ISEA 2024 took place in Meanjin/Brisbane in June. I exhibited some materials research and performed at the opening.

I opened the performance playing my noise tentacles. I was using a wifi jack to be cable free and curiously this removed the audible radio white noise and higher end sounds. I noticed this in sound check and decided that I liked the wireless version enough to compromise not having cables. On reflection the sound was impacted more than I realised. I am not certain if the wireless jacks will have this effect on everything or if it is due to the instrument being based on a radio. It seemed to me that the functionality of the instrument was altered, not only the sound. I’ll look into this further.

After a short performance with the tentacles, Ana assisted me in getting into my rolling outfit, gaffa taping a yoga mat, filled with sensors, around me. I had a helmet that I forgot to wear, if I do this again I should wear the helmet the whole performance to avoid that happening again. After a brief moment where nothing seemed to work I got some sound and off I rolled, intending to spend around five minutes rolling before arriving to the gallery door. Quite unintentionally I ended up on the grass and realised I had no sense of the direction in which I had travelled. People helped me back on track and I made it to the gallery much more quickly than intended.

The rolling instrument was built with the Daisy Seed. Taking the idea of absurd movements and gestures, rolling seemed to be an apt way to perform. Prompted by the desire to begin performing on stage and finish inside the gallery playing with the audio installation and instruments exhibited as a method of demonstrating the parameters of the instrument, rolling solved the challenge of how to elegantly move from stage into the gallery.