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Melbourne Festival October 2001 Development process The idea came about from an phone call from instigators Jason Cross & Victoria Raywood asking if I would be interested in putting a rice paddie in an urban place. This was extremely interesting as there were so many juxtapositions and contradictions in the idea. It was decided to put the Paddie in two locations, the Melbourne City Square and the Footscray Mall. These two areas have a very different demographic. Office workers and service providers that do not live in the area mostly populate the city square; a large majority of these have a European heritage. Conversely the Footscray has many Asian inhabitants, most of whom arrived in the past 30 years, and an equally large number of white families that have been in the area for generations. The effect of a rice paddie on the inhabitants of these places was considered one the most interesting aspects of the project Sound design ideas/issues to be considered - The local, in general white Australian, assumptions about a "rice paddie"
- The effect of a rice paddie being used as a performance space on the Asian and Australian community.
- How to make the installation relevant to the current socio/political mood.
- How to express an opinion on current events
- How to inspire and respond to the actions of the actors
- To create a sonic environment that the audience can interpret according to their own understandings.
- How to best use the physical environment (sound of trams, buskers, audience members, the effect of the buildings on the sounds used)
Sounds used; - Recordings from Parliament, various speeches from politicians. This performance came shortly after the "Tampa Crisis" and most of the parliamentary discussion centred on that. One of the main speeches was by Bob Brown asking, to paraphrase, how can we, as Australians, behave in such a way towards other human beings.
- Three to five second excerpts from SBS News of the World, played randomly so that at no time was one language given prominence
- The sound of birds in the morning, recorded at my house, here the sound was extremely rich and incessant. It evoked a sense of early morning simply through the sound. This was looped throughout the performances.
- The musicians improvising with the rain tank. This was used as a percussion device, a resonant chamber, and a visual prop.
Roles of the different sounds used: - The recordings of the Australian political speeches and the News of the World were played through the very large megaphone prop. These sounds filled the role of an indoctrinating voice, broadcast over the Rice Paddie over. The voices in languages other than English were used to create a sense of a broader world than the local, English speaking environment.
- The bird sounds were used to create a sense of nascence, with the expectation of a coming day.
- The musical accompaniment was mostly improvised, as was the acting. Here the musicians reinforced the action through sound. The rain tank was the main instrument, here the idea being to subvert the utilitarian sense of "rain tank", making it a musical instrument. It also has a visual resonance to a Taiko drum, reinforcing the Asian sense.
Considerations of the environment: - While both venues are primarily used for commerce, requiring a great deal of verbal communication between vendors and customers there was an intention to impose the show on the place. At the same time it was considered that the performance should become a part of the place. Therefore amplitude levels were kept to about the same, or a bit louder than, the loudest environmental sounds. In the City Square this was the sound of trams measured at about three meters, about the same distance as a pedestrian on the curb from a passing tram. In the Footscray Mall this was the sound of a passing truck at about 5 meters.
When setting the levels for the amplification system a distance of about 1.5 meters from the speakers was used. This amplitude level was adjusted to suit the changes in ambient noise level and if it was significantly impacting on the vendors in the area. Sound system used; - 2 Yamaha MS400 powered speakers
- 1 Yamaha MX 12/6 mixing desk
- 1 Pioneer multi disc CD player, set to random play
- 1 no name portable CD player
- 1 Polytone Mini Brute II guitar amplifier. A very large megaphone prop was built to house this.
Audience reactions: There was a significant difference in the reactions of different ethnic, cultural and social groups. For this reason I have given a broad indicator of the appearance of the group. All responses were volunteered by the various audience members. To paraphrase each response heard: City Square - Mid 50's white woman in a smart business suit. "Why would you want to put a rice paddie here? If you want to see a rice paddie just go to Deniliquin." She was very offended at the waste of money.
- "This is fucked" young white man in tracksuit grabbing his partner and child and pulling them away from the site.
- Four white late teen boys on skateboards: "Why is he wearing shoes in the water? They'll get ruined. (The actors in the performance were all wearing business clothes)
- Asian businessman: "You should pass a hat around."
- Breathless Middle eastern young man: I just heard that when I got out of Macca's (about 200 meters away) They used to play that in my home (Afghanistan) The shepherds played it at the end of the day."
- Police: "Wow what are you doing here? This is great, but could you turn it down a bit"
Footscray Mall - "Look, a swimming pool for slopes" Anglo woman age 40 to 50 on seeing the installation as she walked into the mall. She had no idea the installation was there.
- "This is how you sow/harvest the rice" (to paraphrase the Asian sector of the audience)
- "It takes up so much space"
Actors: - Simon Woodward
- Yumi Umiumare
- Tony Yap
- Jackie Smith
Stage Manager Musicians: - Madeline Flynn
- Tim Humphrey
Sound Designer/Composer Lighting Design - Andrew Livingston
- Jenny Hector
Director/Writer - Simon Woodward
- Victoria Raywood
- Jason Cross
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