hhhhhhiiiiiissssssssssss

uhhisssss

hisssssssssaaaaaaaaa

hissssss sssaassaaaaaaa

hisssssssssssssssaaaaaaaaaaa

hissssssssssssaaaaaaaaahhhh

hssssssssssaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh

hsssssssssssssssssaaaaahaaaaaaa

hssssssssssssssssaaaaaaaaaahhhhh

hsssssssssssssssaaaaaaaahhhhhhh

sssssssssssaaaaaahhhhhhh

ssssaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh

haaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

saaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

ssssssssssssss

bluhhhhhhhhhh

hhhhhhssssssss

haaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh

ha

ha

ha

ha

hah

shaaaaahhhhhhhh

haaaaahhhhhhhhh

hadihd

hhadada

hmutter, mutter, mutter, mutter

mutter, mutter, mutter, mutter

hdihd, hdah

mutter, mutter, mutter

hdid, hadid,

MUTTER

mutter

mutter    

mutter, muttering, muttering

muttering, muttering

mu, muttering,

mutteRING, mutteRING, mutteRING,

muttering, muttering

muttering,

RING RING,

muttering

RING RING

Ring

ring ring dring dring, dring dring,

ring, ing

mu ter ring

endless stream

GOT IT got it thanks

GOT IT got it got thanks

got got it thanks

Yeah downloaded it

Stream

Chuh cha cha chatter PING PING

the endless PING ping ping

chuh cha cha PING cha cha cha

PING

the endless stream the endless stream

Oooooooh

Ow Owh

Wooooh Ow ah

Oh

Buffy

Buffee muffee Ahhh

Buffee muffee ahhhh

Buffee muffee muffee ahhh oooh

Oooh

Buff bhuff bhuuff Buuuhhhfff

(breath in)

Bhuhhhf

Flurl

flooff

phoof

flooff

pluh-ploof

Fluuurl

buffee is buffee is

Ohhh just

Mmmmyeah ahh ahhhhyeah

just

Oooh just

boohp  boohp  boohp  

booh booh booh booh boohp booh

boohp

boowaaaah

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I make experimental music performances with vocals, sound poetry, improvisation, noise and movement. My project ‘Buffer’ is a performance and wearable musical instrument. My jacket and headpiece have eTextile sensors sewn into them that can be played. eTextiles are threads and fabrics that conduct electricity. They can make experimental electronic instruments softer to play and activate through touch. The big pom-pom I wear, I call it an ePom, contains conductive wool. When pressed it changes the quality of the samples I trigger through the jacket.

A good place for me to start talking about Buffer is the meaning of the word, Old French ‘bufe’, a blow. It’s also the soft landing, the buffer that softens the blow. Also what became familiar for some during the lockdowns, the freezing screen, the buffering wheel that creates a break. Creating a buffer space is a strategy for me to cope, to find wiggle room within ableist timeframes. In my performance I break down what this involves.  I’ve discovered there is a lot to unpack. Why wouldn’t there be? ‘Keeping up’ is a concept many people would have experienced since childhood. Buffer is about asking for adjustments, about strategies to exist. It’s not an acceptance of the need for the strategy. I shouldn’t need to find ways round these demands. It can be exhausting finding ways not to get exhausted.

For WAIWAV I’m performing a version of ‘Buffer’ in partnership with The Harris, Preston.

I start with intense, loud, incessant vocals and music. I think of these as the blow, an onslaught of demands, pressure, and standardisation. When I press the ePom the sounds I make soften. The ePom is like an effects pedal, it creates a high-pass filter. I follow a colour-coded visual score and particular vocal practices to put across feeling pressured and finding relief. I combine sound-poetry with free improvisation. For the sound-poetry I look to lone wolf, irreverent, Dadaist poet Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, the Baroness, for inspiration. I make-up words, they are not recognisable from my day-to-day language. They are a way for me to collapse a lot into sounds, tones, pitch.

When I’m acting out the creating of a buffer space, I push out my arms as if I am pressing out a space around myself and make these sounds:

boohp  boohp  boohp  

booh booh booh booh boohp booh

boohp

I think of it as a popcorn inflating. This resonates with my need for humour in creating my wiggle room. Then I use these words to put across how it feels. The sheer relief and pleasure conveyed through sound, pitch, and delivery rather than a recognisable word with meaning:

Bhuhhhf

Flurl

flooff

phoof

flooff

pluh-ploof

Fluuurl

buffee is buffee is

Ohhh just

Mmmmyeah ahh ahhhhyeah

The nonsense element of this needs a bit of testing though. My made-up words come up in an internet search. Floof, flurl, phoof all have meanings or have been used as names. They are not as commonly used as fluff, puff or flop say. But on my search I discovered that ‘Floof’ is a ‘form of children’s indoor snow’ or used to mean ‘a little fluffy animal’. ‘Flurl’ is an URL Builder. ‘Phoof’ is in the urban dictionary as ‘to pass wind’. I haven’t used these sound words with these references in mind, but I like them.

https://nicolawoodham

IG @nicola.woodham

Credits to Bela Platform and eTextile Spring Break researchers especially my mentor Becky Stewart who made my eTextile making and Buffer possible and Robin Bale for collaborating on the development of the ePom. The research and development for this work was supported by an Arts Council England, Develop Your Creative Practice grant and a Jerwood Bursary.

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Buffer - 2nd July 2022

Nicola Hood, Contemporary Art Curator at The Harris, describes the day's events in Preston:

"Nicola walked out wearing her ‘Buffer’ digital musical jacket with the pom pom on her head which immediately intrigued passers-by and captivated audiences. As she slowly moved around the Bus Station she started to introduce sounds from vocal sound poetry to free improvisation with musical accompaniment from the jacket/instrument. Robin Bale carried an amp so the sound moved with her.

The Brutalist style of the Bus Station provided the perfect setting for her work, both the vastness of the space and all of the background sounds that comes from this public setting seemed to merge. At points there were moments of stillness with Nicola standing on benches and leaning forwards touching the white tiled walls with the pompom generating an abstract soundscape. "

"It’s been such a success on all levels."

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