Motu Rangitoto - Winds Fair And Foul - by Phil Dadson
A head-phone listening experience focussed around an aeolian harp located on Rangitoto Island in the Hauraki Gulf (Tamaki Makaurau-Auckland), installed and recorded during a week of different winds and weathers through mid November 2022. The aeolian harp instrument is an ancient one, traced historically to early Greek accounts of gut strands drying in the wind, picking up harmonic vibrations amplified by the membrane of the skin the strands were attached to. This sound work is an offshoot of a more expansive climate monitoring project titled Kõea o Tāwhirimātea / Weather Choir, devised in response to an Aotearoa invitation earlier this year to participate in World Weather Network, a worldwide regional climate response project initiated by Art-Angel in the UK. Kõea o Tāwhirimātea and other Aotearoa projects have an online presentation hosted by TeTuhi Contemporary Gallery in East Auckland ….. For more info visit: https://www.pyramidclub.org.nz/ Weather Choir : https://tetuhi.art/world-weather-network/koea-o-tawhirimatea-weather-choir-artwork/ World Weather Network : https://tetuhi.art/world-weather-network ..... Vibration is a Universal. Everything we perceive in the macro/micro worlds, visibly and invisibly vibrates in proportions of harmony and dissonance. If, for example, we think of climate as the big picture and the effects of climate as small scale impact, all is harmonious when weather patterns are calm and predictable, and dissonant when storms, rising tides, coastal erosion, melting glaciers etc are experienced. A string is much like a person responding and vibrating to the vagaries of weather – harmonious when calm, not-so when wild. ..... Phil Dadson is an Aotearoa/NZ visual artist & musician with a transdisciplinary practice including moving image, building and performing with experimental musical instruments, music compositions, graphic scores and drawings. Foregrounding sound has been a feature since the early 70s, referencing body, land, nature, triadics and the human condition. Founder also of the legendary music/performance group, From Scratch (1974-ongoing). Various awards include Arts Foundation Laureate, Fulbright USA, NZOM, Antarctica Fellowship, Sanskriti, India Residency, Headlands USA Residency. ..... With thanks to Creative New Zealand