peter mumme
New arts submission
living life with earth
an explore of the stories and arts that might better allow the (re)connecting of our inherent relationships with ‘mother’ earth
we have both the need - and an existing 'proven' model available in this continent - to help us all proceed ..
our ‘old’ traditional culture - a cultural-philosophy that knows ‘relationship’ inside and out .. is ever inviting us ‘to come and share with us’
brief biog:
I am 78 yo, white, male, live, think, consider, re-consider, make, create, fail, miss, produce all kinds of musics, sounds, sound-pictures, soundtracks for video, dance, film, radio, performance, cassette, cd, lp, online
create visual and sound images, text and contemplative stories, commune with aboriginal (Yolngu) family and friends in many odd places !
(see/hear pm.com/arts and dropbox/pm download releases)
have current work on cd/lp (waak waak djungi), in a fed. gov. ‘productivity commission’ program, radio play, qantas air planes (now not so often!)
have won a few prizes for cd, radio, commercial and film work (p-m.com/biog)
am mostly engaged now with new sounds-music-images pieces (pm.com/new-musics)
working on a healing and restitution program w. Yolngu (pm.com/song-story-project)
many depictions of nature’s songs - sound environments (pm.com/nature-songs)
interests include all these, plus many years of retreat and of study (see online biog)
capabilities .. ('achiemements')
- realising (some of) the role of our ‘human-arts’ ..
‘I was finding that, with all the nature recordings and resultant music being made, the links between my small time activity - and (my awareness of) the huge relationship culture (that forms the base of our Indigenous world view) was emerging, big time’ .. (pm biog)
- of realising ’technique’ (and ’technology’) is - at best, simply physical capability to do something, is relative and ever temporary .. (dropbox/pm support/comments)
- realising (some degree) of interconnectedness (interdependence) of life,
retreat for full time study and working as amanuesis with a domiciled Tibetan monk (2011~)
continue to work on making sense - in terms that make sense - of these studies, long consideration and adapting .. (pm biog)
about the program
We often respond to places in this continent with, ‘I love being here’ and ‘I like this place - but can’t express why’
Perhaps we are expressing our feelings of connection - but are ‘limited’ in our capability to do so .. ie our (literal) languages may be a ‘problem’ (?)
My long time interests reside in music, sounds, nature, this continent, it’s stories and trad cultures - and the continuing quest to realise new approaches that encourage more (mainstream) engagement in living life here .. these interests ever expanding and becoming co-incident
My many ‘works’ are (perhaps) an evidential testament to this (see pm/arts and dropbox DL)
As an example, may I offer our continuing ‘Waak Waak Djungi’ project as an initial model ..
Waak waak was originally made mid 1990s for a cd release, a combining of trad song and story with ‘sympathetic’ music arrangements .. it attracted almost nil interest at that time
Waak waak was re-released 2018 - after being ‘discovered’ (!) by ‘mainstream’ - this time with interest !
We have further developed a ‘package’ intended to better ‘explain and contextualise’ the story, this in response (now) to requests from around the world asking ‘why do we not know of this music/culture?’ .. see more in the links
This ‘package’ is presented online and includes:
- the ‘marketed’ product (cd, lp, d/l) - 'efficient space'
- the project’s history context - 'waak waak ga min min'
- a ‘looking deeper’ into the story itself - song-story project
- a ‘bandcamp’ review - indigenous artists
The intent now, in this ‘living life’ program, is to broaden our stories ’back to’ include their context - their place and time of creation’ - and the ‘spark’ enabling their existence .. our depictions of our myriad relationships - of people, nature, earth and life - being our representational (spirit-based) arts
The opportunity and encouragement to so ‘explore’ (ie create individual experiential perceptions) within the broad view, is intrinsic to (both) this program’s process - and our own human nature
we engage/connect directly - ‘locally’ - within our own integral living communities - our unique ‘self-sustaining’ regions (eco-systems)
On-line can simulate (introduce?) this, some live performance/experiencing can do this
and may (for example) be utilised in public (radio/internet) dissemination .. a ‘presenter’ is engaged within the story from the start
I can talk to, present, ‘workshop’, play, engage .. all kinds of approaches within the big-story context; the public dissemination process is - must be - integral to the ‘whole story’
Personally, gaining time, place and encouragement to better allow (my) further focus on the clarity of expressions needed here would be of benefit
(p-m.com/stories .. ’within and without’; ‘beyond literal’
program process and benefits:
the program's aspects’ I can (try) ‘name’ at this stage are all ‘on-going’ - are all interlinked processes ..
- re-engaging several long term projects that might now be better approached and ‘completed’ .. these include the local darwin larrakia/yolngu/contemporary story combine (as above); a longest time project based of the victorian ‘wamoom’ (‘the prom’); Kuku Yulanji (daintree area) qld
- online dissemination and explains (as this ‘living life with earth’ project .. via new download, radio, text, talk, website, adapting and updating new approaches to ‘arts’ concepts - so to better allow general interest, acceptance and ‘validation'
- local (Darwin environs) video-music-sounds explores (see ex); new pno music pieces ‘completion’
- ongoing ‘waak waak’ (combining Yolngu and contemp music/story) project;
- retrospective and ‘revisiting and re-mastering’ older works as opportune and/or benefitting by being presented in ‘new’ public formats
I ‘do’ all these things - plus cook, clean house, eat, shop, assist, sit, meditate, (try) fix car, computer, compositional keyboards, internets .. all the ‘time’
wrap ..
I write this about 6am monday, cool breeze, casuarinas (trees), magpie geese, cockatoos, pre-sunrise light
as nature, life and arts
nothing is separated
there is no problem
we can broaden
- our ‘welcome to country’ ~ ‘acknowledging country’ .. and be guided
- our like/love of country ~ realising ‘why’ and how living is ‘normal’ .. imbued and flourishing ‘complete’ life
- our care for country ~ our conscious relationships with ‘mother’ earth
all point to our need (and capability and opportunity) for ’new’ story .. via our arts
our arts .. new life arts .. broad, of nature and earth, life based, approachable .. living w/out fear (of death - and hence of life)
liberating from (imposed) limitation
our arts are our expressing life in day to day languages’ - how we move, vocalise, auralise, oralise (?), represent images and symbols, ritual and ceremony, meditate, mediate, consider, ’sit, share, talk, walk, eating, communing, enjoying .. everything living
PM
sept 2021
note; this application/submission is (also) available for download ..
contact me if required - you will have this link if involved already
PM - recording with rosellas (parrots), long time ago !