The egg, the cart, the horse the chicken

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About the piece

The egg, the cart, the horse the chicken was written by Hazel Smith (text) and Roger Dean (sound). The hypertext and animations, wrtten in Flash by Hazel Smith, are designed for a split screen. The texts in both the upper and lower frame are grouped into short linearÔscenesÕ which form an overall ÔmovieÕ. But the sequence in the upper frame can be disrupted by clicking on hyperlinks (marked in capital letters) which allow the reader to jump to texts other than the ones which follow each other in sequence. Consequently the juxtaposition of the texts on the two different screens is also variable. . A basic idea behind the piece is the way in which linear systems are constantly disrupted by non-linearity. This is written into the piece at a formal level by the use of the hyperlinks, animation and split screen, which tend to disrupt normal reading processes. . Thematically the piece also engages the ways in which a simple cause and effect relationship rarely operates, even within scientific systems. At the same time the hypertextual network interconnects many different ideas including the cultural significance of illness, the process of writing, the commodification of womenÕs bodies, and the atemporal nature of memory.

The soundtrack, is an algorithmic piece Ligating for computer controlled keyboard sounds (2000). This sound piece is one of minimalist rhythmic complexity. The mesmeric 11 note cycle of the outset gradually evolves in pitch content, speed, and density of accompaniment. At a certain point when the pattern has become very fast, its rhythmic content changes quite dramatically. At this point the piece climbs to its conclusion; which turns out to be reversible, as the piece then plays backwards. The work was entirely written in MAX, the algorithmic composition and performance MIDI/sound control platform, so that performances vary, but this is a quicktime recording of one realisation, now fixed, for use with this web piece.

About Hazel Smith

Hazel Smith works in the areas of poetry, experimental writing, performance, multi-media work and hypertext, and her web page can be found at www. australysis.com. She has published in numerous international poetry magazines including Southerly, Heat, Southern Review, W/Edge, Tinfish, Outlet, Milk, Crayon, Reality Studios, and Pages, and a number of internet journals including Jacket and How2. Her volume Abstractly Represented: Poems and Performance Texts 1982-90 was published by Butterfly Books in 1991, and her volume Keys Round Her Tongue : short prose, poems and performance texts was released by Soma Publications in 2000. Her two CDs Poet Without Language with austraLYSIS, and Nuraghic Echoes (in collaboration with Roger Dean), were released by Rufus Records in 1994 and 1996 respectively. She is a founder member of the multi-media group austraLYSIS. Hazel has given poetry performances in many countries including Australia, Great Britain, USA, Belgium and New Zealand, and also on the ABC, BBC and US radio. In 1990 she collaborated with Sieglinde Karl and Graham Jones on the installation-performance piece TranceFIGUREd Spirit. In 1996 she collaborated with Sieglinde Karl, Ron Nagorcka and Kate Hamilton on a collaborative-installation project, Secret Places, exhibited in Tasmania. Melbourne, Wagga Wagga and Orange.

Hazel has also collaborated on several pieces with musician Roger Dean, and their work featured on, the ABC programs The Listening Room, Random Round and Jazztracks. Their piece Poet Without Language was nominated by the ABC for the Prix Italia in 1993. In 1997 they collaborated on a hypermedia-installation piece, Walking The Faultlines, which is featured on Cyberquilt: A CD- Rom Anthology, International Computer Music Association, San Francisco, 1999. In 1997 Hazel was co-recipient with Roger Dean and Greg White of a grant from the Australian Film Commission to design a multi-media work for their Stuff Art website. The resultant work "Wordstuffs: the city and the body" is now on the ABC website at http://www.abc.net.au/arts/stuff-art/stuff-art99/stuff98/10.htm. Hazel Smith and Roger Dean have also collaborated on the hypermedia work Intertwingling now at http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/stadler_center/how2/current/special-feature/intertqt/startqt.htm.

Hazel is a Senior Lecturer in the School of English at the University of New South Wales. She has published numerous articles on contemporary poetry, performance, and hypertext, and is co-author with Roger Dean of the book Improvisation, Hypermedia And The Arts Since 1945 published by Harwood Academic in 1997. Her book Hyperscapes in the Poetry of Frank O'Hara: difference, homosexuality, topography was published by Liverpool University Press 2000. Feature articles on Hazel's work have appeared in HQ Magazine, Real Time, Sounds Australian, The Australian Women's Book Review , Island, The Sydney Morning Herald, Colloquy, Five Bells and Southerly. A special edition of Pages (UK) was also devoted to her work.

About Roger Dean

Roger Dean, is an Australian composer/improviser and sound-artist. He has performed in more than 30 countries, as a double bass player and keyboardist. His compositions include computer music, instrumental works, and recent commissions for the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Alpha Ensemble, the Wallace Collection (UK) and Chaconne Brass (UK). His works have been published by Open University Press (UK/USA), Red House Press, La Trobe University Press, and Sounds Australian, has a ppreared on on cd-rom and on the web. He has published two books on improvisation, and a third with with Hazel Smith, Improvisation, Hypermedia and the Arts Since 1945 (Harwood Academic, 1997). He is developing computer-interactive networked improvisation, and further sound and text, and intermedia work; and working on a book on computer-interactive sound improvisation for A-R Editions (USA). His music is available on more than 30 commercial recordings, including CDs on Audio Research Editions, Discus, Mosaic, Soma, and shortly Future Music Records (FMR) (UK); Jade , Rufus andTall Poppies. (Australia); and Crayon, and Frog Peak. (USA). He is the founder and director of austraLYSIS, the international sound and intermedia arts group. Roger was born in the UK, and was a featured subject in the Avant, a leading UK journal of adventurous music(2000).