This work considers the social, spatial and sonic presences of public art in Narrm Melbourne, through listening to sonic materiality of artworks in situ. Using extended field recording techniques and physical movement, Public Ears incorporates subtle acts of performance and shifting perspective to explore the affect of environmental dynamics, protest and public action on excitation of materials and structure in public space. These material properties, heard in colonial monuments through to modern public art commissions, reflect differing sonic identities as inwardly sounding structures and their historical and social entanglements within the city. This artwork has been produced on the unceded territory of the Wurundjeri People. I pay my respect to their elders past, present and emerging.
This project is supported by the City of Melbourne, through the 2020 Art and Heritage Collection Residency.
I acknowledge the Kaurna People as the traditional owners of the unceded land on which I live and work. I pay my respect to their elders past, present and emerging.