Exhibition at Ordinary Music Archives Budapest, Dec. 1
Videowork: Micro Arboreta. 12 videos about plantscapes in the Botanic Garden of Vácrátót, Hungary
Performance: Turing a Leaf. 16:37 min. LowFi Loop #5
Mimeograph printings: 4 works on paper.
Many thanks to Nikolaus Gerszewski for hosting me and to the Hungarian Writers Association that facilitated the residency at the Botanic Garden Vácrátót.
Here are some images… and a poem.
Persuasion
Red is a language without words. It spells in colour.
Red in the language of berries and birds means food.
Red is persuasion.
Warning Permeation Permutation Invasion
Red is a loud sound Drumming screaming maybe if eyes were ears.
Birds are good with reds. They know the hues and the rules.
Humans fall prey
to red, easily. Blood and tears.
Red fruit and seeds are carried far
traveling in the bowels across borders and continents
Broadcast now (August 4 to August 13) on https://radia.fm: The ‘radia mix edit’ of Errant Waves in Arcadia. Originally commissioned by Cashmere Radio, some tweaks were added and/or left out
ERRANT WAVES IN ARCADIA by GABI SCHAFFNER
Frequencies permeate our life world on all levels.
They can be abstract, unfathomable, they can lurk at the threshold of our hearing, they can be extremely figurative or even plainly obtrusive. They can be soothing, piercing, alarming, beautiful, awe-inspiring, familiar. Once in a blue moon they come along single, as one clear tone, more often they huddle in clusters or patterns. Frequencies sail like clouds along the horizons of our perception. They rain on us. And they sneak into the deepest layers of our brain, where they conjure up memories or feelings or both.
As a series of life-world-frequency vignettes, “Errant Waves in Arcardia” assembles varied notions of mimicry, dirt, duration, and osmosis.
Recordings and composition: Gabi Schaffner, 2022 Accordion: Olsen Wolf, 2020 Musical Saw: Mimosa Pale, 2012/2020 Cat: Augustin, 2021 Drums: Toni Brokoli, Patrick Guderitz, 2020 String instrument: Anonymous Lady in Folk Music Shop, Taiwan 2019 Xylophone: Stella Braun, 2011 Husky dogs: recorded by Nathalie Grenzhaeuser, 2021
Today and tomorrow: My commissioned piece “False Forks – Errant Waves in Arcadia” will be broadcast within the frame of Cashmere Radio’s collaboration with Maerzmusik festival Berlin 2022. There will be a listening session starting on Sunday, 10 pm, at Cashmere Radio. For more info please look into https://cashmereradio.com/
False Forks (Errant waves in Arcadia) 32:35 min
Frequencies permeate our life world on all levels. They can be abstract, unfathomable, lurk at the threshold of our hearing, be extremely figurative or even plainly obtrusive. They can be soothing, piercing, alarming, beautiful, awe inspiring, familiar. Seldomly, they come along single, as one clear tone, more often they huddle in clusters or patterns. Frequencies sail like clouds along the horizons of our perception. They rain on us. And they sneak into the deepest layers of our brain, where they tickle memories or feelings or both.
For this piece, I was looking for frequencies offside the tech sphere (if such a thing is possible). There is, of course, the language of animals and the mumblings of human voices, the resounding of instruments, elemental drones, doorbells, sewing machines. I became especially interested in those clusters of wavelengths one finds grouped in little scenes of everyday life. While having fun with my work I kept thinking about ‘forking paths’ and forks and branches, about ‘taking a wrong turn’, and about mazes and ‘amazement’. It seems though, that frequencies are much too ephemeral to follow any track, be it right or wrong. Under their cloaks of math or (astro)physical formulas I imagine they foster secret urges to roll about in the mud and dirt, to permeate and mingle, to travel as sirens across the seas of the city, or to be breathed out of the pleats of an accordion.
As a series of life-world-frequency vignettes, “False Forks (Errant Waves in Arcardia)” assembles varied notions of mimicry, dirt, duration and osmosis.
Recordings and composition /Aufnahmen und Komposition Gabi Schaffner 2022
Credits Accordion/Akkordeon: Olsen auf Aldebaran, 2020 Musical Saw/SIngende Säge: Mimosa Pale, 2012/2020 Cat/Kater: Augustin, 2021 Drums: Toni Brokoli, Patrick Guderitz, 2020 String instrument/Saiteninstrument: Anonymous lady in Folk Music Shop, Taiwan 2019 Xylophone/ Xylophon: Stella Braun, 2011 Recording Husky dogs / Aufnahme von Huskys: Nathalie Grenzhaeuser, 2021
It is
unusual enough to broadcast from a garden, creating a studio situation exposed
to the immediate surroundings like weather, temperatures and background sounds.
With “Nightgardening” In 2019, Datscha Radio took its experimental approach to
the garden as a matrix for self-organization, autopoiesis and ecological radio
art, even one step further. How can we approach the audible ecospheres of the
night, what stories can be told, what fragrances turned into frequencies?
The compilation presents a mix of excerpts taken from “Plots & Prophecies” (2017) and “Nightgardening” (2019), followed by palimpsests and passages from Datscha Radio’s 2020 iteration “Listening to the Universe”. This latter event, happening from the 11th to the 13th of August, was dedicated to the Perseides’ meteor showers. Talks and readings, concerts and performances revolved around themes like sonification, storytelling, and cosmic relations in the so-called Anthropocene.
Credits
Datscha Radio:
Nachtgartenkosmos
A radio(art) collage by Gabi Schaffner. Length: 51:48 min A commission for Cashmere Radio
List of participating artists and
titles of their contributions in order of their
appearance
I What happened before
Intros Datscha Radio from the 2017 festival “Plots and Prophecies”
Body Garden Experiment by Kerry Morrison, read by Kate Donovan + Rosanna Lovell in conversation with Gregor Kaspar (Cut up)
Carolina Carubba: Kalimba Rain. Datscha Radio Madrid, 2018
II Nightgardening
Lukatoyboy: 7“ Bird Vinyls
Marold Langer-Philippsen: Maschkera (Excerpts)
Cutup: Niina Lehtonen-Braun: Iltakahvit + Kat Austen: The Beetles’ Harvest Supper
Niki Matita, Walter Schulze: Secret-en-plein-aire (Excerpt)
Kate Donovan: Gratitude Ritual
Peggy Sylopp with Gabi Schaffner: Dämmerungsspaziergang
III Listening to the Universe
Jingle Universe (Helen Thein)
Ally Bishop: Possible Vehicles for Time Travel
Kate Donovan with Sasha Engelmann: Satellite Séance
Tiger Stangl: Milchstraße links unten
Vladimir Kryuchev: Nye Sbylos (Some Dreams Never Come True)
Jasmina Al-Qaisi and Helena Otto „To the Belly and Back: Star Taste“ (Excerpts)
Elo Masing: Day Sky Improvisation +| Gabi Schaffner: Cosmogonic Storytelling I (Mix!)
Tim Schleinitz and Helen Thein: GDR Science Fiction Movies + Niki Matita/Elo Masing: Nativitas (Cutup) + Tiger Stangl: Ein Stern geht auf (Backdrop, modified)
Ela Spalding: Moonrise Reflection / Gabi Schaffner: A Walk between Bamboo and Ghosts (Backdrop)
Marta Zapparoli (and Kate Donovan): Echoes from Outer Space
Sarah Washington: Datscha Owl, Datscha Radio Jingle 2012
Selection,
editing and additional sounds: Gabi Schaffner, 2020
