G31 – To hear

Francisca Gili, Mapocho’s Fear Series. Photo: Nicholas Aguayo

“To Hear” is the second in the Sensorium series. This issue contains stories about and by sound-makers, whose craft and creativity give voice to the world around us. Their work helps us connect to the world around us. Guest editor for this issue is Gary Warner.

Breath

• Sensing resonance: Interview with Marikuku Wirrpanda yiḏaki maker by János Kerekes
• Rongoāoro: The healing sounds of Taonga Pūoro by Karen Leef
• Manchay P’uytu del Mapocho: A proposal to decolonise listening by Francisca Gili
• A gift of song from the valley by Maria Fernanda Paes de Barros
• Round and round we go: Echoes of protest in sound and weaving by Jan Nelson
• Weaving song, work and memory in Indian culture by MAP Academy

Making

• Notes on sound and making: 01 – Listening to making by Gary Warner
• Weaving to the beat by Sara Lindsay
• sounds of clay and me, making by Toni Warburton
• Chod Damaru: Summoning the energy of a Tantric princess by Gary Wornell
• My lockdown Tonbak: A homemade industrial musical heritage by Jahan Rezakhanlou
• Sound is as much in the dirt as it is in the air by Vicky Browne

String

• Voicing the winds: Kōea O Tāwhirimātea – Weather Choir  by Phil Dadson
• Aeolian harps in an acoustic sanctuary by Ros Bandt
• Toha: A harp to summon the return of the sociable weaver birds by Victor Gama
• Poi: The mesmerising sound of living taonga by Isaac Te Awa
• Notes on sound and making: 02 On hearing and listening by Gary Warner
• The Listening Biennial Second Edition, inter-Asia plus by Dayang Yraola

Sonic objects

• Notes on sound and making: 03 On noise by Gary Warner
• Sound Before Sound I: One and Three Scores by David Chesworth
• Unruly voices: Sonia Leber and David Chesworth’s Space-Shifter  by Sonia Leber
• Jeepney through the (y)ears by Dayang Yraola
• Crafting sonic uncertainty in objects, events and installations by Gary Warner

Metal and wood

• Bringing gamelan to the West by Neil McLachlan
• Gamelan is character building by Embie Tan Aren
• The sounds of a geography by Kraig Grady
• Decolonising the manza xylophones of Azande by Adilia Yip
• Songs of steel and glass: The Osaka World Expo ’70 Baschet sound sculptures by Gary Warner

This issue is supported by the Australia Council for the Arts and Creative New Zealand.

For more, visit our Garden of Stories:

Rotunda ✿ Stories that give voice to our world

The rotunda is a domed open structure for musical performances, most often by bands. You’ll find here stories of objects that give voice to the material and spiritual world we value.

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This issue is dedicated to Jasleen Dhamija (1933-2023), the leading scholar in Indian textiles whose work inspired generations of artisans and craft lovers. For Jasleen, textile crafts reflected the same life spirit as found in music, particularly in the song that accompanied the making. Aunty Jasleen would often enchant her audiences by breaking out into a lyrical song in the middle of an erudite lecture.