Tristan Louth-Robins' Old Blog

Goodbye Blue Monday: Blogger blog (2006-2009)

2009-03-04T20:43:00.005+11:00

326 posts later...

A time comes in the life of every blog where it must move aside to make space for something more pleasing to the eye. It is then, that I must announce this is the last post in the life of my beloved Blogger blog. It has been a platform for my many academic excursions, artistic dalliances and emotional rants - what a ride.

Now those things skirt over to Wordpress: http://tristanlouthrobins.wordpress.com/

Staub - A record of tones and artifacts

2009-03-03T20:59:00.003+11:00

red_robin: staub

1. The Dancing Meadow (5:42)
2. Electricity (4:34)
3. Night Air (5:32)
4. Isar (3:22)
5. Flanko 2 (2:07)

Download/Stream at red_robin's Last.fm album page:*

http://www.last.fm/music/red_robin/Staub

* In lieu of my server currently offline.

Liner notes:

This record's title is derived from the German word 'staub', which translates in English to 'dust'. The compositions on this record are intended to reveal the 'artifacts' of the technologies and instruments in operation. These 'artifacts' are revealed and made audible through intentional and non-intentional methods.

As some of us lament the disappearing of audio formats with such 'artifacts' (see audio tape, vinyl) we are faced with the uncertain future of 'perfect', non-physical, hyper-compressed audio formats/technologies that embody no such character or personality. Staub showcases these imperfections.

I like to regard Staub as an encapsulation of my current interests in composition and approaches to various forms of technology.

The Singing Meadow
rr: oscillator, noise generator, earthed jack

Electricity
rr: electric slide guitar, turntable & run-out groove

Night Air
rr: turntable & run-out grooves

Isar
rr: synthesiser

Flanko Two
rr: electric guitar

Recorded at home (Unley, South Australia) on 19/2, 28/2 and 1/3/2009.

A handful of shows in April and another thing

2009-02-24T19:12:00.003+11:00

April is shaping up as a busy month with a handful of shows - two performance at the Gallery Delacatessen here in Adelaide and an appearance in Melbourne with my good friend Jason Sweeney. More details soon, keep an eye on the blog.

I'm also working on a new release at the moment, something new with growls and hisses, a bit of melody too.

Panaoptique Electrical play EMU on Wednesday night

2009-02-20T22:07:00.006+11:00

Mr Sweeney and TLR

Many thanks to our fellow artists, Austen Benjamin Trio and Klumpes Ahmed for their lovely music on Wednesday evening. Salutations to the warm receptive crowd and lots of love to Lauren for her mobile phone images.

Klumpes Ahmed, Austen Benjamin Trio, Panoptique Electrical (w/TLR) play EMU

2009-02-09T11:12:00.002+11:00

The EMU Concert Space is hosting its first concert of 2009 with performances by Klumpes Ahmed, Austen Benjamin Trio and Panoptique Electrical. I will be performing alongside Panoptique Electrical as its alter-ego Jason Sweeney kindly asked me to.

When: Wednesday February 18th (doors 8pm)
Where: EMU Concert Space, Level 5 Shultz Building, University of Adelaide
Cost: $10

Website still down - naughty dream.hosting

2009-02-07T09:22:00.003+11:00

It would seem my provider moved my account to new servers without notifying me.

Not entirely happy at the moment.

Though it should be fixed in the next couple of days.

Website down - server crash

2009-02-04T13:42:00.000+11:00

My website (www.tyndallassembly.com/tristanlouthrobins) is currently down at present due to server issues. I don’t know exactly what the issue is at this stage, but my hosting provider is onto it and will hopefully have everything working again by week’s end.

Which reminds me, it’s about time the site was updated.

'Julius' - short video

2009-02-02T01:45:00.003+11:00

The means of production for a track called 'Julius' from the Tiefurt album. The track and the means of production are a homage to the great Rolf Julius of Berlin.

The heat in Adelaide town...

2009-01-29T20:00:00.004+11:00

...is turning my house into a place where a sound, studious mind cannot dwell. The kilowatts and black baloons of air conditioned respite temper only so much. I open a teapot to transfuse some sound into it, it coughs hot air up into my face. I place it back on the mantle piece to stew, something palatable has come on the television.

O great Sun King, give this weather to Perth! They have it too easy, what with ocean breezes from the seas of the sub-continent.

An oblique view of Sumi_: done

2009-01-29T19:56:00.002+11:00

Still from documentation. After one-and-a-half years of re-thinking, re-conceptualising and re-everything...

It's finished.

Tastier stuff to follow later.

Leonard!

2009-01-27T22:58:00.002+11:00

More studio views

2009-01-25T13:07:00.002+11:00

Recording iterations for Infuser

Menage a T

Lauren

HC Gilje's Wind-up birds

2009-01-21T19:27:00.003+11:00

(Via http://hcgilje.wordpress.com)

wind-up bird(s) from hc gilje on Vimeo.

This is seriously one of the most beautiful (yet simple) sound art works I have come across recently. Mechanical tappers realised using networked Arduinos and wooden resonators, actual woodpeckers started communicating with them after awhile! Read about it here: http://hcgilje.wordpress.com/2008/09/04/wind-up-birds

HC Gilje's work always impresses me, I'm a big fan of the blog: http://hcgilje.wordpress.com

Accumulation

2009-01-20T23:25:00.002+11:00

It's quite terrifying how much text I've compiled/research/written for my Masters research. It's all becoming all too apparent as I slash, burn and revegitate this tome.

Two similar views of the studio

2009-01-17T15:09:00.003+11:00

Things I admire #1: Lambchop

2009-01-12T21:19:00.003+11:00

(Since we are all in a period of coming down and picking up again after the holiday season I thought it would be a good opportunity to offer up some posts which diverge somewhat from the usual content.)

I love Lambchop - I'm not big on the meat variant or the puppet, but rather a band led by Kurt Wagner from Nashville. Formally a weird acid-country-folk trio Posterchild, they later became Lambchop in the 90's recruiting a turnstile roster of musicians, with regulars settling in to provide a backing to Wagner's strange beautiful songs and husky vocals. From 1994 to 2000 they released a string of critically praised albums ranging from avante-alt. country (I Hope You're Sitting Down (1994), How I Quit Smoking (1996), chamber pop and soul (What Another Man Spills (1998), Nixon (2000)) and the droney and murky (Thriller (1997)). Since 2000 to the present, their music has become more consistent and understated - from the ambient twitchiness of Is A Woman (2002), the string laden double release Aw C'mon/No You C'mon (2004), the mortal revalations that haunt Damaged (2006) and the lovely most recent OH (ohio) (2008).

I've now been listening to Lambchop compulsively for the past three months. That's weird, because usually if I thrash an artist or band to death over the period I'll get tired of them and won't listen to them for the rest of the year. So why the exception of Lambchop? One explanation is that I reconnected with their music whilst I was overseas last year in Germany, their latest album providing a hushed backing to the romantic connotes of travel - be it sitting on a balcony on a rainy evening or watching the landscape blur from a train window. I hadn't been that engaged with them prior to this - in fact the only album I possesed was a copy of Is A Woman which I liked to throw into the background to colour the room whilst I was writing or something. Occassionally, a few tracks would pique my interest again, discovering them on compilation discs with music magazines or a stray download - I recall everytime being charmed to the degree that I would listen to a given track incessantly until I got distrated by something else. I think it obviously sank in whilst I was travelling though - the songs of OH (ohio) got into my blood, stuck in my head, twitched my synapses and got me humming on the way to buy a carton of milk. This effect is kind of like a revalation when you realise you've finally made sense of something or figured something out, realised you've fallen in love, you get resonated and can't vibrating (three months and counting.)

Now I own their entire back catalouge - bootlegs, b-sides, pratically everything. I'm attempting to convert friends, family whilst transcribing some songs to fit my vox. I highly reccomend these guys. Start with How I Quit Smoking, then Nixon, Is A Woman, Damaged and OH (ohio), then work backwards. I will happily direct you (discreetly) to the bootlegs if your interest permits.

Let us compare some grooves

2009-01-03T17:31:00.005+11:00

I derive my sounds from all manner of sources, but I have a particular taste for vinyl run out grooves. I did a spectral analysis (via Audacity) of five discs (3 vinyl/2 shellac) from different eras/formats. The results are interesting, especially for those after some analog glitch and dusty noise.

Tiefurt: now streaming at last.fm

2009-01-02T00:13:00.004+11:00

http://www.last.fm/music/red_robin

Currently available to stream via last.fm, a download release is coming soon.

redrobin :: tiefurt - issued 1st January 2009

Tiefurt
Slow Light / In Transit
Julius
Overground
1988
Kottbusser Tor
Meadow (distant lights)
Taunus (intermission)
Strange Light / By Elbe River
Surface Tension
Memorials
A Lasting Impression

All tracks by redrobin (aka: Tristan Louth-Robins)

Tiefurt
Recorded in Tiefurt, Germany (Sep 08). Mixed in Unley, South Australia (Nov 08)
redrobin: minidisc field recording, synthesiser.

Slow Light / In Transit
Recorded & mixed in Weimar (Sep 08), Germany & Unley, South Australia (Oct 08)
redrobin: ipod touch, max/msp.

Julius
Recorded in Berlin, Germany (Oct 08). Arranged* & mixed in Unley, South Australia. (Nov 08)
redrobin: minidisc field recordings, loudspeakers & resonant objects.
* arranged as site specific installation, subsequently recorded.

Overground
Recorded & mixed in Unley, South Australia (November 08)
redrobin: feedback system & tape recall, max/msp.

1988
Recorded and mixed in Munich, Germany & Unley, South Australia (Oct 08)
redrobin: TR-808 emulator, pocket synthesiser.

Kottbusser Tor
Recorded in Kreuzberg, Germany and Unley, South Australia (Oct 08), mixed in Unley, South Australia (Nov 08.)
redrobin: TR-808 emulator, minidisc & mobile phone field recordings.

Meadow (Distant Lights)
Recorded in Berlin, Germany (Oct 08). Additional recording and mixing in Unley, South Australia (Nov 08).
redrobin: minidisc field recordings, broken synthetic piano.
lauren playfair: mobile phone field recording.

Taunus
Recorded in Taunus Mountains (near Kronberg) (Sep 08), mixed in Unley, South Australia (Nov 08).
redrobin: minidisc field recordings.

Strange Light / By Elbe River
Recorded & mixed in Dresden (Oct 08), Germany & Unley, South Australia (Nov 08)
redrobin: ipod touch, max/msp, manual feedback system & tape recall.

Surface Tension
Recorded & mixed in Unley, South Australia (Nov 08).
redrobin: turntable, max/msp, manual feedback system & tape recall.

Memorials
Recorded & mixed in Weimar, Germany (Sep 08).
redrobin: minidisc field recordings & max/msp.

A Lasting Impression
Recorded & mixed in Weimar, Germany (Sep 08).
redrobin: synthesiser and notebook.
lauren playfair: mobile phone field recordings.

Salutations and thanks to Robin Minard, Rolf Julius, Phillipp Jacks, Asadeh Shayader, Adam Cooksley and my beautiful companion Lauren Playfair.

New year

2009-01-01T13:06:00.001+11:00

Enlaced - now streaming at last.fm

2008-12-27T23:39:00.000+11:00

link: http://www.last.fm/music/red_robin

Enlaced - 'limited edition' single

2008-12-27T12:36:00.006+11:00

I put together a composition for family members this Christmas - a nice bit of vinyl ambience entitled "Enlaced". It was backed with an excerpt of a long improvisation, "Hansa Variations".

Now you can have it! Complete with your choice of exciting artwork colour tones! If you decide to renege on the 'white' option, the colour versions are Photoshop .psd files allowing you to customise your own artwork however you like - change the colour, warp the image, add images, whatever. Providing you have Photoshop of course.

These files will be available for download until the 10th January 2009.

Download audio (128 kps, 15.4 MB): here
Download artwork White (jpg, 230 KB): here
Download artwork Yellow (psd, 1.3MB): here
Download artwork Orange (psd, 1.3MB): here
Download artwork Hot Pink (psd, 1.3MB): here

Liner notes:
redrobin: ENLACED
Issued 27th December 2008

1. Enlaced (10:36)
2. Hansa Variations (5:37)

(to be read and discarded or copied and pasted into notes in your iTunes or similar media player)

Information:

"Enlaced" recorded on the 24th of December 2008
redrobin: single vinyl record, turntable, mixer & laptop.

"Hansa Variations" recorded sometime in November 2008.
redrobin: three vinyl records, turntable, mixer & laptop.

Both tracks recorded at home, Unley, South Australia in the midst of clement weather systems.

Harold Pinter (1930-2008)

2008-12-26T14:21:00.002+11:00

British writer, poet, playwright and actor.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/dec/25/harold-pinter-dies

I first came across Pinter's work sometime during 2005. It got stuck on me and never left. His work in all its formats channelled life experiences and observations into stories, poems, essays and plays that resonated with the fragility of the human condition (love, death, conflict) and the world around us. Pinter was passionate, raging, fiercely political and quintessentially human.

Now he's gone and there's a void.

Death May Be Ageing (April 2005)

Death may be ageing
But he still has clout

But death disarms you
With his limpid light

And he's so crafty
That you don't know at all

Where he awaits you
To seduce your will
And to strip you naked
As you dress to kill

But death permits you
To arrange your hours

While he sucks the honey
From your lovely flowers

The Gifting!

2008-12-24T16:24:00.002+11:00

Tiefurt's taking too long to finish, so I made a nice little single for family on top of the obligatory Kris Kringle.

A fistfull of 10

2008-12-22T21:36:00.002+11:00

My top ten albums for 2008 are as follows:

10.David Byrne & Brian Eno - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today
A highly unexpected offering from dome head and Byrne nearly thirty years after their first collaboration My Life in The Bush of Ghosts. The early sampling techniques, exotica and one chord grooves which typified that first release couldn't be further away from this collection of pop songs about exploding cars, global warming and big nurses. The cover art and package design is the most clever and thoughtful I've seen all year.

Case In Point: Strange Overtones

09.Jenny Lewis - Acid Tounge
The girl with the most sultry voice on Earth makes a debut album that feels pretty inconsistent at first but eventually gets under the skin with all its sweetness and gristle. Its a good mish-mash of soul, folk and (alt)country with some pretty awesome songwriting.

Case In Point: See Fernando

08.Panoptique Electrical - Let The Darkness At You
My second travelling companion (Lauren was first and foremost) accompanying me on a recent European sojourn was the first release by Adelaide-ite and good chum Panoptique Electric, otherwise known as Jason Sweeney. Moody moody electronic droney music that's perfect for in-transit train rides through the gloomy Hinterland.

Case In Point: The Photographer

07.Sound Unbound - Various Artists
2008 was the year I got converted to the remix - its philosophy, aesthetics, politics and application. Paul.D.Miller's (aka DJ Spooky's) compendium of essays from all kinds of people was an ambitious (if somewhat over-reaching and strained) attempt at summing up digital music in the 21st Century, however the accompanying CD sold the deal for me. It mixes up everything (Allen Ginsburg, Duchamp, Xenakis, Cage, Sonic Youth, etc.) into one post-modernist broth, which is as entertaining as it is an interesting exercise in re-contextualisation and reappropriation.

Case In Point: THE WHOLE THING

06.Beck - Modern Guilt
Beck is Beck and Beck probably wont ever be as good as Beck was in 1996, though this is his most coherent album in years. Wish he would cheer up a bit though.

Case In Point: Chemtrails

05.Philip Jeck - Sand
I got into using a turntable this year because of a Philip Jeck gig I saw in Adelaide earlier this year. Whilst I'm now making an attempt to distance myself (or more appropriately: avoid plagurising) his style of layering vinyl textures and creating hypontic loops, Jeck's untouchable - he's got an amazing amount of control, restraint and discipline to his technique. He's also created some of the most beautiful stuff I've heard this year.

Case In Point: Unveiled

04.Calexico - Carried To Dust
Whilst Calexico won't ever top 2003's Feast of Wire this comes close that masterpiece of tex-mex/rock/dub/latino mash-up. Their show that we saw in Berlin back in October was wonderful, replete with an encore of 'Crystal Frontier' in the crowd.

Case In Point: Red Blooms

03.Portishead - Third
Enough said.

Case In Point: The Rip

02.M83 - Saturdays = Youth
I've followed M83 for awhile with their teenage-y post-rave soundtracks. This sounds straight out of Donnie Darko, and it's all fucking brilliant.

Case In Point: Kim & Jessie

01.Lambchop - (OH) ohio
My most adored band (alongside The National) released a beautiful album this year. The band's been stripped back to seven members from the fifteen that played on 06's Damaged and it's given the album a less lush and more immidiate feel than anything they've done since 1997's Thriller.

Case In Point: I'm Thinking Of Number Between 1 and 2

Quiet at last

2008-12-21T09:44:00.006+11:00

What a peaceful couple of days it's been! The last two weeks preceding this balm of a weekend have been hectic, stressful and mind-numbingly boring in periods of downtime. My 'real-job''s to blame for this, though for the sake of avoiding a rant that topic stops here. There's been so much on my mind art-wise as well.

The EAF (Experimental Art Foundation) show for next year Private Invocations has been readied for the 2009 program following some editing and refinement to the original proposal and solidifying the roster of contributing visual artists. The incoming EAF director (replacing the long serving Melentie Pandalovski in April 09) seems like an ideal candidate for the role.

The new release Tiefurt has inevitably been held up as well, after listening to the track sequence in various scenarios (at home, ipod, good speakers/bad speakers) I'm still having some quibbles over the quality of the sound in parts and whether I should pare down the extensive sleevenotes which will accompany the album.

It's been a refeshing (albeit guilty) coule of weeks away from the thesis and general research as well, the Xmas break from work will allow for some time on these things.

My various tinkerings in the early hours have been productive and revelatory in some cases. I've become converted and a bit obsessive over the creative and compositional potential of wireless interfacing via my iPod Touch using OSC controllers (Open Sound Control), which has been evident in a couple of posts documenting the Touch OSC application. I'm currently exploring the Sonic Life application which uses Conway's Game of Life algorithm, which is useful for triggering toggles in Max/MSP. I've been promising video documentation of these activities for a while, so I hope to post something soon.

Oh yes, the Xmas single will be recorded in the next couple of days and posted here for download forthwith.

Controlling Max/MSP with Touch OSC

2008-12-07T21:48:00.005+11:00

Today I finally got around to customising one of my patches so that its parameters can be controlled using the iPod app Touch OSC.

I wanted to find a suitable way of controlling the parameters of the old Sumimatic loop module patch. The parameters of each of the Sumimatic's four modules are controlled using the sliders and toggles on the Simple OSC template:

Vertical slider 1: Playback speed
Vertical slider 2: Pan
Vertical slider 3: Volume
Horizontal slider: Biquad frequency range (i.e 1500Hz)
Toggles 1-4: Select module to control

There's still plenty of refinement to do with this, especially sending data back to the iPod in order to keep values synched between the two devices. If there's one little gripe I have at the moment, it lies in the somewhat limited templates that come with OSC. You might have a patch with five parameters you want to control, but you've only four sliders on your interface, etc. It would be great to have a feature where you can customise your own templates.

Still, I shouldn't complain too much, it's already pretty good and this is new territory for me. I haven't really scratched the surface now that I think about it.

I'll post a video of this once I line up the OSC with some vinyl-ing on The Arouser.

Save The Net

2008-12-02T18:05:00.003+11:00

I have posted a link to this online petition as it is of particular importance to artists, creatively minded individuals as well as those who like freedom of speech.

The Federal Government's newly proposed Internet censorship regulations are frankly, myopic and draconian. I urge you to support this petition.

http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveTheNet/442

The release from Get Up!:

The Federal Government is planning to force all Australian servers to filter internet traffic and block any material the Government deems ‘inappropriate’. Under the plan, the Government can add any ‘unwanted’ site to a secret blacklist.

Testing has already begun on systems that will slow our internet by up to 87%, make it more expensive, miss the vast majority of inappropriate content and accidentally block up to 1 in 12 legitimate sites. Our children deserve better protection - and that won't be achieved by wasting millions on this deeply flawed system.

Controlling Max/MSP with an iPod Touch

2008-12-01T18:20:00.003+11:00

The other night at the Earpoke concert, Christian Haines got me onto a recent application for the iPhone/iPod Touch. TouchOSC is a touch interface that transmits data over a WIFI network (such as numerical values.) The application features dials, sliders, toggles and matrixes for controlling such values. After gettin hold of it last night, I decided I would spend my day off grappling with its exciting potential and my limited skills with Max/MSP. After some assistance from Christian and the OSC website, within a couple of hours I was controlling a simple oscillator patch with the lappy in the backroom and myself (with Touch) on the front porch.

Excitement he quoth!

The OSC Route MSP object can be downloaded at: http://cnmat.berkeley.edu/downloads

Now my attention's turning to the potential for existing patches of mine such as the Sumi_matic (loop module) and the Arouser. I'm also very excited about the possibilty of using this interface to test installations and site specific projects remotely.

Expect videos soon.

Studio report

2008-11-29T15:25:00.003+11:00

I spent the best part of the morning and the early afternoon finishing up some tracks which will make up a new release entitled Tiefurt. It's a project that was thought up shortly before going overseas back in August. I won't go into great detail about the concept right now, I'll save that for an imminent upload and release in the next couple of days.

(in) (ex) terior: stages of development

2008-11-24T14:51:00.005+11:00

(in) (ex) terior is a sculptural installation I've been developing since August with the assistance of my mentor Robin Minard. With the concept worked out upon returning to Australia, the challenging aspect of constructing the sculpture faithfully got underway a couple of weeks ago.
Now with the speakers, pigment and preliminary audio in place it's nearly finished - a good thing too considering it's also the final creative installment of my Masters project.

Wheatsheaf show video

2008-11-24T10:19:00.002+11:00

I've uploaded a video of last Monday's performance at the Wheatsheaf. Thanks to my Lauren for the capture.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=-mXYDSjzIqY

Viva Mexicana!

2008-11-23T16:25:00.007+11:00

My good cousin Ben gifted me some kitsch vinyl on Friday afternoon after work. Viva Mexicana! is a delightfully camp set of traditional Mexican tunes set to a Go-Go flavour - lots of horns and some nice marimba spots. I did a spontaneous bit of spinning on my turntable (with ipod synth) this afternoon and came up with this little tune: it's Mexicana A-Go Go! (1.7 MB)

Perfect for tequila binges, mild acid trips and commencing revolutions with bucksome chiquitas.

How ironic I should start working under my new stage name (redrobin) and come up with something completely inconsistent with my previous output.

redrobin

2008-11-22T09:24:00.005+11:00

For the sake of clarity, I have now assigned myself the psuedonym of redrobin for the area of my output associated with turntables, electro acoustic wanderings and similar activities. I'll be retaining my name proper for my more acoustic song based meanderings.

Wheatsheaf

2008-11-18T08:19:00.004+11:00

Last night I played a turntable/ipod set at COMA's Hipnote Spring Sessions. At nearly an hour, it was the longest set that I've played in this guise and I had been concerned whether I could sustain it for an extended period. It went reasonably well I think.

The selection of vinyl included the La Boheme 78, some 'Mantovani Ole!' (good for castanets), Trumpet A Go Go (more like marimba a go go), excerpts of Bowie's Low and Heroes as well as a dash of Blondie. The ipod touch featured for the first time, including some synth textures over vinyl crackles early on and the generative Eno/Chiver's Bloom application which got chopped and diced towards the end of the set.

Someone thought that the set worked really well, dividing it into two sections - First Half: foreboding, Second half: EROTIC. Nice to see I finished off on a good note.

Setlist (excluding segues):

The Drop
Farewell Mimi
Slow Light
Preceding Dust
Lounge Scare
Hansa
Musk
A Room For Departure

Arousing Bloom

2008-11-10T08:41:00.004+11:00

A couple of weeks ago I invested in a new iPod. My mk1 Shuffle bit the dust whilst overseas so I figured it was time to upgrade. The nice thing about the Touch model (aside from the WIFI and iCal sync) is the hours of procrastination that can be spent fooling around with the many applications floating around on the net aether. Of particular note are the music making apps including a wonderful generative music making program by none other than Brian Eno and software developer Peter Chivers (read about it here.) As nice as it is on its own, I decided it was time to add my own bit of flavour to it by running it through the trusty Arouser. The results are so-so, but interesting nonetheless.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=EX69xnqJJjk

Upcoming show: 17th November 08

2008-11-08T15:46:00.003+11:00

Performing with turntable, ipod and tape. Appearing as part of COMA's Spring Hipnote sessions, Daniel Clohesy (contemporary jazz) also performs.

When: Monday 17th November 08, doors open 8pm
Where: Wheatsheaf International Hotel, 39 George Street Thebarton
Cost: $5 (COMA members), $8 (non-)

OBAMA

2008-11-05T17:11:00.001+11:00

What a great historic day.

What a nerve wracking morning, I got barely any writing done.

Faceless: Shoegazer

2008-11-03T19:11:00.004+11:00

I have contributed a video/sound work for Jason Sweeney's Faceless project. Entitled 'Shoegazer' it examines concepts of self-examination, narcissism and loneliness. Cheerful themes we can all associate with an attempted (and failed) life on the Internet. The work is also an intentional stab at the 'nothing' videos that one comes across on YouTube (see: 'My Life As An Emo', 'Leave Britney Alone!!!', etc.) The video is taken from a walk by a river in Munich. The audio is an amalgam of the original audio capture, a bit of processing and mobile phone audio.

Teapot Work, Sumi and Interior/Exterior updates

2008-11-02T15:05:00.004+11:00

For the past week on bus trips to work my blackbook has been periodically filled with notes and diagrams for the creative works portfolio of the research project. It's common knowledge that when you spend an extended amount of time on a couple of works, they'll inevitably evolve, suiting a new idea or repair themselves after a stunning failure. Both the Teapot Work and Sumi_ have been in this situation for awhile.

Teapot Work:

In the case of the Teapot Work the main issue was presentation - the original idea was for a performance/installation situation that closely resembled the work that inspired it, Alvin Lucier's I Am Sitting In A Room. And that was the problem really. On Saturday morning I recorded a handful of iterations for both the red and white teapots, capturing the sound of teapot and playing the recording back into the teapot four times. As an experiment I left the window open as I recorded the first and successive captures. The sound of street traffic and birdcalls found their way into the teapot, which in turn subtly articulated the resonances at play. The drone of a vacuum cleaner in the room next door created an interesting effect whilst I was recording the white teapot.

During the week when I was thinking of ways I could define this work better, I reminded myself of the association between the teapot and its cultural connotations - as a ceremonial and domestic object. I thought about its domestic meaning and decided it should be better incorporated into this context. After listening to the recordings I made on Saturday morning the action of leaving the window open to the world outside seemed like a good idea. Along with this and other sounds of the house (vacuum cleaner, conversations, radio, music) the teapot is posited in a domestic and identifiable context. I'm still to make recordings of the green (big) teapot and Lauren's heavy metal teapot, further updates soon.

Sumi:

This work has been troublesome for most of the year. Since exhibiting it in an early form about a year ago, I immediately identified some problems with it shortly after seeing it in the gallery context. The main issue was the fact that the two elements in operation (sound and image) were physically distant to each other and thus didn't make the intended perceptual relationship between the two convincing. During a discussion with Robin Minard back in April, he suggested some ways of bringing these elements closer together, but nothing seemed to stick.

In Germany last month, whilst exploring a sprawling exhibition in the Hamburger Bahnhof I settled on the best way of presenting this work. Where in the early version of the work, the loudspeaker would sit on the ground facing up towards the observer, the loudspeaker would instead be suspended and brought up to face the observer at waist height. A second loudspeaker of a smaller size would be suspended at eye level, albeit behind the print. As the work is observed the sound element would oscillate slowly between the two speakers, from the visible loudspeaker the upper hidden one. This would in the first instance, direct the observers attention to the source of the sound and a visible symbol for listening (i.e. the loudspeaker), then as the sound moved to the hidden loudspeaker, this would assimilate the sound with the detail of the print. I tested this a couple of nights ago and despite some niggles it seems to be on the right track.

Interior/Exterior:

The idea for the third and final work came rather belatedly whilst I was in Europe. Expanding on some ink drawings I've had sitting around for awhile, I decided I would use this image as a blueprint for a sculptural sound object that operates on two independent and unified states. It's difficult to explain succinctly at the moment (it is 3AM after all) but I will say it's similar to the process of Sumi_, the exception being that it's more ambitious.

Breaking the blog silencio

2008-11-01T14:57:00.001+11:00

Since I got back from Melbourne last Saturday I've had barely any time to sit still, let alone post something here. The week has been consumed with work drudgery and my evenings have been spent with mental recovery. No matter though, today has been a nice change of pace allowing me to work on the research project, revisiting the tpot work of yore and contemplating the adding some final touches to sumi_. Since I've got a family thing to run off to shortly the details on this morning's activities will be posted shortly.

> Melbourne

2008-10-23T07:00:00.003+11:00

Arrived back from Europe/Malaysia on Tuesday morning, the jet lag has been nasty. No matter though, I'm beating the body clock and heading to Melbs for a couple of days to check this sound art exhibition.

http://www.melbournefestival.com.au/program/production?id=3452

Day 34: Through Grounded Clouds

2008-10-18T04:43:00.000+11:00

It's the middle of the day and we're on our train to Frankfurt from Munich. Munich was a nice place to relax and not do that much, same as Dresden I guess. The weather's been quite good, save for a freezing shower a couple of days ago. This train journey's about three hours and so far (halfway in) we've seen barely anything outside the window aside from some wind turbines slicing through the the thick clouds that cover everything beyond 20 metres of this high speed train. When we arrive we're checking into our hotel then going to the huge Murikami exhibition at the Frankfurt Museum of Contemporary Art. Then it's a good nights sleep before we make our passage home tomorrow.

By the way, our hotel is like a lounge bar from 1999 crossed with the decor of the Twin Peaks white lodge. Awesome?

Day 32 & 33: Run out groove

2008-10-17T08:29:00.000+11:00

Nothing to report of great note from the past couple of days, relaxation and casualness have taken the main priority for the final days of our time in Germany. Markets, museums and buying belated gifts for family members, etc. Tomorrow we train it up to Frankfurt for our last day proper before flying back to Australia on Sunday afternoon.

Day 31: Fatigue

2008-10-15T05:07:00.003+11:00

Lauren and I are taking it easy this evening watching some Family Guy dubbed in German which makes it twice as amusing. The German version of Judge Judy isn't so much...when they start to shout I get chills. We went for a walk by the river and parklands early today, taunted some friendly ducks, threw stones into the water and made videos of me walking across pebbles. It doesn't sound like HOT FUN but it's good tepid fun. Munich itself is a nice town - we found a new media art gallery in a disused subway station (see image) exhibiting work by artists from Tiblisi, which always makes for interesting viewing.

Aside from televisual procrastination, Max patching has been the order of the afternoon and I've also made some field recordings outside our hotel window which actually sound like a sound installation.

Day 30: The Long Now - Dresden > Munich

2008-10-14T03:05:00.000+11:00

An exhausting day. Up at 5am to catch a train from Dresden hbf to Munich for check-in by 2pm. The streets of north Dresden looked haunted and moody as we wheeled our luggage through the streets to the Neustadt station. We were half awake, but the combination of mist, weird sounds, tall apartments and an eerie light emanating from a cemetery made us walk a little bit faster. The journey from Dresden to Munich was about 6 hours with a couple of stopovers and changes in the backwoods of the old East. Numerous towns and stations we passed early on were in states of dramatic disrepair - the blackened concrete, broken windows and metre high weeds pushing out of buildings pointed to a past (or current) decline of sorts. By the time we reached Hof (20km west of the Czech border) things were cleaner and maintained, from Nuremberg to Munich the vistas got more impossibly sleek and refined. We haven't had much time to take in Munich yet, aside from a doner after we'd settled in our room. It's a busy town though, I think it's going to be a fun couple of days. The wonderful balmy weather we got in Dresden seems to have carried down south too.

Oh, I've been making some music/art too. More so in the past couple of weeks.

Day 29: Day of the glare

2008-10-13T00:47:00.000+11:00

The sun at this time of year in Dresden is pretty intense. Both yesterday and today we left the hostel at about 11am to find the streets in long shadows with lazy light like it was six o'clock in the morning. The sun barely rises out of the sky before it drops again in the late afternoon. Turn into the light (due south-ish) and pre-suspicions about its apparent weakness are dispelled by the blinding glare bouncing off the cobblestones and shiny buildings. One pair of sunglasses between two do not bode well for headache prevention. The river, bridges and surrounding buildings (patchwork, blackened and scarred) look beautiful in the afternoon light. That is when you're not directly facing it.

The area of Dresden that we're staying in (Neustadt) is probably the most entertaining of the two main sections. Oldstadt Dresden is by far the more historic section of this city, but the presence of awful aggressive Italian/Polish tourists was getting my ire yesterday which at times put me off the beauty of the Zwinger and other famous landmarks. Neustadt in a nutshell is a sprawling matrix of four story old skool apartments (1900 stylie & bomb-free), funky cafes, jazz clubs and proper punks/bohemians everywhere. The graffiti (excluding the territorial piss-stains) is quite good too - especially the colourful stencil art that adorns the underside of the bridges and backsides of buildings.

The record stores here (which I'd heard favourable things about) are a bit of a letdown - overpriced and lacking esotericism. The adjacent erotic bookstore looked far more interesting.

Day 28 Adendum - a report on research

2008-10-12T21:53:00.000+11:00

Whilst this vacation has been an excuse to eschew more real-world responsibilities for a short while, I though I'd take some time to cover some ground that night have been left out in previous posts. In some cases intentionally for the sake of 'thought purity'. Namely....

Research:

Since Robin became sick a couple of weeks ago, I've had to persevere on the art practice/research front. Whilst I was in Weimar I made some attempts to organise a meeting with the sound artist Rolf Julius, as anybody familiar with my line of work will know is an important influence. Unfortunately he was one his way to a routine visit to Finland for the week so I lost out there, Robin also informed me he was just diagnosed with terminal cancer which is pretty awful news. On a better note, I caught some inspiring sound art in Berlin and gathered enough initiative to start thinking about the research again. Since we've arrived in Dresden, my notebook has become a repository for coherent thoughts and ideas whilst the finishing touches to the creative works are becoming more concrete and foreseeable once I return.

Day 28: Dresden - restored city

2008-10-12T21:51:00.000+11:00

After bashing my right kneecap on our bedframe last night I wasn't sure if I was going to get down the stairs let alone walk about and explore the city today. Thankfully the old joint loosened up from its agonising stiffness and I was able to get around reasonably alright for most the day. Dresden was once one of the most beautiful and cultural cities in Europe until it was firebombed to fuck-all towards the end of WW2. Hardly a 'strategic' target for the allied forces its destruction was intended as a moral blow to the German Empire. Barely anything remained of the city centre in the aftermath, an estimated 95% had been reduced to rubble and over 10,000 people had perished being blown apart, burnt alive or choking to death in the firestorm. Dresden today is a patchwork city, the remaining buildings have been amazingly restored to part of their former glory. Fresh stones and bricks sit alongside blackened originals, whilst entire sections of buildings and duplicates of statues complete once ruined buildings. I've never ever seen anything on this scale before, aside from the appreciation of the dedication and work that has gone into restoring the city, I couldn't escape a profound sense of sadness about what this place was once like and what its generation went through. For an interesting account of the Dresden bombing read Kurt Vonnegut's seminal Slaughter House 5 (if you haven't already.) The Zwinger (a gallery cum palace) also has to be seen to be believed.

Day 27: onto Dresden

2008-10-11T21:50:00.000+11:00

Today we left Berlin in the morning due South-ish for Dresden. We arrived in the unseasonable warmth which was perfect for the short walk from the north station to our hostel. After settling in we embarked through the surrounding district (north of the city centre) which is full of nice restaurants, record stores and bars. Later the masters research which I've avoided until now found its way into my notebook as I made couple of recording by our secondfloor window. Strange how that works.

Day 26: Visiting the East Side and the Kreuzberg tiles

2008-10-10T21:45:00.001+11:00

The East Side gallery near the Ostbahnhof is one of the last remaining segments of the Berlin Wall. In 1990, on the first anniversary of re-unification twenty artists from around the world were commissioned to create artworks on an Eastern side of the wall which extends for over a kilometer. Recently the gallery has been the subject of debate because it's falling into disrepair and funding can't be sought to keep it restored and protected from graffiti and vandalism. Also the area it occupies (along Berlin's main river) has been earmarked for major development which would result into the removal of the wall.

Later in the evening we went out with Asadeh and Adam (who we've been staying with in Nuekolln) for a night out in nearby Kreuzburg. The evening included a delicious soup, obtaining illicit substances near a very dark park and drinks in a few local establishments, including a devastatingly camp place called Roses (see picture.)

Day 25: Hamburger Bahnhof and Calexica

2008-10-09T20:36:00.001+11:00

After a late rise we went to check out the Hamburger Bahnhof's exhibition of works by Andy Warhol, Joseph Beuys and other 'contemporary' artists. It was all very impressive, especially the work of Beuys which I've never really come into contact with before (aside from maybe the odd brief Fluxus reference.) The enormous outer wing (like a kilometer long shipping container) contained the sprawling exhibition Cult of the Artist: I Just Can't Slice Off An Ear Everyday which featured of a wide variety of works which fit the decontructivist mould. Starting with some works by Duchamp (unfortunately no urinal) and ending with a purpose built space housing Ugo Rondinone's profoundly unsettling Where do we go from here (1996). Put short, large scale projections of clowns combined with sounds of heavy breathing and standing waves make for a disturbing experience.

Then it was off to Calexico! Complete with a performance in the crowd!

Day 24: Walls and light

2008-10-08T03:55:00.000+11:00

Today we headed out slightly east to check out a couple of the wall monuments, taking in some of the wild architecture on the way. On our way to the Jewish Museum we located Hansa Ton Studios (where Bowie/Eno) recorded Heroes, etc. Sounds a little lame, but standing on the steps to the door felt very special in a geeky fanboy sort of way. Onto the Jewish Museum, and despite the slightly patronising tone of their interactive museum, there were some impressive elements including the use of light in the building and the permenant installation by Menasche Kadishman Shalehet/Fallen Leaves:

Day 23: Zooropa

2008-10-07T05:58:00.001+11:00

Caught a train out the Zoo Station, took in a few of the sights and went to a couple of independant galleries we'd shortlisted for visits. A bittersweet suprise was the first gallery which was meant to have a new exhibition but was still bumping out an exhibition by one of my favourite sound artists, Rolf Julius. Since we couldn't get into the gallery, it was painful to see all of Julius' sound pieces (loudspeakers, bowls, pigments, etc.) cluttered together in he front room with us on the street seperated by a pane of glass. Like having your heart broken, really.

After we'd been offered a lamp and a bicycle by a strange man on the street we were spontaneously invited to an exhibition by a street artist going by the alias of El Bocho. The exhibition that night was very good, three artists taking urban style painting and transposing them to a more fine art context. El Bocho's work was really impressive - large scale canvases of girls faces with strong lines and a few intense colours. This was also a high profile gallery with stiff suits and flashy ponytails...it quite a spectacle to see psuedo-street art sell for upwards of 30K Euros.

Following a couple of wines we headed back into Mitte and found some bars. It's the first time I've had the pleasure of a Red Russian, it may be the last. Later on we observed the phenomena which is legalised prostitution/hustling from the comfort of a boho cocktail bar. Imagine doppelganging Russian Dolls, white leather, peroxide with bumbags and you get to picture.

Day 22: Navigation

2008-10-06T07:44:00.000+11:00

Writing about my movements is becoming increasingly difficult as this city is constantly distracting me with its beauty. In brief, today we wound our way around the Mitte arts district, had some great soup and I bought a couple of exciting sound art books.

Day 21: Berlin Rain

2008-10-05T18:20:00.000+11:00

The Sunday bells rang out across Nuekolln this morning with uneven clangs and dissonance. I fell out of bed in the hope that I could get a recording down only for them to fade out as I got the microphone connected. The rain which had started to spray Berlin yesterday afternoon was still falling. Lauren and I rugged up with several layers including gloves (gloves!? when was the last time I ever wore gloves!?) and ventured outside.

We headed into a contemporary arts district along Linden Strasse finding many enticing galleries which were not open being a Sunday, but found a couple that covered a variety of sculpture, photo media and a bit of sound art. After stopping by a Jewish deli for caffeinated refreshment, we fought the drizzle on foot towards Hansa for an exhibition of notation at the Institut Des Kunst.

The exhibition was startling in its scale. By the time we'd reached the entrance I'd already poured over original scores and hand-written notes by Legeti, Stockhausen and Cage, then as one room led into another equally sized one I realized this wasn't just another rote exhibit. Highlights included graphic scores by Kagel and Jun Paik and a 3-D realisation of Xenakis/Le Courbusier's Phillip's Pavillion. However, pinnicle had to Cage's Variations (I-IV) scores complete with notes and transparencies.

After all of that I didn't mind we couldn't find a train in the rainy evening, electing to trudge it on foot through the Brandenburg gate back into the Mitte for a quick dinner, picking up some Californian wine in the U-Bahn station and heading home to dry our feet.

Day 20: Cosy jackets and art

2008-10-04T18:03:00.000+10:00

I spent the morning the with the unenviable task of finding a jacket that A) would be warm enough to tackle Berlin's chilly climate and B) ensure I would like it/it would not be bulky/made to look like a nihilistic hoody. Thank goodness I found a tasteful tweed/plaid zip-up thing that keeps my chest from aching and looks nice.

Today we began exploring Berlin's many galleries and museums in the city centre. After the many anti-climaxes of Weimar the variety and sheer scale of what's on offer, the programmes themselves are already satisfying us. The plan was to fit in two or three art haunts though we only managed to check out the Berlin Guggenheim which had an interesting selection of photo-media and concept art picked from the 1960's to the present. It was very well curated with central themes of slipped identity and contradiction which was at times very humourous and confrontational.

Then it rained.

Day 19: Re-unification Day

2008-10-03T06:35:00.000+10:00

Our first day in Berlin proper coincided with celebrations for the re-unification of West and East. Being a public holiday most of the shops were closed, though restaurants and some department stores remained busy amid thousands of Berlin natives and tourists taking in the atmosphere. The main festivities were taking place by the Brandenburg Gate and spilling a kilometre up the Strasse Des 17 Juni to the Victory Tower. Earlier in the day we attempted to navigate ourselves in this vast and beautiful city. In one of the markets along the riverbank I picked through a huge collection of quality vinyl, sticking with a UK pressing of Bowie's Low and 801 Live, the latter being the closest I'm getting to the elusive Eno purchase.

Day 18: Leaving Weimar > Leipzig > Berlin

2008-10-02T18:15:00.002+10:00

Packed up and shifted out of our TARDIS room at Hababusch and made some boiled eggs for breakfast. Visited Robin in Hospital, a 2km walk south of Weimar which was good for circulation and my ongoing bleak mood. Robin's doing much better after several tests and procedures. Since he hasn't been able to eat for the past few days he's looking very thin, though he hasn't lost any of his good humour. Before leaving Weimar we managed to prolong our stay by an extra hour when we took the wrong bus which dragged us a few kilometres from the train station. Deciding to walk to the station was useful for us to vent our frustrations at this town and its indecipherable bus routes.

Since we hadn't reserved seats for the trip from Leipzig to Berlin we had to stand for the two hour journey amongst some friendly backpackers and a couple of huskies.

Upon arriving in Berlin, we navigated ourselves to Neukolln - one of the main multi-cultural districts of Berlin. Asadeh (who we're staying with) said that this place has been getting a bad reputation in the media - practically forever - and is informally known as 'the ghetto' or the 'Gaza Strip'. Asadeh agreed when I suggested to her such tags are mostly the result of a media beat up based on class/race/cultural prejudice combined with unemployment statistics and drug problems. The community here is predominantly Arabic with lots of smoking lounges, doner kebabs and people playing backgammon on the sidewalk. There are also contingents of east Europeans (Polish, Serbs, Hungarians, Russians), African refugees and a smattering of native art students. The more appropriate tag for such a place would be alternative, since this is one of the major areas for outsider art, public art, and interesting art in general.

On our first evening in Neukolln we were invited to a dinner party hosted by one of Asadeh's friends. I always enjoying dinner do's where you eat sitting on the floor amongst others and get to spend the evening discussing all kinds of philosophical things (chief topic: do animals have a 'langauge'?)

Day 17: Strange weather

2008-10-02T04:23:00.004+10:00

Weimar turned on a show of ecological hostility today with strong winds, spitting rain, leaden clouds and general nastiness. I'm looking forward to Berlin tomorrow and putting behind what have been a couple of dissapointing days. It's apt, this strange weather almost seems to be ushering us out of this place - beating the window, ravaging the trees and soaking our shoes.

Day 15 & 16: Walking about & a sick mentor

2008-09-30T06:16:00.006+10:00

Yesterday Lauren and I went for a walk through Weimar's northern districts of Tiefurt, Kromsdorf and Denstedt. We followed the river from the much vaunted echo viaduct through open parks and fields for about 5km until we reached the eeireely silent Kromsdorf and Denstedt - hardly any cars and people around, it was a little unsettling. We could have continued walking onto the more populated Ossmanstedt but our legs were getting tired and the absence of WC's lead to a decision to head back. Stinging nettles and bare bums do not bode well for a relaxed evening.

Today has been a bit bleak . Last night I got a call from my mentor Robin saying that he had been ill for most of the weekend. I received another call from him this afternoon with the unfortunate news that he has Pancreatitus and will be in hospital for the next two weeks. I'm pretty despondent about this since I'd only been able to spend about 20 minutes consulting him here in Weimar, the mentorship was the initial reason for travelling to Germany in the first place. I need a couple of drinks tonight. I'm wishing Robin a comfortable and speedy recovery. Lauren and I are cutting short our stay in Weimar by a couple of days and moving onto Berlin on Thursday. We may swing back by Weimar later in our trip but I don't know at this stage.

Day 14: Normality and ongoing issues with Christianity

2008-09-28T07:00:00.000+10:00

The past few days have been characterised by a familiar routine of casual sightseeing, coffee consumption, drawing pictures by the river and composing by night. A bit boring I guess, but kind of necessary after ten or so days of constant busyness. Today was the same, but we did spend a couple of hours exploring the Weimar Palace Museum which houses a vast variety of artwork from the 14th to the end of the 19th Centuries.

The first floor (13th-16th Century) had some facinating sculptural and minaeture works on display, constructed from ivory/glass/other that were so intricate and complex in their detail. Observing the Christian material, from an atheist point of view some of it was very beautiful, whilst some of the other stuff was downright offputting and self indulgent cack. I don't know what was really going down for some of the artists at the time, but some of this stuff is downright nutty/sadistic/surreal. It's not really my cup of blood.

Moving onto the second floor (17th-18th Century) our moods were lifted infinitely by the charming Rococo and Baroque works on display which were mirrored in the incredibly lavish decoration of the palace. Putting aside the artworks for a moment, this palace is quite exquisite - layered with complex timber arrangements on the floor (which incidentally creak with really old sound), festooned in lots of gold paint and oodled in fine masonry and general pimping. The use of natural light was interesting too.

The third floor (19th Century) is where the New Romatics and Impressionists kicked in with their colourful daubs of paint, speckly pastoral vistas and nubile nymphs picking fruit. I even saw a decent Monet for the first time!

For the rest of the day we resumed to our rich tapestry of normality walking through a beautiful cemetary with anonymous graves and went graffiti spotting in the dimming afternoon.

It was also the brightest, sunniest, warmest day we've had in Weimar so far. I can't believe I got away with only one layer of clothing for a change.

Day 13: Sex

2008-09-27T04:33:00.003+10:00

Since today was a bit of a nothing day - slept in late, walked around, drank coffee, drew pictures - I thought I would post something more attention grabbing than travelogue material.

One of the things I've been reminded of since arriving in Germany is how much more tolerant European society is about about sex in general. I've noticed in Frankfurt and more recently in Weimar that you can walk into a bookstore and flick through an unshrinkwrapped hardcover on hardcore antics and where a book on the Dalai Lama sits comfortably next to mini-tomes on erotica and lingerie. Whilst in Frankfurt we almost walked into an enormous sex shop masquerading as a supermarket. It just wasn't the supermarket we were looking for at time, the dildos in the 2 Euro bargain bin were a bit of a giveaway.

Interesting stuff. This blog will now resume to normality.

Day 12: The sights and sounds of Weimar town

2008-09-26T19:49:00.003+10:00

Today was casual. Slept in through a very sunny (slightly warm) morning then went roaming about in search quick sustenance before heading down to the viaduct to make some recordings on my mini disc. I'm very pleased that I've found a location on my travels that I want to spend time working with - exploring the environment, finding its focal points, exciting its resonances. When you look all the way to the top of the viaduct arch (about 100m), there is this drain hole where rainwater drips down to the ground. The slightest breeze causes the drips to swirl in the air on their way down, striking leaves and the concrete steps on one side of the arch. The slapping sound of drops hitting the leaves and steps is immediately perceivable, but listening closer you can hear the reverberations of the sound inside the viaduct - a very subtle colouration, a residual quality. I made some recordings specific to this sonic event. I spent the afternoon listening to them closely, where the reverberations (due to the close proximity of the microphone) are more instantly perceivable.

In the evening Lauren and I searched out a restaurant and a place for a drink. In the Theatre platz there was a fashion event taking place showcasing Weimar's department stores. Complete with fairground rides, bratwurst/beer/hot wine stalls and a power permed MC straight out of 1988 it was a distinctly Euro-trashy spectacle. It was a great deal of fun though! About half of the fashion was terrible, the song content was Eurovision meshed with American Idol and the sight of the 50-ish female MC singing Tina Turner's "Simply The Best" with leg kicks (in leather pants!) was something that will stick in my memory for a while. We watched a finale of very colourful and loud fireworks from our hostel window.

What an interesting day it was.

Day 11: Buchenwald

2008-09-25T21:32:00.005+10:00

Flicked through Rolf Julius' Small Music (Grau) over tea and cornflakes this morning at the Hababusch dinner table. It was the quietest morning since we arrived here on Sunday afternoon, I guessed we were the only people there aside from the reception staff. Outside it was a leaden misty morning with a chilly air, good thing I brought my Solar Shop vest with me though the thought of buying a jacket whilst I'm over here has crossed my mind on more than one occasion. Lauren and I had coffee at a nice friendly cafe on the Theatre platz then waited for a bus to take us up to the Buchenwald Memorial and concentration camp (15km north of Weimar.)

In the light of atrocities during the 20th Century and Second World War, Buchenwald has a profound historical significance. As we approached the camp through the surrounding forests and heavy mist I got a feeling I've rarely felt - a light gut wrenching that made me both tense and melancholie. Of the many unsettling things that struck me was the serene quietness of the place - the hush amongst fellow visitors, the dead ambience of rooms, the whispers and breath of tall trees bunched together in green and yellow.

In the evening we returned to Weimar, had some dinner and attended a student film night at the Neu Museum. There was a visual art exhibition by students from the Bauhaus University in the foyer, a variety of small works placed together on hexagonal columns. Most of them consisted of found objects and some were very good using an interesting combination of materials. As for the films, since they were all in German I had a good time watching the films instead of listening to them. It's interesting how you focus on other details of a film when you remove the dialog, or more appropriately displace it due to the langauge barrier.

Day 10: Sounding out Weimar

2008-09-25T02:28:00.003+10:00

This morning I attended a student (Olaf Hochherz) examination for the electro-acoustics and sound design. The project consisted of sound design for a film studies student - a film documenting a cat colony in a Rome cemetery. The interesting thing about Olaf's sound design was the fact that he had nothing to really work with - just ambient soundscapes, discreet diabetic sound and the occasional interview. Despite this, it sounded excellent, with a suitable spatialisation and very nice distribution of sound. The mix was designed for a 6.1 speaker set-up, with three up front (left, centre, right), two in the back and two in the extreme back angled at 60 degrees towards the ceiling.

In the afternoon Lauren and I headed down to the echo viaduct Robin and Susan had shown us a couple of days ago. I've thrown together some video documentation, I'll do some decent recordings over the next couple of days.

It's also really nice to see a little blue sky and sun after three days of gloom and rain.

Day 9: Gloomy Weimar & nice louspeakers

2008-09-24T05:29:00.006+10:00

So much rain! It's been practically non-stop for the past couple of days...

This morning I caught up with Robin at his apartment to show some of my recent work including the ink sketche s and an idea for a new installation work. Following this, we headed over to check out the new facilities of the Liszt music school's new electro-acoustic studio. With some excellent acoustic conditioning and a matrix configuration of 32 loudspeakers, it was an inspiring spectacle. Some interesting student work was played on this system - mostly granular/algorithmic compositions which had been written specifically for 32 channels. Tomorrow I'll be attending a couple of students practical examinations which I'm looking forward to.

Day 8: Settling into Weimar

2008-09-23T07:02:00.003+10:00

Incidentally, hoorah for Wiemar WLAN!

Woke up to the sounds of heavy traffic and violent bursts of rain on the window. Our room at the Hababusch Hostel is the stuff of Louth-Robins-esque Euro fantasies: 2x2 metres in dimension, an impossibly elevated bed, curious places to store things and a nice view from our window. Most of the day was spent walking around the inner city, stumbling upon disheveled examples of the former East Germany and making some recordings of the streets, quiet parks and bells ringing out. In the afternoon we met up with Robin and Susan by the river where they took us down to an incredibly high bridge with an equally remarkable reverberation time and ping pong delay. I can assure you that recordings with be made of this. After some late afternoon tea at Robin's apartment, Lauren and I checked out the creperie near the hostel for dinner and such.

Day 7: Frankfurt > Weimar

2008-09-21T17:43:00.003+10:00

Caught the ICE high speed train to Weimar in the morning. Over 300 km the landscape changed occasionally from forests to small villages, open plains to fields of enormous wind turbines. As we passed through Gotha it became apparent that we had arrived in former East Germany with occasional glimpses of rundown infrastructure, abandoned factories and concrete housing estates. Though it has nearly been 20 years since German re-unification, sections of the East are reminders of pre-1989 Germany - depressed, curious and (at times) strangely beautiful. Around 3pm we arrived in Weimar and on the way to Hababusch Hostel the contrast between West and East is occasionally evident in the juxtaposition of a restored/gentrified 18th Century hall and a grayscale building with bomb scars and ancient graffiti. After a belated lunch, we wandered the town centre and the surrounding parks as the light was dimming then caught up with mentor Robin Minard in his tastefully minimalist apartment for coffee, discussed our recent travels and planned ahead for the next two weeks.

Day 6: Rhineland

2008-09-21T05:31:00.003+10:00

Today myself, Lauren, Rudolph, Jans and Jessica floated from Rudesheim to Loreley on the Rhein river taking in the spectacular riverside towns, vineyards and castles. The first highlight was in the evening as we were roaming in Loreley and were invited by a couple to share the first wine of the season and some tasty onion pie (see above image.) The second (and most profound) highlight was when a cacophany of bells rang out in the streets for a quarter of an hour and the place was saturated in incredible resonances*. Unfortunately I didn't have my minidisc with me and the only document I have is a lo-fi camera recording. Oh well, great day
though.

* indescribable.

Day 5: Consuming Frankfurt

2008-09-19T17:57:00.002+10:00

Bought some audio cable, nice scarf and two (!) sound art books - a lovely hardcover on Rolf Julius (Grau schweigt) and Brandon LaBelle's Site Specific Sound. Books that would be otherwise a bugger to find in Australia, let alone on Amazon. The evening was spent with Phillipp visiting Kronberg's few nighttime locales, including a cavernous bunker bar dating back to the 1400's.

Day 4: Evading wasp/hornet nests

2008-09-19T07:31:00.003+10:00

Today was spent wandering around Kronberg - exploring the castle, making some fine field recordings of creeks and running away from wasp/hornet nests. This afternoon/evening was spent making some cute real-time Max/MSP compositions with Lauren and I playing musicboxes and chopping up some Bahnhof Rail audio. I'll probably post some mp3s in the next couple of days. I also seem to be listening to be listening to an awful lot of Kraftwerk at the moment, which strikes me as a bit of a cliche.

Day 3: Hiking through the forests of the Taunus mountains

2008-09-18T04:24:00.006+10:00

Went hiking through the shallow Taunus mountains that overlook Kronberg. Lauren, Phillipp and I now have sore feet, though I've got some interesting field recordings and we've got a dinner of meaty goodness to look forward to courtesy of Mr.Jacks (Phillipp.)

Tomorrow: scarf shopping, some more recording, a bit of music making and general relaxing.

Kronberg & Frankfurt: Day 1-2

2008-09-17T05:22:00.003+10:00

Monday was wrapped up with a long walk through Viktoria Park, The Burg and inner Kronberg. Lauren and I arrived back at the 'gelben haus', collapsed and slept for twelve hours or so. We woke up today to watch the sun rise over the city (cue long exposure photos), then took the train into Frankfurt for traversing over bridges, pretzels and taking in some inspiring art at the Stadel Museum and a couple of independant galleries.

Kronberg (Frankfurt) - day 0

2008-09-15T19:46:00.002+10:00

Been in Germany for about 6 or so hours after arriving just after sunrise this morning. Old housemate Phillipp picked us up and took us to his house in the foothills of Kronberg (20km north of Frankfurt.) Lauren and I will be staying here for the next week. Still pretty jet lagged, slept off a little but today will be restricted to short walks around the village checking out some of the surrounding castles and landmarks. Weather? It's been a chilly morning, below 10 C ... now a light drizzle is coming down. I can't get over how bright the sky is here.

Website launched!

2008-09-13T13:01:00.003+10:00

After 9 and a half months of stopping and starting, my official page is finished. Well, that said there are still a few things to be added and debugged but it's perfectly usable. I'm using the Tyndall domain at the moment as I seem to be having problems with my monikered one. An automatic redirect will be included once the problem's fixed.

http://www.tyndallassembly.com/tristanlouthrobins/

Blog trouble

2008-09-10T18:47:00.004+10:00

Just as I finished the previous post, my blog template decided to implode hence the strange blankness that you see before you. Should be fixed soon.

UPDATE: seems to be fixed, but it's lost some of it's character.

tique

2008-09-10T17:49:00.009+10:00

tique is a new mini-release of sketches and experiments using various technologies including: earthed cable, tape, mobile phone, teapot, synthesiser and mystery objects.

I decided it would be a nice idea to off-load some ideas that have been sitting around for a couple of months, clearing the decks (so to speak) for the Germany experience.

1. Panoramic Heights: Tap [1:15]
2. Panoramic Heights: Roll [2:51]
3. Panoramic Heights: Sand [7:21]
4. Seven Areas To One [1:49]
5. Container [1:40]
6. Lemon Tree [4:02]
7. Small Insects [1:25]
8. Scented Weather [4:02]
9. Rainshower With Typewriter [2:02]

Download: *here*

Liner notes:

tique is a selection of sketches, experiments and happy accidents from the past eight weeks or so. Since finishing the mimi release and performing it live, I've spent some time exploring a few ideas I've had lying around for awhile.

The first three tracks, working under the banner "Panoramic Heights" are excerpts from an extended improvisation using an earthed cable and my trusty Tascam 424 tape deck. The signal from these objects/devices was manipulated using the same Max/MSP software I used for mimi and the subsequent live performances, wherein a delay/filter patch manipulates the incoming signal to create textures and loops. "Seven Areas To One" and "Container" are short collage works with material derived from deliberately lo-fi field recordings, using my mobile phone as the recording device. Upon rendering the captured audio signal, the resultant sound - when juxtaposed with other sounds - creates some interesting sonicoutcomes. “Lemon Tree”, “Small Insects” and “Scented Weather” are all multi- layered synthesiser improvisations with Max/MSP real-time processing.

The final track "Rainshower With Typewriter" is my personal favourite, the source material is being kept a secret for the time being.

I've always admired the potential of technologies when you approach them from an unconventional perspective. Whether the motivation be the result of a curious imagination or deprivation of sleep.

Tristan Louth-Robins
September 2008

Panoramic Heights: earthed cable, Tascam 424 Portastudio, laptop
Seven Areas To One: mobile phone, laptop
Container: teapot, mobile phone, laptop
Lemon Tree: puckered synth, laptop
Small Insects: jitter synth, laptop
Scented Weather: musk synth, laptop
Rainshower with Typewriter: ???, laptop

Reports from the busy body 2

2008-09-09T13:45:00.003+10:00

The last week has been a collective rush of organising oneself before departing for Germany on Sunday. High priorities have included a troublesome thesis chapter, completing a website and packing/general planning. Lesser priorities have included a prepping new mini-release of recent material (to be uploaded and posted in the next couple of days) and enjoying the splendid spring weather.

Sweeney and Louth-Robins play the EMU

2008-08-30T11:59:00.004+10:00

Last night I performed at the EMU Space supporting Panoptique Electrical (Jason Sweeney) and the launch of his new release Let The Darkness At You. Performing once again with a combo of turntable and laptop, I was pleased with my performance aside from a couple of 'happy' accidents with vinyl slippage. Jason's set with projections was a testament to his outstanding reputation as a composer and performer. The fifty minute set was absolutely beautiful - by far the best electronic music performance I've seen this year. The EMU Space's perfect acoustics reinforced Jason's glacial and darkly atmospheric music, which coupled with slowly pulsating black and white images, gave the music a strong emotional weight. A very friendly receptive crowd made this one of my musical highlights for 08.

Thanks to Lauren for the lovely photos, there's more on my Flickr page here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7528804@N04/

I've posted some video excerpts from my performance here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUodUPAUJAs

Now for a break from performing until November, and soaking up Germany in the meantime.

Review on Resonate

2008-08-29T16:56:00.001+10:00

My review of Metalog’s show at the Wheatsheaf International Hotel has been published on the online New Music publication Resonate. I am kind of hoping it doesn’t attract as much ‘attention’ as my review of the Adelaide Contemporary Music Festival did.

http://www.resonatemagazine.com.au/article.php?id=208

The Arouser - video documentation

2008-08-27T18:25:00.004+10:00

Yesterday in preparation for the show this Friday night I decided to create some documentation on my custom built Max/MSP patch - The Arouser. It's the patch that I've been using in tandem with my foray into turntables and real-time vinyl manipulation, as evident on the mini-release mimi.

The Arouser - an overview

The Arouser - demonstration

Thesis a-go......oh.

2008-08-26T11:09:00.002+10:00

Yesterday's progress on the thesis did not go entirely according to plan, as I gave up in the office around noon, trudged home and decided to rehearse for the upcoming EMU show on Friday. I'm taking a sick day from work today, currently holed up in the Unley Library giving it another shot. I think the next two weeks are going to be a rough journey.

Reports from the busy body

2008-08-25T09:40:00.004+10:00

Thesis a-go go:

Sitting up in my castle room at uni I'm going to attempt to thrash the elusive fourth chapter of my thesis into some kind of layman sense. Two-and-a-half months ago I set myself a deadline to get this instalment finished by the time I set off for Germany. Now that my departure is only two weeks and a few days away, the realisation has come that I'm going to have to get cracking on this post haste.

Website a-go-go:

I also foolishly set myself another deadline a month ago to get the personally anticipated website launched before I leave. It's coming along well which is good.

At last!

After three years of hunting:

Exhibition: happy times

2008-08-21T17:32:00.002+10:00

I had a trio of little ink works in an exhibition opening last night. It was a nice evening at Higher Ground, though the real suprises occured when 1) I sold the three works, and 2) I won third prize! Happy times I say.

Updates

2008-08-19T13:35:00.005+10:00

Research:

As I was watching some gymnastics on TV last night I had a flashback to late 2005 when I was writing what would be my Honours thesis. I don't know if it was the human bodies flinging themselves into the air with precision or the horrific accident one girl from Russia suffered that struck a synapse in my head and reminded me that writing a thesis is a feat of great concentration and pain. At this point I switched the TV off and rewrote the introduction for chapter four.

Kamera:

I just bought myself a new digital camera which I'm very pleased with. I decided I should upgrade from my battered Olympus 3.2 mp and invest in something more 08 for the impending trip to Germany. At $150, it's a steal for a Sony Cybershot and a fortunate coincidence that Harris Scarfes is discontinuing its camera department due to competitive market forces and flogging off everything for cheap. I suspect the rapid improvement of camera integration in mobile phones may be the main reason for such department stores to be discontinuing stock.

Performance:

The show with Panpotique Electrical (Jason Sweeney) is coming up next Friday at EMU. I'm currently putting together some new material as well as rehearsing sections of mimi for the show.

Ink trio (better res) for next week's exhibition

2008-08-16T12:49:00.003+10:00

Garden Ruin

Cloud & Tree

Reeds

Sister blog updates > Cooking

2008-08-13T19:04:00.003+10:00

The old cooking blog has been as quiet as a zen kitchen for the past 8 months, remember that courgette salad on New Year's day? Probably not, but it was gud! Anyway, because I've been too busy to maintain the blog this year, my firend Poppi has donated her Love Cookies recipe. Cheers, Poppi!

Jump over, check it out and feel the love cookie (more appropriately 'biscuit') stylie.

http://dontmentionthegarliccrusher.blogspot.com/

Tape Abuse

2008-08-12T14:04:00.003+10:00

A sequel of sorts to the post a month ago when I took cruel hand, knife and pliers to a vinyl record of Beethoven. The results were awful, but I have a little more hope for a blank cassette tape I've had sitting in the backyard since Saturday morning.

I've decided to bring it in from the cold wintery climate this evening, give it a cup of tea and have a listen to it on the old Tascam 424.

I've always liked the way that tape breaks down. The way that the sound quality dimishishes compared to vinyl is a lot more subtle and homogenous because its breakdown affects the overall picture (i.e a frequency band) rather than the infrequent clicks and pops that marr a well-loved (or well-hated) slab of vinyl.

Ink kunst for FF exhibition

2008-08-11T08:53:00.005+10:00

Process.

Fin.

Nice way to spend the weekend.

Exhibition opening - Wednesday August 20th, Higher Ground > 6 - 8pm

mit wine!

FELT

2008-08-09T12:20:00.004+10:00

Last night I played a set at the Felt Art Space alongside Panoptique Electrical (Jason Sweeney) and ii (Melbourne.) The art space was temporarily transformed into an ideal venue for some ambient musings on a freezing rainy evening in Adelaide.

I was very satisfied with my set which was my first public excursion in vinyl & laptop. I used my recent mini-release mimi as the template for the performance, splicing in some new material as well as some spare of the moment experiments which seemed to work and go down really well to a very receptive and friendly audience.

Jason's set under the droned guise of Panoptique was nice and consistent with layer upon layer of rich metallic textures overlaying each other and colouring the space nicely.

Unfortunately, Lauren and I had to head off after my set to attend the Helpmann Academy event so I missed the opportunity to see the guys from ii perform. However, we did see them play a lovely set the previous night at the Grace Emily providing support for Aviator Lane.

Thanks to Jon and Alex from ii and Jason as well the crew at Felt for a great and well organised evening. Jon and Alex, thanks for the invite! Looking forward to performing with you when I get over Melbourne again sometime soon!

Also, cheeers the Lauren's parents for taking my gear home, it would've been a bit cumbersome lugging around a turntable and precious vinyl for the rest of the night.

Some of the actual performance photos soon.

Inside the Sony Ericsonn's digital lo-fi ear

2008-08-05T12:37:00.006+10:00

This has been something of a pet project in spare pockets of my time in the past couple of weeks. I've been extracting the audio track from video recordings made with my mobile phone in quiet places.

Naturally, mobile phone videos come with a significant degree of noise, both in terms of video and audio. I discovered something interesting about the audio track when I was messing around with a short video I shot whilst driving back from McLaren Vale about a month ago. Using iMovie I slowed down the video as much as I could to see the visual effect, when I played it back the audio track had been rendered into an expected drone albeit with a strange selection of little digital artifacts - clicks, swooshes and echoes. Nice stuff in other words, from a Tsunoda/Julius/Minard point of view.

Over the past week I've been making some more recordings in quiet places, both rendering at slowed down (droney) and high speed (cicada-y) settings. Quiet places for the reason the built-in mic is partial to distortion and clipping at loud volumes and broad frequency ranges.

I like these sounds because they sound very artificial. Although they are sped up and slowed down, they're faithful to their original form in a somewhat disembodied and plastic manner. When one sound event is mixed with others, their respective semblance becomes obscured and new sonic identities and environments are evoked.

The example below is a sample montage of several recordings from several different locations. The audio from the recordings has been modified using the simple technique explained above, in many cases the original video track would be slowed down/sped up in its entirity, then selections of the modified audio would be selected for collage.

audio example [1:49]

***

Regular visitors to this blog will know I've always been an aficionado of lo-fi technologies, though I can first remember being introduced to the lo-fi potential of mobile phones a couple of years ago when a UK friend Kate Donovan set up a project called Airvent. The project involves her phone calls to a Berlin radio station who broadcast and record her movements around London, the sound of her surrounding environment is filtered to the listener via the mobile's low fidelity signal. Occasionally traffic, conversations, jackhammers and the sound of birds can be heard slipping through the digital ether. I assume the title is an analogy of sorts, the airvent as a carrier, amplifier and filter of sounds whose sources/locations are unknown to the listener.

***

I've also started recording using unorthodox acoustic filters, including, (LO!) a teapot in the garden the other night.

Quiet Blog

2008-08-04T15:58:00.006+10:00

It's been a busy hectic week and a few days, hence few updates of late.

Weather report in brief:

- Currently preparing material for the Felt Space show on Friday. Which I'm really looking forward to.

- Currently finishing some vis art for an exhibition in a couple of weeks.

- Writing a review for Resonate.

- Mixing down some music for earthed cable and Tascam 424 (see below.)

- I've joined Last FM! My artist page is *here*, my profile is *here*.

Mini-disc redux

2008-07-27T15:50:00.003+10:00

The other weekend I realised that my neglected mini-disc player still works perfectly fine. I've been making some quiet filed recordings since then with the intention of doing something with them eventually. But in the meantime it's nice to be out and about listening closely to windmills, rain and a multitude of drones.

The scraps of an ink trio for SALA

2008-07-25T08:53:00.001+10:00

3 more videos

2008-07-21T13:36:00.008+10:00

A few more videos have been uploaded to my YouTube channel.

"The Sky Falling" Max/MSP documentation (NOTE: lo-fi)

here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3-Fzk0_AJE

mimi promotional video

here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0vJf6WttBM

"The Drop" - from mimi promotional video

here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eDkuEZYqsk

recording "cale" (aka mimi #2)

2008-07-19T17:56:00.003+10:00

I'm currently recording another collection of turntable tracks working under the title of 'cale'. I envision that a 'silent' Tascam 424 might make an appearance.

The set-up.

The patch

The patch - unwrapped.

Mimi - six works for turntable and computer

2008-07-15T11:33:00.007+10:00

I have uploaded Mimi for download. The bundle comes with 128 kps mp3s, artwork and liner notes.

A hard copy format will accompany my performance at Felt Space on the 8th of August.

Download here. (20.2 MB)

Tracklisting:

1. The Drop
2. Farewell Mimi
3. Ear To Air
4. Oceanic Lonliness
5. Radio Glory
6. A Room For Departure

Mimi - liner notes

2008-07-15T10:38:00.000+10:00

Some thoughts on Mimi

Of the recordable mediums, there's something fascinating about vinyl. Aside from the nostalgic and aesthetic elements attached to vinyl, the physicality of the medium itself - its shape and size, fragility, and operation lend to its curiosity and mystique as a medium of sound reproduction. It is a compositional medium probably more commonly associated with commercial music, though was explored in an experimental fashion earlier in the 20th Century by artists such as John Cage (Imaginary Landscape #1) and Pierre Schaefer (see Musique Concrete.) The medium as art object was practically
exhausted over the course of the last century until there was nothing left but a hiss and a crackle in its last decade.

This is where my interest in the medium becomes apparent.

The hiss and crackle of vinyl is what defines it as a medium – they are the soundmarks of its fragility and apparent failure. Since 2005 I've been engaged in what Kim Cascone defines as the aesthetics of failure - the inherent glitches and faults of a given technology which establish its identity. As digital recording lossy took dominance over the analog format at the close of the last century, artists such as Cascone started using the latest
technologies on both a microscopic and manipulative level, exposing the apparent 'weaknesses' of the medium and utilising them as a compositional device. Whilst this trend has continued up to the present day, some artists went in the other direction, recalling superseded technologies as their instrument of choice. In terms of vinyl, this is no more apparent than in the work of Philip Jeck, whose focus on the hiss and crackle of vinyl has not only characterised Jeck's approach to composition, but has opened a new realm of possibilities in working with the medium of vinyl. In May 2008, I witnessed a live performance by Jeck as he built up layer upon layer of crackle fused with an occasional flutter of piano and chunk of guitar riffage, accumulating and expertly positioning sounds to form rich textures of sound which could be augmented and stripped away in a seamless fashion. Not your average DJ.

The tracks which make up Mimi are my first attempts at working with vinyl as a compositional medium, and are very obviously influenced by the work of Jeck. I recorded the tracks over a weekend in July 2008 using a Sound Research 1600
turntable and a custom built Max/MSP patch capable of processing the incoming signal from the turntable. A biquad filter and comb filter are used to shape and manipulate the original sounds of the vinyl record, a tap delay is used in consort with these filters to create layers and textures of sound. If there is an underlying theme to Mimi, it is associated with the beauty of small objects and their internal operation, their fragility and their breakdown and decay. Mimi is dedicated to Debra Carthie, a close friend who passed away in the week preceding these recordings.

Tristan Louth-Robins
July 2008

Upcoming live performance: 8th August 2008

2008-07-14T16:05:00.002+10:00

I will be playing a set at the Felt Space on the 8th of August 2008. Jason Sweeney and Melbourne duo ii are also performing. The much vaunted turntable will make its first public appearance and I will be performing tracks from an upcoming mini-release Mimi.

More details to follow shortly.

Nice pictures from the Jade Monkey show

2008-07-07T15:01:00.003+10:00

Photos courtesy of the resplendent Lauren Playfair.