Sound Commissions 2022

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.

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

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