Tuning Space


by Campbell Drake



LOCATION: HOBART & MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA


Tuning Space examines how site-specific performance can activate engagement with the spatial politics of urban processes. The project consists of two video works (Spatial Tuning, 2016 & The Accumulation of Cyclical Operations, 2017) focused on performances situated within contested Australian landscapes, each centred on the semiotic potential of pianos as cultural artefacts of European origins.


Spatial Tuning

Spatial Tuning (2016) took place within a municipal rubbish dump on the periphery of the city of Hobart in Tasmania and involved a salvaged piano, a professional piano tuner, and a live audience positioned within the contested boundary between national park and landfill.



1. Spatial Tuning -  Ivo Thiemann |image by Campbell Drake


2. Spatial Tuning - birds |image by Joe Shrimpton

3. Spatial Tuning - audience | image by Joe Shrimpton

4. Spatial Tuning, McRobies Gully Waste Management Centre (The Tip), Hobart, Australia, 2016


The Accumulation of Cyclical Operations

The Accumulation of Cyclical Operations (2017) is a performance situated within Melbourne’s decommissioned H.M. Pentridge Prison in Coburg. Questioning the ongoing impact of colonialism in Australia, the work explores the cultural, ethical, and political resonances produced through the performative reappropriation of an abandoned gaol.



5. The Accumulation of Cyclical Operations - D-Division Prison Yard 01, 2017 | photography by Greta Costello


6. The Accumulation of Cyclical Operations Spatial Tuning 
- D-Division Prison Yard 02, 2017 | photography by Greta Costello

7. The Accumulation of Cyclical Operations Spatial Tuning
- D-Division Prison, 2017 | photography by Greta Costello

8. The Accumulation of Cyclical Operations, H.M Pentridge Prison, D Division, Melbourne, Australia, 2017


Providing a theoretical framework for Tuning Space the term ‘tuning’ is presented as a concept, a process, and a framing device. While the common definition of tuning; ‘the action or process of tuning something and the extent to which a musical instrument, performance, or ensemble is in tune,’ is at the centre of the works, a secondary definition of ‘tuning’, to ‘adjust or adapt (something) to a particular purpose or situation,’ is equally relevant.  The ‘something’ that is adjusted or adapted within the performances are both the piano’s and the spatial contexts; the ‘purpose’ is to bring audiences into close proximity with the spatial politics of contested landscapes; and the ‘situation’ is the environmental impact of human consumption and the ongoing impact of colonialism in Australia. So too, the notion of being ‘tuned in’, of being ‘sensitive to or able to understand something,’ and ‘tuning into,’ or ‘becoming sensitive to,’ resonates with the aim of Tuning Space; to expose passive spectators to the environmental and spatio-temporal conditions of ‘other spaces.’




CONTRIBUTORS

Spatial Tuning

Producer & Creative Director: Campbell Drake↩
Piano Tuner: Ivo Thiemann
Camera & Editor: Joe Shrimpton

*Spatial Tuning was produced as part of Intervening in the Anthropo[s]cene, a workshop organized by the PSi Performance + Design working group

The Accumulation of Cyclical Operations

Producer & Creative Director: Campbell Drake
Pianists: Elizabeth Drake and Vanessa Tomlinson
Piano Tuner: Julian Morgan Smith
Sound Recording: Jordan Lacey
Photography: Greta Costello
Videography: Lars Scholten (Mycelium Studios)
Video Editors: Leandro Palacio & Elizabeth Langslow

REFERENCES

Schafer, R.M. 1977. The Tuning of the World, New York: Knopf, cited from Wrightson, Kendall. 1999. “An Introduction to Acoustic Ecology.” Journal of Electroacoustic Music, Vol.12, pp.10-13.