STUDIO EXPLORATION: Liquid Architecture

Australia has always fascinated me from a very young age and so I chose Liquid Architecture which is the premier sound arts festival held annually in this country. This unique festival promotes artists who are "practicing on the periphery of music and sound culture with emphasis on an experimental aesthetic and a critical approach to (media) cultures." Those attending will be enveloped in concerts, immersive sound presentations, audio-visual and recorded work and exhibitions and installations. These featured artists range from the most imaginative musicians, composers, sound designers and media artists who provide a veritable sense-specific feast for the ears. Liquid Architecture has been in existence for ten years and is responsible for providing evocative sound effects and tracks for many American movies.

The Liquid Architecture website is a pleasure to explore as it hosts multiple platforms for internationally renown sound and media artists who are pushing the boundaries of creating and implementing sound as well as developing media art in new and intriguing venues. One of this year's innovative artists is Alan Lamb who is involved in "exploring sound structures, neither musically designed nor of random occurrence. Such structures possess the properties of beauty, complexity and evocation of the emotional, the spiritual and the imaginary." Alan uses Aeolian sound usually generated by long wires (e.g. telegraph wires) which are manipulated using mechanical devices to change parameters of the system. His other works make use of mechanical sound-making devices (e.g. tuned bicycle wheels) as sound sources for stochastic, chaotic and nature based movements through mechanical linkages and also infinite Music Machines, designed to explore the more patterned and beautiful sounds derived from chaos.

As you read about Alan's work, there are podcast links on the right hand side of his page. This organization is called Overlap and is a platform for Experimental Media -- Releases, Events and Projects. Once I clicked on the Overlap link and viewed the homepage, there was an interesting article about a new release from Electricwest who has a new series of sound creations called Detach. In listening to the six selections, I found a very pleasing sound ambience in the first selection called "Still" which was at once soothing and mesmerizing. As I explored several other featured artists, it became clear that Liquid Architecture has a well developed site in its overall concept, layout and viewer experience. The execution of presenting new artists along with previously established artists with links to their sound creations and explorations was seamless and a visual and auditory pleasure.

In the menu bar there is a Media category that includes the links to Sounds, Images, Essays and Releases. The Sounds link will take you to an mp3 vault of various sound creations that are amusing and entertaining. One that was interesting to me is Pheremone Wings by Joel Stern who makes "sound art and noise, which he performs throughout Australia and the world. His work sets shambolic, improvised and accidental passages against painstaking compositions and arrangements, renderings of imaginary and real spaces." Joel is "the co-founder of OtherFilm
and Audiopollen, Brisbane based organizations dedicated to fostering unconstrained experimentation, risk-taking performance and cross-media exploration in artists of different generations." I loved his idea of mixing media and artists from several generations to create a new vision of art and media exploration.

Liquid Architecture has a focus and vision that is much more comprehensive and far ranging than I was initially aware of in my previous knowledge of their organization. I had observed their name in many movie credits and just assumed they were yet another of the many creative sound companies that proliferate in our world of entertainment. Their vision is "to popularize and publicize sound culture through greater aggregate audience size and a higher profile, and to make sound culture more accessible to the community, particularly to youth and student audiences.

Liquid Architecture popularizes sound culture, particularly with young/emerging content producers within Australia's active student culture, in order to build not only future audiences but future artists." This organization is very focused on promoting opportunities to network with national and international artists as an important means of generating future initiatives and cross cultural collaborations. A part of the vision is to ensure that the community is being exposed to some of the most exciting explorations in sound culture that also happen to intersect with the media and fine arts. The fact that this organization is driven to reach out to young people and student artists to expand their world is what makes them unique to me. The people in this organization understand the importance of keeping a continuity and progression of the Arts in our future generations. I also love that they are promoting all cultures as this is what the world of art is comprised of in its entirety.

This website is well designed in its overall minimal appearance and clear, easy navigation menus. The artist's bios are well-written and comprehensive with links to their current works. The combination of diverse artists, media and sound presentations create a visual and auditory world that is fascinating to explore and experience. The viewer comes away with a more thorough knowledge of the culture of sound both in our movies and art world.

"Liquid Architecture was born out of the Sound department in the School of Art at RMIT University, Melbourne Australia in collaboration with RMIT Union Arts. The festival is curated by practicing artists; Melbourne based co-founding national director Nat Bates, assisted by Bianca Durrant and Camilla Hannan, Brisbane based Lawrence English from ROOM40, in Sydney Jen Teo from Plum Industries and Shannon O'Neill from Alias Frequencies, in Central Victoria director Jacques Soddell from cajid media, in Cairns Nick Mills from On Edge and in Perth Tura New Music director Tos Mahoney."