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Interview

Interview with Sean Ongley by Alyssa

1. What kind of work do you do?

I fancy myself a musician, an improviser and producer. Wait, I'll let you ask the questions. Are you there? Lunch time?

I am here. Elaborating on what it means to be a musician is good. Well...

2. What kind of work is musician work? Well, there is a fine line between Musician and Artists in the area of performance and execution. I went to PSU because I wanted to learn music production. My connection disappeared. I have switched to my faster computer. Finish this question first, then to get to the others. The kind of playing with technical execution at the university was definitely musicianship. That school churns out musicians, not artists. They think of it like a physician or mechanic would, with a dictated set of rules and techniques that you must learn before operating on the instrument. The artist picks up the instrument and experiments until a sound is produced that is inspiring, a song or a piece is developed out of that innocence and sometimes ignorance. Now this division is a moot point because ultimately, the artist develops a technique and the musician develops their artistry, so its all the same in the end.

3. I like the idea that art develops out of innocence and sometimes ignorance. Do you think this works best when you work alone or with other musicians? Well, you know me, but I suppose we can play the ignorant card. OK, I got you. Gosh, either way. In some respects, I require collaboration to go back to that place. In my improvisational combo, DWL, I get the chance to perform innocently with a group of players with completely different backgrounds. I don't go after the coolest improvisers in town, I go after folks who I like for their spirit. I think we have a unique sound and innocence. Now... when I practice alone I can just goof on the keyboard or I can practice my scales, read a jazz chart, none of these things I give enough energy to. I'd love to play bebop, I'd love to perform Satie pieces and other written works. But there is a certain need to play the music fresh if its been written for you. Plus, I've been really working more on the production angle, programming electronic beats and fleshing out songs or works that were started before I got my hands on it. This is a new thing and is sort of a blend of everything I have every learned and practiced in music.

4.The production angle as a social art is interesting to me. Producers complete their work before their audience hears it. How do you consider a song you have completed to be an interaction with your audience? Are you there? I didn't see your follow up! Sorry, I was waiting for it... Interesting question. You have to keep an audience in mind as your produce or compose. Producing as a collaborative effort to develop a piece of music requires cooperation and anticipation for what your collaborator will think of your artistic choices. Similarly, one must anticipate the audience. From a technical standpoint, you want the bass to be supportive and not overwhelming, the words in the vocals to be clear, of if its instrumental the main melodic theme. But more than that, you have to go beyond what they're expecting to make a piece or a song that will be worth listening to over and over again. To make an album worth buying is really an amazing thing these days considering the oversaturation of released music coupled with the many easy ways to avoid buying it as well as the... shoot... train derailed. You get the idea. For that matter, even if you allow music to be downloaded free, or given away, people might regard it as trash even though you put lots of energy in to it. There is something to be said about reserving it for a paying customer. Just a side thought, not totally relevant to your question.

5. Shoot, indeed. I must go, but I am very interested in using collaboration to go beyond what the audience is expecting. You have to go?I do. If you have the time to elaborate some on how collaboration can help or hinder going beyond the expectations and create surprise, I will so read it later tonight! Thank you for the interview. OK, and was this going to another forum? Zine? This forum is going to be published as a PDF and bound as a book next week. Online zine? I see. If you want more, please let me know. Alright, so lets continue. If you want to go beyond expectation and surprise the audience, you have to be interested in surprising yourself. We've all been trapped in a mindset of who we think we are, what type of artist we think we are. But pop bands like Radiohead can totally blow expectation out of the water and yet draw a huge audience. Or avant-garde composers like Ethan Rose might blow you away if your mindset is pop. But you can not remain attached to a self-image or technique alone. So when you have a collaborator, it's quite possible that you'll find yourself challenging them and them challenging you. Either you roll with it or create friction. But if you want to be surprised, you have to ask your collaborator to do something surprising, and likewise. And now that I'm finding myself back again loving pop music and the avant-garde, its taken some reflection and insight to "get over myself", being that I was so absorbed in the image of the past, the type of instrumentation my scene tends to stay in. I was initially embarrased to program beats and use software based synthesizers until I realized how cool they sound and how versatile the opportunities are. I didn't even want to use a reverb or delay pedal before! Everything had to be dry or else it compromised my musicianship! Foolish thoughts, foolish ego. Just learn how to perform the automatic functions of the machinery technically, and the musicianship is all there.

Interview with Chelsea E by Alyssa

1. What do you do? I design clothing, specifically street fashion, sweatshirts, hoodies, simple dresses. http://erhartstreetwear.com

2. How do you consider your work to be social art (ex. art as service, art as activism, art as interactions, relationships, etc)? My work is an interaction, it is an experience, My work completes itself when it is put on and becomes part of the wardrobe of the wearer. As it is apparel, I consider it a walking piece of art, say graffiti that changes and adds the the landscape of which it exists in.

3. Who do you design for/ who is your audience? I know this sounds cliche, but I try to design for everyone. I keep the cuts/shape simple and work within this framework. I started following this path when my sweatshirts became popular. I realized that people could understand what I was creating an trying to convey within a 'safe' framework.

4. What do you consider to be your responsibility to your audience? Recently, I have been working on the responsibility of neutrality. I have been working hard to create pieces that allow the wearer to express themselves through the piece. Instead of producing beautiful pieces that loudly proclaim my vision, I have been focusing on the beauty of simplicity and innovation. I have been focusing on the small details instead of the overall body. The body of the piece may seem simple but upon closer inspection, one discovers the beauty within. A great example of this is a jacket I recently designed. The body is simple, one color, and it is in the small details that make it amazing. The holes for the drawstrings are designed out of rich leather that is cut just so that it keeps the string taunt. Also, I played around with the idea of a zipper hood. Instead of simply putting a zipper in the back of the collar, I developed a beautiful leather placket that not only keeps its original organic shape but also provides a place for the hidden hood.

5. How do you collaborate with others in the creation of new work? My most recent collection of work was pure collaboration. I choose eight different individuals and worked with each of them to create pieces that reflected who they are. The most important issue to focus on for this discussion is how the wearer wants to feel with the piece on. As I said above, my pieces are complete once they are put on, so it is critical that they give the wearer the vessel to feel the way they want to.

6. What is your responsibility to your collaborators? With apparel, the responsibility first lies in the body of the individual. I must keep in mind who they are, emotionally, spiritually, and physically. I wouldn't want to put a constraining piece on someone whose life revolves around movement. My ultimate goal is to make sure the wearer feels a sense of pride in the piece.

7. Would you classify your personal working style as leading, supportive, complete or complex collaboration? How about complex collaboration. Apparel is a tricky art, it involves a lot of engineering and I will spend hours simply doing math and drafting patterns. When I am surrounded by rulers and body blocks I feel more like an engineer than an artist. Sometimes I feel like a slave to the body, thinking first of comfort and function than the art, and then I remind myself that each piece starts with a feeling and a vision, its just the step I must take to arrive at it.

s. Can I ask you some questions?

Of course. Thanks for answering my questions.

Wait, now who is interviewing whom? In this next section? I'm confused.

ah, so....

Interview With Alyssa Reed, by chelsea E.

1. What is your art discipline? I am a narrative artist. I perform as a musician and dancer and my pieces are developed from my writing practice.

2. Once you have a vision, how do you go about developing it into a reality? I am always having visions. My pieces are usually constructed of multiple visions, collaged or organized together into a narrative that is a vision of the events occuring over a certain amount of time, or times. I use daily practice to grow and develop these independent events and stitch them together. My process and the environment of my practice are very important, because they allow me to view progress and feel whether a piece is in progress or completed. When I write down a piece it comes inot reality, but it is not realized or complete until it has been revisioned through movement and revision.

3. It sounds like you develop your ideas around discipline. How do you communicate this idea to your peers? I don't know. I try not to define what I do in conversation, because I don't think it works out well. I am currently performing a piece for movement and voice based on a collection of narratives about food. It is an open improvisation with the narrative elements providing structure. The performance has become the communication element for me.

4. What is the process of collaboration with others? Can you talk about a time where you experienced the power of collaboration with either another artist or the audience? I feel that I collaborate with my audience members during and through performance. I ask that they participate by playing a simple instrument or vocalizing whenever their thoughts land on a particular subject. I also value critique of my work. What helped me most recently was asking people to tell me what they saw when I performed. Just to report what they saw. I also had a recent and productive collaborative experience with a group of Portland dancers in a danceresearch class led by Tahni Holt. Tahni facilitated by bringing the class topics to discuss, but she very openly created topics based on what helped us create work. One of the exercises we did, which developed from our discussion, was writing a moment from the best, most perfect dance performance ever, without limiting oneself to reality. Writing and listening to what people would like to experience, if they could experience anything helped me bridge a gap between creation of new work as a discipline and creation of new work as play.

5. Play, that's a fantastic term to describe interaction with the audience. Could you discuss a time where simple 'play' through dance or writing brought you to another level as an artist? Also as a part of the danceresearch group, we had class in a park, then took turns leading movement pieces. We went to play on the playground with the stipulation that we must actually play. This took an incredible amount of energy. At one point, the ten attendees were standing on ten picnic tables aping what one person was doing, then everyone got off but me and began doing other things. Someone went to the bathroom, some others to the merry-go-round, some people hid behind trees. I kind of slouched over and shouted to no one in particular about how I got a new deck of po-ke-mon cards. Danielle Ross started throwing pine cones at me ad calling my name until I wasn forced to get of the table and catch them. Circling, jumping and jacket stealing was involved. And this whole time I was reflecting on how much energy it takes to play, the choice to play with others or alone, how to engage others in interaction. I think as we get jobs and schedules and deal with life, people get lazy and don't necessarily see to maintain this creative energy of playing.

5.5 Do you think play is a process or your art in its purest form? I think play is an instinctual human interaction, and in that way is a pure form. I think that in order to reach a mutually provocative interaction with my audience, I must play, and that this involves a certain level of presence, both in the performance space and in the vision leading up to the performance.

5.75 Mutually Provocative Interaction, can you expand on this a little more? How do you think this relates to social art? Mutually provocative interaction occurs when an audience member is fully engaged in the her experience of the performance and a performer is present in the moment and performance. When an audience member participates by, say, thinking of her mother, then playing a melody on a toy guitar, and that element causes me to act like a robot, in keeping with the set rules of our game, the audience experiences a momentary control of the performer's action and the performer relinquishes control for that moment. The give and take, trading of who is in charge is a part of play, but I think maybe a more important part is more like joyfulness, not only trading up leaders and followers, but being able to enjoy the role swapping. This can take a number of conversational forms. My brain just took a rain check, lunch soon. I'll have to get back to how it relates to social art after lunch!

Yeah, I feel the same way!

6. I would like to discuss the moment when a piece of art becomes itself, when it is a piece to experience rather than develop. How do you experience these pieces, both of your own and others? Much of my work is improvisation. In some way, the pieces are always in the process of becoming themselves. However, I think I understand what you mean. At the best moments, I experience my interaction with the audience as playing a game. I have a structure of permutations involving sound elements, vocal elements, readings and movements in various combinations which make a kind of invisible map or game board. I talked earlier about how I request people to make a sound or read a line or something whenever a certain thought crosses their mind. Their words, interjections, sounds introduce pitfalls or new paths that I get to deal with. This is what i am doing right now, but I also really enjoy watching performances and not having to interact outside of my own thoughts.