When something is done hastily, in an unprecise, bluntly careless and rough manner, it is said that “it is sewn with white thread.” Then, why don’t we use green or red thread?

The expression is an exact semantic borrowing from the French “cousu de fil blanc”. It comes from tailoring, and not, as it is often said, from criminal procedure. Usually, in tailoring, stitches on fabric are made with a thread of a matching color to hide joints. If a dress made of dark fabric is sewn with white thread, it catches the eye.

Tailors know this—when tacking a piece, they use white thread to know exactly where a joint will be. As soon as the piece is ready, the thread is removed. Sometimes, when a tailor is careless, or they are in a hurry, they forget to remove the treacherous white thread from the piece, presenting the master in an unfavorable light.

Curiously, in France, where the expression comes from, it has a different meaning—it is used to describe someone trying clumsily to hide something while everyone else sees what is happening.

Jerzy Lisowski
https://newslab.ru/article/232209

According to the theme offered by the festival, I will try to be as honest as I can with the audience. I will perform a black magic séance with revelation, commenting on everything I will do, explaining how it works, what are the techniques and materials, how they are related to the meaning, trying to concise and understandable. This performance is a research on the system that consumes information and tries to copy it by creating new data and reproducing it with available tools without having the means to analyze and verify it.

Hand-made electronics, vibrospeakers, contact microphones, white caprine thread.


ABOUT THE ARTIST

Oleg Makarov—composer, sound artist, media artist, hardware/firmware systems and instrument developer. Composer of various types of music, including chamber instrumental, vocal, and electroacoustic music. Since 2006, he has composed for radio shows. Since 2004, he participates as a composer, multimedia interactive installations and performance creator, author of multichannel algorithmic sound installations in various international festivals and contemporary art exhibitions. As composer and performer of compositional improvisational electroacoustic music, he performs at the largest experimental venues. He combines different forms of art in his experiments with radio electronics, programming, and other neighboring areas. He is a researcher of the interrelation of sound, movement, and video in interactive graphic programming systems. As a sound and media artist, he collaborates with various theaters.