INTERVENCIÓN SONORA DE ROBERT IOLINI
The Project:
Archaeology #1 is a non linear narrative work that uses "lost", sounds and images from the Australian city of Sydney, media archives and scripted dialogues to explore issues of identity - property ownership - denial of history - corporate greed - legal and illegal violence - government cynicism - loss of self, function and place - mass media - the relevance of art - colonialism - surveillance - social engineering - public space.
Archaeology #1 utilises an alternative narrative structure which is non linear and holographic in its nature. Rather than being goal orientated the story is in a constant state of emergence. There is no beginning, middle and end, because in the work, time and space are enfolded. Narrative understanding is a sound/image gestalt experience.
Iolini's work centers around Sha an investigative journalist with a large broadcaster who is making a radiophonic art work about the lost sites and sounds of Sydney. This is her first "radio art" piece. As she works on her project we are taken on a dream-like journey into her inner world. Archival recordings, environmental soundscapes, dialogues, and images, are presented simultaneously. Through the information contained in the sonic and visual events we are witnessing the memory and imagination of the character. We are privy to her creative
processes, as she sifts through the archival material she is discovering, and to her questioning of her own identity and actions through internal dialogues. We are simultaneously inside the characters physical and mental space and in our own. This type of narrative structure requires the perceiver to take an active role while engaging with the work. The perceiver is free to interpret, personalise and map the information into any form they choose.
The character of Sha and her alter ego A Shamedia function as a vehicle to convey my concerns about contemporary western urban life. Sydney is the space that the character inhabits and acts as a kind of generic city model. The protagonist's inner dialogues, which consist of rephrased quotes and original text, relate not only to herself, but to Sydney, both metaphorically and literally. Sha in a sense, is a media archaeologist excavating sociopolitical events. During the process she is also on an internal journey, excavating parts of herself. Through her thoughts, discoveries and creative output we are taken on a journey that embraces universal concerns which affect many of us today.NOTE: The starting point for the piece was the radiophonic work "The Sound of Forgetting: Sonic Artefacts 1". produced by Iolini while he was New Media Artist in residence at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's acoustic arts program The Listening Room. The project was supported by the ABC and The Australia Council for the Arts New Media Board.
