Bundanon residency

March 2010

Greyspace teamed up with Dr Sonique (Nigel Helyer) and SONE on a residency at Bundanon in March 2010. It was an opportunity for two groups of artists with intersecting sound and image practices to come together in project development and project exploration modes. There were two project concepts that were the focus of activity - one a graphic novel and the other a new sound image composition.

The graphic novel will mix aspects of Nigel Helyer�s biography, his practice as a sculptor and sound artist, and the broader field of sound art. Magic realism will be used in the novel as a way to weave these elements together - the graphic novel format being ideal because it allows a similar fluid movement between fiction and reality. Michael Buckley is drawing the images and Mark Hobby is writing the text.The residency was an opportunity to discover the content of the first five chapters and develop the overall schema of the novel. Cecelia Cmielewski facilitated this part of the project.

The Sone/Greyspace artists and musicians Keith Deverell, Corey Sands and Sue McCauley created a new work incorporating field recordings of birds, prepared screens, and live music sound composition/performance. They made the work in five days and performed it on the 6th day at Bundanon. These artists are also working on a collaborative project with two other Cambodian artists called The Hawkers' Song about the disappearing street hawkers of Phnom Penh. This will be a sound and projection project with exhibition outcomes in Phnom Penh and Melbourne. This residency was an opportunity to develop some ideas around the sound aspects of this project.