wild weather | Location: Sydney, Australia, March 2012

Tambourine Bay is a mixed media audiovisual performance. A solo musician manipulates augmented (hyper) instruments, keyboard and percussions, discharging explosive electrical sounds through a sensor interface to build a live soundtrack to a 22 minute video projection. The solo performance is scored for sensor and wired interface, large floor tom, 20” pang cymbal, electronic snare & bass drum, tambourine, cello bow and software synths. The music will be performed in a contemporary electro-acoustic style building on the relationship between concrete sounds, dynamic rhythm, synths and recorded voice.

The performance looks at and predicts the effects of wild weather on an affluent inner city suburb of Sydney and across the east and west coast of the country over the Australia day long weekend in January 2012. The video footage processed for the performance is real-life and was recorded on HD video from early to late January. It has been processed in Final Cut Pro to alter its duration and hue only. The footage is in 3 parts representing a transition or shift in the weather pattern over a 12 day period from evening thunder to late morning drizzle and afternoon sunshine.

Over the duration of the performance the audience will watch and listen to the systematic pounding of the Tambourine Bay Reserve, situated on the Lane Cove river, as it is severely struck by lighting and thunder. The video then transitions from late evening into an overcast midday with a forecast of further showers, storms and bush fires. The final scene is late afternoon interspersed with sunshine and heavy cloud cover and again with further predictions of dangerous weather.

The red saturation of the video illustrates and heightens the unusual patterns in our atmosphere and is a dramatic indication of the possible deterioration of our environment. As such the work is intended to provoke a disturbing reaction of potential dread at the ongoing shift in our local weather patterns and what this might indicate in terms of broader climate change issues.

The performance soundtrack will include a 10 minute recorded oral history narrated by an aboriginal elder, one of the oldest inhabitants of this Sydney location from the Cammeraygal group of the Kuringgai Aboriginal tribe. Prior to the arrival of the First Fleet this group inhabited the area in which Lane Cove is situated. They lived on the north shore of Port Jackson and were one of the largest groups in the Sydney area. The narrative is intended as a snapshot of the history of the Tambourine Bay Reserve and tells of the changes that have occurred in the environment over our lifetime.

A prototype for the installation of a networked public sound sculpture planned for the NSW, Newcastle CBD in mid to late 2012. The project is supported by the Newcastle City Centre Committee who, along with the organisation LiveSites, are seeking to install a range of projects over the coming year and are actively exploring strategies for interactive and innovative art projects in the public domain.

The Wild Weather public sound installation includes five light weight transparent acrylic resonators, (approx 2200mm high X 110mm in outside diameter) suspended side by side and mechanically controlled to oscillate in response to the file transfer of media (audio & text files) from a remote server to the sculpture’s interface. I am working with Arduino and Infusion Systems analog to MIDI digitisers and sensor technologies with both Arduino and Max/MSP applications on a MacBook Pro computer to determine the best solution. The options for this installation include using a remote computer streaming media from a server or having all media files transferred (using FTP) to local storage.

The sculpture’s sound projection is planned to emanate from each of the five resonators, equipped at their base with a small four inch speaker. The media content transferred via the Internet to the sculpture’s computer would playback through any one of these five speakers. I am also experimenting with generating sound from within the five resonators using either prerecorded samples or natural sound. For example, the resonators could contain a quantity of liquid inside their closed end acrylic tubes. When set in motion the natural sound picked up (using very sensitive microphones) by the movement of the liquid inside the oscillating resonators could then be processed using a range of signal processing techniques (such as time stretching and delay) and then amplified back through their speakers. To accomplish this however the movement of liquid inside the resonators would have to be extreme and whether or not this is achievable is yet to be determined. The swing span for example of the resonators would have to be greater than 180 degrees to tip the liquid and the length of the resonators would need to be shorter than I have proposed.

The sculpture is designed as an Internet-orientated real-time interactive system for use by the general public. It is a hyperinstrument designed to be used with an analog to MIDI digitiser and five actuator signals with high resolution to transmit messages through USB to a computer where they are made available at a virtual serial port for analysis and/or control purposes. The research focus of the project is on designing a system (using software, sensors, signal processing and sculptural objects) that manages and broadcasts human response, as well as exploring the appropriate protocols and innovative content for interactive art in public environments free of physical, social and/or political constraints. The Wild Weather installation can be installed in any public space with access to electricity, the Internet and an under cover public area with an approximate ceiling height of 4.5 meters, a minimum room width of 3.6 meters and a total swing span of 4.6 meters. The interaction with the sculpture will take place entirely over the Internet and is not constructed for any form of physical human contact.

Project Theme
We make the weather, we take the temperature, the temperature is rising, the weather is wilder. Professor of natural hazards at James Cook University, Cyclone chaser Jonathan Nott this year warned that, “town planners have become “very, very complacent” about the dangers of wild weather which is likely to increase during La Nina weather patterns and a shift in the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, which will warm the east Pacific ocean and possibly fuel severe cyclones. Three have hit Queensland’s coast already this summer; Yasi, Anthony, and the weakest Tasha, which triggered the flooding rains that left three quarters of the state a disaster zone” (Bita 2011).
This project addresses this intense and dangerous relationship we have with the weather and focuses on the devastating affects of floods and storms on our landscape and it’s population. ”Learning to live with floods rather than fighting the rivers”, where “after 10 years of draught the floods have arrived on the Australian landscape” are now commonly repeated messages in today’s media. Central to this project is an investigation into these shared experiences and threatening relationships. Through the use of networked technologies the installation will provide the general population with a means to privately reflect on their experiences and relationships with their local weather environment and where possible share meaningful content that might describe the social and physical impact of weather on their communities. A diversity of stories for broadcast might explore their experiences, observations, memories and perceptions of weather change in different regions and may include flood stories, meteorological stories, cloud stories, rain, storm and hail stories and other observations of change to the weather. An extensive range of form in the content could include sound recordings, anecdotes, recollections, poetry, fragments, old recordings, letters, emails, blogs, lyrics and any other material that can be translated into sound. Prior to the public installation of the work an open call for content will take place and that addressing the theme will be made available for sculptural broadcast.

REFERENCES
Bita, N. 2011. “Elemental Struggle” The Weekend Australian Inquirer, Feb 12, 2011, pp. 1-5.