Live Projections and Sound

Pressing Topics - NorthSite Contemporary Sounded Out Event

The image is degraded - the break down has begun. Error, glitch, distortion; exposing the inner workings.

‘Pressing Topics’ is a projection and sound sculpture using collaged footage, animated elements, domestic objects, and granular synthesis. The iron here is used as an iconic symbol of domestic labour and as an instrument. The work explores the transglobal workforce behind the production of domestic technology. The gendered and racial biases that sees women’s nimble fingers put to use for the technological future.

Within the imagery of this piece is the silhouette of the 1950’s white suburban woman, chained to her iron. Popular feminism has worried for this woman.

Referencing a glitch feminism approach, we see within the degradation and glitching of the footage; glimpses of the other women who are chained to the iron. In factories building them, in commercial laundries, textile and clothing factories, in care facilities, in homes all over the world.

The musical performance element of the work uses a sonic cyberfemisms lens to explore the gendered narratives of instrument design and the structures in which they exist. This work is in development and is currently exploring the sonic and contextual possibilities of granular synthesis. Granular synthesis presents an

opportunity for (in this case) recorded sound events to be decoupled from their original context and be applied to a new musical work. The goal here is to obscure the original source signal, to transform it, to decouple it from its original context. Order, context, and meaning are all destabilised. The ever so familiar and recognisable bleep of a washing machine turning on is split into thousands of tiny micro grains. A temporal wash cycle, spinning.

Finally, the business shirt hangs as the draped flag of patriarchy and capitalism. It is consistently in need of ironing.  Everyday, it requires electricity and attention; to heat the iron, to press the fabric, to transform its wrinkled wash basket form and restore its prestige.

This project was presented in May 2022 as part of the Sound Out Event at NorthSite Contemporary Arts.

Images courtesy of Cristina Bevilacqua - The Photo Corner and NorthSite Contemporary Arts

Install Images

This project is supported by RADF funding. The Regional Arts Development Fund is a partnership between the Queensland Government and Cairns Regional Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.