Language of Resonance

8.11.23 - 11.11.23

Queensland University of Technology

Language of Resonance, a part of inFORM | 2023 QUT Visual Arts Graduate Exhibition, is a body of work that materialises aquatic sounds and human vocals in visual, tactile, and aural forms. Field recordings of bodies of water from within the ocean, a waterfall, and a stream play alongside a recording of Gmona Kila, the artist’s aunty, singing a song in their tradional Balawaian language about the story of Kwali Roparopana, an earthquake and landslide that took place in Rigo, Papua Niugini.

This layered audio resonates through a steel bowl conjuring ripples in the water inside. On the adjacent wall, a canvas holds soil that’s been dispersed by vibrations. The work is activated by microphones in an embodied performance where the artist invokes phantoms of sound in the water.

In an embodied performance, the work is activated in four phases of a ritual to invoke phantoms of sound in the water. The first three stages involve pressing contact microphones against tactile sound boards, the steel bowl, and my skin. Each medium resonates at different frequencies causing the water to vibrate in unique patterns. In the closing phase, acoustic feedback from a microphone and a speaker is orchestrated to mediate between infrasound and ultrasound waves.

Exhibition Review ︎︎︎
Language of Resonance Soundscape ︎︎︎

Steel bowl, water, bass shaker, soil on canvas, looped audio, live performance, dimensions vary, photo credit: Carl Warner