Ars Memoriae Mexicana is the result of an Audio-Journey through Mexico in which these questions of location, memory and identity were very much in my daily thoughts as I traveled through a landscape saturated in sound, music and voices.

In the recording you listen to the voices of :- the sound artist Charlie Fox as he claps rhythmically, facing the steps of an Aztec Pyramid; the film maker Mike Buckley sitting on a balmy evening surrounded by crickets; acoustic ecologist Hildegard Westercamp talking in the garden of the villa once owned by Octavia Paz; the artist Juan Gonzales de Leon recalling a childhood walk in the alien landscape of a Primrose Hill park in London; the journalist Miriam recounting her favourite Mexico City sounds.

These voices float in a bed of ambient environmental sounds and street-scapes that for the most part I have chosen not to edit or sanitise, preferring to leave in the noise, the glitches and the occasional less than perfect recording ~ that’s the way the world sounds and Hollywood is a long way away both geographically but especially philosophically!

Ars Memoriae Mexicana

BioLogging data collected from Southern Elephant Seals diving under Antarctic Ice is transposed to a musical framework.

SES Synth

Traditional singing in the Sao Luis Community Hall

CC songs

Sonic Workshop

Part of the Biosphere/Datasphere exhibition, mix based upon sonified DNA from prey species.

Critter Menu Mix

Shy Albatross Prey DNA/ID

Hydrophone recording made near Villa Nova Milfontes, Alentejo, Portugal. Incorporated in the installation "CultCult - audio illumination form the Ocean."

Hydrophone 07

PRESS RELEASE

DR NIGEL HELYER EXHIBITING VOXAURA AT TURKU2011 EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF CULTURE


"Our blood has the same salinity as the Ocean, a reminder of the
origin of all life on the planet and a warning that we share our well
being with our vast and indifferent mother." Dr Nigel Helyer,
Anglo-Australian sculptor and director of SonicObjects launches his
most recent work VoxAura at Turku2011.

The health of the Baltic Sea is the focus during August 2011 of
countries whose histories are linked to the Baltic. Opening on 4
August in Turku, Finland, VoxAura; the River Sings is an environmental
and social sound sculpture that provides a way for us to listen to the
social and chemical composition of the Baltic. The sculpture alerts us
to the essential role that the oceans play in the ultimate control of
our globe's destiny.

VoxAura consists of two life boats from S/S Bore, moored either side
of Turku's Theatre Bridge, equipped with speakers which broadcast a
soundscape that evokes the maritime traditions and marine environment
of the Baltic. The artist has designed a computer system that takes
variables from the water quality data, such as position, depth,
temperature, salinity, turbidity and pH, and uses them as musical
parameters to transform the source audio. This ethereal 'datamusic' is
a metaphor for the chemical composition of the sea.

The soundscape is composed from songs and stories of the people who
have lived and worked by the River Aura combined with the water
quality data of alg@line project that is being constantly collected by
two trans-Baltic ships, M/S Finnmaid & M/S TransPaper. New water
quality data is continually uploaded to the VoxAura project allowing
us to hear variations as the composition of the Baltic changes.

Helyer says: "As terrestrial dwellers it is easy to overlook the fact
that we inhabit an essentially two dimensional space which has surface
area but scant depth. By contrast the marine world is three
dimensional, it's depths accounting for 99% of the BioSphere and it's
surface accounting for 70% of the planets area. The ocean forms the
principal interface for chemical exchange with the atmosphere,
absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen - it is the pump that
drives climate and regulates the air we breath.

Rivers carry with them a mixture of chemical nutrients and effluents
that simultaneously drive the annual algal bloom and degrade the
complexity and fecundity of marine ecosystems. The Baltic has lost
it's clarity and it's fish but has gained the reputation as the most
polluted sea in the world."

The River Aura flows through the port city of Turku, past the maze of
low granite islands that form the Finnish archipelago and into the
Baltic. The citizens of Turku have watched carefully over the quality
of their river which has improved over the past decades. VoxAura is
part of the attempt to encourage increased appreciation and action
relating to the complex aspects of our rivers and oceans.

VoxAura is part of the "Turku is Listening" program curated and
produced by Simo and Tuike Alitalo for the Turku 2011 European Capital
of Culture.

Dr Nigel Helyer is available for interview. CONTACT
sonic@sonicobjects.com; + 358 465 647 802

An audio CD sampler of the "VoxAura, the River Sings" project is
available from Turku's cultural centres. [link]

The project was conceived and realised by Dr Nigel Helyer with the
collaboration of Dr Jon Drummond who developed the audio engine and
the technical system design.

The artist acknowledges the Finnish Environment institute: Marine
Research Centre for providing the water quality data, To Simo and
Tuike Alitalo, producers of the Turku is Listening series and to all
those who contributed their voice or sounds, especially to Arno
Virtanen, the Turku Shanty Singers and all the crew at the Titanik
Gallery. This project is supported by the Australia Council for the
Arts.

Voxaura track2

An interview with Nigel Helyer and Jon Drummond from The Constellations series.

BeeTalk

Dr. Nigel Helyer is an internationally prominent sound artist who’s interdisciplinary practice combines art and science to embrace our social, cultural and physical environments.   He brings these concerns together in poetic art projects that prompt the community to engage with their cultural histories, identity and sense of place; inviting us to examine the abstract conditions of our world and our complex relationships to it.
Principal web archive - http://www.sonicobjects.com

Sonic Workshop

DrSonique