Peak Plastique
Anna McMichael, Clocked Out, and Nick Roux
Ordinary plastic objects transformed into extraordinary soundscapes
Presented by World Science Festival Brisbane in partnership with Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University
In Peak Plastique, ordinary plastic objects are transformed into extraordinary soundscapes as we take you on a sonic journey into the world of plastic. Featuring 11 exquisite musical compositions accompanied by evocative animations, Peak Plastique explores the intricate patterns and structures of plastic molecules, while reflecting on the ubiquitous and seemingly unstoppable presence of plastic in our environment.
Program
Polypropylene (Griswold)
PVC (Griswold)
Peak Plastique (McMichael)
Drawing on decades of sonic curiosity across the fields of classical, jazz and experimental music traditions, pianist Erik Griswold and percussionist Vanessa Tomlinson (Clocked Out), violinist Anna McMichael, and video artist Nick Roux join forces for the first time to ponder one of the most significant problems of our time - our complex relationship with plastics. The work builds on a growing body of climate-related projects including Sounding Tides (Griswold), P.L.A.C.E. (Tomlinson), Climate Notes (McMichael and Roux)
Nylon (Griswold, McMichael, Tomlinson)
Lego (Tomlinson)
PET (Griswold)
VCM (Griswold)
Bubble Wrap (Tomlinson)
Sustainable Seaweed Packaging (McMichael)
Eucalyptus Obliqua DNA (Griswold)
PTFE (Griswold)
About the artists:
Anna McMichael is an Australian-born violinist who has returned to live in Australia in 2010 after 17 years in Europe performing in many of the major ensembles and orchestras.
In Australia, she has been first prize winner of the String final of the ABC Instrumental and Vocal Competition, guest assistant leader of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, guest associate concertmaster of Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and guest concertmaster of Orchestra Victoria. Anna is Co-ordinator of Strings and Honours Co-ordinator at the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music and Performance, Monash University, Melbourne.
Anna has performed at many European music festivals with a number of Dutch chamber ensembles and toured extensively with groups such as the London Sinfonietta, Amsterdam Sinfonietta Chamber Orchestra, Nieuw Ensemble, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. She has recorded for a number of European recording labels and been active teaching masterclasses and workshops in conservatoriums in both Europe and Australia. Anna performs throughout Australia and between 2014-2019 was Co-Director of the Tyalgum Music Festival, she is a core member of the early music group, Ironwood.
For over 20 years Clocked Out has created and produced innovative music, interarts, and intercultural events that extend experimental traditions in engaging and thought-provoking ways. Starting in Melbourne in 1999, the duo of Erik Griswold and Vanessa Tomlinson crafted their trademark warped grooves and evocative soundscapes, using a colourful array of instruments including prepared piano, percussion, found objects and toys. Drawing on a wide variety of influences from experimental, jazz, and world music, Clocked Out has since played everywhere from Sydney Opera House to Roulette (New York) and Super Deluxe (Tokyo).
Recently they have focused on site-specific, environmental and architectural works, initiating a number of large-scale projects dealing with issues of cultural heritage (Sounding the Condamine), environment and extinction (Sonic Dreams), and acoustics (84 Pianos, Vibrations in a landscape). This body of work has reached a culmination of sorts with the Piano Mill (APRA AMCOS Art Music Award for “Excellence in Experimental Music,” World Architecture Festival Award in “Cultural building” category), a copper-clad tower in the forest of New South Wales purpose-built to house 16 vintage pianos.
Nick Roux is an artist working in sound and video. His work is primarily focused on live performance and has manifested itself in composition, instrument creation, computer programming and visual/spatial design. He has created work locally and internationally across a wide spectrum of artistic platforms from solo gallery performances to multi-million dollar main stage theatrical productions.
Restlessly creative composer, pianist and sound artist Erik Griswold works across contemporary classical, improvised, and experimental forms. For over thirty years he has explored the outer limits of percussion and piano, in projects such as Ecstatic Descent (“powerful music that connects with both the natural with the spiritual,” Sequenza 21), Time Crystals (“a kaleidoscopic exploration of timbre, texture and rhythmic interplay,” RealTime), and 84 Pianos (“joyous and brilliant,” The Australian).
Born in Los Angeles and now residing in Brisbane, Griswold’s work has been presented at Southbank Centre (London), Carnegie Hall (New York), Sydney Opera House, and major festivals throughout Australia and the Asia Pacific. He has received the Australia Council Fellowship in Music, the Michael Kieran Harvey Scholarship, several APRA AMCOS Art Music Awards, including “Work of the year: Dramatic (2022),” and an ARIA nomination. His music can be heard on record labels ABC Classics, Room40, Mode Records, Cold Blue, Innova, Neuma, Move, Immediata and others. Together with Vanessa Tomlinson, Griswold forms the duo Clocked Out, who create original music for prepared piano, percussion, found objects, and toys.
Vanessa Tomlinson is a percussionist-composer with a long history in experimental music. She makes bold sonic events that propose new futures for 21st century music whether on a rockface, in the bush, sounding objects, or following flooded river systems. Central to all her work is listening - opening our ears to paying attention to the world around us as we consider space and place, the human and the more-than-human. Driven by the unknown, her speculative text-based compositions, object-based re-purposing, and deep sonic gatherings stimulate our imagination as we listen in a climate-transforming world. Her work orbits around broadly around extended approaches, site-specific investigations, minimalist reductions and a visceral sense of embodied play. She has toured the world for 30 years, premiering hundreds of works, musicking with scores of improvisers, presenting work at major international festivals, and sharing her knowledge as a teacher, mentor, director and arts advocate. She is Professor of Music, Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University.