20 March 2006
[written at Tate Modern in response to walking about and interacting with the ‘moving people about playlist']


It was really interesting to look at the work in the kippenberger and the bauhaus show whilst listening to ‘people moving about soundtracks’. First because it isolated myself in such a way, that the usual aspects of what can make looking at art difficult (i.e. the other people) become a secondary focus. I couldn’t hear their chatter, I could just see them, but their presence became less. There was only this strange meandering soundtrack [which I had created for the purpose of being in transit] which began to form its own narrative. In particular the Workbench track. When it finished I was empty and tired, as if I had been sucked into something I am not sure I can describe. Lucier’s track Music on a Long Thin Wire has continually snuck up on me all day, it almost feels although when I hear it, it bites me. What does that mean? Where does Guns N’ Roses fit between those two tracks? Because the mix is so varied, you have everything from Lucier to Fleetwood Mac, it makes me questions issues of construct. While Guns or Fleetwood Mac are not sound art per-say, could they be if I used them in that particular context?

What does that mean for the whole concept of the piece?

How do tracks like the Workbench track fit with something by say Belinda Carlise?

Is it a matter of using the more abstract tracks to find the abstract qualities in the pop?