Watch Vivienne Griffin kick start the I Should Be Doing Something Else Right Now Live programme with a broadcast of two new works, I LEAF and SLOW AND LOW.
Experimenting with the production and editing tools to hand, six artists live stream a performance from home, responding to the provocation I Should Be Doing Something Else Right Now. A series of quick fire commissions from Studios artists exploring work, play and process.
Borrowing its name from the title of a work by Vivienne Griffin, the artist opens the series with I LEAF, a post-apocalyptic techno-fantasy. A text written in the initial days of lockdown, the vocal sound was recorded in the artist's small flat, filled with sounds from inside and out. Instead of trying to block out the ambient noise, Vivienne opened the windows and let more in. In collaboration with soltura, the Irish London-based musician Saoirse Ní Scanláin, the music was produced over the course of the last week.
Augmented reality is on Vivienne’s mind at present, they says, in relation to what the neuroscientist Anil Seth says about reality: that it is a controlled hallucination. The video is a combination of the videos shot on the artists iPhone on their daily walks with her dog.
For SLOW AND LOW, Griffin sang Nothing Compares 2 U - written by Prince for Sinead O’Connor - without the melody, auto-tuning their voice and transposing it multiple times to make an auto-tune choir. Originally made for South Kiosk on a 15 channel sound system, made possible by King's College London.
1. I LEAF
Made in Lockdown 2020
iPhone, Instagram filters
Sound: Collaboration with soltura
Dog: ‘MR’
Duration: 14 mins 59 secs
2. SLOW AND LOW
2019
Autotune, vocals, production, mastering Vivienne Griffin
Duration: 28 mins
I Should Be Doing Something Else Right Now Live is a series of new commissions from Studios artists responding to the title’s provocation through live streaming.
