Voice Plains
Voice Plains, 2024
An ongoing modatlity of my practice is informed by socially engaged investigations. Here, I started to established an archive of water memories. Attempting to map the surprising arc of communities and their relationship with their local waterway (floodplains and/or river systems). Using oral history to generate audio recordings, I applied floodplain maps to the audio data set and established a GIS-based noise and soundscape mapping methodology. A form of spectogram that informed sculptural light installations which were then returned to the source, suspended in the reflooded and regenerated water locations.
Conceptually, I sought to position oral history as a form of environmental sensing, translating spoken memory into spatialised data and immersive sound. The work explores how technology might extend our capacity to listen to ecological systems, not as passive observers, but as entangled participants.
Working with the Victorian Murray Floodplain Restoration Project (VMFRP), the research was designed to contribute an artistic outcome to a predominantly scientific and environmental initiative.
The methodology centered on the collection of oral histories from communities living near nominated Murray River floodplain sites, using the interview audio recordings as a source material for sound, light and installation works.
The central aim was to amplify community water memories and foster reconnection with the floodplains by translating emotionally resonant narratives into immersive contemporary art, suspended over bodies of water as their stories reverberated across the water.
Conceptually, I sought to position oral history as a form of environmental sensing, translating spoken memory into spatialised data and immersive sound. The work explores how technology might extend our capacity to listen to ecological systems, not as passive observers, but as entangled participants.
Working with the Victorian Murray Floodplain Restoration Project (VMFRP), the research was designed to contribute an artistic outcome to a predominantly scientific and environmental initiative.
The methodology centered on the collection of oral histories from communities living near nominated Murray River floodplain sites, using the interview audio recordings as a source material for sound, light and installation works.
The central aim was to amplify community water memories and foster reconnection with the floodplains by translating emotionally resonant narratives into immersive contemporary art, suspended over bodies of water as their stories reverberated across the water.