Sonic Arts Collection

In 2013, RMIT Gallery and SIAL Sound Studios founded the RMIT Sonic Arts Collection. As the academic partner to the collection, SIAL Sound Studios have jointly developed new commissions, acquisitions, exhibitions, performances, teaching and academic papers around the collection.

The collection was championed by Suzanne Davies during her time as Director and Chief Curator of the RMIT Gallery. Jon Buckingham, RMIT Collections Manager until 2020 provided valuable expertise to establish the collection and maintained a close working partnership with us for presentations in concerts and exhibitions.

 

Most of the collection works are multichannel electroacoustic works, with some instrumental works commissioned and internationally presented with industry partner ELISION Ensemble. The emphasis has been on collecting multichannel electroacoustic works due to limited storage resources for storing physical objects. Spatial sound works also offer more options for presentation in spaces of different sizes and a many Australian and international artists work in these formats.

 

Acquisitions and commission are aligned to the RMIT Art Collection Policy which seeks artworks that are congruent with the university’s teaching practices (both current and historical), and preferences pieces that display innovation in media or technique. Additionally, the collection curators and selection committee decided that sound works would be treated no differently than any other piece of art: each needed to meet benchmarks of aesthetic and/or historical merit meeting the following considerations:

1. Format and sonic qualities would lend themselves to display purposes, both on campus and in external venues;
2. Present opportunities for student engagement, including use in teaching;
3. Represent gender diversity within in the collection;
4. Include local, national, and international artists as budgets and opportunities permitted;
5. Reflect multiple career stages, from emerging, mid-career, and established artists.

 

A concept design for the Collection was developed during a 2008-09 research project funded by RMIT’s Design Research Institute (DRI) to investigate Melbourne’s five CBD soundscape systems (Harvey, 2013). The initial acquisitions for the collection mirrored RMIT’s inner city location, including pieces that used urban sounds as materials, works from electroacoustic sub-genres such as environmental soundscape compositions, and radiophonic works dealing with experiences of place. There has subsequently been significant exploration of sound as a sculptural medium, with works investigating form, space, and time, and others emphasising the experience of environmental soundscapes. Additionally, the collection has also become a way to ‘voice’ sound-based research from the university and work with industry partners on experimental contemporary music performances. Particularly investigating ways traditional music performance can be transformed using technologies for sound spatialisation that scale instrumental compositions to a spatial medium.

 

The collection works are now permanently accessible and mapped to the two spatial sound systems in SIAL Sound Studios. Students, post-graduates and staff regularly work with the collection for teaching and other research.

As of 2021, the collection contained 31 works. The full list appears below, along with a table of key exhibitions and performances.

Title

Composer / Artist

Country

We'll All Go Together
Suzanne Philipsz
UK
Kirribilli Wharf
Bill Fontana
US
Namib
Chris Watson
UK
Constructions Metalliques
Christian Zanesi
France
Si je les Ecoutais
Christine Groult
France
Sounds of Weather
Christophe Charles
France
Spaces of Mind
Daniel Teruggi
France/Argentina
5000 Calls
David Chesworth & Sonia Leber
Australia
Madeira Soundscape
Douglas Quin
US
Points Critiques
Horacio Vaggione
France
White Noise Spatialisation
Nick Murray
Australia
Wayfinder
Nick Murray & Carl Anderson
Australia
Atmosis
Philip Brophy
Australia
A Sonic Truce
Stephan Schutze
Australia
Schnurrendes Katzchen im Bunker
Katrin Isabel Ernst
Germany
Passing By… More Quickly
Stephen Adam
Australia
Coffee Sugar
Stephen Adam
Australia
Echo Chamber
Sarah Edwards
Australia
A Day of Hours: Sonic Archaeology From Here
Susan Frykberg
NZ / Australia
Lens (from world-line)
Richard Barrett
UK
the wreck of former boundaries
Aaron Cassidy
US / UK
subsidence-karst
Timothy McCormack
US
Lichen
Matthew Sargeant
UK
Catalogue des Errances Bibliques
Michael Kieran-Harvey
Australia
Cooee Song
Paul Carter and Chris Williams
Australia
Loops
Ros Bandt
Australia
Raptor
Ros Bandt
Australia
What you might have heard
Nigel Frayne
Australia
Poranui
Reuben Derrick
NZ
Spring Bloom in the Marginal Ice Zone
Jana Winderen
Norway
Ocean Deep
Barry Truax
Canada

A list of performances and exhibitions curated around the RMIT Sonic Arts Collection is as follows:

Date

Event

Location

4 Sept - 19 Oct, 2013
Sound Bites City, inaugural collection
RMIT Gallery
End of 2013
Opening of the Bundoora Soundscape System
Bundoora Campus, RMIT
30 April, 2015
world-line, Elision Ensemble and SIAL Sound Studios
Storey Hall, RMIT
21 Sep, 2016
The Surface Project, ELISION and SIAL Sound Studios
Storey Hall, RMIT
Various performances throughout 2016 - 2017
ELISION Ensemble: Performances of commission works in international concerts
Harvard University; Leeds; Singapore; Meat Market in North Melbourne
2 - 3 May, 2017
Oceans and SIAL Sound Studios
Storey Hall, RMIT
20 Sep, 2017
New Academic Street opening – Kirribilli Wharf temporary sound installation on site
City Campus, RMIT
7 - 10 Oct, 2018
Murmurations – Starlings
Black Box, RMIT
13 Apr - 9 Jun, 2018
Chaos & Order: 120 Years of Collecting at RMIT – selection of works
RMIT Gallery
25 May, 2019
The Encyclopedia of Biblical Errancy - Michael Kieran Harvey at Australian National Academy of Music
South Melbourne Town Hall
2 Dec, 2020 – 2 May, 2021
SITE and SOUND: sonic art as ecology practice
McClelland Sculpture Park + Gallery