WeiZenHo - The Subtle Beings - Emergence: WeiZen re-imagines a Rungus dance ritual from Kampung Minyak, Sabah; the beginning section of a greater performance-installation journey titled 'The Subtle Beings'. In conversation with the Rungus ritual facilitator, Mary binti Mojihit and the village head of Kampung Minyak, Osewan bin Ayung, this section is an embodied and material response to the speculations about the source of the gestures, and conversations about the ritual’s intention. Ritual assistant: Oliver Damian. Amplification and effects on sound sources: Dahyo Lloyd. Material: pig skin embedded with synthetic horse hair made by Katja Handt.
The project was made possible by Australia Council for the Arts to study and develop ‘Performances, Interpreted & Reimagined of Asian Animistic & Shamanistic Rituals’ from 2016 to 2018.
Nikki Johnson - Bread Touch: Freshly baked bread - but not for eating. Listening to the resonating chamber of the soft, risen, floury dough. Can you hear a little crunch and crackle as I break off the crispy crust? What about a squeak as the soft flesh shifts under the weight of my body? Maybe it makes you a little hungry - hearing the smell of freshly baked bread. Are you a celiac? Maybe this way you too can enjoy the sensation of sweet bread. What about a little bit of butter? Sorry there is no toaster here. Would you like a little chunk of bread?
Chris Cooper - Clarinet Boxing: Chris Cooper presents his striking (pun intended) work for boxing, skipping and solo clarinet. Our passions can define us, but they can also tear us apart! And they can also make us sweat profusely.
Liam Mulligan - Refresh: As a musician who 'feels' music more than one who hears it, I've always been drawn to how one sensory event can be either experienced or interpreted by another, and how that perception can effect the music. In recent practice, I've been exploring how counterpoint can be made between different sensory experiences. 'Refresh' embodies this research asking the audience the question "Does it match?" and "Will it Match?"
Amy Fenton and Damian Barbeler - Competitive Dad Stories: Amy and Damian tell competitive appalling stories about their respective wonderful Dads while demonstrating a very particular mechanical device.
Damian Barbeler - Casimir Fairy: The “Casimir Fairy” is our pet name for a new, break-though science experiment we have been exploring in the last two months. On August 30th we will demonstrate this experiment to the audience and explaining its history and mechanism. The “Casimir Fairy” experiment uses sound to finely control 2 lasers. The sound is used to align the lasers at an ultra-fine “quantum” level within a quartz crystal. This “dynamic bistability” and resulting high hysteresis allows us to manipulate quantum field fluctuations at a scale never before achieved. This ‘quantum modulation” of sound on light alone is a breakthrough, however we began noticing an unexplained phenomena. The quantum fluctuation patterns are not exactly what we planned. Unexpected shapes emerge also. Coherent formations moving in and out of view through the bubbling radiation. We joke that this is a “fairy” coming to get us: hence the pet title. Further experiments remain to be conducted to explain this phenomenon.