Sound Experiments
Sound Experiments
2021 - 2026
Sites recordings include:
Abusrd Ecologies includes additional collaboration with selected royalty free music compositions (via Epidemic Sound):
2021 - 2026
Sites recordings include:
- Murray River at Merbein Common (Mondellimin, Nyeri Nyeri Country), Victoria
- Lake Tyrrell (Direl, Boorong Country), Victoria
- Shoalhaven River, Bundanon (Dharawal and Dhurga Country) New South Wales
- Dubai Creek and Canal, UAE
- Venice Lagoon, Italy
- Arctic Circle, Svalbard
- Deer Island, Wastewater Treatment Plant, Boston
- Brouq Nature Reserve, Doha, Qatar
Abusrd Ecologies includes additional collaboration with selected royalty free music compositions (via Epidemic Sound):
- Glacier by Anna Dager
- Carnelian by Christoffer Moe Ditlevsen
- Deep Cracks (Frozen Lake Melting)
- River (Water)
- Space Atmosphere (Dark, Creepy, Resonant)
Soundscapes of environmental field recordings, layered oral history interviews, low-frequency tones and music underscore my artworks and installations. They generate an auditory field of repetition and drift contributing to the temporal structure of my artworks, developed with the audience encounter in mind.
My work explores how sensory experiences can translate complex systems like environmental and water ecology into experiences that audiences can perceive and interpret.
Sound has been central to my practice since my Honours Voice Prints (2021), and across each site, field recordings function as a companion to, and amplifier of, embodied experiences. They have the capacity, like water itself, to emerse a viewer and highten memory making experiences.
These field recordings and post production compositions are subsequently layered to fit multi-channel video and multi-media artwork loops.
Sound critically engages the senses before audiences enter a space, nurturing a open and curious atmosphere. Sound is often used to reach and support a crescendo in my work, reinforcing a jarring unease and urgency, while recognisable sounds of river flows, birdlife, irrigation pumps, and ice clinking are interwoven with deep, ostensibly soothing cello tones. I use sound compositions frequently to slowly fracture and unsettle the audience listening and support the messaging in my work.
As sound resonates and accumulates, an uncontrolled overlap loops and layers within a space. This considered curation of sound composition is intentional to maintain control over audiences increasingly hard to maintain attention.
Scientists measure sound as frequency or amplitude, but artists reveal how sound is lived, how it moves through the body, shapes identity and connects people to place. That intersection is where my artistic research contributes something unique to my ongoing exploration of climate communication on water ecology.
My work explores how sensory experiences can translate complex systems like environmental and water ecology into experiences that audiences can perceive and interpret.
Sound has been central to my practice since my Honours Voice Prints (2021), and across each site, field recordings function as a companion to, and amplifier of, embodied experiences. They have the capacity, like water itself, to emerse a viewer and highten memory making experiences.
These field recordings and post production compositions are subsequently layered to fit multi-channel video and multi-media artwork loops.
Sound critically engages the senses before audiences enter a space, nurturing a open and curious atmosphere. Sound is often used to reach and support a crescendo in my work, reinforcing a jarring unease and urgency, while recognisable sounds of river flows, birdlife, irrigation pumps, and ice clinking are interwoven with deep, ostensibly soothing cello tones. I use sound compositions frequently to slowly fracture and unsettle the audience listening and support the messaging in my work.
As sound resonates and accumulates, an uncontrolled overlap loops and layers within a space. This considered curation of sound composition is intentional to maintain control over audiences increasingly hard to maintain attention.
Scientists measure sound as frequency or amplitude, but artists reveal how sound is lived, how it moves through the body, shapes identity and connects people to place. That intersection is where my artistic research contributes something unique to my ongoing exploration of climate communication on water ecology.
Soft Tumble (Wash & Dry) Orchestra
Sound Experiment
Melbourne Fringe Festival
2025
Sound Experiment
Melbourne Fringe Festival
2025
A sonic performance blending the mechanical rhythms of laundry cycles with live spoken word and storytelling, coordinated by Annette Wagner and conducted by contributing artist James Nguyen, as part of Wunder Gym x Melbourne Fringe Festival 2025’s Transcriptions program with proud program partners Wyndham City and Hobsons Bay.
On 4 October, Wyndham City’s local laundromat becomes a stage for a unique sonic and storytelling performance led by Wunder Gym for Melbourne Fringe Festival 2025 (WGxMFF25) with mentoring artist James Nguyen and in collaboration with participating program artists.
In this one-off community and performance event, the everyday sounds of washing machines and dryers are transformed into the central score a living “soft tumble wash and dry orchestra.” At the signal from Nguyen, artists loaded soft, meaningful objects into the machines, synchronously starting a 45-minute cycle of rhythmic rumbles, whirs and mechanical churns. From a central podium, select artists will weave spoken word, poetry, and stories into the mechanical chorus, creating an audible archive of shared memory. Everyday sound becomes music; personal histories are softened and passed on, like fabrics in the wash.
By collapsing the boundaries between domestic labour and creative practice, the work turns what is usually background noise into a collective composition one that mirrors the way memories are softened, passed on, and remade over time. It invites audiences to listen closely to the hidden music of the everyday and to hear in it the patterns of cultural inheritance.
Recording available soon.
On 4 October, Wyndham City’s local laundromat becomes a stage for a unique sonic and storytelling performance led by Wunder Gym for Melbourne Fringe Festival 2025 (WGxMFF25) with mentoring artist James Nguyen and in collaboration with participating program artists.
In this one-off community and performance event, the everyday sounds of washing machines and dryers are transformed into the central score a living “soft tumble wash and dry orchestra.” At the signal from Nguyen, artists loaded soft, meaningful objects into the machines, synchronously starting a 45-minute cycle of rhythmic rumbles, whirs and mechanical churns. From a central podium, select artists will weave spoken word, poetry, and stories into the mechanical chorus, creating an audible archive of shared memory. Everyday sound becomes music; personal histories are softened and passed on, like fabrics in the wash.
By collapsing the boundaries between domestic labour and creative practice, the work turns what is usually background noise into a collective composition one that mirrors the way memories are softened, passed on, and remade over time. It invites audiences to listen closely to the hidden music of the everyday and to hear in it the patterns of cultural inheritance.
Recording available soon.