Losing you, but you've gained peace from a hard fight. Since that day, a day hasn't gone by when I haven't thought about you.
I've been missing you for a long time, but now it feels final. Hope you are smiling. Hope it is good. There's something important to be said.

It's been a hard month or so emotionally. The fragility of life is something I've been aware of for a good while now, but it really hits home every now and then. People sometimes wallow in self pity, sometimes bitch and moan about the inane and superficial. As hard as life can be, life is good because the alternative is death. Breath life in. I am trying to be positive and there are some good things that have happened and some still on the horizon.

Most urgent to announce is the opening on May 25 of "ROOM", a group exhibition curated by Derek Hart that includes my work "The Angels are Coming" in a single channel version.

It continues until June 17 and is at CAST, 27 Tasma Street, Hobart, Tasmania.

The new drone/mood/ambient music project known as mumble(speak) makes it's debut live performance opening a evening of electro music. Also playing are U_ER (aka local Scot Cotterell) who makes 'scapes' and Tom Halll from Brisbane who is presenting ambient soundscapes. It looks like we'll probably do a 3-way jam to close off the night too. It is at TROUT, Elizabeth Street, North Hobart on Friday June 8 at around 9:00pm.
You can also here some more of mumble(speak) and other bits and pieces HERE

As reported last time, I'll be doing some sound design material for Sydney-based artist and sometime collaborator Deborah Pollard. This development period has moved closer and I'll be going up there in early-July for a few days to work on it. The piece is called Blueprint and is looking to me like a very profound, but personal work that I'm very glad to be a part of. I'll be producing sound elements, almost like spot effects, that fit within the overall structure and amongst a score by Gail Priest. I'm not sure when or where the finished work will be presented. More details later.

TIMEOFFICE is now on an extended hiatus, it has not definitively ended. More details HERE

The ongoing saga(!) of STOIC RHYTHMS, my 'krautrock' documentary. Well I've approached the WDR in Köln to try and use some of their footage in a final cut of this piece that was started in 2003. I'm yet to hear back. I had an idea to produce a multi-part version for the web, around five minutes each part, that can be viewed online. I could then see if this garners any interest for a full quality DVD or film-festival version in the future. At the moment I just don't have the time to dedicate to it, but I'd like to finish it in some form. However, the research will continue, basically because it's what I'm interested in and this may result in updates and articles/interviews appearing on the website. To get the ball re-rolling I've produced an extended trailer (5:30 mins) of the documentary at this stage and see what the response is. It can be viewed at the STOIC RHYTHMS site or here

Speaking of documentaries; I've completed a rough cut of part 1 of my audio/radio documentary on UK musician/composer Mick Harris. It's 30 minutes long and covers the early hardcore/grindcore days including Napalm Death and Defecation. It's got music and an interview I conducted with him in September of 2006. I'm hoping to do 2 more parts covering his other projects (Scorn, Lull, Quoit) and his collaborations (John Zorn, Martyn Bates etc). I need to redo some of the narration of part 1 and then I'll try and get it broadcast on radio and make it available available as a podcast.

My conceptual, text, instructional work "PROVOCATION" recently made appearance as an onscreen version amongst other text-based video art works at Federation Square on one of
the large public screens for Melbourne's "Emerging Writer's Festival". There were a group of four provocations which included a new Melbourne-centric one. These artworks were shown as visual content for this festival and were compiled by Moses Iten.

That's it for now. Be good to each other.

Stuart Brockmann
1979-2007