Remote Origins

Operations Director: Madelynne Cornish

Artistic Director: Philip Samartzis

Design + Development: Public Office

PO Box 456, Mount Beauty, 3699,
Victoria, Australia

The Bogong Centre for Sound Culture is a remote-regional cultural initiative situated in the foothills of Victoria’s Alpine National Park. Established by Philip Samartzis and Madelynne Cornish the Centre supports projects focusing on the processes and impacts of sustainable energy production; effects of climate change in wilderness areas; ethnographic studies of remote communities; the chronicling of vanishing industrial procedures; and systems of representation used to render natural and built environments.

Additionally, the BCSC facilitates a broad cultural program comprising, festivals, exhibitions, publications, master classes and artists’ talks focusing on site-specific art practices. These programs establish a connection with place, its inhabitants, geographic space and memory. They engage a wide range of audiences, bringing together local, interstate and international artists across multiple disciplines and fields to realise ambitious works.

The BCSC is situated at the newly restored old school at Bogong Alpine Village located 350 kilometres from Melbourne in North East Victoria.

About Bogong Village

Bogong Alpine Village is 325 kilometres North-East of Melbourne situated at an altitude of 800 meters in the Alpine National Park between Mount Beauty and Falls Creek. The village was established in the late 1930s to service the first hydroelectric scheme in mainland Australia. More recently it has become a popular site for alpine sports, recreation and ecotourism. Click here for directions.

A Short History

Work on the Kiewa Scheme commenced in 1938 with the construction of a road from Tawonga to the High Plains. Previously the only access was by foot or horseback along tracks that had been forged by cattlemen of a bygone era. Bogong Village was established once the road from Junction Camp was trafficable (March 1939); this paved the way for the construction of permanent buildings. Prior to that life was tough; large canvas tents and flies were used for sleeping quarters and smaller tents were set up to house the kitchens. By 1940 Bogong Township had grown considerably with a general store, staff offices, recreational mess, police station, and a variety of accommodation such as single men’s quarters and residences for married staff and families.

Bogong State School

In 1941 the Primary School at Bogong Village enrolled its first intake of students comprising nine pupils. Initially the school consisted of a large classroom, storeroom and boys and girls toilets. Extensions were carried out in 1944, which expanded the capabilities of the school. A library, storeroom, pupil’s lunchroom and shelter shed were added and rock gardens were established. By 1947 the number of students had grown to 46 all of whom were children of local SEC workers. Over the years class sizes fluctuated and the building remained unchanged. In 1980 it ceased to operate as a school and sat idle, eventually falling into disrepair. In 2004 it was sold along with many other buildings in the village.

Madelynne Cornish and Philip Samartzis bought the Old School and set about restoring it to its former glory. The rotting weatherboards and floorboards, smashed windows and flaking paint are now a distant memory. The newly refurbished building occupies it’s original footprint and bares a strong resemblance to it’s former self. Although the internals have been modernized remnants of it’s past history remain. The Old School once played a significant role in the fabric of village life. It inspired the community and helped shape the minds of those who studied there. It is our intention as custodians that the School once again functions as a place of inspiration.

Reference: Kiewa Kids School Days at Bogong & Mount Beauty by Graham Gardner

ISBN 0-646-36226-7. Published 1998

Sonic Interventions

Kultur Drogerie

10—24.06.2016

Sounds

Window Installation Medley

Artists

Ephemera

Poster

Supporters: Federal Chancellery of Austria

photo-by-maria-warnung-small — Image–Maria Warnung

Sonic Interventions is a collaborative sound art project curated by Madelynne Cornish [AU] and Daniel Lercher [AT]. The project is designed to highlight a diverse range of environmental sound practices emanating from Australia and Austria. The exhibition features the works of 14 contemporary sound artists and composers who investigate the relationship between the natural and constructed environment.

The multifaceted exhibition takes place at Kultur Drogerie in Vienna. It includes compositions for headphone listening, live performances, and artist talks. Additionally the main gallery window will be transformed into a loudspeaker to spatialise a special sound mix for public space whereby composed sounds converge with the urban soundscape.

What is place?

Sonic Interventions is a transnational collaboration investigating the nature and representation of place. It uses the framework of sound art and experimental composition to interrogate the social, material and environmental ecologies of natural and manufactured landscapes, objects and spaces. The project comprises a listening program where place is rendered through various recording techniques, activated by performed gestures, and transformed through abstraction and process. The program explores a diverse range of themes including the effects of weather and industrialisation, social and environmental observations, and the transfiguration of the natural world. Together they communicate different ways place can be constructed and experienced, evoking a deeply mysterious world of actions, flows, energy and rupture. Situated within an exhibition context, these compositions are conceived for close listening within a localised setting, and as source material for incursion into public space. The articulation of sound works into the public realm provides an opportunity to recalibrate the experience of the urban soundscape. A place where real and imaginary spaces and encounters converge.

Performances

DANIEL LERCHER: Friday 10 June
PETER KUTIN: Friday 24 June
doors open 7pm
live performance 8.30pm

Exhibition

Sound installation in public space:
every day from 7:00h - 22:00h
Inside listing stations:
Mo. - Fr. 17:00h - 19:00h

Sonic Interventions CD

This dual disc audio publication features the exhibition's compositions, a 16pp booklet with text from each artist and a short essay by Philip Samartzis contextualizing the exhibition.

Produced in-house on Risograph RP-30
Limited edition of 150 copies
Cost $20 + postage
order here