This work was made as a commission for Art/Activism: The Peer-led Research Group https://www.a-n.co.uk/blogs/art-activism-the-peer-led-research-group/

It is based on the discussions around the book Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman

It was composed using a series of tape loops which were as follows: 
3 loops from the PJ Harvey song 'The Glorious Land' - 2 were percussion loops, and the other was the phrase 'Its fruit is deformed children' - I used this phrase in reference to the ways in which information is being delivered through digital platforms and mechanisations that are continually compromised and have a terrible lack of transparency.  Much of the lack of human kindness that we see in contemporary society, the feelings of alienation and detachment can be traced to the adverse effects of mobile devices and their applications, which are specifically designed to produce addictive behaviours, and reward individualistic behaviours. 

1 tape loop was is from the Bob Marley song 'So Jah Seh' its the line 'and love i-manity'. Rasta always refers to the individual as I & I, this means that we are one with all, I & I not just I. It's the I with every other I the I & I together. The loop talks about I-manity all of us as one. 

1 tape loop was recorded by someone at the 'Infinite Wheel of Time' exhibition. This person recorded themselves just wailing 'nooooooooooooooo'. This just felt like a very real human noise, and Iloved the fact that someone had responded to the work in the first instance, this conversation across time and space, is definitely something which feels in keeping with the message of the book, communication of feeling and openness of spirit to be involved and share a word / noise / gesture in a safe space. 

1 tape loop was taken from the material sent from the 'book club' reading session which says 'what fear they have about whatever the next fear mongering thing is.' 

I also use the story about getting on the train and how the conductor wouldn't let the mistake go and made certain assumptions about what was going on there... 

The piece also includes some record manipulation of David Axelrod's 'The Human Abstract' which is based on the William Blake poem: 

Pity would be no more,
 If we did not make somebody Poor:
 And Mercy no more could be,
 If all were as happy as we;

 And mutual fear brings peace;
 Till the selfish loves increase.
 Then Cruelty knits a snare,
 And spreads his baits with care.

 He sits down with holy fears,
 And waters the ground with tears:
 Then Humility takes its root
 Underneath his foot.

 Soon spreads the dismal shade
 Of Mystery over his head;
 And the Caterpillar and Fly,
 Feed on the Mystery.

 And it bears the fruit of Deceit,
 Ruddy and sweet to eat;
 And the Raven his nest has made
 In its thickest shade.

 The Gods of the earth and sea,
 Sought thro' Nature to find this Tree
 But their search was all in vain:
 There grows one in the Human Brain[3]

The last element is my own reading of statements from the book itself which say: 
'It wasn't a thin membrane at all, but a callus.'
'Please take my place.' 
'all those persistent rumours costing lives...'
'which wolf will win? The one you feed...' 
'Disaster butter sold here.

Humankind

Hugo Strasser

Altered Images

Badgewearer

Nicky Thomas

Dodgy

Brotherhood Of Man

Educated Fool

A simple cut up of videos collected from my Big Indian Family whatsapp group. What we share and how we stay in touch, is a fascinating insight to transnational communication and the way we use culture to ground our identities.

Whatsapp! Big Indian Family

As with my previous work I am exploring the ways in which the record often functions as a site of resistance for both groups and individuals and become powerful iconic symbols of our journeys through life. In this piece, commissioned by the Young Blood Initiative I have brought together the music of Roman Tam and a speech which is a call to action for the present Hong Kong protests. In carving the record I instantiate the tensions, between the past and present and between the ideal and the reality. We are in a time of deep political fractures, division and a redrawing of the political, cultural, and social norms. This work is symbolic of these interventions and interruptions and is an attempt to translate some of these tensions onto the taboo surface of this redolent object. The protests are an important moment in the history of democracy, a moment which should be supported by all those who value the human rights.

Roman Tams Umbrella

This work is based on ideas of post truth and denial, and the years of misinformation that has surrounded our contemporary political circus, and the evolution of communication strategies since the digital revolution. Equally it is about the power of the collective voice to be heard and make active reinterpretations, interventions and organically grow into a space through sound. Politicians, the institutional media machine and the general public supported by social media platforms are constantly making confident statements, opining and holding rigidly onto polarised positions. Their messages construct and maintain behaviours, no matter how damaging, hence the constant destruction (in its many forms) supported by corporate business. The statements made both formal and informal are at once vilifying, admonishing, vehemently either agreeing with or barracking against one another. They speak of humanity's weaknesses and strengths, they speak of a vast complexity being caged into binaries. The efficacy of the debates which are being held in this megalomaniacal morass of information are questionable, and indeed it may be argued that the proliferation of communication channels has harmed, not improved the quality of discourse. 

These are not new arguments, but their new contextualisation is further worth thinking about and reassessing in present times. Blurring the boundaries and definitions of moral, political and social norms, as we move through time and space is what is at stake here, and in this work I aim to instantiate this confusion through cluttered and untrustworthy mediations of the audiences own voice, and simultaneously give it, the spaces it enters into and the medium which produces it, agency. We listen back to ourselves and the experience changes us, we record ourselves and repeat ourselves and this changes us. It re-purposes our identity, places our character at odds with itself over time, produces ruptures, conflicts and resolutions.

As the audience enters the space they were invited to record a statement of their choice on a tape loop provided. I made a series of tape loops with different statements recorded onto them: like 'these are not my words', 'this is not a lie', 'no, I’ve been perfectly clear', 'it doesn't mean that', and a series of statements gleaned form the politicians speeches. The audience would be invited to record over these statements with their own words and voices so producing an original work in a productive dialogue with each other, the space and the questions presented by the work. They will then play their recorded statement on one the tape players available. This plays into idea that no one can actually hear themselves with specificity as there is too much information in the bandwidth, and translation from brain to speech is fallible. It also plays with the notions of interruption, the collective, productive dialogues, and the paradox of being provided with your own channel to say what you like, but no one actually listening, and how this communication changes with the passing of time. Equally there are questions here about the notion of recording, fragility, reinterpretation, representation, repetition, ontology and the fallibility of memory, and power relations played out across mediated space. 

The work is an homage to Alvin Lucier's 'I am Sitting in A Room', as people would record their statements whilst all the other statements are playing therefore each message is impacting on the recording of the next in a material sense. The work also references John Cage’s 33 1/3 installation, where the audience become part of the creative process as they essentially make the work as they input into the system.

'Not Necessarily' Tape Loop experiment 28.6.19

Paul Nataraj ~ You Sound Like a Broken Record (Self-Released)
You Sound Like A Broken Record is one of the most distinctly original releases of the year. Playful, sentimental, and nihilistic, it delves into personal stories and unique memories, all held together within vinyl grooves. Fourteen volunteers gave up a record that had special importance in their lives. They were later interviewed and their personal stories were etched onto the surface of the vinyl. The experimental work stands out because of this process, but it’s also an important peek into the mechanics of music as memory, as well as ‘bringing into relief the dialectical position the record plays as both icon of the music industry but also symbol of musical rebellion’. The music has been reconstructed, too, the heart spilling out through the speakers in a fascinatingly disjointed but spirited way. The records are varied: Stevie Wonder, Bowie, Duran Duran, Brotherhood of Man, and Lil Louis are all distorted and rearranged according to personal memory, making this at once a record of intimacy and growth, speaking of the industry at large with million-selling popular records and the industry’s loving fixation on vinyl. You Sound Like A Broken Record opens a ‘productive dialogue between industry, user, artefact, artist, music, and society’. Vinyl hiss never gets old. It holds a special place in the heart, and a digital file can never replicate that. Love shapes this recording – a love for music, and a love for the spice and colour it gave to a moment, affecting someone’s life. It doesn’t get much better than that.  (James Catchpole)
https://acloserlisten.com/2018/12/15/acl-2018-top-ten-experimental/

Paul Stan Nataraj

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