Field Recording, Community, and Memory

This paper will investigate the kinds of histories and memories that can be shared through making and experiencing field recordings and sound walks. Whether for creative or archival purposes, field recordings provide a valuable (if subjective) take on historical

events, and can draw attention to political, environmental, and social issues. The current accessibility of recording equipment and digital networks means that field recording, and the subsequent sharing of these recordings is becoming increasingly easy, making

it possible to grow online communities around a shared listening experience. In this paper I will look at the movement towards the use of field recordings as a tool for bringing people together, and the huge uptake in the creation of and participation in soundwalks during 2020/21 lockdowns.

https://www.natgrantmusic.com/

Being Flexible, Fluid Confluences, Multiple Outcomes. The recording process as a modern and ancient acoustic archaeology in Medusa Dreaming 532-2021

An analysis of over a decade of recording processes in the creation, performance and publication of the electroacoustic water symphony, Medusa Dreaming.  Recorded live in the Byzantine underground water palace, the Yerebatan Sarnici in Istanbul, with the Medusa Improvising Ensemble, Medusa Dreaming is both a sonic archaeology of the site and a desperate plea for international water care in the time of global collapse.
From site specific soundings, trapped improvisations, multichannel sub-mixes, live streamed hydrophone recordings during the performance, TRT and ABC radio recordings to CD re-mastering, the questions always exist, what for? who for? and why do we record?  What expectations do we take with us and how flexible are we in adapting? These questions are answered against the story of the one hour long water symphony, Medusa Dreaming, working cross culturally in Turkish through to the final publication of the NEUMA RECORDS release in 2021. New answers and longer-term solutions are found in the service of audition.

https://www.rosbandt.com/works

Sounds of High Country: the relationship between performer and sound recording in the performance of Re-growth?

Re-growth? Is a new multimedia work by sound artist Ros Bandt for recorders and soundscape performed by recorder player Alana Blackburn. The work uses sound recordings taken from both the natural and industrial environments of New South Wales, in particular the New England region. This presentation follows the collaborative process between sound designer and performer in creating a unique performance work that harnesses the role of acoustic ecology to ignite awareness of the environment, and spark conversation around what ecological disasters such as bushfires have had on political, social and cultural levels.

While scientific fact has been driving the discussion around climate change, researchers have been calling on interdisciplinary action to engage the public, in particular, the creative arts to evoke emotional responses to climate change (Boulton, 2006). Re-growth? is a four-part work based on fire, air, water and earth. The rich sonic fabric comprises sounds and words captured from my local community and the wider NSW region, and my relationship with it over 2019-2020 as a way to capture the destruction caused by humans, and nature fighting back to bring us hope into the future. The fixed soundscape acts as a springboard for improvisatory ideas, providing stimuli for the performer, ensuring no two performances are alike. The relationship between performer and sound recording further deepens the connection between humans and environment. When performed live, the piece emerges out of its own context in place and time, always evolving and provoking personal thoughts experiences for different listening audiences.

Boulton, E. (2016). Climate change as a ‘hyperobject’: a critical review of Timothy Morton’s reframing narrative. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 7(5), 772-785.

https://www.alana-blackburn.com/

Discussion about archiving, field recording, and experiences in remote Australia, Madagascar and Papua New Guinea

The early history of wildlife sound recording is one where the emphasis was individual species recording. From the beginning Ludwig Koch made recordings of individual animals, this was also the goal of other ornithologists such as Arthur Allen, Peter Kellog and Albert Brand in the United States. Modern day wildlife sound recordists have a much broader perspective. Archives such as Xeno-canto now have vast collections of individual species recording. The emphasis today has transferred to landscape recording and the collection of data from passive acoustic recording and subsequent machine processing. The technology has changed frequently from cutting disks in the field to the modern day use of digital.

Tony Baylis will share a bit of his experience from cassette to digital recording, and the associated problems of storage/archiving. Recording in remote locations, whether that is outback Australia, Madagascar or Papua New Guinea present, language apart, present similar challenges for the recordist. Tony Baylis will relate some that he personally encountered and make some observation on the loss of species numbers in Australia.

Four Seasons After the Megablaze

This paper describes an attempt to document the soundscape of the natural environment 12 months after the Gosper’s Mountain Fire in northern Wollemi National Park on the outskirts of Sydney, morphed into Australia’s largest bushfire or “mega-blaze”. The aim was to travel by foot to the actual lightning-struck stringybark tree and record sound at the origin point of the mega-blaze.

Artist Talk - Three case studies of sound art projects in Australia

Through three case studies of sound art projects in Australia, I will reveal my compositional process and demonstrate a unique approach to acoustic ecology, science-based resources, cultural heritage and music performance that connects with the sounds of the natural environment to create innovative and informative performances and installations. The exploration covers the site of the Barwon River and Barwon Estuary to a collaborative installation where the public were invited to immerse themselves within images and sounds of the You Yangs, a regional Australian landscape, highlighting anthropogenic sounds and encouraging future sound walk visits; and a museum sound installation created using the sounds recorded at Mt Rothwell Biodiversity Interpretation Centre highlighting species living in the unique and rare native grasslands with limited feral animal interference. All three case studies focus on the acoustic ecology of a particular environment allowing audiences to hear sounds whether they be anthropogenic or wildlife-based in an “eco-acoustic composition” (Monacchi 2016) and brings wider attention and awareness to endangered species and sounds often beyond our usual scope, highlighting the urgency of environmental action and showing the possible value of environmental sound art in a live performance context. Presentations stressing the link between conservation, science, the arts, humanity and nature are designed to encourage listeners to think more deeply about their relationship to the environment and that sense of interconnection. The case studies entwine traditional cultural consultation, music, acoustic ecology, science, conservation awareness and public immersion in sonic experiences.

http://www.vickihallett.com/

Creating Sonic Logos

Davide will discuss his approach in the development of unique sonic logos that aurally represent an entities core values whilst resonating emotionally with its customers and clients. Davide’s approach consists of creating a unique mnemonic that is not an obvious advertising jingle or sound as he believes that subtle audio branding can become part of a listeners day to day life in the long term whilst connecting the consumer to the corporation in a natural way. A good example is the sonic logo Davide created for Melbourne Metro Trains that has been used across the entire Melbourne train network for over ten years. The ‘Sound of Melbourne’ as it has affectionately become known is used in place of an announcement tone for every train departure and arrival. The success of the sonic is due in part to its subtlety, its ability to be heard across all environments and its gentle mellifluous nature created through sound design. Davide will discuss the creation of the Metro Trains sonic logo as well as other logos he has created for HCF, BBC, Australian Catholic University and Federation Centre.

Melbourne Metro Sonic Logo - Samplify

https://noisegate.com.au/davide-carbone-studio/

https://schoolofsynthesis.com/

Share their experience of online learning during the pandemic

In this session SAE Institute Bachelor of Audio students, Bonnie Griffiths (they/them) and Anuraag Arora will share their experience of learning their trade from home during the pandemic. They are in stage 3 of their studies, and are required to execute a project of their own design of a high quality for external publication. This final stage provides the students with an opportunity to showcase their work to prospective markets and vendors.

Bonnie is currently studying Major Project Production and Anuraag is studying Major Project Development. Both students are in the final weeks of their trimester and are working hard to finish their respective projects.

https://sae.edu.au/courses/audio/bachelor-of-audio/

Development of a digital photo-realistic audio console simulation as a learning/teaching tool

This paper details the development of a digital photo-realistic audio console simulation as an educational tool designed to facilitate remote access to campus-based analogue hardware. The author first developed a prototype as a proof-of-concept to demonstrate that it was possible to create a fully functional, photo-realistic digital console simulation using a single high-resolution photo of a physical console. The prototype then informed the development of two digital simulations, the SAE Audient ASP4816 and the SAE Mackie 1604VLZ4, that demonstrate the potential of digital photo-realistic console simulations as learning/teaching tools within audio engineering education.

https://drmarkbassett.com/

New Technology for Audio Education as a Response to COVID-19

Between March 2020 and August 2021 Melbourne experienced over 150 days of lockdown, alongside many more weeks of Stage 3 restrictions due to COVID-19. In 2020, as the first Melbourne lockdown began, SAE pivoted classes to remote delivery, which for the most part continued throughout the following 5 trimesters. This shift involved technical challenges for staff and students, such as: adjustments to teaching methods and content, development of remote teaching spaces, managing remote DAW & studio classes and multiple online collaboration tools, amongst various other hurdles.

During this time, a range of new approaches to teaching and learning emerged at SAE, including the use of virtual consoles, developed within the Max software environment by Dr Mark Bassett, techniques for remotely demonstrating head-tracked spatial mixing and binaural audio, multi-camera studio classes and various other approaches. 

Gareth and Nick will provide audio demonstrations, and consider the impact of lockdowns, teaching and learning and future possibilities.

https://sae.edu.au/

A Vendor Perspective - A brief reflection on COVID and the road ahead for magnetic media

We share our observations on the impacts of COVID on audiovisual digitisation projects. We look forward to 2025 and what we have seen happening in the market. Wrapping up, we provide our top consideration for digitising AV media.

https://damsmart.com.au/

Charting the Sonorous Archipelago: what field recording can tell us about the nature of sound and contested sites.

Recent debates around the nature of sound suggest that we are expected to choose between treating sound as a material and considering it as merely a signifier. But is this an oversimplification? Given that we may only be able to know sound through the act of listening, perhaps this is a pertinent point from which to approach questions of its nature. The act of field recording stands as a process of listening par excellence, in that it finds the recordist simultaneously attuned to multiple pasts, the embodied present, and toward some speculative future. Amidst all of this, the practitioner grapples with their own nature and positionality through a relational process. Given all of this we must conclude that field recording (verb) can only partially be accounted for by the resultant field recording (noun). Furthermore, sound as the medium of field recording, would appear to have an extremely complex nature that behaves in myriad ways simultaneously. This paper discusses the process of field recording in relation to a coming-into-knowing, of figuring out oneself and one’s surroundings through the act of directing listening devices, and how this can contribute to our understanding of sound. The author makes reference to recent field recording projects undertaken in monument sites in the former Yugoslav republics of the Balkans, to explore this notion and to argue for field recording as an ethical process and output that provides a voice for the multiple agencies that contest and accumulate around site.

Power of Authenticity: Memory-Making & Performative Visitor Experiences at Melbourne’s Immigration Museum

Melbourne’s Immigration Museum is in a constant process of personal story production, collaborating with diverse storytellers in order to create engaging exhibitions. Deeply personal memories can be significant deliverers of exhibition content in a variety of creative ways and provide powerful visitor interactions. Audience research has demonstrated the efficacy of authentic voices, whose finished stories are the result of close and extensive collaboration, in producing affecting and empathetic visitor experiences. A key challenge for museums is the eliciting, editing and crafting of these deeply personal stories in order to deliver the content and visitor experiences needed, while maintaining authenticity and avoiding manipulation – of both the memories of the storytellers, and the emotions of the visitors. 

This presentation will draw on the three most recent exhibition projects at the Immigration Museum to raise some key ideas and issues relating to memory in the public sphere. Each exhibition positioned personal, first-person voices, created specifically for exhibition, at the centre of both the content delivery and the visitor experience. The exhibitions demanded that the museum engage with notions of authenticity, trust, as well as methodologies of deep community engagement, and very different forms of visitor interactivity and immersion.

https://museumsvictoria.com.au/immigrationmuseum/

Living Instruments Project

The Grainger Museum is transforming historically rare and unique instruments into interactive and playable virtual instruments. The Living Instruments project – a collaboration with the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Fine Arts and Music and Melbourne eResearch Group, School of Computing & Information Systems – involves mapping real instruments (by sampling their sound) to new tactile digital interfaces that anyone can use. The project has resulted in significant student learning experiences and outcomes with Interactive Composition students from the University creating over 20 new audio works from the recording and digital instrument making process.

https://mkw.melbourne.vic.gov.au/event/living-instruments

https://alyonsmusic.com/

From The Embers – The Voices of Communities in Danger

In 2019/2020 Australia experienced catastrophic bushfires that affected every state. Early in 2020, The Community Broadcaster's Association of Australia (CBAA) created a narrative documentary radio series & podcast: From the Embers.

The nine-episode series drew on unique resources - the local community radio stations and a core team of producers connected to community radio.

With Community Radio having taken a huge part in keeping communities informed of what seemed like, and for some was, the impending firestorm, we saw a place to tell stories from communities in their own words.

 With the support of the Paul Ramsey Institute and the Judith Nielsen Institute, producers were embedded in each community, conducting field recordings and in-person interviews. The majority of these were done in the weeks after the fires were extinguished and COVID-19 restrictions were slowly coming into force, producing pieces of extraordinary poignancy. Utilising the voices and the emotions of people, one of the key points many of them made was that their story had only been told through the filter of mainstream media, and this was the first time their voices were truly heard.

The award-winning series has inspired an anthology, a documentary and a follow up series - From the Embers 2: Phoenix - coming in 2022.

https://www.cbaa.org.au/about

Scrub Choir – producing and engaging a virtual choir through a wellbeing lens

The Royal Melbourne Scrub Choir was formed mid pandemic to support the wellbeing of frontline healthcare staff. It is unique as it is clinician led and all editing and production is through a wellbeing lens. All submissions are accepted, and the notion of this virtual choir relates to engagement, connectivity, and community. Scrub Choir includes singers, musicians, dancers, and joy makers. It is an inclusive project across The Royal Melbourne Hospital with all professions involved. It has been recognised as the single most comprehensive project across the institution and has received wide media attention, community support, progressed to live performance and continues to operate with special projects both online and live. The positive engagement is in two steps 1. the making of the videos with single submissions and filmed onsite group participation (in line with restrictions) and 2) the final product where all submissions are brought together as a cohesive virtual performance which is greater than the sum of its parts. This process involves detailed technical skills, aligned with an understanding of the healthcare culture, spaces and people. It demonstrates a unique partnership with editing of sound and visuals between O’Brien and Pilkington. The process is heavily influenced by the varying levels of technical quality in submissions and all editing has a therapeutic outcome attached. This presentation will discuss the in and outs of the process and challenges faced along the way.

https://www.thermh.org.au

https://audreystudios.com/

Coronacast

The ABC decided to launch a daily podcast about the coronavirus pandemic in late February 2020. At the time, no one thought the podcast would still be running more than 18 months later. The podcast is produced by a small team: co-hosts Dr Norman Swan and Tegan Taylor with producer Will Ockenden. The team lives across 3 different cities, which have been subject to various restrictions over the course of the pandemic, forcing creativity in how the podcast is produced. A variety of ABC studios, walk-in wardrobes, cars, doonas and towels have been involved in getting a consistent sound. The response of the audience to Coronacast has been huge – the ABC has received hundreds of thousands of questions over the course of the pandemic, and Coronacast has quickly become one of the biggest podcasts in Australia, demonstrating people’s hunger for information about the pandemic.

https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/coronacast/

9 November 2021 - Free Welcome Event

4:30pm President and SAE welcome

4:45pm Welcome to Country

5:15pm Linda Evans, Curator, Oral History and Sound, Alexander Turnbull Library

5:30pm Piripi Walker, ASRA Award 2020

6:00pm Overview of conference 10-11 November