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The Sounding Room

Project Proposal to ANA submitted by Sa Sa Art Gallery and Art Projects

1. Background

Our proposal to the ANA for ‘The Sounding Room’ is one part of our ongoing project, ‘New Building’, an experimental, community art project that explores creativity and self-expression in the complex communities of one of the Phnom Penh's most famous buildings.

This project focuses on the communities of The Building, an iconic structure originally designed in the early 1960s to house cultural sector workers (artists, musicians etc) employed by the now demolished Grand Theatre. In recent years, public perceptions of the area have become negative, as the area has become known for a series of irregular activities: prostitution, gambling, drugs. However, the Building hosts a vibrant and lively community largely unknown to the public. Located in the increasingly popular Tonle Bassac area of Phnom Penh, these communities are now under regular threat of being removed from their homes. This contact gives our continued work in the area a special urgency and significance. The project is being led by Sa Sa Art Gallery and Art Projects in collaboration with UK-based arts organization Incidental, who have extensive experience in community projects and sound art. Throughout 'New Building', Incidental is providing ongoing support in the realization of this project.

The overall work of 'New Building' has already begun in 2010. Sa Sa has rented a Project space inside The Building, and we are currently working to establish trust and collaborative relationships with the local community. Over the coming year, the ' New Building' project will build upon these relationships hosting a series of installations, workshops and events inside this space. Our first exhibition of community-based work will begin in February 2010, with a piece called 'The Painted Room'.

Our proposal to ANA is to request funding for the second stage of work in the 'New Building' series, entitled 'The Sounding Room', to take place in 2011.

2. Project goals

The goals of the project are:

1. to rediscover our local history of music, instrument-building and performance for a new generation of residents, through an interactive musical installation

2. to promote innovative approaches to participatory art in Cambodia, and to engage local Cambodian communities directly in the creation of contemporary Khmer art;

3. to revive the reputation of The Building as a thriving artist community, using public, participatory events;

4. to give voice to local residents, to explore critical local issues of power , rights and culture vie gross, collaborative processes; and

5. to develop skills of Sa Sa members in participatory art and sound art via the collaboration with Incidental

3. Brief descriptions of the project

Highlighting The Building's history as a home for master musicians and instrument builders of the past, 'The Sounding Room' will transform the space into an interactive, immerse sound sculpture. The installation will be created from fragments of traditional Khmer instruments, for example, gongs hung from the ceiling, and Tro Sao strings stretching from wall to wall. Constructed from familiar elements of traditional Khmer music, these fragments will be combined and transformed to create an immersive interactive installation.

During the exhibition, the space will be available for visitors to come and experiment with the various musical objects. In addition, we will also organize informal public concerts, where we prepare and then perform musical compositions in partnership with local residents.

We hope the space might also be used for informal workshops with local school children, or even host concerts featuring other musicians from across the city.

Finally, we will also host public discussions in the space. These will be designed in collaboration with local participants, and will explore local ideas what role experimental and contemporary arts and music can play in Cambodian society.

All activity in the space will subsequently be broadcast to a wider national and international audience via project web log and CDs, outlined later in this proposal.

4. Methodologies and Implementation

The project will include local residents throughout the process. To begin, we will invite local musicians to collaborate with us as we design the space, choosing what instruments to use, what tuning systems to follow etc. We will begin by generating concept sketches to agree a visual and sonic approach to the space, and then will translate into a final design for implementation.

Where possible, local craftspeople will be commissioned to construct the various components of the installation and aid us during the construction period. These musicians will also be invited to play the Room during informal public concerts.

Once construction is complete, during the period of four weeks, the local residents and the public will be invited to visit and play the Room. To ensure the exhibition is well attended we will work closely with local organizations. For example, we will work with Aziza, a small community school located in The Building, to bring young students to the space. We will also invite young musicians from local musical organizations such as Cambodian Living Arts.

A key challenge throughout our work will be to explore some of the more problematic aspects of life in The Building without becoming embroiled in the more political aspects of the current situation. We feel it is important that local authorities do not see our work as a political or radical movement. Therefore, although we aim to give a voice to local residents, we will do so through informal channels, and focusing on cultural and artistic outputs that are not likely to aggravate political tension.

During the project, activities in 'The Sounding Room' will be documented (audio. photo and video). Music composed from the Room will be recorded, and subsequently edited onto audio CDs to share the project with a wider international audience.

We will establish a web log for 'The Sounding Room' project. Throughout the development project we will share plans and developments online, and also post essays explaining the philosophy of the project. Once the exhibition is underway, we will also post photography, video and music footage of performances in the space. We will use our own organizational contacts and networks in Cambodia, the UK and internationally to promote this blog, and secure international coverage for our work.

It is important to emphasize that 'The Sounding Room' is not the end of our work, but part of the broader 'New Building' series. Our concept is to begin with a series of projects based upon our own ideas. But once we have developed strong relationships with local residents, they will be the key drivers of our future projects. So, once this phase of work is completed, we will be working with local community.

5. Time Frame

'The Sounding Room' project is expected to start on March 1, 2011 and finish on May 31, 2011.

6. Project Outputs

The expected outputs of this project are:

1. Installation of musical sculpture to be exhibited for local residents and the public

2. Workshops and discussions about experimental and contemporary arts in Cambodia

3. Audio CDs of experimental music composed from The Sounding Room

4. Web blog providing historical documentation of the project, and an ongoing for discussion and debate about contemporary Cambodian art

7. Target Audience

Primary audience: local residents of The Building

Secondary audience: national and international artist communities and the public

8. Information dissemination to target audience

Sa Sa team is already active in The Building and by the beginning of 'The Sounding Room' we will have already completed our first community project in this space. Therefore, our community contacts will already be in place, and it will be very easy to promote awareness and engagement with the project.

We aim to engage wider audiences across Phnom Penh, encouraging them to attend public opening concerts, through printed leaflet and emails. In addition, regular updates to the blog will generate increased awareness of the project, and encourage people from across Phnom Penh and international visitors to attend the exhibition.

The online blog will provide key opportunity to document and promote the work for a broader national and international audience. This will provide a means to update people about the project as it progress, and to generate a sense of excitement about the work. We will also include more theoretical posts, to explain the thinking behind our work. We will also work to develop contacts with blogs and websites interested in similar areas to maximize exposure of the project via social networks.

We would also anticipate the support and further promotion of both the live events and the overall project via Cambodian organizations who have previously collaborated with Sa Sa or Incidental, such as Cambodian Living Arts and Meta House, and existing press contacts in publications such as Phnom Penh Post, Cambodia Daily, Voice of America and The New internationalist.

Finally, once the core project is completed, audio CDs of the 'The Sounding Room' music will be complied and disseminated to key local arts institutions and libraries and international arts centers. These CDs and the online log will provide an ongoing document and life for the project even after the exhibition has finished.

9. Impacts on the communities, cultures and the fields of experimental and participatory arts

Although Cambodia has a flourishing scene in contemporary painting and other forms of fine art, participatory art projects and sound remain largely unexplored in Cambodia. We therefore believe that this project will have a strong, positive impact on for several reasons.

Firstly we believe that the project can work to develop entirely new forms of art and music in Phnom Penh. By offering local musicians and artists an opportunity to learn more about experimental sound art practices, we hope this might lead to encourage others to pursue their own projects to combine new ideas with traditional art mediums.

Secondly, this project represents an opportunity for Sa Sa to build upon existing experience in contemporary art, by collaborating with incidental and developing our skills in participatory projects and sound art.

Thirdly, by establishing a collaborative project with Incidental, we are also working to strengthen international connections of Cambodian artists with other international artists and art networks, which we believe will be of ongoing benefit to our organization.

Finally, we believe that the project will have a real impact on the local audience in The Building. We have received positive feedback on our work there so far. We believe that this project will offer local residents a valuable opportunity fro self-expression, and by empowering the residents in this way, the community we will be strengthened from the inside, whilst also reinforcing positive external perceptions of The Building as a flourishing artist commune.

Current and previous projects

The Painted Room, Sa Sa and Incidental (on-going)

As part of our 'New Building' series, 'The Painted Room' project will transform the traditionally formal environment of the gallery into an open, collaborative painting and community workshop, constructed from the voices of its many residents of all kinds are invited to paint/write on the walls, expressing their day-to-day experiences of and relationship to The Building. 'The Painted Room' will offer unique insights into the personalities, hopes and fear of this community, whilst breaking down barriers between gallery and residents, and developing a strong sense of ownership of the space amongst local community.

Sunday Art Class (on-going)

Sa Sa offers free art class for young students every Sunday morning. This project is aimed to build inspiration and skills amongst new generation of Cambodians on art practices. Students are coming from Phnom Penh, Kandal province, The Building itself and AFESIP (child protection NGO). The project started with drawing and is planed to move on tot other disciplines of visual art.

Artist Residency (on-going)

Sa Sa provides residency programme for young Cambodian artists from across the country to stay and produce new bodies of work in the Art Projects space. We encourage experimental and installation arts by supporting emerging artists to realize their new ideas.