Anne Hsuyin is a composer, sound artist and vocalist currently based in Melbourne. Born and raised in culturally diverse Malaysia, she is fascinated by the various shades of sound that exist in different communities and is exploring the intersections between tradition, modernity, identity, and the diaspora. Her love for the weird and wonderful in the inner mind and in the outside world informs much of her music. She is currently completing a Bachelor of Music (Honours) in Composition at the University of Melbourne.
  
'Battle Theme! On and on and on...' depicts the ongoing raging war against COVID-19 as a level to be cleared in the game of life. Yet, as the fight continues in Melbourne, people grow weary; where order and system collapse, dissent and chaos take hold. This work draws a parallel between the surreal games of the 90s and the bizarre experience of living in lockdown. It portrays the sounds of the virus and of society’s response to it, set against a repeating battle theme that distorts more and more as the work continues. Underneath the disturbingly cheery game music are opinions, protests, and hospital alarms, which tell the story of a nightmarish year as case numbers rise, people die, and riots break out.

Anne Hsuyin - Battle Theme! On and on and on...

During SIGNAL Summer 2022, sound artist Xen Nhá and poet Thabani Tshuma led a group of young artists on an interactive journey through the foundations of their crafts. Amidst the strife of Melbourne’s COVID-19 surge, we met through the safety of our screens, salvaging a sense of connection and enthusiasm in learning new skills. The result? A short symphony of experiments in storytelling though sound. 

While time spent working on this program was limited, the imaginations of these artists are anything but. From meditations on mundane rituals and dull daily monotony, to an embodied meditation designed to calm anxious minds. We travel on sound waves through the vivid vulnerability of a fresh romance, into the inner anatomical workings of the voice. From the magic and mystery of memories long tucked away, to a sombre broadcast from the last human on earth.

Content warnings: mild references to death and dying, feelings of anxiety, and some moments of abrasive and ominous sound are featured throughout this showcase. 

Artists: Anne Wagner, Antonia Gangi, Gavin Choong, Juan Salebe, Nikki Vu, Noël, Nu (aka Fetle), Phoebe Thompson, Sarah Winkler, Sabrina Fu, Zeth Cameron

Mentors: Xen Nhá and Thabani Tshuma

Anxiety Attack - Sarah Winkler

Content Warning: this artwork contains references to trauma and abuse. 

Monique Gawne is a Taiwanese Australian Multidisciplinary Artist working on unceded Boon Wurrung and Woi Wurrung land. While Monique predominantly practices printmaking, she also creates work within the disciplines of painting, installation, ceramics, and sound. Monique’s practice is conceptually grounded, her works embrace the subjectivity of lived experiences and learning. There is a rawness and honesty which is produced regardless of the medium she is creating through. Monique is currently in her final semester of a double degree (Honours) in Fine Art and Secondary Education at Monash University. She is the recipient of the Firestation Print Access Award and of the Blackbird Protostars Grant.

How long do you let yourself spiral for? A lament and a love song, Monique uses field recordings of authentic conversations within her life to explore the mental processes of healing from trauma. Monique works manually within the sonic field, using physical objects of symbolic significance to warp and manipulate her field recordings. From fans, to beer cans, to rusty speakers found at hostels, to the mug which he gave her. Monique re-records her field recordings into and through these objects, creating new layers of ambience and emotion. Monique works intuitively. All decisions are guided by conceptual and symbolic direction, the work not only explores her healing process, but is the healing process. While making the artwork, the microphone becomes a point of release, intimate thoughts and feelings are shared to this device, now a therapeutic tool. It goes further, the microphone becomes a tool of accountability, Monique records her daily actions, the self-surveillance motivates her into positive behaviours. She records herself as she gets out of bed, brushes her teeth, gets changed, says hi to friends, and walks into town. Monique is reflecting on and working through these layered emotions regarding trauma as she creates this artwork. For best listening, Monique advises using quality headphones, and listening with your throat and your chest.

'How long do you let yourself spiral for?' by Monique Gawne

Living in Naarm/Melbourne, Rebecca is a sound artist who is currently exploring the use of her hearing aids as creative devices. Rebecca graduated from Monash University in 2021, completing her fourth year Honours with a thesis about the creative implications of listening with hearing loss. In early 2021, she released her debut album, Raveling Wails.

'Mire' weaves together fragments of field recordings and hearing aid feedback, merging natural and mechanical sonic landscapes. Hearing aid feedback is the sound that my hearing aids make, a high-pitched scream that occurs when the microphone picks up the sounds of the speaker, and it continues sounding in a loop.  My hearing aids function as an extension of my body, and Mire is my attempt to give them life by contextualizing their sounds within an existing ecosystem. In the process of finding such a place, I was drawn to sounds that reminded me most of my hearing aids - water birds, frogs, crickets - leading me to make my recordings in the Alphington Wetlands. Though feedback tends to disrupt my ability to communicate with others in daily life, it comes alive in conversation with the creatures that inhabit the wetland. Mired in this physical landscape the feedback can grow, transforming into something new.

'Mire' by Rebecca Bracewell

Fetle Wondimu Nega (AKA Nu) is an Ethiopian-Australian sound artist and musician from Naarm. Her work explores ideas and stories emanating from her cross-cultural experiences of language, spirituality and identity. 

As a vocalist and self-taught music producer, Fetle draws inspiration from her Bachelor of Science (Mathematics and Statistics) from the University of Melbourne, delving into the mathematical nature of sound synthesis and algorithmic rhythms. She has recently expanded her creative practice to include the young code-based music creation tool Sonic Pi, as a medium to interrogate cultural exchange, language and technology.

 CODE-SWITCH is a conversation between my voice and an emergent code-based music creation tool, Sonic Pi. It explores the sometimes dissonant, sometimes harmonious interaction of languages within my bilingual mind, where meaning is constructed at the intersection of two identities. When I entered kindergarten, speaking English became a necessity to interact with the Western world, suddenly encroaching on my understanding of self and the image I’d built of the world around me in my native tongue of Amharic. Now, English is my dominant language, and often the scaffold with which I build meaning and communicate my ideas. There are times, however, when it swallows up my Amharic and spits it back at me in disjointed sequences. CODE-SWITCH describes my bilingual experience as an arc of loss into acceptance. It begins with a harmonic vocal-laden soundscape, an uncomfortable introduction symbolising language dissonance, followed by a hard-hitting Western drum pattern, and a final incorporation of African drums signaling the slow transition into acceptance. This piece was created using a variety of self-recorded samples edited in Ableton Live, such as my Ethiopian-jazz (ambassel scale) inspired vocals. I also used granulated chords, which were then imported, arranged and produced with a series of coded functions and in-built Sonic Pi samples. Representing the ability of English to literally and figuratively disassemble, distort and reassemble my Amharic.

'CODESWITCH' by Fetle Wondimu Nega

April is a Naarm-based vocalist, beatboxer and composer. She focuses on pushing the timbral and technological possibilities of the human voice while exploring its capacity as a tool for social impact and commentary. She is currently studying a Bachelor of Music (Interactive Composition) at the University of Melbourne.

In essence, 'We Will' is a musical celebration of identity and queerness. In it, I explore the integral link between one’s voice and identity, and use that connection as a catalyst to empower people to reshape and liberate themselves, both personally and creatively. 

Despite broad societal advancements towards acceptance of transgender people, we are still faced with social rejection when we deviate from our expected gendered performances, including how we use our voices. We Will brings contrasting gender presentations of my own voice to the forefront, challenging societal preconceptions of queerness while displaying how embracing one’s identity and overcoming societal shame can unlock an array of new creative possibilities. Musically, I combine this with an expansive list of vocal and beatbox techniques to showcase the often underlooked, vast capabilities of the human voice.

By displaying my own vulnerabilities, struggles with and rejection of gender norms, I inspire others to take control of their own lives and reshape their identities in the face of a society that has often rejected them.

'We Will' by April Guest

Indigenous Futurisms is an expressive sound and screen project uplifting the talent, innovation and creativity of young Yorta Yorta people to imagine their futures. 

Here, River Loizou’s immersive soundscape draws the listener into the sounds of a futuristic new world where cultures, nature and instruments have merged.

ARTIST STATEMENT
“Working on this project has been super fun. It started off for me as my first big gig, but as I spent more time with it I found myself connecting with my culture in ways that I haven't had the chance to experience. The over-blown didgeridoo and flutes towards the end really painted this distant, mystical idea in my mind and the celebration music in the middle was the feeling of passing through into this new world. I hope you enjoy the entire project, it's been a pleasure to work with the team.” — River Loizou 

ABOUT INDIGENOUS FUTURISMS
Through workshops at Kaiela Arts, young artists illustrated visions of Yorta Yorta community, Yorta Yorta woka, and Yorta Yorta homes. With visuals brought together by designer Dixon Patten and accompanied by energising soundscapes by River Loizou, Indigenous Futurisms questions how our future will look, why it will look that way and how our current actions contribute to the time ahead.

This project is co-presented by Indiginerd, Kaiela Arts, YIRRAMBOI and SIGNAL through City of Melbourne.

Indigenous Futurisms by River Loizou

Lara Fielding (La) is currently based on Wurundjeri land of the Kulin
Nation. La is an alum of the School for Poetic Computation and has
taught at the Emerging Writers Festival and the NYWF. Their work is
featured or forthcoming in Fence Books, Crawlspace, UN and
virtualgoodsdealer. They edit for Voiceworks and present on 3CR
Community Radio. La likes to live-code noise and begin (again).

HOLDING PATTERNS is a multi-channel work on the Birrarung. It uses
the piano and hydrophone. HOLDING PATTERNS is about protection.
Hold. The names I read are dying like the kelp. It explores underwater
communication between marine creatures.
Get out of the water/ my
mermaid/ and come play on the sand/
(Raquel Salas Rivera, The Tertiary)

'Holding Patterns' by Lara Fielding (La)

Uma Dingemans is an emerging performer and composer. Uma’s work is focused on the interaction between people, the physical world around them and the role music plays in affecting this relationship. Uma grew up learning classical piano and cello and dabbled in a variety of instruments and genres along the way, from keyboard in a ska-pop band to klezmer accordion. Currently studying anthropology and music, Uma is interested in using anthropological research methods as part of music making, combining field recordings with acoustic instruments using software.

'Entrainment' is composed of field recordings taken from Les Erdi Plaza and platforms in Flinders Street Station, combined with clarinet, cello and accordion. This work developed in response to the noise and rhythms of the plaza; the footsteps of pedestrians, the mechanical rhythms, screeches and rumbles of passing trains and the hums of electrical boxes and traffic. Responding to these sounds, cello, clarinet and accordion, emerge and disappear throughout the work, entraining rhythmically and tonally with digitally manipulated field recordings and the existing sound environment of Les Erdi Plaza.

'Entrainment' by Uma Dingemans Uma Dingemans

Margarita Bassova (rita bass) is a sound artist, dj, vocalist and producer residing in Naarm (Melbourne). Her practice is inspired by her ever-evolving connection to cultural heritage, dissection of personal mental health, and exploring the interplay between music with other artistic artforms.

Rita’s creations vary in style, ranging from ambient electronica to bass-driven jungle, but are unified by the common thread of her own voice seeded within the compositions. Her works defy genre convention, with a particular affinity for the unlikely intersections between left-field pop, post-punk and drum and bass.

'Toska' is a dream-like reflection, an attempt to grasp onto old familial memories and suspend them within time. It explores feelings of physical and cultural distance from family, during a period where I’ve never felt further away.

The foundation of Toska is field recordings captured while visiting family in Russia in 2019. Frozen in subzero temperatures, we found ourselves skiing, ice-skating, falling over, laughing and screaming. I asked various family members to send me voice recordings to build upon the sound world, which I then heavily distorted and contrasted with my own vocal chops.

This sound work will be immediately relatable to many people across the globe, to many children of immigrants. It’s about longing for both familial connection and a sense of home that’s eluded us, never allowing us the chance to truly experience it as our own.

'TOSKA' by Margarita Bassova

Originating from a background in classical piano and visual arts, Tessa Chau is a digital designer and artist, with an interest in creating multisensory experiences and exploring various mediums. Her audio practice is centred around experimentation with sound design techniques and different sonic palettes. She is a recent graduate of the RMIT Bachelor of Design program in Naarm/Melbourne, majoring in sound design.

Artefact is an audio work exploring the relationship between listeners and digital entertainment. Consumption of digital media is interwoven with every facet of the information age, fighting for our attention in a world where instant gratification for stimulation becomes the norm, influencing our behaviour and psyche, disrupting sleep and attention span.

Electromagnetic signals emitted from electronic displays are recorded with a coil pickup microphone. Through multiple stages of sample manipulation, the recordings are reconstructed into tonal and percussive elements in the composition. Signals extracted from mobile devices closely integrated in our lives are sculpted into a soundscape that dances between familiar stability and disequilibrium, slowly stripped down to its source material over time.

Using music created with electromagnetic signals processed beyond recognition as a metaphor, this work highlights the intangible, yet ever-present influence media has and ponders the question of how much of what we passively consume every day is just disruptive noise.

'Artefact' by Tessa Chau

Sammy Perryman is a Naarm/Melbourne based audio producer and sound artist who has an interest in exploring identity and archiving community through the mediums of sound design and non-fiction storytelling. Their work can most often be heard via community broadcasting, allowing them to speak with local creatives and other community members who have in turn inspired their own practice.

They have contributed compositions to many facets of storytelling; local theatre such as The Fae directed by Stone Motherless Cold, short film such as Newlyweds & Nearly Deads directed by Uday Alexander, and museum tours such The Melbourne Living Museum of The West’s Sounds & Sites.

With LGBTQIA+ lives used for political scoring points by people that at times find the diverse identities fearful and ridiculous simultaneously, Dysphoria Discographies uses recent social and political discourse, distorted beyond recognition and used as instruments through Synthesis and Vocoding, a type of music creation and sound exploration that many queer artists find comfort in as a tool for voice transformation.

This short sonic exploration attempts to turn attacks on people and identities on the basis of fear and ignorance into the redundant background noise it should be treated as, with moments of chaos and reprise that parallels navigating such harmful rhetoric.

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