Judy is one of the few dedicated balloon musicians in the world. We wanted her to talk about her work as well as performing because we thought the motivation and context that drives someone to continue working with balloons would be quite interesting. And it was. She talked about the history of balloons used in contemporary music, the anti-authoritarian implications and social connotations of the balloon and her personal attraction and use of the balloon as a sounding medium. She performed two duo improvisations with Tom with her solo composition and Tom’s solo in between. Some of her playing sounded very balloonish, meaning it sounded like a balloon. It reminded me of Kapotte Musiek’s performance where you really couldn’t escape the feeling that you are listening to that object. I kept wondering if I would of got the same impression if I didn’t see or know that she was playing a balloon. For every instrument, whether its the saxophone, turntable or Max/MSP, I feel that the transformation or transmigration between different references like its physical sound characteristics, personal expression, composition and clichés/social connotations are more essential to the audiences musical experience than just presenting one. So for me, when Judy started to excite a large balloon’s surface with vibrators to create beautiful oscillating drones was much more of a musical experience than when I was fixated on the fact that I was listening to a balloon. Tom’s solo of Giacinto Scelsi’s L’Ame Ailee (1973) also had a similar effect of transformation of the instrument where you gradually start to hear the overtones of the violin come in and out. It created an illusion that there was more then one player in the room. The piece he played was amazing.

photos taken by Vivian Wenli Lin

text from our mailing list:
One of the significances of experimental artistic practice is its motivation to challenge conventions and social norms. New movements and shifts in standards are often conceived in these practices. For example, the recent release of Radiohead and Saul Williams’ album available for free download comes with no surprise if one has been sensitive to the climate that has built up over the years by artists like Negativland and Bob Ostertag. The reason to why an artist decides to deal with a specific theme or choose a certain tool often represents a shared consciousness (or unconsciousness) that is brewing within a specific time period. I believe that experimental art give us the earliest glimpse of what our contemporary life is dealing with.
Judy Dunaway is a composer and improvisor who works mainly with balloons. She is also the founder of S.W.I.R.L. - Sex Worker Internet Radio Lounge which is an organization and platform for sex workers around the world to express themselves. Although her duo with Tom Chiu (founder of the critically acclaimed FLUX Quartet) is not electronic, we felt that their music was compelling and that it would be a great opportunity to listen to the artists talk about the context of their work.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 23rd, 2007 at 2:54 pm and is filed under report, concert. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.