, for example in the
2005 edition staged along the Pearl River in Guangzhou (There’s No
Place Called Home, Guangzhou), I used the harsh shriek-like calls
of a Fiscal Shrike (Lanius collaris), a carnivorous species known
for impaling its prey on thorns and barbed wire so as to dry the
There’s No Place Called Home, installation: speaker in tree is hidden from view. meat out. For the context of the installation, I selected this bird for
what would be interpreted as a violent culinary practice. Another
aspect of the process is the sourcing of the bird sounds. Where
sound, and the playback of unidentifiable, incongruous bird sounds possible I record them myself, but the expertise and experience
would be as irrelevant as cellphone and other sounds within those of established bird recordists and ornithologists is always sought.
frequencies and phrases. This is a sonic trap for human audiences, Here I have been lucky to have recordings given to me, or used
not the local birds. through Creative Commons licences, and in some instances rented
55
or bought. The recordist is credited in the exhibition’s contextual seem “realistic.” My wish is that the recording hides in plain
information, for example Fintan O’Brien’s recording of a Melodious sight. Mixing on site with the speakers installed is one of the best
Blackbird (Dives dives), recorded in Belize, and broadcast from pieces of advice I can give to installation artists, and this is vital
the trees of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 2016 (There’s No Place for an artwork like this. Factors such as traffic and water noise
Called Home (YSP)). from streams and rivers, as well as the way wind sounds through
the trees based on the size of the leaves, can all affect the audial
The piece is often monophonic–keeping with the economy of reception of the work.
means in the idea–but multichannel versions have been made
with the effect being that of many birds being heard in the area, Like with Prayer, I use simple, domestic technology: weatherproof,
like a large scale occupation of the site by a foreign species. Very passive speakers and an amplifier, and for formal exhibitions I
little audio treatment is done to the recordings, other than noise use an electricity timer to have the installation run autonomously.
reduction and EQ to bring a sense of dynamics to the sound. The Camouflage netting, as found in hunting shops and military surplus
recordings are sometimes edited for length to not make the piece stores, is used to disguise the speaker into the foliage. Whereas
appear too repetitive, and to have gaps of silence between various the concealing of the sound source references the acousmatic
calls. The intention here is to make the audio appear as lifelike tradition, the reception of the audio is meant to appear to be
as possible, and the recordings are played at a level that would unmistakably that of a bird, and more so that the bird is actually
There’s No Place Called Home, installation: speaker in tree is hidden from view.
56
there in the tree. The location of the artwork is not disclosed, but as to give them the audio would be too revealing for the artwork’s
in the case of formal exhibitions, mention is made of the general spirit of concealment. What makes site-specific sound work so
area that the work can be found. For those audience members who appealing is that you and the audience need to be there.
understand that there is a Gang-Gang Cockatoo (Callocephalon
fimbriatum) somewhere in the vicinity, but might not know the By being restaged each time, both projects serve as strategies to
specific call, every bird sound in the locale becomes loaded engage with people, locations, and the dynamics of that moment in
and suspect. time; all of which pose new challenges. Prayer, with its confluence
of local voices brought together, and There’s No Place Called Home
I think of both projects as being contextual and experiential, with its sonic lure being presented outdoors in public space, make
and therefore their documentation is challenging. I find writing both artworks contingent, and thus each exhibition and iteration
about the pieces helps in distilling the ideas and translating them becomes a further chapter in their process and development.
into a communicative form for a current and future audience to
access. I try to tone the writing to be explanatory without being
Exhibition notices
interpretive, wanting to allow the reader to personalise the piece for
themselves. • Prayer (Stockholm) runs at Historiska, Stockholm, until 16 November 2017.
• There’s No Place Called Home (New Orleans) is exhibited on “The Lotus

Photographs are mandatory, especially in a contemporary art in Spite of the Swamp,” the 4th Prospect Triennial of New Orleans, curated
situation where these projects circulate through catalogues, by Trevor Schoonmaker, opening on 18 November and running until 25
February 2018.
Instagram feeds, critical reviews, and theoretical journals. The audio
components are, strangely enough, the hardest part to transmit
to a secondary audience. Prayer’s multi-channel features don’t Acknowledgments Prayer
document very well even in binaural recording, and There’s No
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Albin Hillervik, Anna Douglas,
Place Called Home’s dislocated birdsongs hide even deeper in field Anna Morris, Anthea Buys, Elisabeth Millqvist, Gemma Thomas, Harun
recordings of the intervention. For Prayer I make extracts of the Morrison, Helene Larsson Pousette, IASPIS, Jigisha Patel, Maiken Vibe Bauer,
individual prayers available online to be listened to with textual and Mattias Givell, Matti Sumari, Monique Mossefinn, Edi Muka, Neil Walker,
Nicola Lowery, Laura McDermott, Pauline Theart, Ruth Gamble, Susanna
photographic references. With There’s No Place Called Home I feel
Zidén, and Zayd Minty for their assistance in the networking and creation of
that the secondary audience can research the birdsong themselves
57
this project. And most of all, a very special thank you to the people who have References
shared their prayers through being recorded.
Anatolia News Agency (2013). Sweden allows call to prayer from Stockholm
Prayer has been exhibited at One City Many, Cultures, Cape Town (2000), Iziko minaret. Available from http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/sweden-allows-call-
South African National Gallery, Cape Town (2004), Huddersfield Art Gallery, to-prayer-from-stockholm-minaret.aspx?PageID=238&NID=41669&NewsCat
Huddersfield (2008), Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham (2010), Stiftelsen ID=351 [Accessed: 16 Sept 2017]
3,14, Bergen (2010), My World Images, Copenhagen (2010), Fierce Festival,
Birmingham (2011), Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg (2012), Wanås Attali, Jacques (1977). Noise: The Political Economy of Music. Minneapolis:
Konst, Hässleholm (2015), Malmös Leende, Malmö (2016), and Historiska, University of Minnesota Press
Stockholm (2016). LaBelle, Brandon (2015). The Precarious Body: James Webb’s Xenagogue. In:
There’s No Place Called Home has been exhibited in various locations Buys. A (ed), Xenagogue. Bergen: Hordaland Kunstsenter
including Kitakyushu (2004), Guangzhou (2005), Johannesburg (2006), Image credits: author unless otherwise mentioned.
Marrakech (2009), Amman (2011), London (2012), Havana (2015), the Yorkshire
Sculpture Park (2016), and Riga (2017).
> end of article <
© James webb, 2017. All rights reserved.
58
Reflections on Process A Manifesto for New Listening
Cathy Lane
59
Cathy Lane is a composer, sound artist and academic. Her work uses spoken is that almost everything needs to be listened to very closely and
word, field recordings and archive material to explore aspects of our listening
attentively – except people (see the first).
relationship with each other and the multiverse. She is currently focused on
how sound relates to the past, our histories, environment and our collective and
individual memories from a feminist perspective. Cathy is a Professor of Sound A Manifesto for New Listening has been in development since
Arts and Director of CRiSAP (Creative Research in Sound Arts Practice), University December 2014, arising out of conversations with Hong-Kai Wang,
of the Arts London. Keiko Uenishi and Janine Jembere, then candidates for the PhD in
Practice at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, Austria. The process
Books include Playing with Words: The Spoken Word in Artistic Practice (RGAP,
2008) and, with Angus Carlyle, In the Field (Uniformbooks, 2013), a collection of started with the aim of collectively exploring feminist and activist
interviews with eighteen contemporary sound artists who use field recording in approaches to the role of listening in relation to social and political
their work and On Listening (2013) a collection of commissioned essays about subjects and subjectivities. “In particular … acts and organizations
some of the ways in which listening is used in disciplines including anthropology,
of listening that are embedded in daily life, and that activate
community activism, bioacoustics, conflict mediation and religious studies, music,
ethnomusicology and field recording. Her CD The Hebrides Suite was released by multiple responses: philosophical, psychological, phenomenological,
Gruenrekorder in 2013. perceptual, conceptual, political, etc”.1
cathylane.co.uk
Four initial questions were proposed:
A Manifesto for New Listening (or 20 thought about Listening) is an
ongoing work that seeks to question the politics and aesthetics of 1. What are our habits of hearing and listening?
listening. In particular, it queries five specific aspects of listening as 2. What is the knowledge of listening that we are
it is formulated within current sound arts practice. The first is the accustomed to?
idea that listening is a solitary activity best done alone, removed 3. What are the epistemic, ethical, political and cosmological
from society (for better listening) and accompanied by technology modes of critical listening? Where do we locate these modes
(also for better listening). The second is that you have to be taught within our subjective discourses and experiences?
how to listen ‘properly’ by an ‘expert’. The third is that listening 4. What could it mean to propose a ‘de-colonial’ mode of
is always a good thing – we should listen and listen well with listening?
full attention. The fourth is that listening is an equal playing field
unaffected by our individual subjective positions – for example by
our gender, our racial identity, our nationality or our class. The fifth 1 Wang, Hong-Kai email 17.12.2014
60
The manifesto was then outlined over a two-day workshop

with the PhD student cohort, the course team and invited
guests in Vienna, in June 2015. It has subsequently been
developed and refined through discussion, particularly
with my CRiSAP and LCC colleagues and students as well
as through practice-based and scholarly research.
A presentation of the following slides took place as part of

“Sonic Waterloo”,2 in July 2007.
For an earlier account of the development of this

work and place of listening in sound arts practices
see https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=Zmxlm6WOOcQ.
Cathy Lane presenting A Manifesto for New Listening at Sonic Waterloo, July 2017.
Image by Pierre Bouvier Patron & Blanca Regina
2 “Sonic Waterloo” can be found at https://sonicwaterloo.tumblr.com
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References
Stoever-Ackerman, Jennifer (2010). Splicing the Sonic Color-Line: Tony
Back, L (2007). The Art of Listening. Bloomsbury. p 22 Schwarz mixes postwar Nueva York. In: Social Text 102:28:1. Available from
Lloyd, Justine. (2009). The Listening Cure. In: Journal of Media & Cultural http://socialtext.dukejournals.org/content/28/1_102/59.abstract. [Accessed
Studies. 23, pp 477-487 25/09/2017]
Stadler, Gus (2015). On Whiteness and Sound Studies. Available from

https://soundstudiesblog.com/2015/07/06/on-whiteness-and-sound-studies.
[Accessed 20/09/2017]
> end of article <
© Cathy Lane, 2017. All rights reserved.
81
Postscript
Editor Iris Garrelfs iris [at] reflections-on-process-in-sound.net
Designer Peter Smith info [at] reflections-on-process-in-sound.net
Web editor Karen Stone karen [at] reflections-on-process-in-sound.net
>> end of magazine <<

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Contents

2 The Making of Medium

17 Re-performing the Role of the Female Backing Singer

24 On Dis-location: Listening and Re-composing with Others

38 All the Unseen Things

59 A Manifesto for New Listening

Trish Scott makes videos, performances and events which

Based in Margate, Trish Scott has undertaken

Study for Medium, 2016. 2 trishscott.org

In focusing on the descriptive language of psychic readings my

In experiencing the work myself I was transported straight away

For a few, however, the experience was different. My four-year-

made me think of the internal chatter I regularly experience at

In terms of audience experience I was interested in how the

In being commissioned to make a work for the Whitstable Biennale

Particularly at the start of the process

I also offered up screen grabs, including

In processing and writing I started

2 See also https://vimeo.com/141342319

Edited screenshot, 25 October 2015. Image by Trish Scott.

based on an assumption that my artwork for the Biennale would

It was through contemplating forms of outsourcing and distributed

this wasn’t what happened. The projections relayed to me were

But I’m also seeing pottery.

Putting aside the question of whether the readers I consulted

A lot of similar ideas came up (generally around the artwork being

Going back to the drawing board, I decided to re-listen to each

In finding a venue for Medium at the Whitstable Biennale, I wanted

Once installed, my focus shifted from the form and spatialisation

(and having felt many of them to be completely

In being devoid of visual referents, audience

In so doing the parameters and emphasis of the

Trish Scott and Ian Hocking, Mean, Mode, Medium, 2016.

> end of article <

© Trish Scott, 2017. All rights reserved.

My practice is to find stories and work with them

I usually perform solo or in improvised groups. As

Because of being comfortable with an organic,

1 Here a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-mpYxmw8eM

Celluloid Music and Humour Margaret Dumont and Groucho Marx.

As a historian of silent film I am very interested in the performance

the practice of the Marx brothers particularly interesting as I can

Contemporary Vocalists and Influences

This circus approach to performance is intelligent. Dalmais is a Progression

There is a playfulness to the pop theatre of Bush and Dalmais that

The Windsors live in Winchester.

Related Recordings References

> end of article <

© Jude Cowan Montague, 2017. All rights reserved.

Listening and Re-composing

Ximena Alarcón is an artist who engages in listening to migratory spaces,

Ximena completed a PhD in Music, Technology and Innovation at De Montfort

7 Suelo Fértil (Esquiule - REMember (Bangalore

5 Tasting Sound Listening to

migratory aesthetics as “characterized

Reflecting on my personal and

I also draw on Jennifer E. Cross’

focusing on the social interactions as

I am interested in: listening and

6 The seven processes proposed by Cross are:

suggests, “[r]elationships are produced as a result of connections

Sonically, these relations could be naturally located in the text

> end of article <