Notes on whistling

Claire:
I'm thinking about a sound work that's a dialogue between you and me, where we both record ourselves attempting to whistle to each other. I have thought a lot with this exhibition about communicating back home, the absence/presence thing, how we can play off the fact of our distance and make a work out of it. And I love that neither of us can whistle, I think that's a pretty interesting discovery. In my mind the work would be like a calling out to each other, but also a camaraderie in our lifelong inability to whistle - a way of making something kind of beautiful and funny and sad out of it.

Wind:
Attempting to whistle is kind of like the wind.
The whistles blowing our dust works around.
The wind blowing down a corridor.
The wind blowing across oceans.
The wind filling the sails of ships.

Jessie:
I also like the romance of wind blowing across the ocean. I was making/thinking about flags alot last/early this year - prayer flags from Mongolia and then maritime signals - which also led into thinking about ships and their sails - and thinking about how the wind plays an important role. Without it they would all just be pieces of fabric. I also come from a family of sailors so I guess I think about yachts and sailboats with the wind and the sea too.

Communication:
In La Gomera in the Canary Islands they use whistling to communicate across the deep ravines and narrow valleys that radiate through the island:
"This method of communication, in which the Spanish language is replaced by two whistled vowels and four consonants, has a peculiarity perfectly suited to this landscape of deep valleys and steep ravines. It has the ability to travel up to 3.2km, much further and with less effort than shouting."

Superstition:
Whistling at night is thought to attract bad luck.
Whistling indoors is supposed to bring poverty.
Whistling on board a ship in a calm will bring the wind but to whistle on board when the wind is blowing is to bring a gale.

Sayings:
"Whistling in the dark" is to console or encourage someone in trouble.
"Whistling in the wind" is a futile attempt at something.
"Whistling down the wind" is to cast someone or something off to its own fate, from the sport of falconry - when hawks are released to hunt they are sent upwind and when turned loose for recreation they are sent downwind.

Titles:
'You just put your lips together and blow (attempts to whistle across the seas)
'Transcontinental whistle conversation'
'Transoceanic whistle conversation'
'Transoceanic whistle'

Time:
At opposite ends of the day.
Within an hour of a specified time.
Is there a particular time important to sailors?

Whistling in the wind:
The work in itself being a futile attempt - to communicate across the world, for either of us to whistle.