The Borderline Listening Post is a public sound installation in Lyttelton, NZ’s Civic Square curated by the local Borderline Ballroom music collective. It features works contributed by local, national and international sonic artists. Some have responded directly to the space, while others have been inspired from afar to create works that range from soundscapes using the local environment as their source to electronic pieces and electroacoustic compositions. The programme (below) changes every Week. Scroll down for more information about the artists and their works.
Week 1: 20-28th June
The Lyttelton Timeball 1:23
Recorded by Stanier Black-Five
EcoTechno experiments at the Timeball 15:47
Artists: John McCallum & Nick Guy
Moments of Silence 9:16
Artist: Luke Munn (Auckland, NZ)
Right to Protest 11.22
Artist: Welcoming Dusk (Christchurch)
Week 2: 29 June-5th July
ephemeris 12:42
Artist: Stanier Black-Five (Lyttelton, NZ)
Outside perspective 0:37
Artist: Claire Pannell with Rob Haakman.
Exquisite Garden 4:45
Artist: Mela (Lyttelton,NZ)
Week 3: 6-12 July
Hidden Voices 8:45
Artist: Brent Holt (Auckland,NZ)
Whitenoise 01 2:16
Artist: Sophia Schön (Auckland/Berlin)
Seven 0:31
Artist: Mela (Lyttelton,NZ)
Week 4: 13-19 July
Untitled 3:42
Artist: Funes (Lyttelton, NZ)
After Bronowski 23:13
Artist: Jimmy Currin (Dunedin,NZ)
Week 6: 31st July – 6th August
Fremantle Port 24:52
Artist: Malcolm Riddoch (Lyttelton, New Zealand).
Coming down with technical failures 1:53
Artist: Furchick (Perth, Australia)
Week 7: 7-13 August
The Perpetual Cloister 4:32
Artist: The Rothko Chapel (Melbourne/Canberra, Australia)
Iron Pebbles and Gold Dust 12:19
Artist: Chris Cree Brown (Christchurch)
Avis Interregnum 4:00
Artist: Kate Cosbey Belton
Week 8: 14-20th August
Continuum 20:43
Artists: Reuben Derrick and Chris Reddington (Christchurch, NZ)Sunlit Electrical Storm. 11:58
Week 9: 21-28th August
Artist: Dark Passenger (Melbourne, Australia)
Research into Incompatibility Symptoms 10:34
Artist- JA (Christchurch, NZ)
109 1:09
Artist: Blair Parkes (Christchurch, NZ)
28th August onwards – mixed programme
Artists and Works
Avis Interregnum 4:00
Artist: Kate Belton
(Audio montage of boys’ whistles.)
Immediately after the February earthquake the city was shrouded in a spooky silence that blanketed the city. The liquefaction that came up from beneath the city’s water-table spewing its way through every crack and crevice, seemed to suffocate any sign of nature like a damp and deadly carpet. Avis Interregnum celebrates the reassertion of nature in the ruins of the CBD. Nature reclaims the space. Weeds push through paving stones and cracked cement, vines crawl up the remnants of walls and birds have returned to the city. Looking through the hurricane fences and past the security signs into what remains of the red zone, is like looking into a giant industrial themed avery and is evidence that ultimately, nature triumphs.
Kate is an artist who works in sculpture and installation. She teaches Art at Christ’s College and is currently studying toward her MFA.
Iron Pebbles and Gold Dust 12:19
Artist: Chris Cree Brown (Christchurch)
Electroacoustic work
After Bronowski 23:13
Artist: Jimmy Currin (Dunedin,NZ)
After Bronowski reconstitutes some of the writings of the great science educator Jacob Bronowski (1908-1974). I had been thinking about a world where lively, reasoned, intelligent, open-ended discussion could be had on any street corner. Since the listening post is permanently out on the street, the notion that one could run into Bronowski in the middle of the night – and that he might even be speaking in the same slurred, slightly pissed drawl as (conceivably) myself – was an attractive one.
Jimmy Trees Currin has been a folk, rock’n’roll and improvising musician in Three Forks, Khomet, Ray Off, Group Eight, Laps and many others. He is also a playwright, theatre director and actor, and co-created the award-winning shows Moth Hearts In The Night House and Once Was. He is the theatre and dance writer for POINT magazine and lives in Dunedin.
Sunlit Electrical Storm. 11:58Artist: Dark Passenger (Melbourne, Australia)
An improvised piece of guitar, electronics and metallic drones.
Continuum 20:43
Artists: Reuben Derrick and Chris Reddington (Christchurch, NZ)
A field trip on a still yet busy night was made to Lyttelton port during May to record explorations, discoveries, interactions, responses and reflections. This material has been worked into a succession of sonic atmospheres which gradually unfold through interactions with changing spatial and temporal perspectives. A variety of interventions can be heard through both involuntary human activity, and the intentional use of found objects and instruments brought to the session.
Untitled 3:42
Artist: Funes (Lyttelton, NZ)
The work is actually from 2004 but it holds a certain significance for me in relation to our town centre. Three sound sources make up the piece: recordings of earthquakes, the echo of a man’s voice in a place of worship and the harmonics of a wooden flute. At the time I put the work together I was fascinated by the concept of the ‘sound’ of earthquakes as this was something that, at that time, I had experienced only fleetingly. I was also interested in the idea of sound that was, to a degree, separated from its source: the ghost of a person’s voice lingering as reverberation after they have ceased vocalising, or the very high frequency and perhaps unintended harmonics of a low register instrument whose fundamental is relatively distant. Finally, I was preoccupied with the concepts of omnipotence and lack of real control over one’s surroundings.
I had pretty much forgotten about this work but was drawn to it again following the September 2010 earthquake. This was just as much to do with the experience of being at the mercy of a faceless, seemingly omnipotent force that was beyond control or rationalisation, as it was to do with the earthquake samples themselves. I have a very vivid memory of standing outside of our home at the time at the bottom of Oxford Street, in the blue darkness of that morning, the only light source being the clouds and moon, hearing that same low rumbling that signalled that another aftershock was coming. The buildings in that area that we have since lost – the ballroom, those on the corners of London and Oxford Streets and the Harbourlight Theatre – form the backdrop of my memories of that morning. The façades of these buildings generally come to mind listening to this work. They are not dark or menacing memories by any means, just memories.
Coming down with technical failures 1:53
Artist: Furchick (Perth, Australia)
An exploration of the voice from a place of discomfort, fear and uncertainty. The piece represents an attempt to make something beautiful, peaceful and calm, but when life is disrupted by calamity, but the darkness of the experience is never truly at rest again.
Furchick is an Australian ex-pat of New Zealand who currently resides in Perth. She is working on a sound score for Jukstapoz, a contemporary dance company based in Athens, Greece for premier in February 2014. She has a collaborative sound project with Amy Church called iambe, and usually performs solo with an experimental live sound at the crossover between art and science. She toured to NZ in January 2013, playing in Auckland and Wellington and both islands in 2011, including in Christchurch post earthquake while the damage was still fresh and the aftershocks were significant. Other recent significant achievements have included a water based sound installation at The Mart contemporary art museum in northern Italy, performing at Sound Summit in Newcastle, Australia, and at the International Noise Conference in Sydney and Melbourne. https://soundcloud.com/furchick
Hidden Voices 8:45
Artist: Brent Holt (Auckland,NZ)
This work uses environmental sound sources recorded around city streets and other locations, originally with the idea to use mechanical engine noises to create the theme for the work. Once I began to edit and abstract new sounds from the source recordings, I was struck by the melodic and rhythmic quality that seemed hidden in both natural and mechanical sound sources. I have tried to create a sound world that brings out the hidden voices and song within the sound of everyday life. From the sound of crickets and rain, musicians practicing their instruments mixed with a passing train and airport soundscapes, to create a new perspective from which to listen to the music in the “noise” of everyday life.
Brent Holt – Born 1966 in Rotorua, has lived in Auckland since 1986. A keyboard player, sound engineer & composer mainly involved with producing children’s music for CD, TV and radio. “Hidden Voices” was as part of a sonic arts portfolio composed in 2010 while completing a Bachelor of Music at The University of Auckland.
Research into Incompatibility Symptoms 10:34
Artist: JA (Christchurch, NZ)
A is a set of recordings from 2008-2010 put to together to create a mess of sound flying everywhere and crashing into walls (some even went out the window)!
http://toxicrecordsarefun.blogspot.co.nz/
http://jamusic6.bandcamp.com/
EcoTechno experiments at the Timeball 15:47
Artists: John McCallum & Nick Guy
Remixed found sounds from the port and timeball escapement, live in the clock room Dec 2000 at the opening of High St Project 172 43′ exhibition. Sound by Marcus Winstanley
Exquisite Garden 4:45
Artist: Mela (Lyttelton,NZ)
The exquisite garden is and always will be a work in progress.
Seven 0:31
Artist: Mela (Lyttelton,NZ)
Part of a series of recordings that uses music boxes and distressed hard-drives. Seven is a frantic music box dance that piles up on itself.
Mela is a Lyttelton-based sound artist who generates a mellifluous musical microclimate using obsolete and discarded sound sources.
Moments of Silence 9:16
Artist: Luke Munn (Auckland, NZ)
Found video and audio recordings of moments of silence, taking place at vigils , government assemblies, sports games, and private remembrances.
Luke Munn is a conceptual artist based in Berlin, using the body and
code, objects and performances to activate relationships and
responses. His projects have featured in the Kunsten Museum of Modern
Art, the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Fold Gallery
London, Causey Contemporary Brooklyn and the Istanbul Contemporary Art
Museum, with commissions from Aotearoa Digital Arts, Creative New
Zealand and TERMINAL and performances in Paris, Dublin, Chicago,
Berlin, Auckland, and New York. http://www.lukemunn.com/
Outside perspective 0:37
Artist: Claire Pannell with Rob Haakman
An outsider will never fully know what it was like …… we found ourselves following the aftermath of the earthquake from afar, viewing it from the perspective of a voyer, not quite comfortable with this position, wondering how people cope. This track was created from field recordings of everyday sounds from Ubud in Indonesia and a conversation that was unknowingly recorded. The sounds are from the perspective of a fascinated outsider, sounds that a local may not realise are so unique. Each place has its own sounds, smells and visions. Listening to this takes us back to Ubud, but we never really got to know the place.
109 1:09
Artist: Blair Parkes (Christchurch)
109 seconds recorded in the backyard
109 Oram Ave, New Brighton
14th February. 2011
25th February, 2012
Blair Parkes is a 46 year old artist living and working in New Brighton, Christchurch, New Zealand. He makes music with saturations, range and the l.e.d.s. His art includes painting, video, image manipulation and drawing. For more please see www.blairparkes.wordpress.com
Fremantle Port 24:52
Artist: Malcolm Riddoch (Lyttelton, New Zealand)
A soundscape based on an afternoon’s field recording from five locations around the port of Fremantle in Western Australia. The recording’s intended purpose is to play with and hopefully blend into the live environmental soundscape of the port of Lyttelton in South Island New Zealand.
The Perpetual Cloister 4:32
Artist: The Rothko Chapel (Melbourne/Canberra, Australia)
The piece is more of an imagined perspective of potential and reality; even more so as we have not visited Lyttelton since the Week before the February 2011 earthquake. The theme of ‘cloister’ relates to the imagined space; a place of contemplation, a focus of community activity, a gallery of mutual support and refuge, a site that provides a position of strength – The Perpetual Cloister being so much more than just a pinpoint on the map – a forum, a platform for transition to the future.
It has two movements spanned by a transition phase. They reflect the relatively newfound changeability of the region’s geography; it’s effect on the people – a dark time followed by a time of renewal and healing – landscape and urban environment. The listener can engage with each phase of the piece as it passes and be reminded about various aspects of the events of the last three years. The piece gently encourages the listener to invest in a few minutes to reflect on sometimes-punishing situations and the burdens that follow but are then able to explore and imagine possibilities as life moves forward in the context of a more optimistic atmosphere.
The Rothko Chapel was established in 2012. It is an ongoing collaborative guitar noise project helmed by Pete Dowd (Singlecoil) and Charles Sage (Hessien, y0t0), incorporating multiple participants. It is open source, loud and without boundary. In April 2013 The Rothko Chapel released its first track, ‘The Carrefour Plane’, on UK label Tessellate Recordings’ compilation, ‘Earthtones’. http://therothkochapel.tumblr.com/ http://tessellaterecordings.bandcamp.com/ http://tessellaterecordings.wordpress.com/
Whitenoise 01 2:16
Artist: Sophia Schön (Auckland/Berlin)
The work is an investigation into the operation and failure of language and how silence takes an active role. It aims to draw awareness to the listeners’ surroundings, and sense of self. It uses white noise, the sound generated through everyday activities that is in our constant oral periphery. It fades in and out, like a breath, rising and falling, thus drawing attention to the lack of language, the silence in between the noise and our presence in the space. This echoes the spaces left behind and carefully draws attention to new ones created in the Lyttelton Civic Square. It also does not use language, as often when such life changing events occur, we surpass language and connect, heal and communicate in silence.
Sophia Schön is an artist living and making work in Auckland. She was born in Berlin, and since moving to Auckland has studied a Bachelor of Visual Art at AUT followed by a Postgraduate Diploma. She is interested in the way language operates and how silence takes an active role, extending to a wider relationship between art and viewer. She has exhibited at ST Paul Street Galleries.
ephemeris 12:42
Artist: Stanier Black-Five (Lyttelton, NZ)
“Un port retentissant où mon âme peut boire
À grands flots le parfum, le son et la couleur”
Created from recordings made between 2009 and 2012 in and around the Port of Lyttelton.
For the last two decades Stanier Black-Five has been actively involved with experimental music and sound art in the UK, Europe and New Zealand. Her audio work is largely based on the manipulation of her own environmental recordings, which she uses to create dense soundscapes that use sources from the pounding rhythms of trains to more recently the sounds of the earthquakes that have shaken her city. She performs and has had her music released in New Zealand and internationally, with forthcoming releases on the Entr’acte label later in 2013. http://stanierblackfive.com
Right to Protest 8:18
Artist: Welcoming Dusk (Christchurch)
A low fi electronic soundscape that written after hanging out at the port one evening.
Behind the lattice windows of a St Albans flat, velvet curtains hide the glittering lights of analogue synths, reverb units and filters. New-born sounds drift upwards as plaster dust falls. This first offering from Welcoming Dusk (Evan Schaare and Rachel Cullens) draws from Lyttelton’s aural landscape.
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