The Megaphone Project is a multi-layered installed and performed work that uses strong visual sculptural symbols to facilitate interaction between listening and sound creation. Twenty-four red horns (megaphones) of varying sizes, (some on stands), house a wirelessly networked custom designed sound matrix, and create a striking field within any existing landscape.
The megaphones create a field for performance, with attendant performers inviting physical interaction from the public, as well as the possibility for choreographic work. Past settings have elicited immediate and compelling responses from every child aged 18 months and up (and most adults). They engage with the megaphones intuitively by speaking through, singing in, shouting in, listening to, seeing through and climbing in. Children run from horn to horn, and climb inside the large horns. Performers facilitate engagement with the horns by giving "performative permission" to the public. They create a phenomenon that creates an environment of play and enjoyment.
The artistic modes range between performance and the reading of an interactive sonic and visceral sculpture. The whole event remains a multi-layered experience that is inherently a multi-arts event.
The Megaphone Project
The Megaphone Project is a collective of award-winning performers, composers, choreographers and new media artists, with an ongoing interest in collaborative, cross art-form practice. The collective was established in 2006 when the artists came together to create an original work for outdoor presentation, commissioned by ArtPlay for the FINA World Swimming Championships Cultural Festival (Melbourne).
Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey (Directors/Sound Artists/Performers) are sound artists, composers and performers who have been working collaboratively in sound for stage and space since 1993. They have been the recipients of many grants and fellowships including a Green Room Award for Outstanding Soundscape Design in 2003, an Asialink Residency at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 2005 and the 2006 Melbourne International Arts Festival (MIAF) Award for their sound design for Source/Sauce, made with deaf/blind performers involving senses of motion in sound. In 2007, they were commissioned to create John Cage's Musicircus for MIAF, a large scale score involving 572 artists and in 2008 will work at the Garvan Insitute on a ANAT Synapse Residency.
Sally Smith (performer/choreographer) has been making her own dance theatre work for 16 years for contemporary dance productions, street theatre and cabaret shows. She has performed extensively in Australia, Europe, Japan and the USA with Strange Fruit, Fiona Cameron, Trudy Radburn, Sue Healey, Danceworks, Nanette Hassall, Phillip Adams, Archipelago Theatre Company (USA) and Pantheatre France.
David Wells (performer/choreographer) has worked extensively as a performance artist in Australia and overseas with physical theatre company Born in a Taxi and in Urban Dream Capsule. He has featured in The Blue Thong Club and The Blue Rinse Club as part of Melbourne Festival 2003 and 2004, and performed his solo show The Corridor in 2006. He recently collaborated with Neil Thomas on the show Mantalk which was presented at MIAF (2006) and the Adelaide Cabaret Festival (2007). Jesse Stevens (Technology integration/performer) has worked extensively in audio production and technology, and currently works with ACCA and Experimenta as an install technician. He works with open source computing technologies to develop flexible and innovative digital architectures.
Contact:
Jennifer Barry
Keep Breathing
PO Box 5
Flemington VIC 3031
Tel +61 3 9329 4044
Fax +61 3 9329 4022
Mob 0411 126 355
jennifer@keepbreathing.com.au
www.keepbreathing.com.au
www.themegaphoneproject.com
