As part of what might be the most exciting PHD we’ve ever heard of, Auckland DJ Laura Lush is building an incredible soundsystem named ninthWavesound. The project is focused on creating something new that will give women and gender non-binary people space to access the healing power of sound. Laura has just completed the first half of the stack and to test it out she held a series of listening parties at Audio Foundation. The “Lazy Susan Sessions” consisted of a giant Lazy Susan made by Laura, used to rotate turntables, laptops and a mixer around a group of mostly womxn. We went along one night and sat on oversized cushions while everyone took turns selecting songs and listening to them vibrate through the ninthWavesound stack. Neck of the Woods community manager Rebekah sat down with Laura to ask her about the design process, the philosophies and the vision all pushing her research and creation forward.
DJ Laura Lush and ninthWavesound
Photo: Kate van der Drift
NOTW: Where does the name ninthWavesound come from?
LAURA LUSH: As a surfer as well as a thinker about sound, waves are key to everything. I mean, everything is vibration, right? And then bringing in feminism, and my foray into feminist theory as part of this project, I was like well, I don’t want it to stop at say, sixth wave, so we’re just gonna project it into the future!
NOTW: Right, imagine how fire feminism will be by the ninth wave.
LAURA: It’s a positive affirmation!
NOTW: You’re building this soundsystem for your PHD. How did that come about?
LAURA: My masters in Art & Design and my initial proposal was about feminist thought as an object maker. And then I had an experience while I was in an artist residence in Yogjakarta in Java, Indonesia. I put on a night for women only called The Vibrating Vaginas Dance Club. Women in the art scene there need more voice because the scene is still really male dominated.
NOTW: So this is an extension of that project?
LAURA: Well, kind of. Of course, talking about vaginas becomes more complicated, not wanting things to be so binary now. But those are really interesting questions to ask yourself when doing a practice lead PHD. I’m learning how to think about everything and do things better. My PHD is framed as a project to empower womxn. Womxn with an X because I’m expanding it to include non-binary and all womxn-identified people. I wanted to create this so womxn could be in charge and in control. So that creates a space that is more inviting, more supportive of womxn.
NOTW: So, the soundsystem you’ve built so far is just half of what you’re building?
LAURA: Yeah this is just one stack - a 21 inch sub, a 15 inch sub, a double 10 inch cabinet and a high frequency horn.
NOTW: A horn made from fibreglass that you moulded yourself!
LAURA: I did! AUT is so amazing, there’s so much equipment, the workshop is amazing. I learnt to weld to make the frame that the horn is up on.
The first half of the ninthWavesound stack set up at Audio Foundation.
Photo: Kate van der Drift
(We’re sitting on big comfy cushions on the floor, in front of the stack. At this stage in the interview gentle percussive sounds suddenly start coming out of the horn on top of the stack. Soon a low frequency hum starts coming out of one of the subs. Laura tells me what I’m hearing is the start of a 20 minute soundscape she made for the space she’s using in Audio Foundation, and to learn Ableton and start working towards producing her own sounds)
NOTW: You’re a long time DJ but is making sound new for you?
LAURA: Totally. When you’ve got your own soundsystem, to be able to create sounds to put through it…
NOTW: Tell me more about the feminist side of ninthWavesound.
LAURA: It could be argued that it’s not a big thing but when men are in charge or control, womxn won’t engage. From my own personal experience, if a space is more male dominated I act differently than if the space is female dominated. So I wanted to create space for womxn who could become something more with more support and to just have that space as theirs - a space they can take ownership of. Which is what I’m offering this as, for womxn to engage with, learn the system, really take part.
A soundsystem, especially from the reggae perspective originating in Jamaica, the soundsystem is the whole crew. A soundsystem is not just the technology and the person who owns it. It means nothing if it’s just that. It’s about the whole community that engages, including the people who just turn up to listen and dance.
The title of my PHD project is “Ninthwave : Sonic Immanence and the Empowerment of Womxn”. Imminent is kind of the opposite of transcendent. Transcendence can be considered to be out of body, above and beyond. Whereas imminence is about being in the body. So that’s quite a feminist stance - the expereince of the lived body. What that experience is for me is valuable, it needs to be counted. But that’s not how a lot of more patriarchal thought…
NOTW: ...and how a lot of art is measured.
LAURA: Yeah, it’s all about how you can think it. I think therefore I am. But actually nah, that’s not enough. That’s not how it works for me. I feel. The knowing you can know through just feeling, through sensing vibrations, you know stuff and that happens before you think anything.
NOTW: You’re sensing it and feeling it before you even think it.
LAURA: There’s a concept I work with called The Sonic Body which is perhaps beyond even your own body. A body can be considered a group of people. Say like on a dance floor there’s a body. Everyone is participating in the same sonic body at the same time because you’re feeling the sound at the same time. So then what does that do? Does that align people? Bring people into resonance in some more subtle way?
A recent Lazy Susan Session run by Laura Lush at Audio Foundation
NOTW: What are your plans for ninthWavesound this summer?
LAURA: Hopefully we’ll have a couple of bush doofs and she’s also going to be at Splore in the Wellness Tent - an ambient chill zone curated by Wendy Douglas.
NOTW: A big bassie soundsystem as part of a wellness initiative will be a new idea for a lot of people.
LAURA: In my PHD I’m asking the question, way down on that cellular level what is it that low frequency does for us? I know it makes me feel really good. We’re somewhat addicted to hearing it in a rhythmic way. So what is that doing? It’s gotta be healing. We’re all made of water … is it vibrating the water inside us?
NOTW: Shaking up our atoms.
LAURA: Cellular massage.
NOTW: We just take it for granted that we love music and a lot of us love bass but to actually investigate why that is and what it’s doing to us inside is a really interesting question.
LAURA: I made this sound piece we’re listening to loosely based on the Schumann Resonances - the electrical frequency of the ionosphere of the earth. There’s certain frequencies that it sits at like 7.83 hz which we can’t audibly hear. But then there are the harmonics of it which I’ve tried to put into this soundscape as a starting point. As well as working with 432 tuning. Most standard tuning of orchestras and even Ableton is set at 440 hz. But say if you were to freeze water at 432 hz tuning, the crystals in the ice have more even patterns. So it can be argued that’s better for us because it’s more of a harmonious resonance.
NOTW: Are we talking all womxn and non-binary people playing on the soundsystem for now?
LAURA: Yep! The guys can have their turn later. After my project. Maybe only feminist men will be able to play later (or you can have a turn right now if you buy yourself a 2 hour set over at Laura’s Kickstarter).
NOTW: Like you said, right now it’s about giving womxn a chance to do this.
LAURA: Yeah, what happens when that space is available? Is it different is the question at the centre of this. How different is it? In what ways is it different? Have we have even imagined yet how it could be different if that was how it was rolling out?
NOTW: It’s still such a challenge for womxn trying to get DJ gigs.
LAURA: It’s a boys club, there’s no two ways about it. And there’s subtle things that you can’t pinpoint or argue. Like, you didn’t think of asking me to DJ, not because you don’t think I’m a good DJ but just that I don’t come to mind first because I’m not in your boys club. Unconscious bias is a pretty hard thing to argue against.
NOTW: So with all that in mind, what are you hoping ninthWavesound will achieve?
LAURA: Seeing other womxn be confident in what they do works to inspire others to have a go. Uplift uplift! There will definitely be opportunities that wouldn't exist without ninthWave.
A favourite feminist theorist of mine, Elizabeth Grosz, advocates not worrying about trying to fight or change the system, but instead to take action and DO something... work to create space outside the system, CREATE, MAKE, DO.
Laura has just launched a Kickstarter to raise funds to finance building the second stack of ninthWavesound. For rewards there are t-shirts, stickers, private DJ lessons and even the chance to hire ninthWavesound for your own party. Laura pointed out this might be the only way a lot of men will get to have a hoon on the soundsystem for a while so watch the video below and get into it!