Community
Progress??
Theatre for the Listening Mind, and the Thoughtful Listener.
Progress?? is a quick piece of narrative Audio Art is made from a selection of the Found Sounds around Whittlesea, Victoria supplied by composer colleague, Gary McKie, during a residency he calls The Whittlesea Sound Project.
Whittlesea, Australia, has been swallowed up by the growing outskirts of Melbourne, Victoria. Gary’s Found Sounds were recorded both in the natural environment, a major shopping shopping centre, and the ordinary daily sounds heard in a typical Aussie suburban backyard.
the project’s creative brief
“The Whittlesea Sound Project is about discovering, or reconnecting to, the diverse sounds around us, as COVID-19 restrictions continue to ease, and we venture back into our communities throughout the City of Whittlesea and beyond.
Consider how being aware of the sounds around you effects your connection to place and ask yourself, “is there anything in my environment that could be changed to improve the quality of sounds and the way we are living?”
This project is supported by the Whittlesea Creative Community Fund.
Rare Earth Cure*
*36 words arranged on a single page so that reading the lines from left to right in the ordinary way presents the essential ideas driving the man-made moves on the planet’s ecology in the 20/21st centuries.
Reading the bold text vertically spells out three words which encapsulate the
changing existential relationship between human and planet.
The first two name the two geological eras that concretely inscribe evidence of man’s
existence within the Earth itself as human impact becomes more extreme. The terminal
letter of each line represents a dawning era of hope, through spelling out the collective
name for ‘rare earths’ in the periodic table of chemical elements. Curiously, far from
being scarce, these essential molecules are found in multiple combinations in many
locations on Earth; their rarity lies in the way they hide in and among each other.
Recently, individual elements have been re-badged as ‘bio-minerals’ since they were
‘discovered’ to be useful in curing human cancer. Given that cancer is caused by the
over-production of one single type of cell, my naming of a new era for our ‘rare Earth’
suggests we can use our growing knowledge with regard to the total ‘footprint’ of the
human race to judiciously remedy the outcome of past practices.
The theme for the debut Earthwords Anthology is Voices of Nature.
BE BOLD SPEAK OUT, IWD 2017
This conceptual audio piece addresses women’s visual artistic contributions for International Women’s Day 2017, on the theme: Be Bold for Change.
Sue Bessell invited 21 local women artists to contribute to a group exhibition at Project Contemporary Artspace, Keira Street, Wollongong, Australia, on the theme of Be Bold for Change. As a an audio artist, I have sought to raise consciousness of the ephemeral intangible nature of sound, while seeking to encourage women artists everywhere to be conscious of using their artwork to voice their feminist awareness.
My contribution to this exhibition lives entirely in the conceptual world. There is no particular audio for you to engage with here, except for the internal dialogue in your head about the place of art as political statement, and the boldness required of women as artists who make an explicit public addition to our culture.
The next step for you is to engage in conversation with, and encourage, women to speak out in their artwork about our gendered life experiences: to paint, sculpt, film, photograph, compose, record, and sketch their thoughts and responses, and then be bold enough to present their visual, musical, and actual voices in public places both in real life and virtual spaces such as this website.
PRAYER POCKET PLACE moves into Mt Kembla
Prayer Pocket Place gained permanent residency in the Mt Kembla Heritage Centre on 17 December 2014.
The Mt Kembla Heritage Centre is the keeping place of historical records and memories of the hardships faced by miners who worked in Mt Kembla coal mine, and their wives and families who lived in the Mt Kembla village. The Heritage Centre contains records of the mining disaster of 1902 which killed 94 miners and two rescuers in Australia’s largest ever industrial accident.
The impact on the women of Mt Kembla inspired Flossie Peitsch to design and co-ordinate the construction of the quilted fabric house and the individually sewn pockets. Many local women made their own prayer pockets to contain their personal thoughts and prayers.
A collaborative installation of the fabric house created by Flossie Peitsch and audio art composed by Ceridwen Suiter, Prayer Pocket Place, was short listed for Meroogal Women’s Art Prize and selected for exhibition in Shoalhaven Art Gallery, Nowra; Lady Denman Museum in Huskisson NSW; as well as the Belconnen Arts Centre, ACT.
The installation was welcomed to it’s permanent home at the Mt Kembla Heritage Centre by the chairperson Elizabeth Roberts in a small informal ceremony followed by lunch in the museum. We were delighted to be entertained by well-known Mt Kembla playwright Wendy Richardson who has written about the close-knit Mt Kembla community and effects of the mining disaster.
Click below to hear a one minute segment of the CD length audio art composed by Ceridwen Suiter, from on-site recordings collected from the social and mechanical sounds of the makers constructing their individual pockets during a communal lunch and workshop..
* * * DR WENDY (CERIDWEN) SUITER * * * 