Reviews

BOX #13 - 26 May 2002 - Scott Sinclair - Man with a Laptop: Jenkins & Woods

Review by Rigel Sirus

Sunday 26 May, 7pm-10pm Metro Arts Theatre
SCOTT SINCLAIR, MAN WITH A LAPTOP
by Rigel Sirus.

Something special happened last month at Small Black Box that I wanted to explain to you. Actually, initially it is quite easy to explain. There was a solo performance and a collaboration. But, it is the essence of these two performances that where the most rewarding. The opportunity that Small Black Box has to be flexible from month to month, to offer such a diverse support to so many different expressions in Brisbane?s ?sound? scene, and allow the audience to build such a strong comparison of performances over the year, it surprises me each month.

Firstly, Scott Sinclair performance. You may know him as a member of pH3, Scheme or Ocean of Air. Scott?s sound works run a wide spectrum of styles including combinations of ambient drones, sampled noise, non-linear beats, field recordings, and guitar/electronics improvisations. You can find any number of these combinations in his work with other artists, but it is always within the context of collaboration. It was his first CDR, ?Trademark Vol.1?,  completed in April 2002, that initally sparked me into the appreciation of Scott?s solo work aimed to merge primeval chaos with sinister uses of minimalism. He also formed a bias towards combining other extremes of musicality: very fast or very slow; very high or low pitched frequencies; overtly alien and earthly sounds. Scott?s  has utilised multiple renderings of a singular sound source that follow and collide into eachother to create what could be described as ?an audio car wreck?. Scott?s music assumes that all forms are open for dissection and reinterpretation (i.e. everything is sampliable), however, the immediate emotional impact of sound is always a factor.

So, it was with this bias that I approached his solo performance, as an opportunity to appreciate the artist by himself. It was without disappointment that I witnessed an artist appearing alone in his thoughts, with back turned to the audience for most of the performance, sharing the visuals projections of original animations/artworks on the theatre screen by Paul Cushworth from Ashling Visions. His performance drifted through several soundscapes and mental images that allowed me to gain a great grasp of what Scott thinks about his work and how that reflects on the world around him. There was something very personal that was shared and these words final to compel how it actually felt to be sitting in the audience, lest I say that seeing him so absorbed in his world that I felt that I had witnessed something very unique and encouraging to have the bravery to explore the many facets of sound.

After the break, (great that Verve is open for coffee), the audience crowded in again to find the theatre transformed. I thought Scott?s performance was ?up close?.. Man with a Laptop what in the first row. Table set up so that the two artists looked like they where playing ?Battleships? !

I must comment that in the air of the night this was another first sigthing (however I think that ?Man with a Laptop? was an experiment within an experiment, by this I mean that Small Black Box had ?created? this collaboration especially for the night), Greg Jenkins I have seen play before as part of endoPHONIC and Hutt River Space Agency. This night he was with Benn Woods that appeared last year in the QUT student night at Small Black Box. Perhaps this says something about the nature of the scnene and it?s support and openness. Anyhow, if Toop has said that there was a crisis in Performance at the REV festival associated with laptops these where the artists to test the theory. Mind you, Benn Woods was equiped with a ?instrument? that he has been prototyping for some time, the data glove.

A striking blue glow filled the theatre which only chanced to a red texture half way though the performance. It was soothing and disturbing, however never distracting from the soundscape that the audience was floating in.It is one thing that I must say about the audience of Small Black Box, they are very respectful to the artists. The silence and perhaps fueled by a deep admiration for the local talent of artistry that is presented at this little event does make the strongest ?applause? for the artist. I found myself lost in thoughts, guided by Jenkins and Woods on a audio thought stream that touristed several mental landscapes that explored a spectrum of images and visions.

The occasional silence gestures between the performers prompted a subtle change of direction. And like any adventurious trip it appeared that one of the laptops crashed at one point, like getting a flat tyre on a bus trip, which only seemed to delight the audience in this age of faster and faster computers, artists will still push harder and harder.

If it was the edge of the laptops abilities that Jenkins and Woods approached at times, like a challenge or ?let?s see how close we can get? thrill it certainly showed in the most subtle of ways. It was this unspoken excitement that I noted on several occasions, and those computer musicians in the know seemed to pick up on it as well. Certainly a strange element to the performance.

I particularly thought that the last piece in their performance, when they both closed their laptops and the sound continued for a while was another strong comments in the period when we care more for what we are hearing and less for what we are seeing, (which is how it should be) at ?sound? events.