interview with Cat Hope
Short interview
with Cat Hope curator of Drawn from Sound
Edith Cowan
University
Mt Lawley
Spectrum Project
Space
March 28th
– April 12th 2013
Jacqui – Hello
Cat
Cat -Hi,
Jacqui -Notating
sounds can come in all sorts of forms
Cat -Yes that’s
right. And sometimes, composers don't want to notate the sounds specifically,
rather- just provide information about how sounds may come about. Traditional
music notation is good at communicating ideas about melody, and harmony – not
so great for describing how something actually 'sounds'. This is one of many
reasons composers use graphic scores
Jacqui - What are some of the key works in the exhibition?
Cat - For me, the
Percy Grainger Free Music No.2 is a key work. Written in 1937, we are
presenting digital copies of the only remaining photostat copies that are held
in the Grainger Museum
archive in Melbourne Sydney
Cat Hope installing Percy Grainger
Jacqui - What feedback have you got so far?
Cat - Well,
overwhelmingly positive, and some confusion. How can this be music? Some
ask. Most people are pleasantly surprised there is so much diversity in
music communication, whereas others don't think these works are music at all.
The exhibition is surprising silent – I just wanted to show the 'diagrams' or
'design' for sounds, rather than how they sound. The viewers can make up their
own minds about that!
Jacqui - Where did you get the idea of the exhibition?
Cat - After years
of making music (improv, text,songwriting and playing) I finally started
'composing' (writing things down) myself when I used graphic scores. They
opened up a whole world of possibilities for me, and the kind of music I wanted
to make. Through this, and commissioning work for my new music group
Decibel, I came across lots of different approaches to graphic scores, that I
thought it would be a good idea to survey them. As far as I know, this is the
first all Australian graphic score exhibition.
Jacqui - Decibel have performed how did that go?
Cat - Great – we
have a lot of experience at reading graphic scores, but it was fun to do them
in this environment, where they are on display.
Decibel performing Nathan Thompson
Jacqui -There has been an interest in ideas surrounding sound in the gallery space do you think its on the increase?
Cat - Yes, though
this exhibition is more about signs than sounds. We are really in the age of
multi/inter disciplinary practice: time to get rid of words like visual art,
sculpture, music, noise, sound art…. And just say…. Art.
posted by house of jack at
2:28 PM
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