Alex Stahl
WORLD
Premiere
Alex Stahl
echolocation
How do we find our individual voice in the urban cacophony?
At dusk and dawn on the Yarra River, hundreds of birds under Princes Bridge
jostle for their nests, while people crowd the trams above. Human and avian
alike call out to one another. Short signals – a chirp here, an SMS there –
carry the potent message of homecoming to our loved ones.
An electro-acoustic installation along the walkway under the bridge invites
us to pause, unplug our ears and listen to the world in depth. Birdcalls are
captured by a net of microphones, transformed and released again. Using
your mobile phone, your calls join the bird calls in an interspecies orchestra.
ECholocation at BMW EDGE
In a special performance event at the BMW Edge the soundspace leaves the
nest, creating a musical engagement inflected with Olivier Messiaen’s rhythmic
cells and birdsong transformations. Using state-of-the-art soundbeam projectors
and flocking algorithms, the sounds of live musicians glide in formation with
audio flown in from the bridge, the Festival, and beyond.
Created by Alex Stahl,
Madeleine Flynn & Tim Humphrey
Sound artist Alex Stahl joins forces with Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey,
the dynamic duo behind last year’s Musicircus, to create an engagement with
the soundworld of the common myna. Beyond the steel and stone across
the river, listeners are invited to explore other bridges: mapping connections
between free speech and free music, human and avian migrations, performer
and audience, natural and constructed environments.
Finally, using mesh networks and custom sound software, the installation
takes flight. Local and distant soundfields are remapped, remixed
and reverberated through ad-hoc surround sound environments that
migrate daily around Federation Square and throughout the inner city.
Installation
Princes Bridge, The Walkway
Performance Event
Federation Square, BMW Edge
Thu 9 – Sat 25 Oct
Sat 18 Oct
5.30am – 8.30am & 7pm – 10pm
Free
Supported by
www.melbour