SONIC STATE FESTIVAL - Queensland Week

So as part of Queensland Week I was invited to take part in this Micro-Festival before they announced the state budget the next day.. Are you thinking, Was it a conspiracy to get everyone wasted?  For those of you who couldn't afford the $15 ticket or get a copy of the program.. here is my excerpt. To see what the others like Lawrence English and Kieran Welch had to say check it here:
http://www.metroarts.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/SONIC-STATE-festival-booklet-ONLINE-VERSION.pdf
SUN 12 JUNE 5PM
THE WAREHOUSE

NICOLA MORTON

as CLUB SOUND WITCHES                            
(with MATT EARLE) and DJ
WHITE PIMPERNELL (ADAM
SUSSMANN)


with

SHOOGA

THE PERFECT LOVERS


LJ: Can you take me back to the days before
Real Bad Music. Where you involved in
events then?


NM: Before Real Bad Music, I was really lucky
in Brisbane to have Cheryl Siecker (ex-Shooga)
and Tara Pattenden, they would organise gigs
in clubs and public spaces when I first started
playing live. When I joined Tara in Berlin, me
and my housemates put on a couple of gigs
when there were bands from overseas that noone
else wanted to put on. This always involved
hiring a club space, same in Indonesia where I
was just before Real Bad Music.


The first gig I went to on returning to Brisbane
at the end of 2011, was a house show at 116,
Matt Kennedy's (Kitchen's Floor, Bitter Defeat)
house in Paddington).

How did Real Bad begin?

Matt Earle and Melanie Jade Simpson (from
Shooga) started Real Bad Music when they saw
a spray painted sign on the side of the building
proclaiming it for lease. Downstairs was an
adult book store and Matt and Mel also took
that over too as part of the renovation process,
Real Bad started off as the Breakdance the
Dawn headquarters (Matt's cassette/CDR
Label). Once it was open people started coming
in donating stock, soon there were second
hand records, rare import CDs from Japan and
local DIY music.

The first gig I went to at Real Bad was in the
shop downstairs. Leif Gifford (Shooga) took me
there, We fit her full length keyboard in the car,
and set up..It was wild. There was music
equipment everywhere, but most of it looked
like it was broken, kinda like an 80's grotto of
vintage leftovers. All the cassettes and CDs had
intricately drawn covers and graffiti-like
designs. It really opened up my eyes to how
much DIY music could really do. At that first
jam, Melanie Jade let me use a pedal of hers.
And yeah, the music was wild AND inviting. !
There was a wonderful sense of freedom, as if
anyone could join in at anytime and it would be
impossible to make a mistake. It sounded like
equipment breaking apart in an industrial
wasteland. Who wouldn't want to be a part of
that?

Real Bad was a really bad house. as far as
suburban houses go. But to me it had such a
beautiful decayed civility about it. kind of just
enough of what you needed to live but
nothing more. you need a roof but maybe not
too many internal walls etc... but is this too
much of a romantic view? how did it feel
living there?

The Real Bad House really is a reflection of
Matt Earle's wild living aesthetic, based on
creating lots of open space where you won't
feel bad if you drop a beer, enhancing the
creative spirit. It was inspiring to live there and
witness the freedom, often it did feel like the
wild west. Its amazing how much floor space
you can get when you're willing to actually put
the floor boards down!

How does this compare to where you are now
in Sydney - it feels similar in many ways,
living above a shop, off a busy industrial road
to the Western suburbs, hosted house gigs
and so on... how is it similar, and different?

Well, Real Bad was a mansion. An amazing
deal of space. Here in Sydney our space is a lot
smaller and we deal with Real Estate etc. Here,
you really can't cast a doubt on the upcoming
gentrification, like you could at Moorooka.. But
in both spaces there are a lot of players just
passionate about playing music together, doing
the weekly workshop/improv sessions like at
Real Bad, here in Sydney at Life Groove - gives
it that sense of oneness..People and places are
different but maybe the song is the same :-) !
What is it about the living-in-the-space-ofthe-
gigs that attracts you? are there creative
synergies and/or tensions with the living
part of it, and the gigging part?

Experimental music has its roots in community
and I think thats why living in the space is also
special. Its kinda acknowledging the sharing
and personal nature of what is going on, our
music may not be too emotional or expressive,
but we are still a great community.
And where does the decrepit house gig fit
into your wider practice - I mean, is it the
most ideal space for your own music-making,
or do you like other spaces equally as much?
what does a space need, to excite you?

The decrepit house allows us to jam all the
time, with little or no interference from
neighbours. And it allows us to use equipment
so broken/fragile that it would not survive
transport. I love playing music. Each type of
space has its benefits, I even learn stuff when
playing to hostile or no audiences. For me, I
just love to play, but will always really love
coming home to a house gig.

How do you understand and navigate the
artist-making mode and the artist-puttingon-
events mode? when do they work best
together? when is it most challenging?

Ha! Thats whats so good about the house
shows, it combines the artist-making and the
artist-putting-on. The emotional tides and
intellectual rabbit holes often trouble my artist
making but I find surrounding myself with
friends by putting on events, always puts me
back on my feet.

Who have you chosen? when did you first
come across their work (can you recall that)
and what previous gigs/events/
collaborations have you done with them? and
what interests/excites/intrigues you about
their work?

The Perfect Lovers played at my first art event,
Bloodbath at The White House ARI on George
St in the City in 2005. I'm really excited that
eleven years later they are all still around and
developing even more as musicians. Jamie
Hume has always been a great influence on
every noise/experimental musician that walked
the streets of Brisbane over the last 20 years.
We even share the same birthday. Kat Martin,
Rin Healey, Donat Tahiraj, Adam Park, Kaspar
Schnyder and Marek Rygielski accompany
Jamie to convey pure romance through the
night. Guaranteed events: surprises! smiles!

Shooga play a really important role in
experimental music, an all-girl improvised
electronic group with some of the best ladies
Brisbane has birthed. I keyed into the great
contribution Brisbane girls have to offer when
interviewing people about gender and noise for
my Musicology project in 2004. Brisbane girls
get in there and encourage others to as well.
I've played a few gigs beside Shooga and am
always entranced by their sublime, immersive
sounds and visuals. Dedicating space, time,
hearts and minds to the feminine is and should
be an important part of a holistic exploratory
music practice.

I am also stoked to be playing in Club Sound
Witches, a collaboration with Matt Earle and
this time also with special guest, DJ White
Pimpernell. Adam Sussmann's unique
concrete style is unpredictable and
uncompromising in its exploration of timbre
and technique. No Schmalz. His abstract tones
will supplement the minimal styles of Club
Sound Witches and push us to 'tune in' to new
sounds and break through the mind-sound
dimension barriers. Yes, we'll blow your top off
and you might not even notice.

Photos by Marek Rygielski

Artist Interview: Happy New Year

Hi,
I am gonna use this potentially dead time on the internet to release this artist interview of me by Tristan Eyles.. #amiasfullofshitasthenextperson

Interview with Nicola Morton (October 3, 2015) from Tristan Eyles on Vimeo.

LIFE GROOVE CAFE

so in 2015, matt and i moved to sydney. we finally found a place and opened it up for small sound shows and workshop/jams every monday.. we call it the life groove cafe. you can find out about up and coming gigs from now on on the tumblr.

the most liked photos from life groove cafe this year on facebook were taken by nick dan: 
Laura Hunt
Matthew P Hopkins
Vavenge

Website for Life Groove Cafe:
http://lifegroovecafe.tumblr.com/

The Artist Is Present (or do you believe in ghosts) - Video Documentation

for 1 screen


The Artist is Present (or do you believe in ghosts) - Nicola Morton from nicola morton on Vimeo.


for 12 screens

The Artist is Present (or do you believe in ghosts) - Nicola Morton from nicola morton on Vimeo.





for 15 screens

The Artist is Present (or do you believe in ghosts) - Nicola Morton from nicola morton on Vimeo.

Club Sound Witches 'Revolutionary Spray' at Demon's Mouth Gallery, Oslo

as part of Jade Boyd's Intermezzo in March. Her sound installation will feature Revolutionary Spray from Club Sound Witches

The Artist Is Present - Photo Documentation

Performed from 7.20 pm until 10.00pm on Dec 27, at Other Film Festival 'Institutional Capture' at Boggo Road Gaol, Brisbane.

 

Performance 

Screening:

Photos: Alan Warren and Bryan Spencer

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My father was a screw. He started with seemingly impossible ideals of social change in the Joh era and ended a very cynical, tough as nails, one-punch man. Thirty plus years later in 2014, we find ourselves in a ‘social turn’ of contemporary art,[1] where art is trending towards activism and our conservative governments are selling/leasing off public interests to private concerns. A private company working for profit could soon operate the jail my father worked in. I find myself unable to share my father’s righteous belief in the Law when the Law and (other Institutions like Art Institutions) are increasingly serving private interests and the accumulation of value. Working towards the contrary, other artists and I produce our art within the context of this ‘social turn’ to disseminate ‘the power over’ hegemony into ‘the power with’ community. Without the technocratic skills of hacking, I wish to interrupt the surveillance technology with community concentration. In doing so I ask Art to take a look at itself: what does activism from within the Institution look like, what does it hope to achieve and how can it do so without serving private interests. 

READ MORE

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[1] Anne Marsh. Performance Ritual Document (Melbourne: MacMillan, 2014), 20.

Institutional Capture: How We Do It

 
OtherFilm Festival 2014 has asked us how would we capture the Institution? This is my answer. –> 

My father was a screw. He started with seemingly impossible ideals of social change in the Joh era and ended a very cynical, tough as nails, one-punch man. Thirty plus years later in 2014, we find ourselves in a ‘social turn’ of contemporary art,[1] where art is trending towards activism and our conservative governments are selling/leasing off public interests to private concerns. A private company working for profit could soon operate the jail my father worked in. I find myself unable to share my father’s righteous belief in the Law when the Law and (other Institutions like Art Institutions) are increasingly serving private interests and the accumulation of value. Working towards the contrary, other artists and I produce our art within the context of this ‘social turn’ to disseminate ‘the power over’ hegemony into ‘the power with’ community. Without the technocratic skills of hacking, I wish to interrupt the surveillance technology with community concentration. In doing so I ask Art to take a look at itself: what does activism from within the Institution look like, what does it hope to achieve and how can it do so without serving private interests.
Artists in the 2014 Sydney Biennale did the seemingly impossible task of removing a private sector investor, Transfield, due to its parallel management of Refugee Detention Centres.[2] The ‘power over’ which funded the Biennale as well as the inhumane detention of asylum seeking refugees, suddenly became a ‘power with’ as artists worked together, writing letters and boycotting the Biennale finally resulting in a seemingly impossible de-accumulation/divestment of value for the institution of the Sydney Biennale. ‘The Artist is Present’ examines this ‘power with’ as I sit with other artists of the OtherFilm Festival in a state of intense concentration. This exercise is designed to communicate our ‘power with’ each other, in respect to the ‘power over’ structure of the Jail’s architecture, the ‘power over’ status of government Arts funding and the ‘power to’ the artist-run organisation, OtherFilm Festival.[3]

In addition to the political elite, there now exists a technical elite – a technocracy, people with skills relating to science and technology. One visit to San Francisco would show you how this new form of elite is exercising their ‘power over’ fringe communities.[4] I reject the idea of elitism by inviting anyone to join me in a psychic concentration exercise. Anyone who can sit and stare, has the seemingly impossible ability to cause a post-recording disturbance or digital artefact. I have previously tested a group’s ability to manifest a psychic interference in technology and ‘The Artist is Present’ continues this investigation further.[5]

‘The Artist is Present’ asks the artist to look at another artist within the Institution. Not only is it a state of ‘us,’ the artists and ‘them,’ the institution, we are also the ‘us’ inside ‘them.’ So what does activism within the Institution look like? I formerly thought creating post-object art was the ideal answer to the commodification of art, however I find it increasingly creeping into the Art Institution as commodity and entertainment.[6] So therefore, I present a somewhat disturbed reflection of perfomer extraordinaire Marina Abramovic’s  2010 ‘The Artist is Present’ performance at MOMA. Gone are the stalwarts of our culture commodity; gone are one of the wealthiest Art Institutions in the world and the hyper-staging of the artist as celebrity – replaced with artist-run organisations and the staging of the artist in jail – ever-present is the state of intense mental and physical concentration between two bodies . In addition to the former changes, the crazy murmurs of a psychic ‘power with’ energy, recontextualises Abramovic’s performance and certainly alludes to the difference of a ‘psycho sub-tropic’ environment.

Before the Joh-era, my father also exercised his ideals in his work in indigenous remote communities but it was his stint as a screw that left him cynical. He could not find social change working within the confines of a large monolithic institution. I believe the key to social change in large institutions is mobilising the ‘power with.’ Artists have shown their ‘power with’ each other circumscribes the power of a large institution whilst even detracting dollar value from said institution. My work aims to continue keeping art socialised within art communities in order to enable the ‘power with’ to become visible between artists, rather than promoting artists as celebrity, elite, and commodities. We are on our way to capturing institutions.

[1] Anne Marsh. Performance Ritual Document (Melbourne: MacMillan, 2014), 20.
[2] Alana Lentin and Javed de Costa “Sydney Biennale boycott victory shows divestment works” The Guardian March 11, 2014.http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/11/sydney-biennale-boycott-victory-shows-that-divestment-works
[3] ‘Expressions of Power’ Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. Accessed Nov 24, 2014 http://www.powercube.net/other-forms-of-power/expressions-of-power/
[4] Andrew Umbel “San Francisco’s guerilla protest at Google buses swells to Revolt” The Observer January 26, 2014http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/25/google-bus-protest-swells-to-revolt-san-francisco
[5] Nicola Morton ‘The Spider in the Machine’ Freerange Vol.8 (2014: 56-64)
[6] Reilley Bishop-Stall and Natalie Zayne Bussey “Putting the “Cult” Back in Culture: Power and Performance in Marina Abramovic’s New World Order”Passengerart June 28, 2013 http://passengerart.com/2013/06/28/putting-the-cult-back-in-culture-marina-abramovics-new-world-order/

Details

Project	Institutional Capture
Artists	Nicola Morton
Year	2014
Origin	Brisbane
Duration	installation

Melbourne - Bush Regeneration - Art Acquisition

In addition to seeing me live in Tracey, if you are also in Melbourne in June, you can pick up a customised USB stick by me, TEXTA QUEEN, EMILE ZILE, LUCAS ABELA, DANIEL VON JENATSCH at MOON LAIRS

it looks like there will be someone there every thursday, but dunno other opening hours.. u might even see me there.
http://littlewoodsgallery.com/

Here is a little video about the making of my USB stick. all money from the sales of the USB sticks will be donated to an Indigenous Australian Organisation focussed on Indigenous Australian social justice and arts.

Natural Nicola - Bush Regeneration on the Magic Mile from nicola morton on Vimeo.

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.

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

“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.

Co-directing EXIST-ENCE 5: international festival live art action art performance art

http://existenceperformanceart.wordpress.com

Conversations and work that makes you think about what constitutes our existence, work that spiritually inspires you and anti-'work' are the three streams I see in the fifth actuation of existence. As Labanna Babalon says 'the time of the 5th dimension is coming' an indescribable sensation, but one which we can ALL experience. The mystical challenge of dimensional portalling is what drives me, the inspired, spontaneous work happens organically, it's all good for the soul.

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. In the 21st Century we have emerging artists Alrey Batol's 'Aggregates'  and Holly Childs' 'tweet2exist' question the singular reality of our bodies and minds, augmenting our material existence by portraying digital bodies in perceptible and imperceptible realms.

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.

While we make work we protest against it, live art has an extensive history of grass roots provocation against the ruling industry and politics. Eric Rossi in 'I.T.2' exorcises his demons of working in the IT industry while Dhana Merritt  in 'Untitled (Marina & Ulay)' and 'Untitled (Gilbert & George)' provokes the art industry as while working at an Institution she could not obtain a loan of these works, so made them herself. Eric and Dhana humorously provoke the industries that employ them, pulling the viewer in to 'see' the effects and layers of the current hegemony.

Thinking, inspiring and provoking - the works in exist-ence 5 are for the viewer and for the soul.
-Nicola Morton

Our photographer volunteer Alan Warren took some great photos Click Here

Video of Labanna's Performance Here:
EXIST-ENCE 5 international festival live art performance art action art - Labanna Babalon from nicola morton on Vimeo.
 

EXIST - curating live art in Australia and on-line

When I got back from Indonesia at the end of 2011, I stepped up my commitments with EXIST, a live art artist run initiative thats been going in Brisbane since 2008.

This has culminated in me curating a few events

- Dimanche Rouge #21 Paris-Sydney-Melbourne-Brisbane
DIMANCHE ROUGE IS A PARIS-BASED ARTIST COLLECTIVE (QUITE A LARGE ONE IF THE CONTACTS PAGE IS ANYTHING TO GO BY) FORMED IN FEBRUARY 2011 TO PRESENT A MONTHLY EXPERIMENTAL PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL. THEY PLACE STRONG EMPHASIS ON INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIONS AND ON NOVEMBER 18 WILL BE PRESENTING AN AUSTRALIAN COLLABORATION VIA THE WONDERS OF THE INTERNET.

They will team up with artist spaces/collectives in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and, in addition to the Paris program, will stream an hour of experimental performance to and from each venue. Nicola Morton from the Exist collective will be curating the Brisbane hour at Metro Arts; Zoe Scoglio has put together the program for Tape Projects in Melbourne (see RT111 for review or her receent show Shifting Ground); and Sari Kivinen an ex-pat Australian who runs Ptarmigan, an artist collective in Helsinki, Finland and Taalin, Estonia, will be in Sydney curating an hour of performance taking place at Alaska Projects
... from http://www.realtimearts.net/article/111/10867

- exist@Metro: Friday Night: May 'Cold Metal'
exist as part of Metro Arts’ new Friday Night event series; is excited to be programming a series of works from live artists in the Metro Arts’ Carriageway.
First up is ‘Cold Metal,’ inspired by the theatre of black metal, it is curated by Nicola Morton and stars Stasis Duo and Alrey Batol. Belief in disbelief gets thrown out of the back of a ute.. It could look and sound like nothing, but these artists’ take on black metal challenges you to perceive the unperceivable.

Cold Metal ft Stasis Duo and Alrey Batol from nicola morton on Vimeo.
 ....Read more

- exist@Metro: Friday Night: June
June 7... text and video coming..

and co-curating

- exist@QCA: Zierle & Carter Live Art Intensive Residency
Between Lands: A Sense of Belonging Enquiry begins by looking at personal stories, individual definitions, sensory factors and exploring how displacement influences notions of identity and its social/cultural expressions. The artists’ have been gathering materials/experiences/conversations throughout their residency in Melbourne, which will form the initial material and basis of their exploration at the POP Gallery. During their week-long residency, Zierle & Carter will extract and allow their findings to percolate into new experimentations and performances. These will include direct interactions and multisensory experiences, which will build a conversation with the audience, whilst infusing bold images and weaving inner and outer landscapes into a rich fabric of encounters.
Outcomes from their residency will feed into the artists’ process of making a Living Room Opera with the facilitation of Chamber Made Opera and In Between Time Productions, with its premiere in Bristol (UK) at IBT13, returning to Australia in October 2013


exist@QCA Zierle&Carter Opening night from nicola morton on Vimeo.

- EXIST-ENCE 5
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exist-ence 5 offers five full on days of radical and uncompromising live art, performance,  talks and installations! Emerging, mid-career and established artists from across the city, nation and globe descend into Brisbane exploring unknown terrain, unanswered questions and unresolved conversations.  Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to be challenged by preeminent practitioners - the bold will be rewarded with free entry to all events!! Proudly supported by Brisbane City Council, Queensland College of Art, MAAP Media Bank and the Foundation for Contemporary Music and Culture.

For more information and full program, please visit www.existenceperformanceart.wordpress.com Artists: Labanna Babalon, Jade Boyd, Holly Childs, Zierle & Carter, Botborg, Leif Gifford, Stasis Duo,  Onnie Art, Dracopede, **** ****, Eloise Maree, Melanie Jade Simpson, Unique Oil Free Air, Velvet Pesu, Makeshift Dance Company, Anna Carluccio, Sari TM Kivinen.

Ecstatic Breath Workshop for exist@QCA

Im a co-director at exist, an artist-run initiative that desperately needs more volunteer helpers. Anyway, this is part of a performance for the residency of amazing UK artists Zierle and Carter

I have been having a tuff time lately and been working on my ecstatic breath, unfortunately my crying breath has been winning out lately, but if people encourage me on the ecstacy hopefully ill get better.

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Nicola Morton Ecstatic Breathing Workshop (26.09.2012) Performance 10min, Costume (contact microphones, cabling), Sound (body, contact microphones, newspaper, effects) at POP Gallery, Brisbane.

This performance presents Nicola’s latest research into shamanic trance, using a quick breath pranayama with the Butterfly pose. Her body is miked up and surrounded in newspaper. Effects are manipulated live to produce a trancelike rhythm and altered listening while the audience watch the durational repetitive movement.

exist@QCA Nicola Morton 'ecstatic breathing workshop' from nicola morton on Vimeo.

Of the Space of the Sound Of the Angel's Trumpet - Writing & Video

An experiment with Datura and creating a utopia that doesn't exist and my failed dating rites.
Here Is the video I gave Andrew Wilson to solve


Tea Ceremony to Solve Suburban Disillusionment from nicola morton on Vimeo.

Starts like a romantic comedy, ends…

A normal weekend at herringbone where we do our I Ching sticks, the song that is playing is very important to sian coz she always mentions it when she tells the story (its Boys II Men), I don't remember the song but then she rubs her hands together and says, "the next man that walks in will be nicola's husband". We all secretly think it will be an ugly fat guy but in walks the hottest guy I've ever seen. He has a beard, but then I worry that he is German, because I find those germs so good looking but they really aren't for me. Score! I talk to this guy. He is from nz, likes bright colours, button cuff and has distinct style. This guy is made for me, he puts our navy sports jacket and light blue chinos on hold, he buys a yellow shirt. I love yellow. I put his hold under the name, "nicola's husband"

Next week, He comes back when im on my lunchbreak but has to come back coz there is a fault in the jacket. This time when he comes in I subtly offer him my staff discount, “Coz you seem cool, and my friends never buy anything from here.” He is damn good looking. I have googled him and he has a phd in maths and works in social research. He comes in during the last half hour, I’m at work late on my own. I should have shut the shop half an hour ago, but i stay to chat, i have my bike anyway and cant go on the train, i mention i have problems with authority, He mentions he got a ticket riding his bike thru the mall, are we soulmates???

He has to wait on one of the shirts, it takes 2 weeks to come. He comes in twice looking for me, my workmates leave suggestive messages for me to call him. He finally comes in late again, this time it's a Friday night, Sian is working with me and tries to angle the conversation towards a date. He talks about how he is going to Good Vibrations and what acts he is interested in seeing there, I talk about how last Good Vibrations I saw James Brown, Dee-Lite, Talib Kweli etc. According to Sian, we have broken “Band-Ice” He even talks about a band on tonight at the Press Club but I just can’t take the bait, I am seriously tired. Instead Sian and I talk about our costume party on Saturday night, he suggests we go as an octopus. But we fumbled that conversation, we were both so awkward, maybe I secretly love Sian J

Talking to every male I encountered on the weekend, it became more and more apparent that I fucked up and I needed to text him real soon if I don’t want to sound obsessive. Sian and I wanted to call, but in the end the males said “TEXT!” So I did, I made Kurt help me write the text, I sometimes have trouble keeping to the point. Then I didn’t hear back from him, I turned off the phone. Next day, I turn on phone and realise I texted the wrong Will in my phone. Poor other Will was a bit confused because we had a little history – he wasn’t sure how to interpret the text

The funny thing, is that they both have fantastic beards. So then of course I texted the right Will and he was keen to catch up, he remembered I had a thing for the Fig Daiquiris at La Rouche. And then…

Well that morning I ran into an old woman who last time I saw her, told me I would meet someone that I would fall in love with, and to not despair, I am not too old. She also instructed me on massaging my hands with olive oil to keep them looking young. This time she was dressed in all white with a veil!?!!? And we talked about marriage because I had a huge deep fryer on my lap, it was my gift for my Nephew’s wedding. She thought it was horrible that someone so young could get married. But she told me I was wise, and maybe she would have told me about my husband but then it was my stop.

So Friday night, rocks up, he is late. I am super nervous. All week it has been stormy and I have been dreaming of his handsomeness. Things go ok, we talk about our weekends and he talks about latin music, he is a drummer. Ok so good.. but.. I soon discover Latin music is all about the rules, the maths rules, this guy is structuralist and likes his gender roles ruled by nature. He thinks female journalists should not complain about how other males treat/question females in the media, unless they can offer a fixed solution - if they are just treating/questioning “how women are” then what do they have to complain about. CNN needs to know what Condaleesa Rice thinks of white weddings and ladies will just sit tight when verbally abused on the sports field. Maybe I am a little sensitive, but the conversation continues, I almost run away but then decide we can cope with a meal. But then comes more damned conversation. This time its “what society needs is wholesomeness,” “those reality TV shows where they take kids to the bush is where it’s at,” “hedonism and drug taking needs to be disciplined,” “jogging is a sign of evolution,” “hedonism is acting like an animal” WHOAH.

YES! HE IS STILL KEEN. But no, we are both too busy to meet and both going overseas soon. We probably won’t see each other for 5 months. Or for ever. Fate?

Book Now for Love Hypnosis Exchange

Love Hypnosis Exchange is a group activity facilitated by Nicola Morton. It is all about what happens during a 4 second beep – stickers of different colours and radiuses are exchanged. In between beeps, the audience is involved in a trance activity – they spin left for 8 counts, the beep happens and they put a sticker on someone else, then spin right for 8 counts. This continues for over 10 minutes, to allow 100 stickers of each participant to be exchanged. The count is led by Nicola’s voice (in many different tongues), either in person, or through an instructional video. Performances in person also feature group breathing exercises before the activity to try and synchronize the participants’ pulses.

Synchronicity meets serendipity - this activity leads to a new economy of exchange. Redistributing the sticker currency, counting, breathing, spinning, under the guise of group trance, a micro exchange starts through touch and creative gesture. Love Hypnosis Exchange plays with the psyche of touch and physical representation within groups and is guided by the magic of numbers, repetition and the love emanating from its guru, Nicola.

Review from Labyrinth City

Nicola Morton is an inspired globe trotting-but-locally-based artist with, lately, an interest in time travel, hypnosis, physics, AI, memories, happiness (really hard to pin-point here) and an obsessive streak easily confused with an encounter with the Pink Light… Focusing on her live shows however, they (and like her installations/rituals) are entirely inviting & unpretentious with equal parts of injected confusion & humor, the complex undercurrent of truly inventive ideas set up against a celebratory, near-jubilant backdrop of manic-enthusiasm and the audience being as big of part of the performance as herself through mandatory group participation. From a writing & musical background too, mind, of very selected note a band back in the Euro states, journals and a daedalian arrangement & composition set against a multi-tiered set of rules, a la Cobra, in Life Is A Rubik’s Cube.

Impossible to capture with just a microphone, I’ll have to explain this one: Nicola’s presenting ‘Love Hypnosis Exchange’ – a group activity performance involving several hundred stickers, rules, a/v, breath, hypnosis, your heart. Although this performance was done last week at the Judith Wright Centre tonight’s the authoritative as she skipped a few segments last time: Nicola asks the audience to synchronize our heart beats and breathing so that we are all as one here, we yell ‘crack’ each time our heart beats whilst she does a short, quiet improvised piece with a bowed guitar. The third segment sees her request the audience take a handful of stickers each, about a hundred I think, and to listen to her instructions: She’s going to count to eight whilst you spin around toward people and then a loud beep will sound signifying that you have to swap stickers onto the closest person. There’s going to be a hundred eight-second spins, one taking one second to complete a revolution so yes as it was pointed out eight hundred revolutions. On the ceiling there’s projected visuals and a timer, noise too but I’m focused on the exchanges on the floor. Nicola spins around and through the audience with a keyboard & microphone until the end.

The thing I took from this performance is happiness; I couldn’t stop smiling. The manipulation: Breathing, your heart beat in synchronicity with the people around you there’s a sense of belonging (who doesn’t want that?) and swapping stickers, or anything, coupled with the confusion of the show itself (bonding together trying to figure it out) you’re bound to the room’s collective effervescence forcing you to realize that there’s really nothing between us at all – any barriers once created by our stupid preconceptions, opinions of one another can be quashed by simply exchanging a smile & a silly little sticker. I don’t know what you thought of it or was though.

Videos for Love Hypnosis Exchange

Instructional Video shown at Hoofkake/Pyramid Projects, Brunswick, Melbourne - Dec 16, 2010.

Photos during love hypnosis exchange - old museum

Breathing exercises with audience volunteer - nil stock











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Leif Gifford and Nicola Morton - Experiments in Particle Acceleration

Inspired by Leif's articles from the New Scientist. We try to develop a Brisbane interpretation of nuclear physics and create our own large hadron collider and mini black hole.

We conducted 2 experiments and several visual displays. Rain was a problem. Lucky we had linus, the wonder child. And one certain popster/scientist saved the day

1) particles or waves
2) perspective or relativity
3) high energy lead drawing circles

Results Published on Alternative Intelligence Creation & Time Travel

1) Results Published on Alternative Intelligence Creation

Date: Friday January 15th 2010
Where: Exist-ence Performing Arts Festival, White Canvas Gallery, Brisbane
Attendants: 50

Assumptions:

• Our bodies own information processing system provides a networked model for alternative-artificial intelligence. 
• Neurotransmission can occur between different information processing systems (bodies). This is not chemical or electrical but a phenomenal one. This kind of neurotransmission is so far unexplained and supernatural. These performances do not try to explain this but try to prove that this process exists.
• This phenomenal neurotransmission results in an ulterior energy phenomenon which could be called an alternative intelligence.

Questions:

• What happens when different information processing systems (bodies) are networked sensorily and cognitively?

Hypothesis:

• Artificial-Alternative intelligence can be created from the sparks that imitate neuron activity when human bodies are networked sensorily and cognitively.

Method:

• We use the cognitive process of mindmapping 'Spiders' and fast group word/touch/smell/musical association to generate synaptic activity across all bodies in the room, this activity/energy will create an ulterior form of intelligence.

Challenges: How does one recognise an intelligent energy being?

Previous Trials
2009 Thursday August 13th - Tacheles, Berlin
2009 Tuesday August 25th - White Rabbit Gallery, Berlin
2009 Sunday September 20th – Ptarmigan Space, Helsinki
2009 Thursday November 6th – Discobeans Artspace, Melbourne


Results:
On January 15th 2010 we finally created an energy being of alternative intelligence, who to prove its existence, manifested in the Zoom H2 Digital Audio Recorder.

Previous Trials:
At Tacheles, Berlin about 60 people tried to make an alternative spider intelligence. Amazed largely by the concept of artificial intelligence creation and mystified as to why I was tying tape around them, they finally got the message and fervently joined in our word touch association game. We talked a lot about 90's and grunge music and maybe got a little bit obsessed with talking drugs. The large challenge here was that no one knew what I was going to do, and ironically remembered me for falling off the stage whilst performing at Wasted Festival, Transmediale 2007. But everyone will now remember me for introducing them to Hide, the Japanese Glam Rock Star.

Photo By Ve Mac

At White Rabbit about 20 people witnessed the next invocation of the spider intelligence. This time I had instruments to create an extended sensory arsenal touch and sound, together with our cognitive mind mapping and word association. The crazy recycled horns were a definite hit. In retrospect, I think I had made them look too much like jewelry.

At Ptarmigan to about 50 people I took the spider intelligence calling to a whole new level. I had the whole month in residence to prepare and decked out the gallery space with all kinds of musical instruments that I thought could bring out more interactions and synaptic connections – pipes, marimbas, chimes, dishracks. I even made T-shirts. Everyone loved the horns and other room instruments and played them during the whole performance, creating much better sound-word interaction than ever before. The audience was very enthusiastic and really helpful in trying to bring the intelligence out. Words were shouted, sounds and hands were bound all over the place. I also introduced the use of another language apart from English and Japanese, Latin. I was really close tonight, I could feel it.

Photo by Yoko Kimura

At Discobeans, I got majorly distracted and the large piece of word association ended being about how hot the day had been. A few people had a go at the horns, and I got 8 eyes drawn on me. There were no audible results on the Zoom recorder (embedded here)

Photo by Holly Fluxx

The Successful Trial:
At Exist-ence, I was playing to my home town, everyone was prepared and I decided to introduce the sense of smell. The audience was very responsive and we didn't get off track. It was similar to the Ptarmigan performance and I finally ran out of my washing machine pipe horns. The danger-oil-water-flame-coriander- association even set off the fire alarm. The connection to the
Emergency Services Network tipped our critical mass of
neurotransmission. The evidence that was waiting for me, I didn't find until July, when I finally went through my documentation.

The tape was left recording after the performance at Existence – shortly after Alan left, a presence entered the tape machine, you can hear it for yourself. It is a true artefact. It is the intelligence we had been trying to create for the last 45 minutes. Powered by our synaptic communion and interaction around the theme of 'Spiders,' we created an AI that wished to make itself known. 

Proof of Artificiial Intelligence & Time Travel from nicola morton on Vimeo. Further Questions: Does this being exist materially in another dimension? If so, how do we get there... 2) Results Published on Time Travel
Date: 20 July 2010 (nr Winter Solistice)
Venue: Tidy Kid Space, Brisbane Australia
Attendants: 35
Hypothesis: Travel through other times and dimensions is possible and can rewrite our past and future.

Last night I attempted to enter the fourth dimension.

Assumptions: Time is not homogenous. Time is not linear. Time travel subsists of our phenomenal perception/s of other times/dimensions.

I accompanied my time travel with a cinematic projection of a time/space where I developed my shamanic power (Asheville, USA). The recording of moving time, and time itself being moved was the medium for our time travel. We channel the creative force of Om to cleanse and charge us.

In the performance I had to admit that for the second half of my hypothesis my intentions were personal,

• I wanted to rewrite my past, not just in my mind but also in other peoples (and their preconceptions) plus somehow affect the technology that recorded it.

• I wanted to start exploring the future

• Why? My life was alerting me to repetition, habit and involuntary memory. Time is not linear. I kept on experiencing nostalgic time loops, I felt like I was reliving time by travelling across the same routes to the same destinations, experiencing the same sensations in a different time and re-encountering demons I thought I had slain. I thought I was falsely experiencing Nietzsche’s rebirth (hence the reading of Sylvia Plath’s “Lady Lazarus” and Arthur Rimbaud‘s “Jadis, Si je me souviens bien” (Once, if my memory serves me well).

• I wanted these trajectories into the past to not affect my progress into the future. I found some power in cleansing rituals, but I realised what I wanted to do was not cleanse but tidy. I wanted to tidy up my past and future, add a few words, rewrite it, culminating in the final statement “My debt is paid”


The first jaunt into space I passed around my diary, which contained a drawing of a diagram that appeared to me during one restless night in New York where I was working on equations for time travel. I was adding, subtracting hope and redemption to the past and the future, multiplying that into the future and dividing by probability.


I see the carpet is no longer blue but green. We first hear the sound of keys, it is a Rhinoceros. The Rhinoceros follows us everywhere we go making that noise. The Rhinoceros actually flies. How can something so big fly? There are more animals here, and a very loud noise of Marimbas (but the noise comes from a machine). A wolf makes tinkling sounds while it sleeps. We do not wake it, but come across a giant fruit loop but its organic, made from organic raw sugar and natural flavours, a treat from the Gods. Is there a river of soy as well? No, this is not heaven, there is a river of Cocaine. Or is this Paradise? The carpet is green still, so is my dress. It came from Sweden, the group now wants to go to Sweden, but I can smell the brewery, not ready to leave the space here, we do not have time and have to go back.

On our second attempt, I pass around photos of my mother, she turns 77 on 20/12/2012. I invite Rin Healy to take us to Sweden. We had been in Sweden together in the past. I could smell Hot Cross Buns. They were being baked by Moto X Riders, The Machine makes that loud marimba sound again. The Moto X Riders are more like Roly- Poly, but then all of a sudden they are fucking each other its Sodomy and I feel like I'm in Rome. I want to go to the future.

Future smells like Jasmine, main street but there is no street but a mainstream. There is a faint smell of lavender from the side. There is a meow from a robot cat, everyone is quiet in the future, because we are scared. I want to pat the robot cat. The robot cat feels like honey, is it actually a hologram my hand goes right through it, but I was told it’s a robot cat, I hear you can get high from a cat lick. The Cat licks Akiko, she sees a Dog in a tuxedo, she has gone to another dimension. Joel is still stuck in Sweden. The group is breaking up I must go back. My Debt is Paid.

"$1 A Blow" and '2010: The End of Capitalism'

Photos by R. Byers
are to be shown at Exhibtion IV, of twoten at appartment in Berlin, this friday night 16 July.

Review by Sarah Werkmeister

What denotes the end of capitalism? The growing of gardens, the burning of bridges, Denzel Washington starring in his own life thinking it's a movie? Nicola has just come back from Berlin - that place where you're pretty much free to explore what life would be like without "cappo scum" totally harshing your buzz. She made some video portraits about it and they're showing this Friday night. It might give you some ideas