Liquid Architecture (LA) is Australia’s leading organisation for artists working with sound and listening. LA is based on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country, at the Collingwood Yards art precinct. Our program sits at the intersection of contemporary art and experimental music, expressed through a range of presentation, publishing, research and commissioning activities.
BACKGROUND
Born in the complex artistic climate of the late 1990s, LA is a millennial imagination of Australia’s vibrant experimental sound culture. Founded in 1999, over the following 15 years, under the direction of Nat Bates, LA grew from being a boutique local event into Australia’s leading festival of experimental, electronic, improvised and avant-garde music.
In 2014, the organisation pivoted with an injection of ideas and resources, and the appointment of Joel Stern and Danni Zuvela as the organisation’s artistic leadership. The duo dissolved the festival model in favour of something more open, unpredictable and experimental: a year-round, curatorial program of boundary-pushing public events, happenings and situations untethered to any one discipline, ideology or format.
Forever expanding and evolving to meet our horizons, the cultural institution we know today as Liquid Architecture is fuelled by the ideas and energies of our team and augmented by the expertise of our board and advisors.
Under the leadership of Kristi Monfries alongside Creative Producer Rohan Rebeiro, Creative Producer James Howard and Programs Coordinator Ronen Jafari, the new direction will expand on this legacy to build strong foundations and relationships with sound experimentations from First Nations, Diasporas, Asia and the Pacific.
Grounded locally but working globally, LA is a dedicated platform for artists engaged in experimental sound practice, sustained and energised through conversation and research, and realised in collaboration with people in our community and beyond.
We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung as the Traditional Owners and sovereign custodians of the Country on which we practice. We extend our respects to their Elders past and present, and to all First Peoples.
Team
BOARD
DANNY BUTT (CHAIR) is Senior Lecturer in Interdisciplinary Practice at Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, where he is also Coordinator of Research for Design and Production. His book Artistic Research in the Future Academy was published by Intellect/University of Chicago Press in 2017, and he is on the Editorial Board of the Journal for Artistic Research and is co-convenor of the Asia Pacific Artistic Research Network. As a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) he worked for intergovernmental agencies such as United Nations Development Programme and ASEAN on new media and development and was editor of the book Internet Governance: Asia Pacific Perspectives (Elsevier/UNDP 2006). He works with the Auckland-based art collective Local Time. He moved from Gadigal country in Sydney to Port Chalmers / Koputai, Aotearoa New Zealand in 1993, performing improvised sound and releasing recordings through the 1990s with Peter Stapleton and Kim Pieters in the groups Rain and Flies Inside the Sun (with Brian Crook); with Michael Morley in the Tanaka-Nixon Meeting; and as Cobweb Iris.
REBECA SACCHERO (DEPUTY-CHAIR)
Rebeca Sacchero is a Producer with extensive experience across multiple Metro Melbourne Inner North Local Government Areas. Rebeca understands the local government context whilst also having relationships and experience in small to medium arts orgs. She has been working in the space of community engaged practice and is passionate about creating arts access for under-represented communities. She has a strong track record of successful projects with youth, the LGBTQIA+ community, CALD communities and seniors. She has worked across visual arts, performing arts and digital media, with a range of government and private stakeholders. These include major festivals, local and state Government, ARI’s, schools, community health orgs, and social enterprises. She completed a degree in Art History and Curatorship at Monash University in 2017 and in 2019 was selected for Leadership Victoria’s LGBTQIA+ Leadership program. She also runs her own community building electronic music events in which she has toured international artists, and is a DJ.
MARK NOLEN (TREASURER) is a Certified Practising Accountant with extensive experience in the creative industries sector. He is currently Management Accountant at ACMI, having previously worked in a similar role at Film Victoria. Along the way, he has helped countless singers, actors, and even clowns get their taxes in order – no laughing matter! When not crunching numbers, you can find Mark sitting back with a fine drop of Scotch whisky, soaking up some even finer tunes.
CLAIRE BREDENOORD (SECRETARY) is an education designer and creative producer with experience in non-profit arts organisations, higher education and start-ups. She has a background in socially engaged arts practice and publishing, most often working across disciplines to produce multimodal projects. Most recently, Claire has contributed to the launch of Industri Education, a live music education organisation aiming to provide pathways into industry, as the Operations and Education Lead. A notable achievement has been collaborating with live music industry stakeholders to design new courses in technical production. Claire holds a Juris Doctor and a Master of Arts and Community Practice. She aims to continue developing her diverse skill set and passion for relational community practice to contribute to First Nations peoples’ fight for justice.
MONICA LIM (MEMBER) is a Melbourne-based pianist and composer of classical contemporary and experimental music. Born in Malaysia and then migrating to Australia in her teens, Monica initially practiced as a Tax Consultant for Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, before pursuing her own interests in business and the arts. She has produced work for theatre, contemporary dance, installations, and film, as well as solo and ensemble instrumental pieces. She is interested in new cross-disciplinary genres and forms as well as combinations of new technology with music. Monica is currently undertaking a PhD at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, University of Melbourne in interactive technology, AI and gesture-led composition. Monica is co-founder of Project Eleven, a philanthropic initiative which supports the contemporary arts and serves on the boards of the Melbourne Recital Centre, the Substation as well as the Member’s Council for Musica Viva.
NARETHA WILLIAMS (MEMBER) is an accomplished practitioner in the Australian creative industries sector. An established artist and music producer, she is a seasoned industry professional with extensive experience across a dynamic range of appointments. Naretha has worked with leading Australian companies and First Nations initiatives, flagship festivals and events, has toured internationally and won several awards. Credits include: St Kilda Festival, Bless Your Blak Arts Festival, Australasian World Music Expo, International Symposium on Electronic Art, Yirramboi First Nations Arts Festival, Science Gallery London, Chunky Move, Performance Space New York, The Melba Spiegeltent, Melbourne Town Hall Grand Organ, Sydney Myer Music Bowl, Sydney Dance Company, and Melbourne’s Flash Forward.
GAIL PRIEST (MEMBER) is a sound artist and writer based on Dharug and Gundungurra land (Katoomba, NSW). Her work spans soundtracks for dance, theatre and video, solo electro-acoustic performance as well sound installations for gallery contexts, both solo and in collaboration. She has performed her live compositions and exhibited sound installations nationally and internationally including in Japan, Hong Kong, Germany, France, Norway and the Netherlands. In 2015-16 she was awarded an Emerging & Experimental Arts Fellowship from the Australia Council. She has undertaken numerous radio commissions and releases music on her own label Metal Bitch Recordings as well as Flaming Pines, Endgame Records and room40. She curates events and exhibitions and writes fictively and factually about sound and media art, working for RealTime magazine for over 15 years. She has been on the board of Performance Space (2011-2014), and a peer assessor for the Australia Council. She has just completed a PhD in creative sound theory at UTS. www.gailpriest.net
DAVID CHESWORTH (MEMBER) is an artist and composer, known for his experimental, and at times minimalist music, who has worked with electronics, contemporary ensembles, film, theatre, and experimental opera. Together with Sonia Leber, David has created installation artworks using sound, video, architecture and public participation. Exhibitions include ‘56th Venice Biennale (2015), ‘19th Biennale of Sydney (2014), and Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2013-14). Festivals featuring Chesworth’s music and sound works include Ars Electronica; Festival D’Automne de Paris; Bang on a Can Marathon, New York, Biennale of Sydney; Adelaide and Melbourne Festivals; and MONA FOMA. Early in his career he was co-founder of post-punk band Essendon Airport and for five years was coordinator of the Clifton Hill Community Music Centre, Melbourne. David is a Vice-Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at RMIT University, Melbourne, researching auditory archives.
STAFF
Kristi Monfries (Director)
Rohan Rebeiro (Senior Creative Producer)
Ronen Jafari (Programs Manager)
James Howard (Creative Producer - proud Jaadwa man)
LA ASSOCIATES
Laura McLean and Suvani Suri (Associate Curators - Capture All)
Helen Grogan (Associate Advisor - Liquid Archive)
Tiarney Miekus (Associate Editor - Disclaimer)
INTERNS
Olivia Stephen
Jess Phillips
Contact
We welcome conversation, ideas and feedback at any time.
info@liquidarchitecture.org.au
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104/35 Johnston Street
Collingwood VIC 3066
AUSTRALIA
LIQUID ARCHITECTURE
SOUND INC
ABN 73128090237
ASN A0050679K
Privacy Statement
Liquid Architecture (LA) is committed to protecting the privacy and security of personal information obtained and stored about its audience or clientele, including users of this website.
We understand and appreciate that our audience or clientele and users of this website are concerned about their privacy and the confidentiality and security of any information that may be provided to us.
This policy applies when Liquid Architecture determines what information will be collected or disclosed, or how any information will be processed.
We take a broad understanding of what constitutes ‘personal information’. We understand ‘personal information’ to include any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. An identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person.
Liquid Architecture is bound by the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Commonwealth Privacy Act and is compliant with the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012.
We may, from time to time, review and update this Privacy Policy to take account of new laws and technology, changes to Liquid Architecture’s operations and practices and to make sure it remains appropriate to the changing legal environment.
THE TYPES OF PERSONAL INFORMATION LA COLLECTS
The type of information Liquid Architecture collects and holds includes (but is not limited to) personal information, including sensitive information, about:
- Contact information including email address, phone number, names, gender, organisation, role.
- Connection information including linkages and referrals between people.
- Financial information including amounts paid to LA, donated to LA, or received by LA.
- When you visit our website, our server maintains an access log that includes the following information: the visitor’s IP address, the date and time of the visit to the site, the pages accessed and documents downloaded, the previous site visited, and the type of browser used.
- When you visit our website, cookies are stored on your device that provides information to Google Analytics to give us statistical information about our visitors.
HOW PERSONAL INFORMATION IS COLLECTED
LA collects personal information in a variety of different ways depending on the type of contact that is made with the organisation. We collect personal information both from individuals directly and from third parties.
- Subscribing to LA’s newsletter via the website, in-person or other means
- Visiting LA’s website
- Registering for LA’s programs of events (eg. performances, workshops, lectures)
- Purchasing a ticket for LA’s programs of events via a ticketing system
- Making an online enquiry
- Making an individual donation to LA
- Becoming a sponsor
- Submitting a proposal to LA
- Providing written feedback to LA
- Through agreements with programming partners to add addresses to our mailing lists
- Images of persons might be collected during documentation of an LA performance
- If you become a LA Associate, Volunteer or Board Member
LA may also collect personal information over the phone, in person or by electronic correspondence in order to undertake its regular administrative operations
WHY PERSONAL INFORMATION IS COLLECTED
LA collects personal information in order to service the needs of its staff, audience and partnerships. This information is only used with your consent. Your personal information may be retained and used for the following purposes:
- To communicate with staff, artists, associates, volunteers, or Board Members
- For communicating about upcoming programs and services offered by LA and its partners
- For documenting LA performances and events
- To communicate to LA audiences on behalf of other arts or government organisations offering information regarding their products
- For artistic program research and organisational continuous improvement purposes
All details are kept secure at all times and any individual may request their information is not used for direct marketing, research or any other purpose.
DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
LA will not sell, lend, disclose, or give personal information of its audience or clientele to external individuals or organisations without first obtaining the customer’s consent.
LA may, however, disclose your personal information or financial data (information exchanged in transactions relating to donations, ticket purchasing or any other product sold):
- To our insurer or legal advisors for the purpose of obtaining insurance coverage, obtaining professional advice, and managing risks.
- To our payment services providers or financial institutions. LA will share transaction data only to the extent necessary for processing, refunding, or dealing with queries about payments.
- In a situation where such disclosure is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation that LA is subject to, or in order to protect the vital interests of a person.
LA will not disclosure personal information to recipients in another jurisdiction unless that jurisdiction has a privacy regime at least as equally protective as Australia. LA will always ask for specific consent before disclosing personal information to a recipient in another jurisdiction.
PERSONAL INFORMATION ACCURACY
LA is committed to ensuring all personal information it collects is accurate, complete and up-to-date. However, the accuracy of this personal information to a large extent depends on the information provided by its clients. LA asks that all clients:
- Advise us if you become aware of any errors in your personal information.
- Advise of any changes in their personal details, such as address, email address and phone number.
YOUR RIGHTS
At any time, any person has the right:
- To know what personal information LA holds about them and how it has been used
- To correct or alter any personal information LA holds about them
- To have the personal information about them erased
- To withdraw consent for the collection, retention, disclosure, use or processing of personal information
- To make a request or inquiry, write to info@liquidarchitecture.org.au
WEBSITE
The LA website contains links to other sites. LA is not responsible for the privacy practices of other sites. LA encourages users when they leave the site to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects personal information. This privacy statement applies solely to the activities of LA.
GENERAL DATA PROTECTION REGULATION (GDPR)
LA operates occasional European artistic programming and partnerships, and complies with the data protection policies required by the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (the GDPR) since 25 May 2018.
OUR DATA SECURITY POLICY
LA takes steps to prevent the personal information it holds from misuse, loss, interference or unauthorised access.
LA will also destroy or de-identify personal information when it is no longer needed, or when requested.
ENQUIRIES
If you would like further information about the way Liquid Architecture manages the personal information it holds, please contact LA via info@liquidarchitecture.org.au.
Feedback & Complaints
Liquid Architecture (LA) is committed to respecting feedback and complaints and continually improving our processes. This policy is intended to ensure that we handle complaints fairly, efficiently and effectively. We encourage feedback as part of improving our audience experience and artistic programming.
You can provide feedback or make a complaint via email via email to info@liquidarchitecture.org.au.
HOW DOES LA HANDLE FEEDBACK AND COMPLAINTS?
Upon receiving feedback or a complaint, LA will acknowledge receipt of the feedback or complaint; and request further information if necessary and advise how the issue is likely to be resolved.
LA will not respond to feedback or complaints that violate State or Federal laws, or suggest that others do so; contain profane, violent, abusive, sexually explicit language or hate speech; or are bullying, harassing or disruptive in nature.
Where possible, complaints will be resolved at first contact with us. When appropriate we may offer an explanation or apology to the person making the complaint. Where this is not possible, we may decide to escalate the complaint to LA’s CEOs or Board. Where a person making a complaint is dissatisfied with the outcome of our review of their complaint, they may seek an external review of our decision.
We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that people making complaints are not adversely affected because a complaint has been made by them or on their behalf.
All complaints are confidential. We accept anonymous complaints if there is a compelling reason to do so and will carry out a confidential investigation of the issues raised where there is enough information provided.
HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE FOR MY COMPLAINT TO BE RESOLVED?
The time it takes to resolve a matter depends on the issues raised and any enquiries that need to be made. As a guide, LA aims to acknowledge written feedback and complaints within 1 business day of receipt (if an email address or phone number is provided); respond to all written feedback and complaints within 5 business days of receipt.
LA will consider the matter closed if you indicate that you are satisfied with the response, or LA does not hear from you within 10 business days after sending you its response.
WHAT IF I’M NOT HAPPY WITH THE RESPONSE?
If you are dissatisfied with LA’s response you are encouraged to contact LA to request an internal review. You should outline in writing why you are dissatisfied with the response; and the outcome you are seeking. LA will provide a further response within 10 business days of receiving this information.
If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of our review of their complaint, you may seek an external review of our decision (by the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission for example).
Australian Charities and
Not-for-Profits Commission
Advice team: 13 22 62
Online Form
TICKET REFUNDS AND EXCHANGES
LA may provide an exchange or refund of a ticket if problems arise before, during or after an event. LA encourages our audience to try to resolve problems as soon as possible after they arise so that we have the best opportunity to find a solution.
LA2014: Singapore
For the first time Liquid Architecture will be staging festival programs beyond the borders of Australia. In collaboration with LASALLE College for the Arts and in partnership with The Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, Liquid Architecture Singapore will feature performances, workshops and talks by Alessandro Bosetti, Emile Zile, Id M Theft Able and Half High alongside works by Singapore-based artists Black Zenith and Adam Marple, Per Magnus Lindborg, Steve Dixon, Joyce Koh and Bani Haykal.
The program has been curated in partnership with Darren Moore, and the school of music, LASALLE.
Liquid Architecture Lasalle 2014 will consist of a program of lectures, performances, presentations and discussion addressing the theme ‘The Ear is a Brain: Sound Beyond Sound’. The program explores the overlap between the lecture and the ‘sound artwork’ as contingent methodologies. It focuses on the core similarities between the two ‘mediums’, namely the production of a very specific listening subject.
The program will feature ‘traditional’ modes of lecture presentations alongside ‘experimental’ lecture-performances by leading artists who work with sound, language and voice. The curatorial approach is to integrate rather than segregate the two approaches in order to surprise, challenge and confound audience assumptions about ‘how’ we listen to and process different sounds. The festival will also commission a new sound installation work that explores the festivals theme.
Day 1 Friday 10 October 2014 Flexible Performance Space F102 Performances Start time 8pm
Adam Marple/Black Zenith/Andreas Schlagel
Theatre director Adam Marple, audio/visual duo Black Zenith, Andreas Schlagel on visuals and a hand-picked group of Lasalle Theatre Alumni presents Viewpoints, a collaboration that aims to blur the boundaries of performance, sound and visuals through improvisation and non-hierarchical collaboration. Viewpoints is a technique of improvisation that grew out of the post-modern dance world. The Viewpoints allows a group of performers to function together spontaneously and intuitively and to generate bold, theatrical work quickly. It develops flexibility, articulation and strength in movement and makes ensemble playing really possible. At its core it is giving the performer the tools to make choices in time and space.
Idm thefft able
Idm thefft able produces deeply singular experimental music performance primarily using vocals (grunts, screams, tongue-clicks, gurgling, chanting) in combination with sounds summoned from a range of amplified and unamplified objects, bent circuits, homebuilt keyboards and modified tape machines. Theftable’s approach to audio composition has been described as “available-ist” and “noise comedy”.
Emile Zile
Emile Zile detourns everyday social media and search tools in dynamic live performances that offer new perspectives on these ready-to-hand tools, and the subtle ways these might condition contemporary experience.
Half High
Half High, the Sydney based duo of Lucy Phelan and Matthew P. Hopkins, will present a new live audio-visual performance for the Singapore leg of Liquid Architecture titled Shapeless Advice. This performance will follow from previous performances that incorporate video backdrops, lights, objects, and improvised sound such as ‘Calling Nina’. Characteristic of Half high’s performances is their ability to steer new age, ambient and transcendental motifs off course towards darker, more damaged and uncertain territories.
Day 2 Friday 11 October 2014 Flexible Performance Space F102 Panel Discussion 5-6pm
The Ear is a Brain: Sound Beyond Sound Co-chaired by Liquid Architecture curators Joel Stern and Danni Zuvela, the panel discussion will explore the 2014 Liquid Architecture theme; The Ear is a Brain: Sound beyond Sound.
Performances Start time 8pm
Alessandro Bosetti
Alessandro Bosetti will present his work Mask Mirror for Liquid Architecture Singapore. Since 2008 Alessandro Bosetti has been developing an instrument and software patch. Live in concert he reorganizes speech for musical purposes with narratives that are about nothing and everything at the same time. With echoes to the baroque clumsiness of the first mechanical calculators by the likes of Gottfried Leibniz and Blaise Pascal, Mask Mirror is guided not by mathematical principles but rather mines the unfolding of language and its meaning in random sequences, built on blocks of different sizes (from phonemes and incidental mouth noises to lexical units and prosodic fragments). Bosetti samples his voice with prerecorded voices in an electronic ventriloquism.
PerMagnus Lindborg
Perceptualising the Climate in Times of Locust Wrath looks at data perceptualisation, specifically, real-time sonification and visualisation of climate records and predictions. Audiovisual perceptualisation offers a way to grasp large processes. Audification compresses time; a week of data can pass by in a second. The climate is rendered as a music, whose form is determined by the data: colour, gesture, timbre, intensity, harmony, hue, luminosity, and space. An example from a recent artwork will be accompanied by a practical demonstration of software for interactive sonification and a general discussion of perceptualisation techniques applied in art and science.
Steve Dixon/Joyce Beethuan Koh
Sonifiying and Dramatising T.S. Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’ examines the collaborative process in the devising of a multimedia theatre production of T.S. Eliot’s poem ‘The Waste Land’ (1922), and discusses the interactions between its four key modalities • poetic text, live stage performance, complex sound design, and full-length film projection. It particularly focuses on the creation of the sound design for the performance and how this relates to the themes and sensibilities of the poem, its inherent sonorities, and what Eliot called ‘The Music of Poetry’ (1942).
+++ Sound Art Installation Commissioned by Liquid Architecture Singapore Sat 4 Oct – Sun 26
Oct Artist: Bani Haykal Title: Dormant Music + Opening date: Fri 3 Oct, 6.30pm Exhibition period: Sat 4 Oct – Sun 26 Oct Public programmes: http://www.lasalle.edu.sg/ICAS/Exhibitions-And-Public-Programmes Opening hours: 10am – 6pm (except 1.30 – 2.30pm), Tue to Sun Closed on Mon and public holidays Venue: Brother Joseph McNally Gallery, Level 1 Free admission
Considering sound as a social object, the project seeks to challenge assumptions about how we listen to and process sound, as well as explore how sound generates certain modes of thinking and behaviour. The exhibition reflects on these ideas, featuring an immersive sound installation by local artist Bani Haykal. Part of an ongoing series, Dormant Music+ uses the gallery as an acoustic chamber to house various de- constructed musical elements that visitors can interact with. By participating in the work, visitors are encouraged to reflect on cultures of listening in Singapore, and how these cultures are dominated by globalised forms of music. Bani Haykal will be joined by Tim O’Dwyer on saxophone and electronics in an interactive pre-show performance with the installation on 10th and 11th October from 7.30-8pm.
documentation
Alessandro Bosetti
the point at which language becomes music, and at which music becomes a language
id m thffft able
i’d m thfft able, Id M Theft Able, I Dick M The F Table, i dick m the f’table, I Dm Theft Able, i dmth efta blé, i dmth efta ble, I’d M Thfft Able, I’d M Thfft Able, Ib M Theft Adle, Id M, ID M Theft Able, IDM Theft Table, Idm Theftable
Emile Zile
Everyday detournment of social media and search tools in dynamic live performances that offer new perspectives on these ready-to-hand tools, and the subtle ways these might shape or condition our contemporary experience.
Half High
a slightly damaged form of ambience
