Red capped plover with chicks!
I always consider myself a home body, loving the idea of uninterrupted time in my domestic space. That said, I’m sometimes surprised as to how quickly another space can become home. I’ve been incredibly lucky to have spent the last three weeks in a lovely hexagonal wooden treehouse on Bobbinarring Point also known as Point Leo on the Mornington Peninsula. A house with all the things I love: multiple places to sit, inside and out, following the sun like a cat; wonderful views of trees, birds and bunnies (even thought they are a scourge); thin lipped tea cups; and an amazing kitchen for procrastinatory baking.
The late Margaret Cameron left a bequest for this residency because she believed in the importance of slow reflection and the power that the coast offers for this. I can never quite let myself off the hook in terms of productivity (I still worry I haven’t achieved enough while here), but I do keep reminding myself that this is reading time, seeding time.
While here I’ve read and thought a lot about the voice: thinking about it as an instrument, a vehicle of signification; as subjective gendered bondage; and a tool of transformation. Perhaps more for my own failing memory I’ll list my reading matter below. I’ve unhurriedly pursued a writing course I’m undertaking called Sense Writing, by Madelyn Kent, that combines Feldenkrais with creative writing exercises. Real life has intruded in the form of a few grant proposals, admin and an essay I needed to write, activities that seemed much more pleasant thanks to the environment. I’ve had a number of visitors — wonderful women peers who never cease to inspire me. And of course I have prowled along the oceans edge, amazed at the dramatically shifting tide, fascinated by what lives and dies between land and sea.
And finally I’ve listened: to my own sound fumblings that attempt to express ideas I’ve been imbibing; and to those of the place and space around me. As a little sign off I offer a sound diary. It is unusual for me to offer raw, untampered field recordings but here’s to changing things up a little and trusting the sounds themselves. (Call it a my own little ‘Presque Rien‘.)
0:00 Sea (different days, different distances)
1:45 5am balcony birds (noisy miners mainly)
3:20 Fridge and freezer interior
4:54 Clock (battery easily removed thank god)
5:16 Amazing metal bowl collection in the kitchen
5:42 Vintage Car day – an endless stream of unleaded engines
6:08 Neighbours (blessedly brief) band practice
6:55 Bobbinarring Point/Point Leo surf
7:30 Balcony birds (various evenings) (Plovers, Magpies, Noisy Miners, Kookaburras and more)
10:30 Seascapes -various distances
Thank you, thank you once again to Chamber Made, the late Margaret Cameron and her family, and the incredible land of the Boonwurrung Balag. It’s been a humble honour to call this home for 3 weeks.
PS – on the final morning this little one turned up on the balcony looking in the window at me – just to let me know what I’ll be missing.
Reading List
Connor, S. (1997, September 12). Voice, Technology and the Victorian Ear. Ccience and Culture 1780-1900, Birkbeck College, London.
Dolar, M. (2006). A Voice and Nothing More. MIT Press.
Eckhardt, J. (Ed.). (2018). Grounds for Possible Music. Errant Bodies Press.
Jarman, D. (2018). Modern Nature: The Journals of Derek Jarman, 1989-1990. VIntage Books.
Jarman, D. (Director). (1993). Blue. Zeitgeist Films. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gocfnQ-NxY
Joan La Barbara on Mastering The Voice. (n.d.). [Online video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPt5A3mDUGs
Lane, C. (2016). Why Not Our Voices? Women and Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture, 20, 96–110. https://doi.org/10.1353/wam.2016.0006.
Thompson, M. (2016). Feminised Noise and the ‘Dotted Line’ of Sonic Experimentalism. Contemporary Music Review, 35(1), 85–101. https://doi.org/10.1080/07494467.2016.1176773
Vallee (, M. (2017). Possibility, Performance, Politics: On the Voice and Transformation. Parallax, 23(3), 330–341. https://doi.org/10.1080/13534645.2017.1339971
Venrooij, E. (2018). Sounding Things Out—A Journey Through Music and Sound Art. Onomatopee 109.3.
Orange House by the Sea Residency is courtesy of Chamber Made and the Estate of Margaret Cameron.
I acknowledge the tradition custodians of the land on which I am currently residing, the Boonwurrung Balag clan of the Kulin Nation. I pay my respect to elders past, present and those to come and offer my sincere gratitude to be able to experience the wonder of their country. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.
sound/s/words 