To hear on Sunday 18 and 25 October 2015, 2pm - 9pm:
Melbourne Calls
(2015, World Premiere)
by Viv Corringham (USA, UK)
Viv Corringham on 'Melbourne Calls':
In Melbourne, Australia, I met three people with different perspectives on sound. I asked them to take me to places where sound is the key element for them.
Warren Burt, a new music composer, took me to the loud and exuberant Southern Cross Station. Anthony Megan, an acoustic ecologist, led me on a sound walk where nature and city coexist. Catherine Clover, an artist engaged in the study of bird languages, chose a secluded canal path.
Later I returned to these three places alone and responded to the soundscapes with vocal improvisations. This work includes (unprocessed) field recordings, comments from my three guides and my singing.
"Melbourne Calls" and "sound activism"
It starts with listening, paying attention.
Asking questions as we walk in Melbourne:
What is the loudest sound here and who owns it? (Always a clue as to where power lies.)
Not so much sound as agent but sound in its own right.
Acoustic ecology.
Sounds change and disappear - who decides? What kind of sonic environment do we want?
Only quiet sounds of Nature?
(Learning to listen to crows and starlings as if for the first time: noting the lure of the exotic and disregard for the ordinary.)
What about the pleasures of noise?
These loud machines mean good public transport policy.
How can I find my own place in the environment?
If I sing with the soundscape, can our sounds be in balance together?
Viv Corringham is a British vocalist, composer and sound artist living in New York who has worked internationally since the 1980s. Her work includes performances, installations, radio art and soundwalks. She is a 2012 and 2006 McKnight Composer Fellow through American Composers Forum and is certified to teach Deep Listening by composer Pauline Oliveros. Recent work has been presented in London, Greece, Hong Kong and Australia. She is a 2015 Artist in Residence at Harvestworks, NY.Recent recordings include solos “Walking” (Innova), “Gum + Butts” (Linear Obsessional), and “The Pattern Familiar” by Monkey Puzzle Trio (Slowfoot).Articles about her work have appeared in many publications, including In the Field (UK), Art of Immersive Soundscapes (Canada), Organised Sound (UK), Musicworks (Canada), Playing With Words (UK) and For Those Who Have Ears (Ireland).
Website Viv Corringham