THE CLICK CLACK PROJECT INC.:

OVERVIEW

The Click Clack Project is an interabilities sound art organisation that generates high calibre sonic performances, workshops and recordings through the combination of sound artists and musicians of varying abilities. The most highly trained and technically gifted musicians and sound makers work alongside and on equal footing with those sound makers who are still developing their abilities. Developing musicians and sound artists include, but are not limited to, those sound makers with an intellectual disability, and young sound makers still in the early stages of life’s remarkable journey. Having been auspiced by JOLT Arts Inc. in 2010, The Click Clack Project Inc. was incorporated as not-for-profit arts organisation in 2011. From mid 2011 to 2013 The Click Clack Project Inc. is being incubated by the Footscray Community Arts Centre, as a part of that organisation's residency program for community development activities.

Australia is the humble though proud steward of one of the world’s most stable democracies. We live in a nation where human equality is considered a great collective aspiration, where the hope is that we all might share in the bounty of our hard work, and where the inequalities of our society are challenged and interrogated until the generally slow, but necessary changes in our society are ultimately delivered.

The Click Clack Project’s interabilities agenda is born from my dream of equality, which itself is born from the national dream of equality – for if we are to accept that all people are equal as they walk amongst our vibrant community, then we must accept that the abilities of all people are of equal worth to our community. The sound artist, born with autism, is just as capable of producing sounds of immense value to our fellow citizens as is the precocious talent of the elite instrumentalist. This is how we make our small contribution to saving ourselves and the world from the tyranny of self interest and disenchantment. People will say to you that you can’t save the world – but the reality is that there are millions of people doing it every day all over the world. The nurse who resuscitates the man from his heart attack; the government housing that gives the single parent dignity; the miner who digs the earth to power the energy grid; the activist who would rather go to jail than see a tree fall in anger; the sound artist who gives up a life of security and wealth to enrich to give us a culture that separates humanity from psychological destitution. And so we strive to save the world in our small, and mostly anonymous ways.

The high ideals that drive The Click Clack Project have arisen from the 2009 sonic art event titled THE NIS. This multimedia concert was presented by JOLT Arts and the Footscray Community Arts Centre at Forty-Five Downstairs, Melbourne, and featured the BOLT Ensemble and the Amplified Elephants. THE NIS marked a bold step into a brave frontier in culture making. It was the first known sound art event to combine sound artists with an intellectual disability, professional musicians and interactive and robotic technologies in one mighty show. The event demonstrated that high calibre artistic equality could be achieved through interabilities sound making.

The ideals that arose from THE NIS where not lost on audiences. As Jacqui O’Reilly wrote in Artshub, Tuesday 10 March 2009, THE NIS “successfully creates a sensory soundscape that carries the power to confront and permeate preconceptions held by audiences about ability, disability and excellence, at the same time as taking its rightful place in breaking down the boundaries of the ‘outsider’ in Australian culture.”

Having directed THE NIS, it seemed natural that those ideals within the project should be continued and expanded. I have therefore sought to further broaden the scope of interabilties performers through The Click Clack Project, and have invited the Noise Scavengers – a teen sound art group from Corio with whom I have worked previously – to join with the Amplified Elephants and the BOLT Ensemble in developing the outcomes offered in Click Clack’s 2010 program.

Sometimes I feel that it always a brave new world that faces myself and my colleagues. The rate of change in society spins so quickly. But I take heart that my colleagues and many others like them are prepared to take on that world as contributors. And when the boat comes on that sadly inevitable day, we can each hand over our penny with eyes held steadfast and sonically satisfied, knowing that we did our bit in making the world a better place. This is how great communities are made.

James Hullick