SWEEPING UP THE SWOOOSH

“SWEEEPING UP THE SWOOOSH” was the second project I was able to realize during my residency at Aomori Contemporary Art Centre. It consisted of a series of audio workshops, held on a weekly basis from late September through November 2006, open to the general public as well as musicians and artists. In addition, there was a one-day workshop for children. The weekly workshop resulted in a close collaboration with dancer and performer Emiko Suzuki and a joint performance on the closing day of the resident artists' exhibition. My audiovisual installation “THE INTESTINES OF POTENTIAL” served as a stage, but instead of its normal audio track, visitors could listen to our “5 Alternative Soundtracks”, which were announced on a deliberately cryptic program leaflet as follows:

1) SECRET PERFORMANCE
2) ROMANTIC PERFORMANCE
3) CASSETTE PLAYER PERFORMANCE
4) BLOW UP PERFORMANCE
5) NOISE PERFORMANCE

Each of the soundtrack performances lasted exactly 2 minutes. Using a stopwatch, an assistant signaled the beginning and the end of each piece. Our aim was to re-utilize the space occupied by my installation and to fill the short time-span with a dramatic arc, thus creating a series of whole new artworks, using only minimalist musical gestures. For the performance, as the onomatopoeic project title was meant to suggest, I played and re-mixed audio material previously collected and recorded from local participants of my workshop.