Dog Wisdom or HMV is a performance about dogs, records, loyalty and knowledge. It was commissioned as part of ArtHouses2018 in Whitley Bay.
For of the commission I asked if I could meet with someone living on the street where the festival was taking place who had both a record collection and a dog. From this special encounter with a kind host, non-human companion and hours of beautiful music, I developed a script that explored the ways knowledge, emotion, technology and love can become intertwined. The work collages music from my host’s record collection and reflections on human understandings of the canine mind.
The material is collected as an LP, produced in an edition of one, to be played on a the house’s stereo system and enter the host’s record collection .
On the day of the performance an audience gathered in the living room to listen to the LP, see video fragments and a short choreography with a model of the Russian Spacecraft, Sputnik 2.
Special thanks to Rob Smith for his Sputnik-making skills.