Artist talk
Speak Percussion

Performance and talk with Polar Force (Eugene Ughetti and Philip Samartzis)

Thu, 11.10.2018
5:30 PM RMIT Gallery, Melbourne

Eugene Ughetti and Philip Samartzis will discuss the development of Polar Force, a new project by Speak Percussion to be presented by Arts Centre Melbourne in late 2019.

The project is an immersive live performance, combining custom built ice instruments with Antarctic field recordings, set within a chilled inflatable performance space. Polar Force is an investigation of extreme wind and temperature through hyper-realistic art. This visceral and multi-sensorial work immerses the audience within an overwhelming sound world and performance environment.

Polar Force explores notions of human fragility and isolation whilst pointing towards climate change. New ice-instruments that produce wholly unique acoustic results will be developed, distorting as they melt and fracture to render the ice and ‘weather’ into audible phenomena. High fidelity field recordings made in the Australian Antarctic Territory of katabatic winds and extreme weather events will form the musical and structural foundation of the work. The artists will talk about the hundreds of hours of recordings made during Samartzis' two Australian Antarctic Arts Fellowships to underpin the work.


Event series: Dynamics of Air