Transcription

Hand woven rug, projection, drum kit

Transcription begins with the colour-coded map used by weavers to construct a hand-knotted rug. The grid is translated into a musical score, with colour and position determining rhythmic information. Percussionist Aatmik Gupta performs the resulting composition on the rug from which the score was derived.

The work treats the weaving map as both instruction and notation: a system through which labour, pattern and repetition are organised. By translating the map from weaving into sound and performance, Transcription shifts information between different forms of embodied knowledge. The process makes visible the distance between instruction and interpretation, while connecting the rhythm of weaving with those of the musical performance.

Shift

HD video, 8 pencil drawings on cartridge paper, Melbourne

A child was asked to copy the outline of Australia’s border. A second child was given the first border drawing and asked to copy that, and so on. With each child’s interpretation Australia’s border is transformed, and by extension its identity portrayed as being in a constant state of flux.