The second Liquid Architecture concert at the Brisbane Powerhouse presented performances by David Shea with Kristi Monfries, Asmus Tietchens, Thomas Köner and Plump (Dave Brown, Marc Rogerson and Philip Samartzis). David Shea and Kristi Monfries performed a commissioned audiovisual work entitled Liquid Architects. Drawing from the archive of Liquid Architecture's past nine years, the artists, with video by Monfries and a sound performance by Shea, produced what was described as partially an homage and partially an entirely new piece.
In working with sonic documentation, Shea's raw material was densely loaded. Using a sampler keyboard the artist sculpted immeasurable amounts of recordings, each with their own histories, both from their original sources and the histories and contexts of each listener. The result was a flood of sonic information where the audience, whilst aware of the material's source, thought of it not as a document but rather a composition of sound objects. As opposed to being simply aesthetic material, these objects were evocative of memory; but whose memories? It is almost certain that none of the audience would have witnessed every sampled original performance featured in Liquid Architects. Even so, the effects of memory would have rendered many of these sounds as forgotten, or unrecognisable. It seems Shea and Monfries's performance, by its fragmentary and psycho-acoustically rich nature, became an evocation of the nature of memory itself.
Image above: David Shea and Kristi Monfries; Liquid Architecture, Brisbane Powerhouse, 4 July 2009. Photo: Tom Hall.
Images below: Plump, Asmus Tietchens; Liquid Architecture, Brisbane Powerhouse, 4 July 2009. Photography: Tom Hall.
