For the Politicize workshop, we were to gather a short extract between 10 and 100 words. The extract could be a quote from either a novel, an article, podcast, film or similar. We were told to look for depth, publicity, and energy and find something that we resonate with. 

The extract that I chose came from an essay about “Sound and the influence of sound on the human body,” by Denise July Regina Nolten. I was drawn to this piece of work, because I have started using sound as an influence for my work recently, for example in Act 2 – Wheels in Motion. I have listened to and recorded sounds in different environments and then created work following from it, but this extract is about cymatics. This interests me particularly because you can directly see a visual representation formed by different sounds. (See image below.)

“Cymatics (from Greek: “wave”) is the study of visible sound and vibration, a subset of modal phenomena. Typically the surface of a plate, diaphragm, or membrane is vibrated, and regions of maximum and minimum displacement are made visible in a thin coating of particles, paste, or liquid. Different patterns emerge in the excitatory medium depending on the geometry of the plate and the driving frequency.”

Essay “Sound and the influence of sound on the human body,” by Denise July Regina Nolten

For me, this quote explained cymatics and presented a new way of being able to apply sound to art. 

In the workshop, we were divided into smaller groups and shared our extracts with our peers. We discussed their meaning and why we chose them and then created a poster individually in 10-15 minutes containing some or all of our extract. Because my quote was quite long and a lot to take in on a poster, I decided to use a different part of the essay and cut it down slightly. We were then given the task to politicize our work, either within LCC or around Elephant and Castle. We filmed ourselves doing this and produced a short clip in our groups publicizing our posters. 

 

Watch video here

The aim was to place the posters in an environment where they would stand out and possibly create a reaction. I picked the middle of the roundabout at Elephant and Castle. This was an ideal location, as it is placed outside the tube station, university, shopping centre and much more, meaning there would be a large number of people walking by. I stood on a bench, turning my quote into a statement that people would read on their way past. Other members in my group chose the entrance of university, the tube station and underneath the traffic lights on the road, as a spot to publicize their posters. I felt that our quotes were powerful and were able to make readers question their meaning. By being placed in the open environment, they were very thought-provoking, striking and provocative.