As a serially nomadic artist, I have thought a lot about survival and the creative life over many years on the road. I even put together this ‘Nomadic Artist Survival Guide’ based on travel writing and culture articles published with Viator and CultureTransmit, in the hope that it may be useful to someone, somewhere.
Now, I’m writing this post in a blatant attempt to score a place on a writing retreat in a castle in Saint-Sylvestre-sur-Lot, France (Oct. 25th to November 23rd) with mentor Derek Murphy “Creativindie’s writing contest.”
This would be an amazing opportunity to develop some more of the personal stories behind the public writing, re-edit a draft for publication and work on a social media strategy with a fantastic writing mentor! Wish me luck, please :)
The story so far…
j’existe.
Prague, 2016
I am thrilled to be one of three authors featured in the launch of FicShelf, a new social publishing platform to help writers pay for professional editing and design. You can be one of the first to read I’ve heard the bridges singing!
Many thanks, Jodi Rose
A kaleidoscopic trip through the cultural underground and over bridges around the world, hybrid travel memoir and alternative culture resource, this dazzling text is best described as the literary love child of Rebecca Solnit and Geoff Dyer, on a gonzo road trip with Patti Smith.
Hearing the call of a mysterious language vibrating in bridge cables, Jodi Rose follows their strange music around the world, until she lands in the creative maelstrom of Berlin. Join her quest for a global symphony of bridges as she travels from Sydney to Berlin, via Helsinki, Glasgow, Ljubljana, Barcelona, Vilnius and beyond, looking for a bridge of her own and a place to call home.
“I lived for the music of bridges. I wanted to hear their cables sing, to uncover the secret voice of their vibrations. I also dreamed that I would find true love along the way. Some dreams come true, and others turn into something even more extraordinary. This is the story of my creative journey through experimental sound and underground art festivals, culminating in my marriage to a handsome French… bridge!”
SLEEP SPAN
ICE HOTEL ART SUITE, 2012
Commission: ICE HOTEL, Art & Design
Collaboration: Jodi Rose & Justin Tyler Tate
Materials: Ice, Snow, Lighting, Fur
Location: Ice Hotel, Jükkasjarvi, Sweden
Photo: Bigben
SLEEP SPAN / Art Suite 338
Arctic life is one of contrast; the warmth of it’s inhabitants in the coldest of climates. Sleep Span envelops contrast. Structurally precise ice I-beams frame the bridge under which you may take shelter and sleep.
Appreciate the industrial elegant lines of the ice bridge mixed with the rough, almost romantic accessories of ice oil drums and cardboard boxes. Snow bricks allow the light to peep through the ice wall. Lift your ears tothe Arctic winds and rest; enjoy being soothed by the ambient sounds from the bridge’s vibrations.
MENAI SINGING BRIDGE / IN AND OUT
ART IN CONTEXT, 2012
Commission: Datrys, Bangor Sound City/Produced in collaboration with INTER/Actions.
Materials: Site-specific performance Jodi Rose, Andreas Weixler, Se-Lien & Xenia Pestova
Location: Menai Suspension Bridge, Bangor, Wales UK
SILTATANNSIT TANGO / BRIDGE DANCES TANGO
ART IN CONTEXT, 2013
Commission: Saari Residence, Kone Foundation, Finland
Materials: Video, Wooden Bridge, Community Dance Group, Tango & sound recordings
Duration: Video with audio composition from 9 bridges in the region, 5'
Location: Lautanpää Bridge, Mietoinen, South-Eastern Finland
Art in Context
Commission by Lowsalt Gallery, Glasgow
Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art 2010
FRIDAY APRIL 23rd 8PM
South Portland Street Suspension Bridge(1853)
Bridgeland is a meta-nation on every bridge around the world.
Every bridge is connected to all other bridges through the vibrations in their structure. Stretching across geographical and architectural borders into a new acoustic form, all bridges resonate with a secret music, transmitting and receiving messages, codes and signals. Voice and vibration. Concrete and abstract. A sensual aurality. Immersed in the world by your ear.
Bridgeland Production Credits
Concept Development: Jodi Rose
Musicians: Guy Veale & Dave Tunstall
Production/Technical & Bridgeland sign/logo: Jodi Rose & Lowsalt
Nida Radio Wave Bridge
Art in Context
Opening Ceremony, Inter-Format Symposium.
Artist in Residence at Nida Art Colony for Welcome to Bridgeland!
Radio signals* collected from the seaside at Nida on Easter Saturday, 23rd April between 8-8:30am. Signals recorded and composition played back at the seaside location of Welcome to Bridgeland! The radio becomes a bridge across the Baltic and out to the rest of the world.
Signals range from the cultural identity of a Chinese woman surfer; Radio France International round-up of world news from ‘rebel forces’ and drones in Libya to the suspension of the Schengen agreement; DJ Spookydiscussing pattern recognition, music and technologies of the African Global Village; and Australian singer Oriante talking about courage and over-coming self-doubt… mixed with Musique du Pont Volant composition and featuring the voice of La Pasionaria.
*One of the ideas that inspired Singing Bridges was this work by Edgard Varese, who imagined his unrealised symphony Espace in 1929-1941 being performed simultaneously in and from all the capitals of the world:
“Voices in the sky, as though magic, invisible hands turning on and off the knobs of fantastic radios, filling all space, criss-crossing, overlapping, penetrating each other, splitting up, superimposing, colliding, crashing.”
Chant du Pont Volant
6 channel sound & video installation
School of Architecture Chapel
Commission by City Sonics Festival, Mons BE
An homage to the bridge as cathedral and musical instrument. At times the concrete dominates with traffic and metallic clangs singing in a dark cacophony, while the sounds of construction dissolve into an abstract soundscape as the bridge transcends the bounds of earthly function, bell tones sounding in homage to the bridge of imagination.
The composition uses only the sound of Singing Bridges, selected for their aural texture and sound qualities from recordings in Bangkok, Brisbane, London, New York, Rotterdam, Singapore and Sydney.
Originally created for City Sonics Festival, Mons in coproduction with Transcultures, Belgium.
Exhibited: UM International Festival of Experimental Intermedia, LisbonPortugal, Dragonfly Festival Sweden; Emergandsee Berlin; Re(SOUND) Hunt Gallery Webster University St Louis, USA; Sonic Maze Net Audio Festival, Camden Roundhouse, London UK.
JODI ROSE (AUS/ALL) : LE CHANT DU PONT VOLANT (Création)
Cette nouvelle installation est issue du projet Singing Bridges développé par Jodi Rose depuis une dizaine d'années à travers le monde. Il s’agit d’une série de compositions et performances basées sur le son vibratoire des cables et structures porteuses des ponts, aboutissant à une « Global Bridge Symphony ». Au sein d’une ancienne chapelle, Jodi Rose nous plonge dans les conditions d’écoute et d’expérience de ce vaste projet ; une mise en scène poétique et aérienne, permettant au visiteur d’entendre les chants captés et retravaillés par l’artiste. Un pont “chantant” suspendu créé spécifiquement est ainsi installé et joue le paysage minimaliste des textures sonores issues des ponts.
Le dispositif comprend également des diffusions vidéos de performances visuelles live, ainsi que l’exposition de “partitions” (plans retravaillés) ayant servi à l’exploration musicale des ponts.
Conseiller en design : Pieter Maes - Ingénieur du son : Jasmine Guffond
Avec le soutien de : Q-O2 werkplaats, Brussels & Frederik de Wilde - Intro in Situ Muziek en Klank, Maastricht, ISEA Singapore, Kapelica Galerie & Codeep, Mal au Pixel pour les performances video