A Festival of Sonic Arts - Christchurch

Navigate the city by ear at Canterbury’s first ever Festival of Sonic Arts. Over a weekend of active listening and sonic adventures, Christchurch will resonate with a diverse and interactive programme of installations, workshops, interventions, performances and sound walks exploring the dynamic sonic landscapes of the rebuilding central city.

Across the city, local and international sound artists will be filling the streets and vacant lots with sound. There’s plenty of chance for direct interaction with the exhibits, such as A Folded Path, a pedestrian symphony created specifically for the streets of Christchurch by UK artists, Circumstance in which the audience becomes the orchestra as they walk in groups around the city holding portable loudspeakers.

Installations include a water sound sculpture created by Chris Reddington and Tom Phillpotts (Chch); solar powered sonic sculptures on the banks of the River Avon by Adam Willetts (Chch); sonic metal rods made by Alistair Galbraith (Dun) that can be played by passersby and Stanier Black-Five’s (Chch) resonification of the city using lost sounds, such as the Cathedral Bells. Also featured will be works by leading New Zealand sound artists, such as Rachel Shearer (Auk), Sean Kerr (Auk), Samin Son (Wlg), Bruce Russell (Chch), Simon Kong (Chch) and Dr Malcolm Riddoch (Chch).

There’s also a chance to get hand/ears-on at the series of sonic workshops over the weekend: from building and playing Taonga Puoro/Traditional Maori instruments, with local experts Tony Smith (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāi Tahu – Kāti Irakehu) and Geoff Low (Chch) to building you own synthesizer with Nicholas Woollaston (Chch). Children are also catered for in a number of sessions, such as those led by sound artist and science educator, Dr Claire Pannell (Aus) who will be exploring how we hear and helping children build sound making instruments to take home, as well as sound based story sessions with experimental guitarist, Greg Malcolm (Chch).

Audacious is presented by Christchurch City Council’s Ever Evolving Events programme and Transitional City Projects Fund in partnership with The Cantabrian Society of Sonic Artists Inc, the group behind the recently established sonic arts gallery, The Auricle.Full festival programme now online at http://www.audacious.org.nz

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