Early this month I had the privilege of interviewing Nancy Tobin, an established sound artist and sound designer in Montréal.
During the last twenty years, her designs for dance and theatre productions have been part of the Festival de théâtre Transamériques, the World Stage Festival, the Festival d’Avignon, the Edinburgh International Festival and the Berliner Festwochen. Over the years, she has developed a specialization in vocal amplification for theatre and incorporates unusual audio speakers to transform the aural qualities of her compositions. Nancy Tobin is currently finishing DelayToys-Berceuses, a thematic composition, centered on memory, play, silence and contemplation.**
[Art Threat] As a kid, you were drawn to radios and musical instruments. Tell me about that. Did you feel you had a special connection to sounds waves?
[Nancy Tobin] No. I never felt a special connection, at least not consciously, but recently I have come to realize that knowledge is not always a conscious act… we understand a lot through the body and so it’s at that level that my relationship to sound begins and from where true artistic creation stems.
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NMP - Trespassing | Transgression
Where can you find manifestos, critical journalism, art, interviews, poems, academic articles, porn and hours of lezzie podcasts? On NMP, of course.
If you haven’t already done so, you should go check out NMP at http://nomorepotlucks.org/. You can order your print copy or subscribe to get full access to audio and video. A free PDF of each issue is also available here.
In number 1 (“birth”) you’ll find incredible works by Line Chamberland, Dianah Smith, Waawaate Fobister, Stu Marvel, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Catherine Opie, Julie Doucet, Bruce LaBruce, Nicholas Little, Nikol Mikus, Allyson Mitchell, Trish Salah, Elisha Lim, Mathilde Géromin and Mary K. Bryson.
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52 Pick-Up is a series of videos made by anyone who is up for the challenge of making one video a week for 52 weeks straight. And it’s an alternative to YouTube if you’re just looking to watch.
52 Pick-Up
McLeod, the project’s curator, says “52 Pick-Up is a video production challenge. Equivalent to drawing a sketch-a day or writing a page-a-day, it’s an exercise in endurance to get the juices flowing with a quick deadline that can be used as an excuse for both brilliance and failure. 52 Pick-Up is meant to stimulate and challenge, excite and ignite viewers and participants alike about video, different ways of working, diverse points of view, and having bragging rights and the goods to go with having made one video a week for an entire year.”
You can start whenever you want and all the rules are on the site. It’s simple really.
Artists currently sweatin’ the challenge are Dayna McLeod–the founder of 52 Pick-Up–Alexis O’Hara, Nikki Forrest, Val Desjardins, Jackie Gallant, Alain Goulem, Mél Hogan , Meredith Fowk, and Skidmore.
So the question is, why not join?
Photo by Nicole Belle
On November 4, 2008, the date of the United States Election that anticipated the victory of Barack Obama, Marie-Claire MacPhee interviewed Catherine Opie. Opie’s mid-life retrospective, “Catherine Opie: American Photographer” opened at the Guggenheim Museum in New York on September 26, 2008 and runs until January 7, 2009. For more information about the exhibition see: www.guggenheim.org.
I’ll start out by asking you how things are looking in the US today?
Well, we’ll see. It was really amazing. I live in a predominantly African American neighbourhood. I’ve been here for 6 years, and I’ve never seen a line at the polls, but today we had to wait an hour and a half to vote. I think that it’s true that we’re going to see an unprecedented number of voters out, and that’s really exciting. Click to continue »
[AT] Can you talk a bit about the story of Cynthia Plaster Caster, the inspiration for your project?
[PG] I saw a documentary made about her practice of casting rock and roller cock. When she started she was a art school student and rock and roll groupie who united those two interests in a project which gave her access to the people she admired. I identified with this aspect as my own projects and collaborations, free dance lessons, tit pin, burdensum, came out of an interest in connecting with a direct public. I was turned on by the strategy.
[AT] How did you select the people you casted?
[PG] I think of this as a coming out project, not as a personal declaration but as a way to connect with a history and cultural legacy. My kind of queerness is less defined by sexual preference or gender expression. I identify with what Judith Halberstam describes as a queer temporality. The ways in which queers live, work and make meaning outside of a hetero-normative model. The subjects for the series are heroes on how to live, love and succeed on your own terms
[AT] Did you travel out to meet with each of the participants?
[PG] Mostly yes. I was able to meet up with GB Jones, Savoy Howe, Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan in Toronto.
JD Samson in New York.
Eileen Myles in Montreal.
Cathy Opie, Cheryl Dunye, Jack Halberstam and Phranc in Los Angeles.
Harmony Hammond in New Mexico.
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