Sample from collaborative soundscape by Mieko Suzuki and Carly Fischer. This soundscape was presented with the sculptural installation 'Magic Dirt', exhibited at Craft Victoria, Melbourne, 2014 and Watch This Space, Alice Springs, 2015. Inspired and developed in response to the Central Australian Desert and the mix of facts, fictions and fantasies surrounding this place, this soundscape overlays field recordings from the desert, samples from Australian films such as Wake in Fright, Mad Max and Wolf Creek and electronic tracks. The soundscape was presented with a sculptural installation of paper reconstructions of found and fabricated desert detritus.

'Magic Dirt' by Mieko Suzuki and Carly Fischer

Sample from the collaborative soundscape by Mieko Suzuki and Carly Fischer. This soundscape was presented with the sculptural installation 'I want to love you but I’m getting blown away', exhibited at REH Kunst, Berlin, 2012 and Linden Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2013. Inspired and developed in response to Berlin, this soundscape reflects on the city’s industrial wasteland aesthetic and our ambiguous relationship to the cliché it has become. Based around audio samples from early Kraftwerk tracks, this soundscape mixes field recordings from Berlin such as street and industrial noise with electronic tracks. The soundscape was presented with a sculptural installation of reconstructed paper street and construction site debris found around Berlin.

'I Want To Love You But I'm Getting Blown Away' by Mieko Suzuki and Carly Fischer

Soundscape to the sculptural and audio installation 'Creating False Memories for a Place That Never Was, Part 2' exhibited at BLINDSIDE, Melbourne in 2016. The installation investigates the strange relationship between fact, fiction and fantasy in Australian cultural representations, through exploring the popularity of Deep Forest music in 1990’s Australian culture. Inviting participants to respond to questions about their memories of Deep Forest music, the places it evokes and its popularity in Australia, the installation’s audio soundscape reconstructs fragments of these interviews into a story about Deep Forest and Australia. Mixed by sound artist Mieko Suzuki in collaboration with Carly Fischer, the story includes samples of Deep Forest tracks, some of the original recordings they used, Deep Forest interviews and advertisements that used the music. Created in response to the soundscape, the sculptural components in the installation merge found and fabricated souvenirs and ephemera, reflecting on some of the confused cultural representations emerging from the stories told. Shifting between magical and mundane, specific and generic, cultural artefact and commodity, the sculptures act as ambiguous propositions for Australia past and present, suspended between fact, fiction and fantasy.

'Creating False Memories for a Place That Never Was Part 2' (2016) by Carly Fischer and Mieko Suzuki

Soundscape to the sculptural and audio installation 'Creating False Memories for a Place That Never Was', exhibited at BUS Projects, Melbourne in 2016. Drawing on a potentially fictional wooden mask found in an Australian souvenir shop, this soundscape reflects on some of the facts and fictions surrounding Australian cultural representations. Weaving interviews from souvenir shop, museum and cultural centre staff, anthropologists and Indigenous Australian artists in response to the mask, the soundscape reconstructs these fragments into an ambiguous story about Australia. The soundscape was presented with a sculptural installation of found, fabricated and reconstructed souvenirs from some of the places mentioned in the soundscape.

'Creating False Memories For A Place That Never Was' (2016) by Mieko Suzuki and Carly Fischer

Sample of the collaborative soundscape between Carly Fischer and Mieko Suzuki, exhibited as part of the sculptural and audio installation 'Creating False Memories for a Place That Never Was' (2016). The installation was exhibited at BUS Projects, Melbourne in 2016. Drawing on a potentially fictional wooden mask found in an Australian souvenir shop, this soundscape reflects on some of the facts and fictions surrounding Australian cultural representations. Weaving interviews from souvenir shop, museum and cultural centre staff, anthropologists and Indigenous Australian artists in response to the mask, the soundscape reconstructs these fragments into an ambiguous story about Australia. The soundscape was presented with a sculptural installation of found, fabricated and reconstructed souvenirs from some of the places mentioned in the soundscape.

'Creating False Memories For A Place That Never Was' Sample (2016) Carly Fischer Mieko Suzuki

Sample of the collaborative soundscape between Carly Fischer and Mieko Suzuki, exhibited as part of the sculptural and audio installation 'Creating False Memories for a Place That Never Was Part 2' (2016). The installation was exhibited at BLINDSIDE, Melbourne in 2016, The Art Gallery of Ballarat and The Incinerator Gallery, Australia in 2017. The installation  explores the relationship between fact and fiction in Australian cultural representations. Referencing the strange souvenirs perpetuating such representations, the installation investigates how national, transnational, specific and generic narratives of place in Australia are often complexly intertwined. The installation draws a parallel between Australia’s relationship to such objects and it’s attraction to the transnational tribalism of ‘Deep Forest’ music in the 90’s, reflecting on our past and present connections to Australian place and culture. Reconstructing interviews and audio samples, found and fabricated objects into new sculptural and sound assemblages, the installation weaves a story about Australia, reflecting on confusions, hopes, failures and potentials for a more culturally and environmentally aware contemporary context.

Carly Fischer

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