Backstory
In July 1985, independent-minded environmentalist Vanda Chan set off in Arcadia, her home-made houseboat, to sail the short distance from Pulawat towards Pulpap Atolls (Micronesia). A storm however caused her to change course and the houseboat hit rocks close to an uninhabited island. Chan believed she would be found quickly, but her solitude would last over 8 months before she was rescued. Chan managed to salvage a few personal artefacts including an old atlas (by the radical geographer Élisée Reclus **), a cassette player, a broken ship radio, and most importantly, a box of recordings of radio broadcasts which had accompanied her on previous expeditions. The radio was irreparable, but she managed to fix the onboard solar panel system to power the cassette player. To pass time, and what would become a regular daily routine, Chan would browse through the Reclus atlas whilst playing the tapes. In complete solitude, she became engrossed in listening to and making playlists of the recordings and this became a catalyst for undertaking imaginary travel, where her only option was to look towards her own imagination. Like the imprisoned figure in Xavier De Maistre’s, A Journey Around My Room (1829), she found that she could travel across continents without leaving her confines. The tapes were no longer simply a collection of songs but virtually prompted her to move from place to place.
Proposal
Chan’s story and response to enforced and prolonged isolation has renewed relevance in the context of lockdown. It also causes us to ask: how might potentials for music, certain key recordings and related structures, act as platforms to reimagine what future life might be like, and to inspire radical discursive spaces in the future? We will work with the curatorial team and fellow artists to practically engage with this question.
Aims
1. To locate a site and reconstruct a houseboat structure based on Chan’s destroyed Arcadia.
Possible locations: the area of Volksfestplatz or Klosterbauhof Ebersberg or Kunstverein.
2. To broadcast audio recordings in situ from the Arcadia (these can be streamed remotely if and when necessary).
3. We would approach previous Festival participants, this year's proposed artists, the selection panel and gallery staff to participate in the project by submitting audio journeys of playlists for broadcast.
4. The interior and exterior of the Arcadia houseboat structure, including its roof, is to be used as a setting for small scale talks, workshops and performances by other artists participating in the festival.
Fabrication / Materials
Our intention is that the Arcadia structure (approximately 4m x 3m x 2m) will be fabricated where possible from reclaimed wood materials. Upcycled solar panels, and leisure batteries will be used to power broadcasts from the structure. The broadcasts will be streamed live using Mixcloud (which allows streams via a legal and licensed platform). The Mixcloud format will also work as an archive space so that broadcasts can be accessed during and after the festival.
Little evidence exists of Chan’s story except a few poor quality photographs of her damaged houseboat. These images will be used by Tyman and Webster as a guide to build a structure based on Chan’s Arcadia.
* In 1985, three members of the band ‘Duran Duran’ formed a side project called Arcadia and released the album So The Red Rose. Needless to say, the radical potential of the album name and the significance of the Red Rose as a symbol of socialism were left unexplored. The album went platinum.
** Reclus advocated nature conservation and bioregionalism. His ideas are seen by many as anticipating modern social ecology.
