Toni Tait

Toni Tait is one of the inaugural Firstdraft Micro Commission Artists.

Dou-ble U three L’s an M and eight O’s seeks to unravel the structures of settler-colonial possession, enacted through language, notation, and sound. It aims to deconstruct linguistic and notational systems within Herbert Rule’s score “Woolloomooloo!”, highlighting repetition as a mechanism through which settler-colonial possession is performed.

Within Western music notation, repetition is a directive. Symbols such as repeat signs and dal segno instruct performers to return, retrace, and reaffirm what has already been written. This work explores repetition as a performative act, through which language and notional devices rehearse and enact the claiming of space. The repeated spelling and naming of Wooloomooloo within the original score solidifies this performance of (dis)possession, whereby language and notation claim ownership of a (stolen) site.

Dou-ble U three L’s an M and eight O’s begins by attending to these linguistic and notional mechanisms, asking how they might be unsettled. Through the process of relational re-scoring, the score is transformed into a playable sculptural notion. Language and symbols of repetition are extracted from the score, deconstructed, and re-interpreted, shifting the score from authoritative instructions toward a relational framework.

Installed and performed in “Woolloomooloo” on Gadigal land, the work engages with the site as both context and collaborator. It is activated by a performer responding to the score, the site’s soundscape, and an archival performance recording of “Woolloomooloo!”. Instead of instructing, the score invites the performer and audience to engage in deep listening with the site, its sounds, histories, and communities.

Dou-ble U three L’s an M and eight O’s is an attempt to unpick, unravel, and unlearn the hierarchies embedded within traditional notion systems, and the wider colonial hierarchies that continue to structure everyday systems of knowledge and practice. Relational re-scoring, therefore, offers a possibility for deep listening for performer and audience, and creates opportunities for relational encounters with place.

Toni Tait is a South African-born artist working across sound, assemblage, expanded photography, and video on Gadigal land. Her emerging practice examines the entanglements between settler colonialism, infrastructure, and the natural world. Interested in site-specific works, she is guided by deep listening, attuning to sonic and political histories held within the land. Her work seeks to open possibilities for collective (un)learning while embodying a sense of protest and responsibility.

@t0ni__t
www.tonitait.com.au