Tina Stefanou
“Actions for Phono-Chronophobia”
The following score is an offering by Tina Stefanou to accompany Motet Fail.
1. Look at the candles, try not to blink, let your eyes water
2. Mouth something silently, something you can’t say out loud
3. Imagine an animal, trace its shape in the air with your fingers
4. Imagine the sound of that animal, whisper it
5. Hum
6. Tap your chest three times
7. Count the letters in your first name—or a name you wish you had—out loud
8. Trace your teeth with your tongue
9. Say out loud "AH EI EY OH OO" three times on one note (any note)
10. If you came with someone, notice the sound of their voice, ask them to say "do you have a minute?" very slowly, if not, notice the voice of a stranger in the distance
11. Notice and hear the subtitles on the benches
12. Stand near a candle flame and hum a long note without blowing it out, (it’s okay if it happens—enjoy the smoke)
13. Clap for as long as you like
14. Close your eyes, imagine a clock with no numbers
15. Yawn
16. Stand up and sit down on each bench (if you are able), if not, lift your eyebrows up and down
17. Stare at the carpet
18. Imitate a singer in your head
19. Imitate yourself in your head
20. Sing “Which side are you on, which side are you on?”, in low tones, in any style
21. Vocalise a machine out-loud—very quickly
22. Stare at the fire and think of the sun
23. Imagine a foe and tap your temple three times
24. Grunt
25. Imagine it’s raining
26. Imagine your grandmother is sitting next to you, whisper your first word to her
27. Think of a sore body part and sigh
28. Close your eyes, fly over a landscape, gift it something
29. The game is almost over and it's time to acknowledge you, me, them, do this by shaking your left hand with your right hand as if it was a good game
30. Take a deep breath in and hold it as long as you can
Tina Stefanou is a visual artist and performer in Naarm (Melbourne). With a background as a vocalist, she works across mediums, approaches, species and labours in an embodied practice she refers to as 'voice in the expanded field'. As a means to seek more inclusive ways of making and to frame tangled relationships, Stefanou engages in multispecies performance with a family of local others, friends not-yet-made, and poet(h)ic meetings of matter. Stefanou works with sound, filmography, and research as social practice, often working with communities over long periods of time through para-ethnographic field work, vocal workshops, performance making, and filmic traces, exploring forms of poetic knowledge.
