work in progress ---- Forest II ---

just a quick update before i get into details about the eklective affinities project and more
details about the art of listening .. ! i am working on my first large scale arts installation..
well, its actually not mine, but its quite big still.. here you can see the construction of it:



its an unusual site in weimar and its a pretty amazing installation by media artist chris ziegler.
he has chosen to work with me as a sound artist/listening artist and i am also assisting him on the project. so much for contrast, if you think of the intimacy of eklective affinities.. the main
part of the installation actually is three performance pieces.. so we have a group of fifteen dancers working with three composers.. my part is to make the installation sonically available for the public..

the installation is now done and we are working and experimenting with it.. what that would be in detail i shall let you know soon : )

thanks for listening, blog : )

Eklective affinities

These are the details i was promising earlier on in one post about what i am up to
these days. Together with Live Art Legend Roger Hill alias Mandy Romero i was
working on an improvisation entitled "elecitve affinities" for the last 6 days. It was a bit of a mad one, since i picked up Roger in berlin last week on thursday and performed with him the following day in Weimar at a Gallery called the ACC Gallery. We have known each other for a very long time, but never actually performed together.. So here are some pictures of the performance:





I will want to go into more detail into what it is that we are doing. For the moment i would want to say that it was quite a magical performance for us and the audience. It surely is amazing to be working with an artist as versatile as Roger Hill. In relation to my art it is deeply challenging work since i the art of listening in this case lies in relating to the actions of another human being and react on it instantly in front of an audience.
So i am very happy about this unexpected success and will keep you up to date..

thanks for listening, blog !

alexandre

Sound and Social Practice Part 2

Something i forgot to mention: this term is coined through my conversations with the American media artist Kristin Lucas. i met her, when she was on residence with the ACC Gallery in Weimar while she was investigating "The Outside". Kristin took me on a little, mind expanding journey, for which i am very grateful.
Meeting Kristin (Foto taken by Kristin Lucas)

(more on her project can be found here: http://www.search4outside.com/doku.php?id=wiki:dokuwiki:about).

In our quite long conversations she made me aware of the fact that some aspects of my work actually relate to something that can be referred to as sound and social practice. that resonated in my mind and this is how these blog posts came about...

Sound and social practice. To me this sounds utterly fascinating. At least when I
let it ring in my brain. It sounds super fresh, doesn't it ? Maybe this has to do
with the way that the letter sound in this specific combination, but it just makes
an awful lot of sense when my inner voices pronounces it in my head...On the second thought i get to the point where I actually get interested enough to ask myself:
what does it actually mean ?

Here is a start. A humble attempt to share my practical thoughts on this subject, bearing in mind that my point of departure is listening as an art form. Listening as such can already be a social act in itself. When we get together we talk. We understand the talking through what ? Through listening of course. In order to understand properly, we have to listen properly.For that we, for once, take ourselves out of the picture and pay attention to the person who is talking to us. Quite nice, i think. We give attention and that in itself already is a social act to some extend. Now, I want to take this further. Much further, of course.

So last Friday i met up with a 71 Year old woman. She had written a poem on the neighbourhood she lives in. Now, she let me visit her in her home to record her reciting the poem for a project I am working on. So I was listening to her extensively. Even recording what she had composed in words. Keeping a record of her thoughts. I was lucky to meet her, because she allowed it to happen and so the fact, that i came to listen to her made us friends very quickly. And so I listened and learned. And so she talked and she learned.


(Foto taken by Alexandre Decoupigny, used by kind permission of both persons.. )

End of Part 2

Listening Art at documenta 12 in Kassel..

A special year for art, so they say.. Venice Biennale, Documenta 12,
Sculpture Projects in Münster.. I'm in Germany right now. The place for art this summer, since two of the three major art events happen to be in Germany. So this Monday i finally found my way to documenta 12 in Kassel on the look out for Art to listen to.. Let me say it right away.. there was not much at all !!!!!!
I was quite pleased though when i found out that a colleague of mine, Imogen Stidworthy actually had a room on her own.. I met Imogen last year a couple of times, when i was on a group show with her in Liverpool.. You should check her out, she does very important work. I love the humanity in her work the most about it.. The piece she was showing that i liked most carried the title "i hate".. it reminded me about the piece she was doing for the show we both were in, which was titled "get here"..Here is an image of me waving to Imogen while i am listening to her piece..
It is a 5.1 Surround Format, with speakers built into this U-Shaped wall.. We can listen to a person (I only remember one, could have been more as well..) trying to articulate the words "i hate". If we stay fixed at one point we quickly get the impression of being immersed into these different attempts and ways of articulating the phrase "I hate".. The sound quality is superior and the spatial quality of the piece areamazing.. I love this work, because to me it investigates into how language constitutes us as human beings.. how it is also a tool of liberation to express our internal emotional state.. and in return then highlights our aural perception as a tool to understand these essentially important messages and various pieces of information. Personally i think Imogen's Work is strongly influenced by her surrounding, which i believe to be the city of Liverpool.. She probably would not agree with me, since the work is totally capable to stand on its own. Still, after living in Liverpool from 2000 until 2005, i have to suppose that Liverpool as a place must have a profound impact on her work..

Then there was an interesting piece by Inigo Manglano-Ovalles called radio..it consists of a room covered in orange light and on the floor is a wooden object shaped after a stereo-type of a radio. There are two speaker that constantly transmit white noise like sound. I find it interesting in the sense, that it uses the medium radio for a very visual installation piece. Also the sound element seems ultra important, since without them the installation could easily fall into insignificance.. It is mainly a visual installation though and as such I do not consider it fully as a piece of listening art..

Having said this actually brings me to an interesting point.. why do i consider Imogen's Piece, (which also has a second part that builds on a video) more a piece of listening art than the piece by Inigo Manglano-Ovalles? I guess it must be our perception and what actually forms the basis of the work.. Inigo Manglano-Ovalles visualizes for me a radio moment.. the image clearly comes first.. whereas in Imogen's work I get the strong sense that her work is based on listening and actually being triggered by what she hers, rather than sees. This for me makes her work for me so much more interesting than Inigo Manglano-Ovalles.

This brings me to the last piece i find worth mentioning on this blog. Black chords plays lyrics by Saâdane Afif. 13 identical black guitars are hooked up to identical amps. All Guitars have a different tuning and are arranged in space. They are equipped with a technical addition that allows for the open tuning to be played mechanically as a chord. The mechanism is computer controlled and seems to be programmed in a random manner. This results in hearing a random series of different guitar chords in space. Visually this piece is very strong and it also is a beautiful idea. I personally would have loved to hear a lot more variety in the amp's set ups, but that is just a personal matter of taste. I love the combination of installation and musical composition although i have to say the space was poorly equipped for this piece. It is a straight forward piece, which is very beautiful and interesting although i am not sure about its depth. I would like to conclude that the metaphor and the language in this piece is also more of a visual
nature rather than a piece based on listening experience.

Apart from these pieces, I only found one more listening related piece, which i really did not like at all. I do not remember the title or the author. I apologize for this, but i think it is better this way. I have to add that out of six main location i only visited four: the Museum Fridericanum, the documenta Halle, the Aue Pavillion and the Neue Gallerie. So there could be a lot that i missed, but i saw enough to draw the conclusion, this artform is far from being understood as a valid contribution to the arts world and still has
a long, long way to go to be fully recognized. Let's do it !!!

Listening Art by Alexandre Decoupigny

Today I would like to tell about the progress i experienced since I started this blog..

I am currently working on three projects: 1.) Weimar West - (Un)erhört
2.) Forest II 3. ) Untitled - a collaboration with Live Artist Roger Hill..

Here are some more details about these individual projects:

1.) Weimar West - (Un)erhört: I am creating an Audio-Feature about a Neighbourhood in Weimar which is called Weimar-West.. I work with a
range of different groups and individuals creating a variety of contributions
all somehow related to listening to this neighbourhood..In addition we looked into broadcasting through collaborating with a commercial and an experimental radio station..
In the end there
will be a CD, which will be manufactured with a thick booklet. I feel a bit proud of this project, since I initiated it and made it all happen.. I think it is a wonderful
project, so email me about it, if you're interested.. also there is a German blog
about it, which is a sort of dairy: www.unerhoert.blogspot.com..






2. ) Forest II is a Multi-Media Artist Chris Ziegler. Chris is an associated artist with
the ZKM in Karlsruhe and currently develops Forest II Piece for the Art Festival in Weimar, called Pelerinages.. The main purpose of this project is to create a spatial, multimedia instrument for a group of composer, dancers and choreographer to create a performance
on from the 10th to the 12th of September in Weimar, Germany.
Since i don't find this that interesting I am lucky enough to assist Chris personally as well as developing the acoustic concept of a visitor based installation as well as the sound design and the patching of sound applications/programming for the visitor installation.
I just spent two days in Berlin in the famous Tesla Labs, setting up the installation
for technical rehearsals and also sketching some ideas. Very nice : )
Here are some images from the first experimental public installation in the city
of Dresden:





3.) Is just in the making.. more news later : )

I moved into a studio in Weimar West, which feels absolutely wonderful. It is amazing to have some space and place for your work.. I love it !!! It was given
to me because of the Project in Weimar West and as such I will also use it mainly for this purpose.. have a look :



That's it for now.. As you can see i have made some progress
since i started writing this blog.. Unfortunately i did not manage
to update this blog continuously, because i was quite busy
working or trying to get more work. This takes up a lot of time.
I did not know before how much really, so now that i am doing
it i can tell you it is an awful lot. . . On the contrary it might be nice to see now,
that actually there is development in my work and that since i started
writing this blog I actually managed to make a living full-time as a
freelance artist, which i think is superb. This, of course, brings us to
the next step.. what if you are starting to be successful in your field..
how do you maintain it ? ? how do you actually improve and keep it going.. ?
I feel this is the next step i have to learn. Cross your fingers if you like and hope the
best and that i am ready for it : ) I keep you posted ..

Thanks for listening, blog !

Sound and Social Practice Pt. 1

As an artist working with our ability to listen. I recently transfered into a Project. For this Project i managed to secure funding from the European Social Fund. It was very impressive for me to find open ears to the subject of sound and social practice and was rewarded with a decent sum of money to create an audio-book with various parts of a community here in Weimar, the place i am living in at this point in time. There is a seperate Blog for this ( only in German though): www.unerhoert.blogspot.com
It is a magnificent opportunity and you will find my thoughts towards this subject as i go along doing the work.

alexandre

Re:organising -

i was thinking about this blog for a while and i came to the conclusion that its too much about
me personally. This is not what i want. My girlfriend told me thats what musicians do.. they seem
to want to publish everything about themselves and that is true to some extend. So i decided that the more diary like stuff - i can publish that under the myspace blog part. This blog is hopefully going to become more what the title promises: A blog about the art of listening. I still want to includevthe parts that tell a little about how I apply this professionallly. Its just that it is going to become, in need of a better word, a little more official. Whatever that might be ... We shall see : )

thanks for listening, blog !

Back after a while ...

I have been absent from these pages for quite some time. A lot happened in between, but first things first... Here are the fotos that i mentioned in my last post :

this is me on the right side playing with dr. jammm : )

whats new ?

hey hey hey.. so the installtion is runnig fine i heard from marcus. me, i had a flu
these days : ) a week after the opening i played a small gig of a kind of experimental music here in weimar with four musicians (trombone, voice, bass and guitar) at an andy warhol tribute night.. if i ever come across some pics in time i shall put them up here.. it was a lot of fun and a great night out...after which i fell ill.. i am happy to realize an opening of an exhibtion in one weekend and then play a gig at the next and still keep a decent level of quality if i pay attention to the feedback of people at both events.. the gig was paid as well, so that helped me finish the month : ))) so whats next ? my focus is slowly shifting to the project here in weimar: " Weimar West - (un)erhört".. yesterday we all met with the board of trustees who generously support the project and it went quite well.. it was great to be able to talk to people in that kind of position about the art of listening and to bring it to their attention.. they are only small regional board who grants money from the european social funds to projects in their region, but still it was quite a new experience and i was slightly nervous about it.. afterwards i noticed that there was not a singel need for this. the people from the board were actually quite human and friendly and curious about the work that i am doing.. they were also a bit impressed to find this kind of thing a part of their thing.. it was important for me to learn that its always best to speak straight up and not try to impress, but stick to whats the facts.. also there is no need to be shy about anything in front of these kind of people, but rather openness helps a lot and putting any prejudice aside.. i think that this way at least you will not get paranoid about them seeing you as weird....i will post a link to the project but bear in mind it is all going to be written in german, since it is project here in weimar and it communicates mainly to the people involved locally .. then also up next is one or two gigs in berlin at the end
of march... tell you more about it later ! bad news is.. merete and me did not get the residency at da kunsthaus kloster gravenhorst.. oh well.. we still have one more application out and will get together to send new ones out.. i also applied for a masters in fine arts in oslo and for a paid voluntary position at the zkm in karlsruhe.. just to have a go : )) at the minute i am very happy with freelance live, although its very tough some times.. anyways.. thanks for listening, blog !

best

alexandre

"Town Country House - a virtually real Soundwalk"

so here is a photo diary of the events..

i arrived in berlin on thursday. this is me on the way to takt..



the whole day i spent at takt.. so i had a picknick with neil mcintee,
who was a fellow artist from scotland..


this is how far i came on the first day, after i went
to stay at betty & joe's in prenzlberg (by the way, the
laptop shows meretes hand performing her everyday
wish on her sculpture "wishing well"..)..


this is joe, learning some image magic:


after a short night's sleep :


the next day i worked the whole day in takt again and was almost done
with the piece...here it is on the night of the second day..

...in the night i went to visit my old flatmate sarah and
her boyfriend patrick and their little son robin.. robin convinced me
to stay for the night so the next day so in the morning we took pictures together:




its amazing.. he said he wanted to take picures of light.. so i did the first one that
has the disco mirror ball in it.. the other one robin took himself.. it was so amazing
to see how unintentionally and through playing around with the flash he had actually
created exactly what he said he wanted to photograph.....

the next day i finished the piece of and merete came to berlin..
this is the piece, ready before the exhibiton.. pictures taken by merete.

you can see the sensor on the shelf, together with the laptop and the transmitter.
closer by are the headphones hanging next to a sheet of paper that had a
brief explanation written on it. you can also see on the floor that i had
an area defined that people could use to wander throught he four individual
soundscapes that i had composed for the installtion.

this is a closer view of the shelf and the components that partially
make up "town country house - a virtually real soundwalk" ..


and another one:


i was overwhelmed by the amount of people who turned up... this
is a picure taken shortly after peak time:


...lots of friends turned up.. wonderful surprises.. this is rainer heesch,
who i lived with in england... i had not seen him since 3 years..


and this is me with uli bentele, who i went to school with from 1st til
7th grade and who i had not seen since 1999..


me and betty, who i stayed with on thursday, who i have known
for 10 years at least..

after all this self-related issues.. here is an image of the piece of
miguel and stefan.. a device that listens to your breath and
controls a database of sounds, all related to sex, masturbation and
intercourse..


and last but not least some impressions from people listening to the piece:




on the last image you see elke, who together with her boyfriend
phillipe put merete and me up for the night : )

the piece is still up until the 31st of march.. you can drop by takt
gallery every thursday and sunday.. have a listen and tell me what
you think .. : )


thanks blog for listening and watching !!!

alexandre

Opening at takt.

i cant believe.. its done. i call the piece "town country house - a virtually
real soundwalk" .. it came to me while working in the workshop in coudraystr..
the presentation was ace and it gave me great confidence that robin minard
really liked the piece and said i should not worry.. then i went to berlin on thursday to install the piece. i thought it would take little time but actually it was a lot more time consuming
than i thought. when it was done i felt quite good. i also proved mzself right by giving myself
enough time that it is important to make sure ou have enough time when you set something
up that has to work and look right... tomorrow i shall post some lovely images of the different
stages and also some pictures of the piece in action and the opening itself.. this was a little
crazy for me, since all of a sudden i met people that i hadnt seen in years !! anyways.. i shall
leave you with me as a happy man for now.. this picture was taken by merete in front of
the gallery just after i finished the piece and we went out for a meal

.. thanks for listening, blog !
alexandre

A day in Q3

these are some images of today:


this was the initial set up.. you can see the soundbeam sensor and on the floor is the soundbeam box and the laptop and further back is the transmitter for the wireless headphones..



this is the frontal view.. same stuff ..



hello.. this is me checking with headphones on .. "merete can you see me ?"



in the end i rearranged everything for a presentation tomorrow.. i will show the piece to colleges at the colloqium of composers at the Studio for Electroacoustic Music Weimar..



...and a final close up of the sensor ... you cant see him on these
images , but thanks a lot to hanns holger rutz for being a genius on implementing
more realistic algorithms in this installation and for generally
having a very productive day ... thanks for watching, blog !!!!

alexandre

installation at takt berlin

hey.. this week is all about the installation in berlin.. last week i was taking some pretty good recordings which i worked into a pure data patch.. means i developped a software application in an open source audio tool for the installation. .. what is the piece about ? as you can imagine it is
a piece about listening.. very very simple.. the idea is to project four phongraphic images into space.. you can hear these images through wireless headphones and walk throught them, slowly listening how the images change into one another.. this is done with a soundbeam sensor, a wireless headphone and a laptop computer.. this is the flyer for the show:


today im moving into a space kindly provided by the SeaM Weimar to test the sensor.. exciting.. while my enthusiasm for my work grows my bank account gets smaller and sometimes i wonder how everything will turn out and when i can stop thinking about how
it is possible to survive.. once the project in weimar west gets going i will be busier doing more
paid work again, which will do me good... for now this is purely for the love of it and that is exciting, but i also love getting paid for what i do : ) best not to worry, there are projects coming, applications pending and life to be lived !!! just have to be good with where i put the monkeys.. sorry if i bothered you with this, just had to get it off my chest .. : ) so. thats it for now.. for all the other listeneners who are in berlin, come to the show !!!!
thanks blog for listening !!

alexandre

hey blog,

things are starting to roll slowly.. i started the first phase of a project called weimar west
(un)erhört.. basically its a project that i came up with and developped it together with an urban planning office and a kind of neighbourhood centre and includes several
local institutions (e.g. youth club, box club etx... ) and a local school to create an
audio/listening book about this part of weimar called weimar west... it is amazing that this is possible and about to happen ! im so happy.. also about the support i get from everybody in weimar west. amazing ..

all the applications are sent...now its looking forward to an answer and develop new ones soon !
first though i have to concentrate on an exhibition i will be taking part in on the 17th of february..
in berlin.. yes ! it is happening. i got the eflyer today, so it is definetely going to happen..
will update some pics soon, if i understand how to do this with this blog.. more in the pipeline..
ah, before i forget.. roger hill and i were turned down by the arts council.. there was not a
public benefit and wide enough appeal in our application.. also the financial planning was not
sufficient enough.. maybe it helps somebody who writes an application for them.. i have one
successful one, if youre interested in reading it.. well .. have to do boring things now..
thanks blog for listening !!!

alexandre

piano pieces on myspace II

i just added piano piece nr.4 on myspace. it is the last piece of the
piano cycles...

tara, blog

alexandre

Dear blog,

uffiduffi, the proposal is almost done .. i have to fine fine fine tune it and then it only needs
a budget and schedule. the schedule itself is almost done as well. its quite a bit of work this proposal.. it took me more than a week just to fix the written part. this is five pages.. not even..i think its worth it... i could not have made it without the help of elke, though. elke gehweiler.. she is a friend who lives in berlin with her boyfriend phillip and justus, the dog. they are lovely and she is crazy about words so she knows a lot about how to put them together, thank god ! .. i will let you know when i hand it in.. oh, i also did a quick run on a proposal for a residency in schöppingen in germany: http://www.stiftung-kuenstlerdorf.de .. there deadline was yesterday..(their website is helpful if you are looking for artist's residencies in germany, not as good as the goethe institute, but still very, very helpful) .... it felt good to send something on its way.. i like the excitement to wait for the results of a residency or a grant. i also noticed that it is quite good always to have at least two applications on the go. this means while you are waiting you write new ones and if you do not get one, than it does not matter, because you still have at least one more out. so you can always look out for better news. last year, in 2006 i wrote nine proposals. the result is one
got through and i can do a major project, which is nice and with another one i got invited with my partner merete röstad to an idea's weekend at this place gravenhorst, which is why i am writing a second proposal.. so the rate for me is 1.5 out of 9. i had to learn to get rejected and see that its a lot of hard work that you dont get paid for. at least you get better at writing, structuring your thoughts, talking and writing about your artwork.. and you get through it also lets you do wonderful things. fair enough so far.
i also realised that the more attention to detail you give to a proposal, the more likely it is that you are accepted. this means by making it look professional. so the person gets all the information right there...also if you have an idea, that seems strong, but is not planned exactly to the very least detail.. and as for residencies i think
it also has to do, if you feel that there is something that you can give, as a friend of mine pointed out.. there is still a lot more to it, but this is what comes out of me.. dear blog, i
got completely distracted here.. i thought i would talk to you about listening art.. instead
i go on about proposals... oh well.. just cross your fingers for me, that it will go well..
thanks for listening, blog !

alexandre

next post

i have to concentrate on the proposal for the next couple
of days, so i will not be posting any news.
the next post will be about the subject of listening art
itself..

take care

alexandre

what do i do ?

so what do i do these days ?

i am writing an application for the Da Kunsthaus Kloster Gravenhorst (http://www.da-kunsthaus.de). Together with my Partner
Merete Rostad i am working on a Proposal for their Residency Programme 2007.
We already got through to the second round and get a little money to write a second,
more detailed proposal. More later.

Then i am working on a piece for an exhibition in Berlin in February 2007. Location
and dates to be confirmed on this site.

I am also working with little children once a week at the Music and Art School in Jena.

Last but not least i managed to raise a substantial sum to fund a project to make an
audiobook with the community of people in weimar west, a part of the city of weimar where
i live these days... detailed information when the thing gets going ..

Together with Live Artist Roger Hill i proposed a collabourative project in Liverpool to the
Arts Council of England and now i hope to raise money to take the piece to Germany..

Last but not least i am hoping to put in more proposals for this year to the Sonic Arts Expo 2007 and a Residency Programme in Germany..
So I guess my Goal for 2008 is to bundle my energies and focus and less projects ?

Anyways.. wish me luck and i keep you up to date with any new developments !!

alexandre

modes of uses

last night i thought of two things:
1) using this blog as my diary and documentation, so in a year
i can look back at different thoughts.. i think i will also put different blogs up for the different
pieces im working on to be able to put down more general information..
2) i also want to start posting information on the professional side of things:
how does it anctually work to make a living as an artist.. in my case a sonic artist/listening artist/musician and what not.. more and more i discover that this is rarely discussed publicly and i think thats not very healthy.. so little by little i will share my experiences with this blog and gather useful information, so that hopefully in 2 years or so if someone comes across this blog they will get an idea where to start and what can be involved..

(to the readers information. i am currently in the process of establishing myself as an artist.. its very exciting and you can read more soon about where i am right now.. i also hope that this blog will help me to get rid of this worries, just by having somewhere to put them...)

alexandre

piano pieces on myspace

i am currently putting myself into myspace.. had
an interesting comment from phil morton (google for
frakture & liverpool to find about more about this artist's
activities): what does it mean to be on myspace ?
do we know ? i guess for many its fun, and all about representing
themselves.. dont know what it is going to be for me.. but i
find it strange somehow that its all about showing how many
friends you have and how cool you are.. i decided to use it as
a tool to make my doings listenable to a wider audience...
so today i added three pieces i did last year.
you can listen to them at www.myspace.com/alexandredecoupigny

love

alexandre