2025-6
Aetna for Melbourne Design week (2025) (headphones speaker, found sound, synthesizer) (12 mins 50 seconds) (with Rory Giezekamp)
Aetna is the goddess of the volcanic Mount Etna in Sicily. She is the guardian of typhon who rolls in his grave, vibrating magma to the surface, puncturing through igneous rocks to hurl his magma into a sedimentary state. During processes of transformation what is the sign that causes the next movement? Exactly when do processes begin to occur?
A sound can be a sign and distortion can be a reaction. But, distortion is something that has always existed as both a sign and reaction. Distortion can be a tool for rebuilding. Through destruction and undoing, to use distortion means to embrace chaos in order to change our focus. This work is an illustration of how sonic environments shape experience, commenting on the artist’s experience of finding connection and community through collective memories evoked by sound.
The layering of sounds through both headphones and speakers represent the complexity of the entrpic cycles that surround us and defind our realities. Reflecting the nature of MPavillion as a contact zone that is shared and allows worlds to collide. MPavillion is also liminal space. This work seeks to harness the transformative potential of this space in-between. Between collisions of sound are grey areas - gret noise- that allow time and space for rumination of a new reality, a rebuilding of structures and connection.
Utilising recordings of sounds from MPavillion the site specific work reflects on how worlds can be transformed or new visions of reality can emerge. The sound work allows the listener to project their own associations and visions, just as the artists created their own story with the found sounds. Together, we interpret sounds as a sign, awakening a collective memory and understanding.