Simon Sellars: Sleepy Brain Archives

screenshot from Untitled 2003, by Camilla Hannan & Cassandra Tytler

360 Degrees: Women In Sound was held as part of Liquid Architecture 4, the national sound art festival run by the ((tRansMIT)) collective. 360 Degrees was inspired by the need to address a perceived gender imbalance within the sound art community. It consisted of two separate exhibitions and a live sound performance, exploring short and long form composition, quadraphonic installation, sound sculpture and the relationship between sound, video and digital media. The curators were Arnya Tehira and Sianna Lee and the featured artists were Ai Yamamoto, Bec Charlesworth, Cat Hope, Cassandra Tytler, Camilla Hannan, Jasmine Guffond, Anne-Marie Kohn, Claire Conroy, Jean Poole, Louise Terry, Jennifer Sochackyj, Geoff Robinson and Sally Blenheim.

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INTERVIEW WITH ARNYA TEHIRA
– Simon Sellars
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How did 360 Degrees come about?

The idea was to gather and present sound works by women from all over Australia. We want to get women working in sound out there. The research has been done: figures continually demonstrate that there is always a majority of men involved in sound-based projects. We were happy to be able to address this situation, in a way that can only be considered positive: by integrating more women working with sound into Liquid Architecture’s program.

Tell me about your philosophy as a sound artist.

I come from the school of sound appreciation: thinking about and appreciating the qualities of sound in the environment I live in. I started getting serious about sound in its technical capacities when I was learning audio engineering. After that, I tried a few different paths before ending up on the artist conveyer belt. I’ll always be a student of sound and art – I almost finished my BA in Media Arts at RMIT – but I intend to continue to experiment and work along the path my ideas take me. My philosophy? If the avenue isn’t there, pave it. Describe your working relationship with Sianna Lee.

We were both involved with the formation of the project, the selection of works and the operations of exhibiting. Of course it’s always more supportive to be working with another person: managing such a huge project couldn’t possibly have been achieved alone. I met Sianna at Media Arts School in a soundtrack class. She graduated last year and has been working hard on her first EP with Andromeda, the group she plays guitar and is the vocalist for. Sianna has been really integral in keeping 360 on the rails. In its early inception, there was the possibility that the project may not have happened due to the ‘concept creator’, Thembi Soddell, opting to take a back seat role. Thankfully, Sianna continued on and we managed to pull it together.

Screenshot: Binary Scope, by Bec Charlesworth

Describe the mechanics of the show.

The soundtrack works were installed in a cinema-like fashion: state-of-the-art hi fi, seating and vision projection. It was probably most accessible for audiences new to sound art in galleries, considering the vision component, although they are made aware of the fact that the sound was predominant. The idea of sound and vision being a well-considered proposition, a relationship from the start, is new ground in many ways. The quadraphonic works bounced really well around the room, and as we were compiling them, we quickly realised how diverse the aesthetics would be. The set up was very invisible, almost to point out the fact that sound had created this void of vision. Each piece worked differently with the three-dimensional aspect of surround-sound composition, which is an interesting reference point for all the possibilities. In both the soundtrack and quadraphonic exhibitions, a short-form composition limitation was placed on the artists – one minute duration – creating a challenge which each and every artist took on with complete grace.

What innovative aspects did the installations embody?

We wanted to portray the diversity of sound art in the gallery context. I guess the choice of artists and works helped to establish this, along with the chosen media. This is evident in the way that Ros Bandt used sculpture and her self-made SIPP multichannel playback system; the way Isobel installed her complex, yet enjoyable game simply on the computer; the way the soundtrack room embodied the cinema; and the way in which the quad installations re-enacted the surround-sound effect – which we as an audience are becoming more aware of through Dolby Digital–enabled systems. Sound is usually presented in a very specific way. It’s rare that you’ll find this kind of variety under one banner. We also wanted to provide an immersive experience for the quadraphonic installation, to envelop the user in sound with full use of the extra dimension of surround-sound capabilities.

Is there any unexplored potential to be discovered in the sound and visual relationship? How can sound artists unlock this in the future?

Usually the sound is considered secondary to the vision, a perfect example of how people generally see before they hear. The film industry is getting better, but it has been known to treat soundtrack in this way – artists working in both medias often find this to be the case. Not only is sound produced after vision, but the sound is not even considered when creating the vision – there isn’t even the pre-production plan for it. If artists could just think ahead, realising that a good soundtrack will not only enhance their work but make it truer to their intentions, they could take a few more measures and please themselves and the audience that bit more.

…:: LINKS
Liquid Architecture
Arnya Tehira