PARIP 2005

International Conference | 29 June - 03 July 2005

Bowes: Neil Simon | UK

One note (sound installation)

The installation:

One note is specific way of –or space for– social relationship, manifested through voice and the recording. The installation for PARIP will begin from scratch. Before the peer review, I will have asked you to sing and record a harmony with me. The recordings will be formed into composition of subtly developing (micro) tonal variations. I hope that every delegate and every support-worker for the conference will contribute to the work.

PhD Research Questions:

1. How can existing models of participatory practice be applied to, or modified for, a voice practice?
2. How do ethics frame a renegotiation of my role as composer? What is the nature of the artist’s responsibility / responsiveness and how can it be negotiated in practical terms?
3. How can the action of voicing, and the space of the recording, progress from a dualistic ethics to a principle of non-duality?

Area of Enquiry:

The research proceeds from the duality of ;self-other’ presupposed by the ‘ethical’ relationship. However, the research also examines the possibility of a progression to or creation of a ‘non-dual’ space through the act of voicing. Non-dual space is in this instance (micro) tonal difference; approximations of a shared activity, the investment of a group towards the wholeness of a particular tone continually at odds with its own definition.

   The theoretical trajectory of this research so far parallels a movement between the ethical philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, the dialogic ontology of Martin Buber, David Burrows phenomenological perspectives on sound, and the philosophy / physics of David Bohm. These theoreticians undermine notions of the self-as-totality, concerned with our responsibility for, or responsiveness to, others.

   The research is designed to manifest a communal knowledge through the singing of a note: We have sung the note hundreds of times, it is a continually re-presented, re-investigate event. All knowledge of the singing is embodied in the bodying forth; it is never an “I” alone who knows. In singing, the terms of reference shift from the “I” to the “we”. Does it follow that the terms of the subject, of one’s singularity, can be deposed in favour of the less lonesome term, human?

Existing paradigms and applicability:

The practical research proceeds from participatory models of practice developed by artists such as Mierle Laderman Ukeles and Antony Gormley. Such models are significant in their engagement of existing workforces / communities and non-arts-professionals. This research is intended to develop an appropriate analogue for participatory practice specific to voice for non-professional participation. The practical work is not unconcerned with developments in an experimental practice. However, an ethic of experimentation here is not the central issue. The research is more concerned with negotiating the access a public or community may have to a sonic arts practice.                                                                                                                               

Peer review / assessment:

Peer review format should take the form of a conversation, likely to be most effective if reviewers have sung. The “researcher / spectator / performer link” which may be applicable to many performance practices is an inadequate conception for this research.

See:

www.in-between.org

Contact:

nsbowes@uclan.ac.uk