Please join us to mark the opening of bells and whistles, an exhibition of sculptural and installation works – reflections/connections by Jess Robinson, and Pipe Dream by Eamon Edmundson-Wells, Sean Martin-Buss.
Jess Robinson’s reflections/connections is an interactive installation which encourages visitors to explore an environment using sound. Microphone and loudspeaker pairs are situated throughout the gallery in a tangle of wired connections, creating an unpredictable acoustic environment. Materials consist of scavenged and borrowed sound equipment, including some of the Musical Electronics Library. On arrival, visitors are offered small sound-makers and encouraged to use these and their voices to engage with the space.
This work connects viewers to space, situating them alongside other gallery visitors amidst the sounds of their collective making. The gallery acts as a meta-instrument, facilitating these sounds and connections, with a character of its own. Visitors are prompted to listen deeply, and be thoughtful about how they add their voice to an unfamiliar space at particular times and locations.
As it draws out connections among viewers, Robinson’s array of receivers and emitters is at the same time integrated with Pipe Dream, an installation in the room adjacent for compositions and improvisations exploring resonances in columns of air. This pairing creates a hyper-instrument of acoustic and electronic connections which will be activated in an improvised performance on Saturday 27 July.
Pipe Dream, a new work by Eamon Edmundson-Wells and Sean Martin-Buss’, is a modular acoustic surround sound instrument which dis/integrates the air, and moves it in swirls and eddies throughout the space. A prototype of this instrument was first performed at the Audio Foundation as part of a performance by the rudimentary music ensemble “The Essential 5th Element”.
Over time the instrument has developed significantly in size and scope. Pipe Dream combines brass pipes, garden hose, and brass and woodwind instruments with projected video, and an eight channel sound work made during the development of the installation.
Opens: Thursday 11 July, 5.30pm, with refreshments by Liberty Breweries
Hours: 12 – 4pm, Tuesday – Saturday
Closes: Saturday 10 August
Public events:
Saturday 27 July, Audio Foundation, 4pm
In an activation of the bells and whistles installations, players are invited to explore and interpret the space and instruments. Improvisers and audience members are encouraged to roam through the space during performances.
Artist bios:
Jess Robinson (she/her) is a sound artist, composer, performer and acoustics engineer from Tāmaki Makaurau. Her practice includes algorithmic composition, free improvisation, and digital musical instrument design. She is interested in using sound to explore connections to place, and investigating relationships between performers, instruments, and spaces.
https://jessicarobnson.bandcamp.com/
Eamon Edmundson-Wells is a Tāmaki Makaurau-based musician and sound artist. He has worked with renowned international improvisers and artists such as Hayden Chisolm, Jon Pål Inderberg, and Jobic le Masson, and regularly collaborates with members of the local improvisation and composer community. Alongside Ziggy Lever, he is a co-founding member of The Observatory Project which was recently selected to take part in the Arts at CERN Guest Artist programme at CERN, Geneva.