PROFESSOR PHILIP SAMARTZIS

 

LEADER OF THE SOUND ART AND AUDITORY CULTURE LAB

PHILIP SAMARTZIS is a sound artist, scholar and curator with a specific interest in the social and environmental conditions informing remote wilderness regions and their communities. His art practice is based on deep fieldwork where he deploys complex sound recording technology to capture natural, anthropogenic and geophysical forces. The recordings are used within various exhibition, performance and publication outcomes to demonstrate the transformative effects of sound within a contemporary art context. He is particularly interested in concepts of perception, immersion and embodiment in order to provide audiences with sophisticated encounters of space and place. Philip is a three-time recipient of the Australian Antarctic Territory Fellowship which he is using to document the effects of extreme climate and weather events. He is undertaking the most comprehensive sound study ever produced of the ice continent spanning 15 years. Philip is a Professor within RMIT School of Art, and the artistic director of the Bogong Centre for Sound Culture.

 
 

 

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PHILIP SAMARTZIS CURRENT RESEARCH

Atmospheres and Disturbances documents the sound ecology of the Bernese Alps to demonstrate the transformative effects of climate change upon high-altitude wilderness regions. The project included fieldwork at the High Altitude Research Station at Jungfraujoch (HFSJG) situated at 3500 metres above sea level. A range of highly sensitive microphones, accelerometers and hydrophones were placed in and around the research station, and the surrounding alpine environment including the Great Aletsch Glacier to register atmospheric, anthropogenic and geophysical forces. The recordings were later decoded and mixed at the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology at the Zurich University of the Arts. The final set of recordings were composed into a series of immersive sound compositions for exhibition and broadcast. Philip’s high alpine research has been featured in DW Radio, Swiss Info and Les Temps news services and exhibited in China and Japan (2019) and Switzerland (2021). It also featured in Sampling the Future (2021) at the NGV Australia, and ANAT SPECTRA Multiplicity (2022).

 
 

PROJECT SUPPORTERS

Project Supporters include Creative Victoria; the High Altitude Research Station at Jungfraujoch and Gornegrat; the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology; RMIT School of Art; and the Swiss National Science Foundation.

 
 

Atmospheres and Disturbances documents the sound ecology of the Bernese Alps in order to demonstrate the transformative effects of climate change upon high-altitude wilderness regions. Recorded at the High Altitude Research Station at Jungfrau, Switzerland in 2019.

 

Floe documents different types and behaviours of ice including sea ice, glaciers, frozen lakes and icebergs. Recorded in Eastern Antarctica in 2010 and 2016