release date: 16 March 2021
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sound art installation: soundtracker
This program explores one of my installation works titled ‘soundtracker’. A multi-source, multi-speaker listening environment, adaptable for different spaces, soundtracker presents fifteen hours of audio excerpts from field recordings I’ve made over 40 years. Each excerpt is about 6 minutes long.
soundtracker is presented in a very dark room, illuminated only by diffuse natural light entering through a circle of white Japanese shoji paper that transmutes the crisp distraction of external views into diffuse luminous presence and shadow-play.
In the darkness, five identical sculptural forms sit on the floor, in a circle surrounding a custom-built 5-sided bench seat. Playback devices and speakers hidden within the cryptic shapes endlessly shuffle-play over 150 tracks to create an ever-changing sonic-poetic atmosphere.
The installation environment alludes to the calming shadow-cloaked spaces within traditional Japanese architecture so well described by Jun’ichiro Tanazaki in his 1933 essay ‘In Praise of Shadows’.
Visitors enter the space from the brighter outside world and find their way to the bench, to sit and listen in the subdued light for as long as the unpredictably variable surround-sound mix holds their interest.
soundtracker provides a penumbral space for reflective quietude in an evocative liminal emptiness.
tracklist
Locus A
0:00-4:30 Bundanon evening 29Oct13
4:30-9:30 Kinetic installation of 150+ hand-worked drink cans 01Mar15
9:30-16:20 Origma Reserve (OR) 29Oct2012
14:50-18:45 Under northern pylons of Sydney Harbour Bridge 11Aug13
18:45-25:00 Pond, Adelaide Botanic Gardens 22Oct13
25:00-27:40 Raindrops falling from trees onto overturned metal bowls
27:40-31:35 Local rail, Hakone, Japan Sep1988
31:35-34:20 Black cockatoos, OR 06Sep16
Locus B
0:00-3:35 Time-stretch, rain drops in downpipe 06Jan2016
3:35-6:00 Water in gutters, Honen-in temple, Kyoto
6:10-11:05 3-pendulum harmonograph 15Feb2015
11:10-14:45 OR 09Dec2013
14:55-21:00 Evening camp near Tennant Creek, Northern Territory with Warumungu families and cultural workers developing Nyinkka Nyunyu Culture Center 2003
21:00-26:20 Hillside washaway, OR
26:20-31:20 Wooden door, Bundanon residency
31:25-35:30 aleatoric ensemble unit
Locus C
0:00-4:50 School group in garden, Ginkaku-ji temple, Kyoto
4:50-9:45 Diamond dove & fly swarm, OR
9:50-13:50 Time-stretch, striking bamboo Adelaide Botanic Gardens 19Oct13
13:50-17:10 Male superb lyrebird, raindrops falling from trees 03Apr15
17:10-20:35 Time-stretch, contact mic, pen plotter, Monash University 12Dec12
20:35-22:35 Council street-washing vehicle, Redfern
22:35-29:40 Time-stretch, below decks, overnight on research vessel, Shark Bay, Western Australia 2004
29:40-33:55 Local train to Uji, south-east of Kyoto 03Nov14
Locus D
0:00-2:00 Temple bell, wind in trees, Shoren-in, Kyoto
2:00-5:00 Kinetic installation walkthrough 01Mar15
04:50-09:00 Gyuto Monks of Tibet, Bondi Pavilion, Sydney 21Apr16
9:05-10:50 3-pendulum harmonograph
10:50-18:00 Water over stones in gutter, Jakko-in temple, Ohara, Kyoto
18:05-19:35 Stingless native bee hive, OR
19:35-25:30 Pilgrims & monk chanting heart sutra, Mimuroto-ji, Kyoto
25:30-26:40 Gang-gang cockatoos, OR 10Dec2012
26:40-32:20 Night, OR 08Feb2014
32:20-33:25 Wharf, Man O’War steps, Sydney Opera House, night 29Aug12
Locus E
0:00-0:45 Tourists, Bondi Beach, Sydney 29Aug12
0:45-5:50 Frogs in dam, night, Dungog, New South Wales 03Oct16
5:50-11:50 Demolition work, Hobart wharves, Tasmania 24Nov14
11:50-19:50 Cicadas, Kyoto Botanic Gardens
20:00-20:15 Wonga pigeon flies away, Origma Reserve, Sydney
20:20-25:30 Evening thunderstorm, OR 05Mar14
25:30-30:15 Raindrops falling onto metal dishes, ground, and deck, OR
30:15-32:45 Time-stretch, rainwater dripping into cave pool, OR 18Jun13
32:20-35:30 Night, black field crickets, OR 16Mar14
OR = Origma Reserve, an off-grid bush retreat north-west of Sydney, NSW