Tuesday 17 December 2013

ROMANTIC GRASS OF THE WEEK: 20th Anniversary Montage

To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of ROMANTIC GRASS OF THE WEEK

Here's a photo montage of grasses that are saving themselves in social media

You can find all these grasses, sedges, rushes in Australia, some are native and some are introduced, they have all found a place to survive, even in Facebook.














Tuesday 10 December 2013

Conference Presentation: Aiming to Stay an Outsider

I consulted a few peers before I presented on this "Outsider" topic for Sound Summit 2013 - A Festival of Innovative and Experimental Music.  I felt this panel topic I was given, "Aiming to be an Outsider: How to stay relevant and urgent in the evolution of independent music culture" could be the last bastion of good philosophical argument before Sound Summit and it's conference program becomes a pragmatic industry bonanza/trade fair.

It was at the back of my mind to steer it away from any trade industry concerns, but was pleasantly suprised by Nic and my fellow panel members, Joe Sukit (Royal Headache), Shaun Prescott (Crawlspace Magazine), Kevin Boyer (Tyvek).

I actually wrote a whole paper about it and thought I would publish it here because at the conference we only touched on the context of the outsider, the site specificness and micro communities involved; and that for independent music every musical action is relevant and urgent to the creator. We talked a lot about the outsider reacting against what's prevalent, I was even quoted in Mess&Noise. However the focus of my paper was to extend from the current 5 year fad cycles of reaction towards a hypothetical place where the prevalence of each method of independent music is not something we care about; where each method of music simply co-exists and has access to a physical infrastructure, places to connect, organize, gather and play.

I feel the Australian governmental infrastructure supports the 5 year fad cycle, in an effort to disencourage communites to organise and create a sustainable voice. However if you, like Shaun Prescott (quoted from Sound Summit Panel 10/11/2013) "started off as a goth but just stayed in the 'scene' as he watched friend's develop, react etc",  there is still a possibility for organized dissent. As long as the dumb garage band and the noise musician could agree about what they are fighting against, everyone could just stay in the scene, however we still see the minority genre fade out to the suburbs, disabling any long-term resistant movement. We either gotta change the infrastructre - give long-term tenure to venues for all genres of music,  or learn to work together despite our differences??

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“Aiming to Stay an Outsider: The Continual Evolution of Independent Music Culture”
(1500 word conference abstract for presentation)
Independent music is synonymous with the imagery and pursuit of the outsider. There is no strict definition of outsider as there is in visual art, so the pursuit of the outsider to be “relevant” and “urgent” in Independent Music Culture has taken on some insider properties, “This does not necessarily manifest itself in a desire for wealth and possessions or other trappings of fame, but it must include a developed sense of being appreciated and of an extended audience for the work as well as the loss of anonymity.”[1] So as the pursuit of the outsider progresses within its inner circle of independent music culture, we arise at the question, where is independent music culture progressing? Frankly, I don’t know where Independent music is evolving. Will it remain in the post-modernist state where to be relevant and urgent one must not only react against the power structures of popular music but also react against parts of itself if one part gets ‘too powerful?’[2] Or is it now in a post-capitalist utopia where to be relevant and urgent, one just needs to create (like the proliferation of small brands/companies), as Independent Music has found its community we can all now focus on being individuals. [3]
For this presentation, I would like to hypothetically propel Independent Music culture into post-capitalism and follow it’s journey. Mark Fisher, the capitalism-realist states that the artist in a post-capitalist society, utilises the same tools as capitalism, no longer reacting against capitalism to make unique artistic statements, instead engaging in offshore and mass production, social media, and branding.[4] I follow independent music through its crisis due to digital distribution and file sharing, to find it well anchored in post-capitalist society by “fragMOREtation,”[5] specialty branding, the cassette or record becoming a brand identity that the consumer holds. Whilst co-existence has become a tactic of situational survival for the post-capitalist, “proLASTicity”[6] ensures independent music can last forever, happily next-door to popular music. Further, following the post-capitalist move towards user-generated content and mass media platforms not owned by the major music labels, independent music culture not only utilises social media to consume independent music but also niche DIY and independent press plays an important role in discovering ‘outsiders’ out of the consumer’s digital community.[7]
We have seen a shift in how music is distributed and thereby consumed. In a way independent music has taken hold of the physical unit to react against popular music’s I-Tunes digital trend. But even though Independent music still relies on physical units (maybe moreso than popular music) it’s physical units can be thought of more as a brand, than a nostalgic mass-produced item. Zully Adler writes the cottage-industry ‘specialty’ branding of independent music leads to popularity in unpopular objects such as Cassettes, VHS and Records.[8] The signification of the specialness of cassettes etc are presented in popular music, which does not sell these objects but represents them in videoclips and marketing like Eminem’s recent album and single, Bezerk.[9] Traditionally this could cause a backlash against cassettes, but Independent Music seems comfortable enough to keep on going trading tapes, and look a little more favourably upon popular music.[10] In this context, independent music can still follow post-capitalism’s trend away from the object and towards an acceptance of more cultures and brands as the cassette and record becomes a special brand identity.
The evolution of post capitalist society and culture points to growing and accepting more forms, the adult identity is not solid, it is variable like the teens.[11] Is independent music accepting more forms rather than being reactionary? There is the notion that we realise we can like popular music too, in post-capitalism even the reactionary can enjoy what they are reacting too, in more than just an ironic way. It is becoming increasingly acceptable to relate/change to your environment.[12]  For example The Boiler Room asks Sigur Ros to be recorded in one of their Youtube features, instead of playing post-rock, Sigur Ros bust out with some popular and underground Trap music.[13] They related to their environment and accepted a new form. Whilst, in my personal experience, independent music would formerly cover popular music songs to be ironic but nowadays after an independent rock’n’roll show, Per Purpose album launch or even a NowNow improvised music festival, the stage becomes a dance floor and people start dancing to popular music.
Post Capitalism also moves away from mass media authored and generation targeted content, towards individualised user generated forms (no matter your age, you are an individual online).[14] The scenario of housewives taking on teens when discussing Miley Cyrus’ twerking, birthed a meme for the Miley Cyrus brand on a mass media platform. Things have changed. Formerly, major labels comfortably authored content to promote their artists on the mass media platforms they also owned, but now all promotion is user generated and ownership of mass media has switched to Google and Facebook. [15] More people watch video clips on Youtube than MTV.[16] The major labels are having enough trouble staying afloat, let alone afford to buy Facebook.
Independent Music has never been influenced by mass media but has been generationally targeted and trended, as it has often been seen as a refuge for teens.[17] In a post-capitalist society more people of different ages are seeking out new music, ways to individualise.[18] Social media currently plays a big part in connecting the independent music fan with independent music.[19] However in this post-internet no-borders no-age zone Independent Music needs its independent media as well.[20] Ben Eltham and Marcus Westbury’s argument for small scale Australian cultural industry also supports small scale independent music media, At stake is not the future of artistic achievement in Australia — for artists will always create, no matter their economic circumstances — but the ability of Australian creators to tell their own stories, and create for their own communities.” Google’s Search Engine Optimisation and Facebook are constantly offering you suggestions, by cross-referencing your community, however reach is still connected with popularity and who you know.[21] To find something outside of that community is a constant challenge of the independent music fan,[22] to always search for the outsider. This is why we need independent and DIY press. As suggested before, Independent Music does not need to shrink away from physical objects because specialty physical objects are more related to brand identities than mass consumption.[23] In a post-capitalist society Independent Music can still be about the outsider if we have the press to tell us about it.
The act of creation, keeps the outsider vital. The music had to be made now and it was. Independent Music communicates the unsayable thoughts, feelings of the independent outsider.[24] Passionately creating an experimental dirge or even recreating a genre of music that was popular 15 years ago, is a vital act in itself, whose urgency is attributed by its creation. Luciano Berio said in Attali’s Noise: The Political economy of Music, “If we compose music we are also composed by history, by situations that challenge us.”[25] However Attali’s conception of composition as a saviour to society missed the mark a little, as post-capitalism’s social media usurped composition’s role “we are being condemned to silence – unless we create our own relation with the world and try to tie other people into the meaning we thus create.”[26] The post-capitalist independent music outsider searches for similar interests as well as the unknown, they are busy creating relations in every specific situation you find them in. Even if you record your own cassette and leave them at the Vinnies, the searching outsider is gonna pick it up, blog about it and fileshare it.[27] Social media in the post-capitalism environment can offer independent music creators, what they need to feel “relevant” - a developed sense of being appreciated and an extended audience for the work as well as the loss of anonymity.[28] And “urgent” as it is made now it is also archived to be “urgent” later, the “save everything” attitude of post-capitalist society[29] quirkily relates to the traditional argument for “doing to do, creation as adding to the canon (sic: /archive).”[30]
The antagonism that post-modernity tried to fight has been coalesced into post-capitalism. The fight between personalities and genres has become so accepted, it is the norm to be in more than one group, have more than one brand identity.[31] The outsider is not excluded, sometimes situationally, it is just necessary to be included. In popular music - the disabled, the lesbian, the poor, the indie are all in Fox’s TV series Glee,[32] whilst independent musicians dance to popular music if the situation allows. However Independent Music’s search for an outsider continues as we scavenge independent media for awesome tapes from Africa or just the latest plain indie-american band that our friends have not heard of yet. And simply in a post-capitalist society, we are encouraged to express, individualise – if anyone creates music independently they are vital and urgent because they do, and archive; and they are supported in their relevance by post-capitalism’s social media. Thanks for joining me on this journey of Independent Music Culture through the lens of post-capitalism.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Attali, Jacques. Noise: The Political Economy of Music (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1985) 140
Collins English Dictionary “Outsider” Accessed Oct 24, 2013. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/outsider
Collins, Katie “Report:the crisis of what it means to be special is no longer limited to the young” Wired Co.UK Accessed Oct 24, 2013 http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-10/18/serpentine-89plus-marathon
Curtis, Adam The Century of The Self  240 minutes DVD, BBC Four, 2002
Cyber PR. “Are you Guilty – 4 Ways Indie Musicians are Killing Social Media. Accessed October 28, 2013. http://cyberprmusic.com/2013/08/15/are-you-guilty-4-ways-indie-musicians-are-killing-social-media/
Eggy Records “Goaty Tapes Zully Adler Interview”  Accessed Oct 24, 2013. http://eggyrecords.blogspot.com.au/2010/01/goaty-tapes-zully-adler-interview-i-had.html
Eltham, Ben and Westbury, Marcus “Cultural Policy in Australia” in More than Luck: Ideas Australia Needs Now, ed by M Davis and M Lyons, Melbourne: Centre for Policy Development Ltd, 2010.
Eminemvevo “Bezerk” Accessed Oct 24, 2013 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=359na4NeaVA
Fisher, Mark Capitalist Realism. Is there no alternative? London: Zero Books, 2009
Fong, Greg., Monahan Sean., Segal, Emily., Sherron, Chris and Yago, Dena. K Hole #1 Fragmoretation, New York: K-Hole, 2011
Fong, Greg., Monahan Sean., Segal, Emily., Sherron, Chris and Yago, Dena. K Hole #2 Prolasticity, New York: K-Hole, 2012
Fong, Greg., Monahan Sean., Segal, Emily., Sherron, Chris and Yago, Dena. K Hole #3 The Brand Anxiety Matrix, New York: K-Hole, 2013
K-Hole and Box 1824 “Youth Mode: What it means to be Free” October 2013, NY Paper presented at 89 Plus Marathon at Serpentine Gallery, London, UK  8 October 2013.
Lee, Timothy “Why we shouldn’t worry about the decline of the music industry” Forbes January 30, 2012. Accessed Oct 28, 2013 http://www.forbes.com/sites/timothylee/2012/01/30/why-we-shouldnt-worry-about-the-decline-of-the-music-industry/
Murphy, R, Falcuck, B & Brennan I, Glee TV Series, 20th Century Fox Television, Hollywood, 2009-present.
Rose, Jon The Music of Place: Reclaiming A Practice Platform Papers #26, Currency House, Sydney, 2013
Setzer, Adam “Google Penguin 2013: How to evolve link building into a real SEO” Search Engine Watch May 23, 2013. Accessed Oct 28, 2013 http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2269998/Google-Penguin-2013-How-to-Evolve-Link-Building-into-Real-SEO
Sherburne, Phillip “Sigur Ros reinvent themselves as dubstepping Trap-rave DJ’s” Spin July 2, 2013 Accessed Oct 28, 2013 http://www.spin.com/articles/sigur-ros-dubstep-boiler-room-dj/
Shinoda, Mike “Why Doesn’t MTV play Music Videos Anymore” http://mikeshinoda.com/2012/11/17/why-doesnt-mtv-play-music-videos-anymore-a-response/
World of WÃœmme. “Sean Sandusky Does Prince’s Greatest Hits” Accessed October 24, 2013. http://worldofwumme.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/sean-sandusky-does-princes-greatest.html



[1] Collin Rhodes, Outsider Art: Spontaneous Alternatives (London: Thames & Hudson, 2000) 20
[2] Jacques Attali, Noise: The Political Economy of Music (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1985) 140
[3] Greg Fong et al. K Hole #3 The Brand Anxiety Matrix, (New York: K-Hole, 2013) 14
[4] Fisher, Mark Capitalist Realism. Is there no alternative? London: Zero Books, 2009
[5] Greg Fong et al. K Hole #1 Fragmoretation, (New York: K-Hole, 2013) 43-44
[6] Greg Fong et al. K Hole #2 Prolasticity, (New York: K-Hole, 2013) 46-48
[7] Ben Eltham “Eltham on why you should support NM” New Matilda September 13, 2013. Accessed October 24, 2013 https://newmatilda.com/2011/09/13/eltham-why-you-should-support-nm
[8] “Goaty Tapes Zully Adler Interview”  Accessed Oct 24, 2013. http://eggyrecords.blogspot.com.au/2010/01/goaty-tapes-zully-adler-interview-i-had.html
[9] “Bezerk” Accessed Oct 24, 2013 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=359na4NeaVA
[10]Goaty Tapes Zully Adler Interview”
[11] Greg Fong et al. K Hole #1 Fragmoretation, (New York: K-Hole, 2013) 43-44
[12] Greg Fong et al. K Hole #2 Prolasticity, (New York: K-Hole, 2013) 46-48
[13] Sherburne, Phillip “Sigur Ros reinvent themselves as dubstepping Trap-rave DJ’s” Spin July 2, 2013 Accessed Oct 28, 2013 http://www.spin.com/articles/sigur-ros-dubstep-boiler-room-dj/
[14] Katie Collins “Report: the crisis of what it means to be special is no longer limited to the young” Wired Co.UK October 18, 2013. Accessed Oct 24, 2013 http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-10/18/serpentine-89plus-marathon
[15] Timothy B. Lee “Why we shouldn’t worry about the decline of the music industry” Forbes January 30, 2012. Accessed Oct 28, 2013 http://www.forbes.com/sites/timothylee/2012/01/30/why-we-shouldnt-worry-about-the-decline-of-the-music-industry/
[16] “Why Doesn’t MTV play Music Videos Anymore” Accessed Oct 28, 2013. http://mikeshinoda.com/2012/11/17/why-doesnt-mtv-play-music-videos-anymore-a-response/
[17] K-Hole and Box 1824 “Youth Mode: What it means to be Free” (paper presented at 89 Plus Marathon at Serpentine Gallery, London, UK  8 October 2013).
[18] Ibid.
[19] Cyber PR. “Are you Guilty – 4 Ways Indie Musicians are Killing Social Media. Accessed October 28, 2013. http://cyberprmusic.com/2013/08/15/are-you-guilty-4-ways-indie-musicians-are-killing-social-media/
[20] Ibid.
[21] Adam Setzer “Google Penguin 2013: How to evolve link building into a real SEO” Search Engine Watch May 23, 2013. Accessed Oct 28, 2013 http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2269998/Google-Penguin-2013-How-to-Evolve-Link-Building-into-Real-SEO
[22] Ben Eltham and Marcus Westbury “Cultural Policy in Australia” in More than Luck: Ideas Australia Needs Now, ed by M Davis and M Lyons (Melbourne: Centre for Policy Development Ltd), 89
[23] Greg Fong et al. K Hole #3 The Brand Anxiety Matrix, (New York: K-Hole, 2013) 27
[24] Collin Rhodes, Outsider Art: Spontaneous Alternatives (London: Thames & Hudson, 2000) 20
[25] Jacques Attali, Noise: The Political Economy of Music (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1985) 141
[26] Ibid, 134
[27] “Sean Sandusky Does Prince’s Greatest Hits” Accessed October 24, 2013. http://worldofwumme.blogspot.com.au/2011/02/sean-sandusky-does-princes-greatest.html
[28] Cyber PR. “Are you Guilty – 4 Ways Indie Musicians are Killing Social Media. Accessed October 28, 2013. http://cyberprmusic.com/2013/08/15/are-you-guilty-4-ways-indie-musicians-are-killing-social-media/
[29] Greg Fong et al. K Hole #2 Prolasticity, (New York: K-Hole, 2013) 46-48
[30] Attali, 134.
[31] K-Hole and Box 1824 “Youth Mode: What it means to be Free” (paper presented at 89 Plus Marathon at Serpentine Gallery, London, UK  8 October 2013).
[32] Murphy, Falcuck & Brennan, Glee TV Series, 20th Century Fox Television, Hollywood, 2009-present.

Thursday 5 December 2013

Split Personality Cult in The Museum of Micro-Cassette Art

I have been published in The Museum of Micro-Cassette Art. This is a micro-cassette archive and digital release project. The link to my tape is below, but you can browse the whole selection here. Please support this project with a name your price download, there is lots of great stuff on here.

Here are some notes from curator, Hal McGee.

Now available is the 65th album release of The Museum Of Microcassette Art project - "Split Personality Cult", and it is a split tape release by two projects of Nicola Morton and Rohan Bridge - http://www.haltapes.com/moma065---equalizer-24k-and-goofy-wardenburger.html - Side A is a straight-up analog synthesizer duo jam with Nicola and Rohan (Equalizer 24K & Goofy) improvising on Korg MS20 and Yamaha CS1 synths - and Side B is Nicola and Rohan in a loose jam band setting on the same synths along with their mates Skye MacNicol (violin) & Dylan Jeffries (guitar) & Henry Mills (electronics) & Jule Vincent (vocal & percussion). Satisfying abstraction, improvisation and jamification deluxe that travels to lots of places (some simultaneously) that you have never heard before. Recorded in Moorooka, Queensland; and SAE Studio, Melbourne Australia.

Here is a review from Lindsay Leepe.

There is something dark and twisted sounding about this (especially side b). From what I can tell, the humans are purging themselves of stress and anxiety (a catharsis so to speak) and the resulting primitive soundtrack is causing evil forces to flee. An energy transfer that will have you writhing around a psychic fire and crying out to the void.

Thursday 28 November 2013

More Videos from EXIST-ENCE 5

to see my curator's statement on this festival - click here I've quoted from it below.

Lately, I have been editing videos of EXIST-ENCE 5 festival, which I co-directed with Rebecca Clunn. and would like to add a few stand-outs so far. Here's three videos, highlighting my main themes for the festival - provoking the hegemony; different experiences of existence; and spiritual inspiration

John G. Boehme marries business and sporting attitudes in acting out his super male character with his son. "Considered Compulsion Series" is an example of how "live art has an extensive history of grass roots provocation against the ruling industry and politics." The performance is measured, thoughtful and sensory, instigating more than just a rebel yeah from the crowd.


EXIST-ENCE 5 international festival live art performance art action art - John G Boehme from EXIST ARI on Vimeo.


Sari TM. Kivinen brings the words she overheard in our environment in the recent past, to us, sitting here in the same environment she sat in, to create a temporally phasing community, we are portalled partially into the past, through our connection with the site. "Herdwerds" is an example of how "Live art has relied on the experience of the body and mind that exists in front of you, but for centuries we have been playing with portalling from this existence." The unseen energy that Sari moves around us makes me think we are somewhere else...


EXIST-ENCE 5 international festival live art performance art action art - Sari T.M. Kivinen from EXIST ARI on Vimeo.

Jade Boyd evokes a spectre in the machine, a belief in the supernatural. "As live art has relied on the body, existence has relied on an inspired belief in a universal, metaphysical truth. Jade Boyd and Labanna Babalon are inspired by their technological mediums. Jade Boyd's 'VHxiSm' and Labanna Babalon's 'House of Muse' channel and project their beliefs in 'other beings' being trapped in our consumer technology. The signal spectres in Jade's VHS and the muse me muse in Labanna's 'tree of knowledge' internet embody the form of their works but their experience is other worldly." Jade traps our sentiments of nostalgia and turns them into a ghostly exploration.



EXIST-ENCE 5 international festival live art performance art action art - Jade Boyd from EXIST ARI on Vimeo.

Monday 25 November 2013

TIME & SPACE DESTROYER - Televisions, Carriageworks, Sydney.

Screening on Friday 29th November, just after Joel Stern's Nuerovision TV show performance. I can't wait for everyone to be dis-embrained!!!! and ready to dis-empower time and space.

from http://televisionsproject.org/

Analog TV Booty to Bad Intentions’ Hemloch – Nicola Morton

unnamed

“Analog TV Booty to Bad Intentions’ Hemloch”
Recorded in reflection of our large screen CRT TV, Nicola is able to project her image and video onto the analog signal, which sadly does not exist anymore in Brisbane. When there is no longer analog broadcast TV you can make your own. Slo-mo booty shaking is a signifier of MTV before they went all Reality TV style – the nostalgia for analog TV and times past is balanced by the use of new broadcast mediums – VIMEO and YOUTUBE. The work being screened on community TV on some of the last days of Australian analog TV and entering the user-generated media market says a big fuck you to the major music labels and the media they controlled and owned. Welcome to post-capitalism.

Sunday 24 November 2013

WOOLWORTHS RELEASES SHAMANIC COLLECTOR CARDS

Woolworths instigated a campaign of collector cards, featuring Australian Animals, I realise they could be releasing a shamanic power unbeknownst. The TV commercial features a child "seeing" animals poke out and run wild in the store, the next day I saw a child running from a "crocodile!!" in the meat department.




Maybe one day they will use my Romantic Grasses

from my E-BAY listing..

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-text description-
Set of 60 Woolworths Aussie Animals Collecting Cards
almost full set of Great Southern Ocean, Coast and Desert.

i am able to post just your selection.

Coast - 2 Australian fur seal, 3 Sea Urchin, 6 Leather Backed Turtle, 8 Fiddler Crab, 9 Australian Pelican, 10 Blue Bottle, 11 Little Penguin, 12 Eastern Brown snake

Bush - 13 Bush Stone-Curlew, 14 Superb Fairy Wren, 15 Long Nosed Potoroo, 16 Ghost Bat, 21 Cuckoo Wasp, 23 Red Necked Butterfly, 24 Imperial Blue Butterfly

Desert - 25 Bandy Bandy Snake, 26 Red Kangoaroo, 27 Wedge-Tailed Eagle, 29 Emu, 30 Yelloy-Footed Rock Wallaby, 33 Dingo, 34 Northern marsupial Mole, 36 Major Mitchell Cockatoo

Wetland - 37 Arafura Filesnake, 38 Yellow-Bellied Glider, 39 Wandering Whistling Duck, 40 Giant Dragonfly, 43 Black Swan, 45 Lace Monitor, 47 Eastern Long Necked Turtle*

Rainforest - 52 Bennett's Tree Kangaroo*, 55 Green Python, 57 Ulysses Butterfly

Your Backyard - 63 Common Ring Tailed  Possum, 65 Red Backed Spider, 67 Goliath Stick Insect*, 68 Green Tree Frog, 70 Grey Headed Flying Fox, 71 Rainbow Lorikeet

Great Southern Ocean - 73 Humpbacked whale, 74 Leopard Seal, 75 Blue Whale, 76 Adelie Penguin, 77 Anartic Petrel, 78 Wandering Albatross, 79 Southern Elephant Seal, 80 Imperial Shag, 82 Kelp Gull

Reef- 85 Box Jelly Fish, 87 Manta Ray, 88 Sharkfish Guitarfish 90 Dugong, 91 Blue Starfish, 94 White-Tipped Reef Shark, 96 Common Bottle Nosed Dolphin

Mountain Ranges - 97 Corroboree Frog, 99 Tiger Snake 102 Gang Gang Cockatoo, 103 Bogong Moth, 105 Yellow Tailed Cockatoo.

*denotes damaged - see photo for full details
-photos-




Happy Endings?
I collected 60 (with no doubles) and sold them on E-Bay on 22 October 2013, for a final price of $10.50 to Lysandra Walker from Mt Garnet, Qld, Australia (somewhere rural). Ebay charged me $1 to list the entry and Paypal charged me 55c to use them. Everyone gets a piece of the shamanic energy

Tuesday 19 November 2013

BREAKDANCE THE DAWN SHOWCASE AT SOUND SUMMIT

MUSIC HAS A NEW LANGUAGE. IT IS BROKEN. breakdance the dawn. BROKEN SOUNDS WITH SUPER POWERS.


OVER 7 HOURS FROM 4PM - 11PM - eleven art-noise bands played..at 107 PROJECTS, REDFERN.

I hand-sponged (but it looks like a screen print) heaps and heaps of t-shirts with "REAL BAD MUSIC' for us to sell on tour.. to be sold for only $5, we scoured every op-shop between Brisbane and Sydney for cheap shirts. Thanks to all the people who bought one in Brisbane and Sydney!!!

Although the reviewer for MESS & NOISE, missed the showcase, he caught the panel I spoke on, and quoted me.. its a pretty incisive review http://messandnoise.com/articles/4627081

"What a Pro- BREAKDANCE THE DAWN stall...Photo by Sarah Spencer
SUN OF THE SEVENTH SISTER played with halved ping pong balls over their eyes - for a complete psychedelic experience.


Here is one photo by Peter Blamey, of me in CLUB SOUND WITCHES
FOUR DAYS LATER.. we played at a Bastard Theatre show with my old mate, HEATSICK. Photos by Marek Rygielski

And again at the showcase in BAD INTENTIONS
Here is a video of X-WAVE - where i guested on synth


and here's a vid of my fav band in the world






Saturday 16 November 2013

Please Support RENEW PROJECTS

I bring great news that the RENEW AUSTRALIA team are finally coming to Sydney with RENEW LEICHARDT. I am really excited to see what happens.. follow them at http://www.renewaustralia.org/category/news/

In 2010 I was lucky to have an artist residency "spystation nc1074"(link in comments) with Renew Newcastle thanks to Marcus Westbury Marni Jackson and Damian Castaldi. I applied for this from Berlin because thats the kinda reach a cool idea like Marcus' gets. Now he is writing a book about the renew movement, there's one day left to help support it http://www.pozible.com/project/27755

You can search my blog for "spystation" or... here are some links

I wrote 25+ spy missions for collaboration and stuffed them in toys and tried to sell them to public.. i made a few e-sales tooo..

http://spymissions.wordpress.com/

http://renewnewcastle.org/projects/project/spystation-nc1074/

was inspired by bringing berlin's teufelsberg to the newcastle tower by the beach.. from penis spy tower  to penis spy tower.. hemisphere to hemisphere...

COCK ESP  2

COCK SAFARI

Wednesday 16 October 2013

REAL BAD MUSIC SCHOOL - Shane Fahey

At Real Bad Wednesday on 16/10/13, we were lucky enough to have Shane Fahey from Scattered Order come and jam with all of us. He brought enough analogue synthesizers for everyone, and ones that I didn't even know existed. Yay! (#techhead).  It was great to see Shane so genuinely interested in sharing his knowledge and equipment with us as well as taking an interest in what we are all doing. We jammed all night, it was mega!!! Here's a quote from Tim Green, "What if Stockhausen had a laptop?"... I'm sure he would come to the Real Bad Music UFO landing strip...



Real Bad Analogue Synthesis

Spaceship Commanders:
Adam Park, Rohan Holiday, Tim Green, Rachael Archibald, Timmy Joseph, Max Fowler-Roy, Jason Bright, Matt Earle, Nicola Morton.

For an archive of events at Real Bad Music

Drawings In On|In Paper (on Auction)

Drawings exhibited at Substation Gallery, Paddington for "On|In Paper" Jul 2 - 28 2013.

Donated to Auction at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art.

Here is a photo of Nicola Morton's drawing "S&M: Equalizer 24k" installed by Kelly Keating..thanks :-)

Nicola Morton took up drawing when her Radical Computer Music teacher, Goodiepal (Kristian Paarl Vester) told her she just had to do it. If drawing in crayons made her happy, just do it. She didn't only have to do music. So, she distinctly draws to make herself happy, to alleviate visions and dreams from her subconscious and connect to the earth again. 



S&M DVD is available on mailorder via nicolaisgreat@gmail.com - a 2 hour DVD anthology of works of Nicola Morton and Simbi Dare.

Bad Intentions - Review

The punk duo I'm in has a review up on Bristol-based Infinite Limits

Bad Intentions is Nicola Morton (Club Sound Witches, Equalizer 24K, ABBAABBA et al) and Rebecca Hlodich, artists who formed a duo in April 2013. According to the duo's Facebook page, Bad Intentions is about "looking past' or 'seeing through'... we are two girls all about love and clearing judgements. These artists are involved in primitive electronics, punk, rock, abstract poetry, and performance art, and more or less everything else in between, it seems. "Over", released as a CDr on the Brisbane-based Breakdance The Dawn label, captures a live set with the duo using electric guitars and f/x to articulate 13 pieces of fucked-up avant-rock confusion.
http://www.infinite-limits.com/search.aspx?ArtistId=1046 

Here are some pics from our recent performance at Metro Arts, Gallery.

Image Credit: Alan Warren




Wednesday 9 October 2013

Wardenburger - Review

David Keenan over at Volcanic Tongue, has reviewed Wardenburger's selftitled release out on Albert's Basement

"Warden Burger
s/t
Alberts Basement AB-42
Cassette
£8.99

Great new 90 minute album from this psychedelic/improvisatory collective from Brisbane: Warden Burger consist of Henry Mills on electronics, Skye McNicol on violin, Jule Small on vocals, Rohan Halliday on keyboard, Alex Cuffe on percussion, Nicola Morton on synth, Dylan Jeffries on guitar and Adam Park on bass. They channel the heady cultic deep-space vibe of East Bionic Symphonia but a more hands-on/basement punk style, setting out for new zones of weird melodic stasis in a way that touches on the more abstruse NNCK strategies circa A Tabu Two, with passages that consist of nothing but padding percussion and woozy electronics/strings that could almost be the Charlie Nothing big band live from the Bardo Matrix."
 

Thursday 19 September 2013

Equalizer 24K - new release


Magpie Season from nicola morton on Vimeo.
the end of the einternal year

a new equalizer 24k CDR.. email me to get one.. nicolaisgreat@gmail.com

made with my new korg ms-20!!




Thursday 15 August 2013

MAIL ORDER DVD-R - "S&M'

I have been asked by Simbi Dare to take down all our works together. I have compiled a 2 hour DVD of edits of our performances. $AU25 plus postage nicolaisgreat@gmail.com

RITUALS THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR WORLD

--> This is a 2 hour DVD sampler of the works between Simbi Dare and Nicola Morton. They met in 2006 in Berlin and were discovered by Japanese-German Musician and artist, Hanayo, their works featuring in her books "MAGMA" and "hanayo's saugeile kumpels." Simbi Dare (from Bruno Wizard & the Homosexuals (NYC), yoga guru) and Nicola Morton (from Club Sound Witches, award winning film 'Remote Viewing Experiment #1') channel the puzzling traumas of dream and desire for social transformation.
 Here are two previously published photographs

film still from "12 Ways to Masturbate with a Melodica" published in Pipeline Jan/Feb 2012, Hong Kong


 photo by Gato Susilo from "How I Survived a Kunitlanak Attack" published for ICAN Catalogue (Indonesian Contemporary Art Network), 2011


 This is the original drawing/collage for the cover.. exhibited at Substation Gallery and hopefully sold for 4A Fundraiser - Contemporary Asian Art Gallery.