Mediated Sound Colonizing Space: Jon Panther

Written by Emma Whitlock

Morph is delighted to introduce hugely talented sound artist (or "sound experimenter") Jon Panther.  Jon is a MMusA sound art student at NZSM Victoria University of Wellington who is exploring dialogue between The Human Condition and The Environment it inhabits through transmission and auditory space as an interactive and participant medium. Whew!  This radical and exciting mind makes for an intriguing interview and even more intriguing sound experiences....

1.
Your blog site ‘Audiotopsy’ has a byline ‘Mediated Sound Colonizing Space’, we’re intrigued…can you tell us more about this idea and your ideas about sound in general?
Media transmission has meant that a sound source and the sound itself have no need to occupy the same relative physical space. In fact they can be many many thousands of miles apart. Transmission punches a hole in space and can place sound objects where they really don't belong. I guess it's a “Schaferian” thing – it's as close as we've got to teleportation. I tend to think of sound in terms of space.

2.
Do you remember a moment or an experience that galvanised you into following in the direction of experimental sound?
No, not really, but I do have an early memory of my father finding an ancient valve radio with a polished wooden cabinet – a very beautiful object – it had a tuning dial with a huge spectrum: Short Wave 1, 2 and 3, Medium Wave and Long Wave. It had all these exotic place names printed on the glass tuner such as Luxembourg, Berlin etc, because, of course, originally almost all broadcasters were state owned. My father then attached a long length of copper wire from the corner of the house to a Kauri tree at the bottom of the garden to serve as an aerial. Then at night, due to atmospherics such as ionosphere location etc, it was possible to receive all sorts of amazing stuff from all over the world – both broadcast media and transmission artefact – “the bits in-between” which could sound so “otherworldly” and completely bizarre – like a Sci-Fi movie soundtrack!  I can remember nights as a very small child crouched in front of this piece of technology being transported to these amazing unknown faraway worlds. I’ve heard similar tales from other folk working in related fields.

3.
In your project ‘Corputopia’ you explore the possibility of perceiving an impression of touch from information received by ears and eyes – how is this possible and where did the idea stem from?
At that time I was reading some papers on human sensing function. Ideas such as: we actually have dozens of senses not just five. These many “senses” are a result of various combinations of incoming data from the five physical receptors. Not too dissimilar to synaesthesia. This condition comes about through regions in the brain dealing with different information cognition, being adjacent to each other and capable of producing “crosstalk”. I found certain waveforms created the same reactive sensation as one might experience when contemplating flesh pierced by sharp objects. Unfortunately due to the low resolution and compressed nature of that particular video ’Corputopia’, the high end of the spectrum, “the edge”, is completely lost so unfortunately it is ineffectual. But I decided I was not particularly interested in pursuing that situation anyway.

4.
Can you give us a run down on the other projects you are working on?
I have two things occupying opposite ends of the Interactive spectrum. One of these involves “going off the grid”, re-purposing redundant and archaic battery powered technologies and taking pieces into The Wilderness – the premise of this work is to understand the Human Relationship with its environment (or lack thereof). It's so liberating to find oneself outside of “The Silent Frame” of the performance venue, or “The White Cube” of the Gallery Space and creating Interactive mediated events in the middle of the Bush, or, on the rocks by the sea etc.

The other is a more socio-politically motivated piece and invites participants to think how Humanity relates to itself. As is the case with the first, the participant finds themselves immersed in a mediated auditory space, but the architecture of this is completely digital hardware/software driven and confined to the stability of a controlled gallery space – the participant is camera tracked mapping their position within the space via an auditory information-feedback loop. It involves getting bits of software to “talk to each” and hold “conversations” which they were never design to have – and being of a generation that was not brought up with computers, I find myself frequently screaming foul language at the Laptop screen ‘cos I can't get the damn thing to do what I want! LOL.

5.
Many of your projects seem to be collaborative - not audience/performer but rather audience as performer – do you agree and if so, what interests you about this idea?
John Cage says it better than I ever could: “We must arrange our Art, we must arrange everything, I believe, so that people realize that they themselves are doing it, and not that something is being done to them”

I think Humanity has reached a dangerous point in evolution where the majority thinks it's in a position where it has no power whatsoever to change its circumstance or situation. I think, these days, the role of art should be to suggest how that can be changed. Also from an arts practice point of view, it is an exciting radical shift in thinking. Traditionally, art works are often two dimensional objects, visual or sonic, and are situated on the XY axis of the dividing line; “the frame” I.E. painting/photography is a window to a separate world that can only be viewed passively, or the diffusion of a music performance from a “stage” separated from an immobile audience. If we remove “the object” and turn art into an interactive process then it becomes three dimensional and the audience is immersed in the art. Art becomes enactment instead of end-product.

6.
In terms of your accomplishments, which do you consider to be most significant?
Still being alive!

7.
How would you describe your practice? Is it a profession, a passion, a calling?
I don't know what makes me do it really. Over the years I've involved myself in a wide range of seemly unrelated activities and endeavours. I think I'm simply an “experientialist”

8.
What are the resources, and who is it that keeps you supported?
Currently, as far as the Transmission thing is concerned, it comes from the USA. This region seems to have an interesting history in the field, oddly enough.

9.
How do you find the arts scene in NZ, what are its strengths and weaknesses?
An arts scene is dependent on the environment it inhabits. I think this nation needs to be more supportive of its Arts culture and the artists.

10.
What is your vision for your career?
Just to have a career would be rather nice!

Find out more about Jon's projects on his blog audiotopsy.wordpress.com and hear his Radiophonic Soap Opera: Scherzophobia at jamradio.co.nz.