Some people are only too keen to put art in a silo. Photo: Ingolfson
Six singers, six loud speakers, six echo chambers.
It's just one of the attractions of this month's gathering of sound artists from around New Zealand and across the world.
We're talking about "In the Stars" by New Zealander Flo Wilson.
Taking place in Tāmaki Makaurau’s Silo Park, each silo will be ‘activated’ by a speaker, turning the space into a kind of giant hybrid organ, which the audience can move through freely.
Jeff Henderson, director of Audio Foundation which supports sonic artists across the country, spoke to RNZ Concert's Bryan Crump about "In the Stars" and some of the other highlights of The Second Aotearoa International Festival of Secret Sounds.
Photo: Supplied / Audio Foundation
They include the first ever NZ performance of György Ligeti’s "Poème Symphonique For 100 Metronomes", while people strolling through Ponsonby's Western Park may come across instrumentalists scattered around the venue making music out in the open.
"Aren't such artistic endeavours a little self indulgent?" asks Crump.
Only to the extent that any departure from what has gone before is indulgent, replies Henderson.
Today's "noise" might be tomorrow's music, and perhaps even more importantly, sound art often isolates the many noises that make up the soundtrack of our lives - from an echo, to a distant train - and celebrates the wonder in them.
The Second Aotearoa International Festival of Secret Sounds takes place around Auckland until Wednesday 19 February. For more information go to the Audio Foundation's website.
