Clara Thesis Outline & Proposal"
PROPOSAL
Fiddle while Rome burns
A musical collaborative performance with ceramic instruments
What?
I will create two video pieces and an interactive installation that center around a ceramic musical altar.
The first short film of approximately 5-10 minutes will be documenting the creation of ceramic instruments from the extraction of the clay, to the shaping, burning, glazing and final instruments.
The second video will be a one-shot performative short film of approximately 15 minutes in which the instruments will be used by myself and another musician on the location where the clay has been extracted. This film will center around a “musical altar” consisting of the self made ceramic instruments.
Lastly the ceramic piece itself will be exhibited, so it can be interacted with by the visitors.
Here are some visual insights into my search for references and my first try outs
How?
Step 0: Continue reading in different directions such as object oriented ontology and examples for reciprocal relationships between humans and land (Currently reading Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer) in order to specify my research.
Step 1: Make ceramic instrument trials. Possible instruments include; flute, marimba/xylophone, hanging plates/chimes, shaker, bells, water whistle, drum, guiro. I will document the process through film and photography. Film this whole process
Step 2: Start collecting clay and try to create instruments with such. Also film this whole process.
Step 3: Create video performances in collaboration with my close friend and collaborator in many ways Mila. This can be filmed in a location where I collected clay.
Step 4: Possibly create one meditative loop song that I will create a music video to.
Why do you want to make it?
Coming from a multidisciplinary background I have devised a way to combine my interests and skills in lens based work, ceramics, and musical performance.
One of my learnings of the past 5 years spend in art school has been the appreciation of objects from the perspective of a crafter, understanding and appreciating the virgin material and the path it had to take in order to take on a new shape and be usable to humans.
This project gives me the chance to visualise this process of gratitude focussed production methods, with an underlying anti-capitalistic thought, as it visualises the emotional disconnect that has grown between consumers and goods. My aim is to promote ideas of a symbiocene and reciprocal relationships between humans and the land we inhabit.
The musical part of this project comes from many influences throughout my upbringing in a very musical family and my ongoing collaborations as a lens based artist with musicians, as right now with my friend Mila Meijer. Together we are currently producing several music videos for the EP of the duo MIEL that she is part of. As this project in currently ongoing next to my studies and I am greatly enjoying working with her it felt natural to bring her influence on me into this project as well.
Having felt very touched by Ragnar Kjartansson's works "The Visitors" and "Death is Elsewhere", the want to include a musical aspect to my graduation project became stronger.
The title “Fiddle while Rome burns” reflects an anxiety people are feeling in these turbulent times and how recreational music making can be a way of coping.
Lastly I am excited about the idea of challenging myself with the materiality of clay, which I have been increasingly consumed by.
Who can help you?
Musically I will have support through my sister(music therapist) and mama(choir conductor) and my friend Mila(musician and frequent collaborator).
When it comes to ceramics, I am reaching out to two fellow WDKA students; Laura, who is learning a lot about natural glazes at the moment and Dori, who is already working with ceramic instruments. I am also reaching out to artists that work with clay that they have collected themselves. The potterer Claußen in Brunsbüttel works with clay out of the Wadden sea and the recent WDKA graduate Rink Schelling works with clay from Zeeland.
I am also planning to visit the Soundlab at the ceramics center EKWC, close to Tilburg. Possibly support can be found there.
Relationship to previous practice
These applied disciplines have been in my practice for some time. I grew up in a very musical family and embraced my inner stage pig through flute playing, classical singing, ballet and contemporary dance.
Now I sometimes create little tracks with my mother and her wild selection of instruments at home. Her choir has become my second family, underlining my idea of music as a community builder as it has build one for me since birth.
Over the last years I have increasingly worked with musicians in my lens based practice as well. Usually making music videos or taking images at performances. In the last few years one main collaborator has been Mila or rather the duo MIEL in that sense. Currently working on several music videos for their upcoming album, we are slowly turning into a trio, where visual arts merge into the process of musical creation.
Ceramics came into my life around 2 years ago, having taken a course in Barcelona at the end of 2021. The obsession has been growing steadily, making functionable ceramics, but also more sculptural ones such as crowns and swords. Instrument making is a new one to me. Ceramics came into my life around 2 years ago, having taken a course in Barcelona at the end of 2021. The obsession has been growing steadily, making functionable ceramics, but also more sculptural ones such as crowns and swords. Instrument making is a new one to me.
Another constant in my practice has been to continuously accumulate new skills in crafts. This practice of learning how to craft clothing from virgin and upcycled material or clay objects for daily usage for example, has strengthened my anti-capitalistic ideas of consumption. Crafting has taught me to enjoy slow processes and cherish the pride and energy I carry with objects created by myself or people I feel any sort of relation to.
Inspiring friends to also create or create side by side has also been a fulfilling aspect of these learnings.
Friendships and community, acts of socialising have been present in most of my work. From my photobook on the community that I lived in in Groningen(The ORKZ), to my photographic and film work centering around friendships and shared experiences. Another example for that is the short film I have made on my friend Amber.
Relationship to larger context
A big spark towards this project has come from Ragnar Kjartanssons works “The Visitors” and “Death is Elsewhere”. An artist I have found inspiring, that is using interactivity and live music in an installation is Nevin Aladag. Her “Music Room” installation focuses on the idea of historical, recreational music rooms. The performance piece by Wang Lu and Polly Apfelbaum called “The Sound of Ceramics” should also be mentioned. It brings together vocals and using ceramic pieces hanging in the space as instruments.
Instrument builders that have caught my eye so far have been Harry Partch (working with microtonal scales), Susan Rawcliffe (focus on hispanic inspired flutes) and Marie Picard (ceramic instruments in playful animal designs).
In ceramics work I have been also looking more into the work of Mel Arsenault, who is creating organically shaped altars from clay.
Musicians that I find inspiring are Erykah Badu, Marc Rebillet, Laura Misch (loop machine-multi-instrumentalist) and the song “Give peace a chance” by Yoko Ono and John Lennon that originated in their bed-in protests for peace. This could be a potential visual reference.
Workflow/timetable
Now-February: Research through reading and making instruments
February-May: Video experimentation with the instruments
May-June: Editing and experimenting with medium for presentation (film installation/physical objects/interactivity/live performance/print images)