Survival and Revival - 2021 ASRA Conference - program announced

Sound artist Nat Grant, speaking on November 11. Image by Bryony Jackson.

The program for the 2021 ASRA Virtual Conference, with the theme Survival and Revival, has today been published.

The conference begins in the evening of November 9th, with an introduction to the conference and the presentation of the 2020 ASRA Award to Piripi Walker.

The first day of papers opens with revered Australian sound artist Dr Ros Bandt, who will present a paper exploring her most recent release, Medusa Dreaming - a site-specific water symphony in honour of the renowned renowned Basilica Cistern (Yerebatan Sarnıcı) beneath Istanbul, Turkey. This will be followed by a conversation with Tegan Taylor of the ABC’s Coronacast podcast, a bastion of steadfast information for many during an uneasy couple of years. The remainder of the day sees papers on pandemic choirs, memory-making in exhibitions, instrument archives and more.

The second day of papers includes papers from Dr Alana Blackburn speaking on the relationship between performer and sound-recording in the performance of Re-growth, Mike Fitzgerald of the Australian Wildlife Sound Recording Group speaking on documenting the soundscape of the natural environment twelve months after the Gosper’s Mountain Fire in northern Wollemi National Park, NSW, and sound artist Nat Grant on field recording, community and memory.

The full program can be found here, and registrations will be open shortly.