Installations/Festivals/Residencies
From my home state of Tasmania to all over the world, I have had a the privilege of presenting work at so many spectacular events and on occasion been selected to stay a few weeks on residency to development my practice.
La Baldi Residency
August 2025
Montegiovi, Tuscany
The La Baldi Residency for a Tasmanian Composer is made possible through the partnership of Cultivate Projects and The Salamanca Arts Centre
End of Residency Talk
Throughout August 2025 I had the amazing fortune to live in Montegiovi, Tuscany to work on a series of field recording experiments and collect sounds to produce a long format work when the residency finished. This residency is the result of a partnership between Cultivate Projects (USA) and The Salamanca Arts Centre (Australia) and is awarded to a Tasmanian writer or musician annually. Montegiovi is a small town in the south of Tuscany. It has no shops or bars except for a Pizzeria which made it the ideal location for deep immersion into the landscape and my practice completely free of distraction. It was incredibly beautiful, rich in history, slow paced and connected to the other towns in the region by a great public transport system.
Original plans to produce a piece exploring the history of the region, in particular Mt Amiata were abandoned early on in favour of a more experimental approach. In an effort to find new techniques, expand my sonic palette and produce fresh work I decided to create a sound sketch each day (or 2) then move on to he next one. Field recordings were captured each day around the town and surrounding area then experimented with at night. My usual tools such as tempo and pitch shifting, reverb, tremolo and stretching were replaced with a suite of tools I never use - in particular distortion envelopes, hi pass filters, compression and parametric eq. Over the course of the month I produced 20 works, a few of which I really like. The real satisfaction here though was discovering a bunch of new tools through trial and error. Day after day I would try things, often with terrible results that over time allowed me to understand the nuances of these tools and how they could be used within my work. Future composition will have a lot more tools at their disposal thanks to this wonderful time in Montegiovi.
Whilst the idea of creating a long format work around the Mt. Amiata was shelved in favour of the short sketches I did collect masses of recordings and conducted deep research in its history. I intend to create this work over the summer of 25/26 back in Australia.
In addition there is another large work planned that will interpret the data I collected (topography/distance/time/altitude and other geographical features) of Montegiovi to produce a Sonic Portrait score and performance of the town. The Data (currently in the form of hand drawn maps) will be converted to musical notation (pitch, tempo, volume etc) as a starting point to creating a new approach and methodology for composition. The work will incorporate both field recordings and traditional instruments. At this stage I am happily unaware as to how this will unfold. Whilst I have allocated musical variables to data before (through occult number systems) I haven’t explore the idea of converting geographic data to music.
Some of the audio experiments I released on Soundcloud
Some of the places we visited around Montegiovi by foot or Bus
Perhaps when new music is written I can return to this wonderful place and present it. An amazing, inspiring and welcoming residency. Big Thanks to to Joe, Susan, Madeleine, Joe, Christina, Ania and Lucasz
The final piece I created in Montegiovi was for the dogs of the region, who howled and barked all the time, keeping me c ompany and stopping mer from missing my own pack too much. The entire piece uses recordings of the dogs for every single note
I was also lucky enough to have my wife Carolyn come to Montegiovi as well! Carolyn is a visual artist but on this trip decided to explore the history and creativity of local Tuscan Food ! She created this blog showcasing her research and experiments. It’s far superior to any of the work I did there !
Caligo Paean - When The Fog Clears
March 2025
Ten Days On The Island Festival
Caligo Paean is a 1 hour long sound piece installed on river front property in the town of Franklin, Tasmania as part of the exhibition "When The Fog Clears". It formed part of the Ten Days on The Island Festival March 2025. The intro features the Nocefresca Choir - an impromptu group formed of artist residents I met in Sardinia in 2024. The group (none of us singers) were asked to vocalise in an ancient roman antechamber on a field trip by Sardinian Composer Gaia Aloisi. I recorded it on my zoom for hopeful future use - and here it is making up the intro to this 'song of praise' to the goddess of fog, mystery and chaos.
The work was installed in several locations across the property including a stack of subs under an old bus, in the main exhibition space and in an abandoned shed some 40 metres from the main area (pictured). The speakers were tuned quite differently depending on their location and the sound was not delay corrected with the result of each mini-installation merging with each other in odd sonic ways - kind of calling the listener from one spot to another. The the work features field recordings, percussion, piano, bass guitar and Intonarumori as well as this special one off choir : )
Big thanks to everyone involved!!
Official press release below.
Every day, the mists of the Huon Valley perform a seductive dance, gently obscuring and revealing contours of the fertile land and waters. Situated in The Watershed Franklin, When The Fog Clears features six artists from lutruwita / Tasmania exploring the region’s iconic mists through a variety of mediums including installation, sculpture, illustration, sound, and video. Developed exclusively for Franklin, this exhibit extends from the waterfront itself into the chambers, kilns, and rafters of the shed, inviting visitors to consider fog as an atmosphere that can cloak us in unexpected ways.
Featuring:
Amber Koroluk-Stephenson
Nadège Phillipe Janon
Joshua Santospirito
Rosie Hastie
Mat Ward
Ursula Woods
When The Fog Clears is curated by Loren Kronemyer and Produced by Constance ARI
This project is supported by Arts Tasmania and presented in partnership with Ten Days on the Island.
The Intonarumori Trio Were also asked to perform at this event. Here is a small grab from the performance
NOCEFRESCA Residency - Milis, Sardinia
Sept/Oct 2024
Had the opportunity to spend 4 weeks in Milis. A truly amazing place. Shared time with half a dozen other artists and the local community working on the theme of “ The Sea”. My accomodation and studio was on a farm just out of Milis where I woul divide my time between walking the land with Poldo the dog, visiting the coastline ( about 20 km away) and participating in some great workshops and travel with the residency group . The time ended with a performance of a piece I wrote titled Conversazioni Difficili con il Mare at Casa Bagnolo as part of AMACI Giornata del Contemporane
From the NOCEFRESCA website…
A sustainable hospitality network for international artists on the island of Sardinia, Italy.
Nocefresca is the first active and permanent artistic residency program in Sardinia. It is a house that welcomes creative professionals from all over the world to the rural villages of Sardinia for research and creative experimentation, involving both participants and local communities in a cultural exchange experience.
By inviting a limited number of artists in areas far from the tourist coasts, Nocefresca creates a sustainable experience able to contribute to the territory and support it in the periods when it experiences less tourist flow and it is therefore the most authentic and beautiful.
Banks/Kirby/Ward @ The Unconformity Festival Oct 23
Banks/Kirby/Ward presented a new version Discontinued Space - The Cinema of Maya Deren at the award winning Unconformity Festival in Queenstown on the West Coast of Tasmania. The performance was part of UNTV who this festival took over the old courthouse in Queenstown to do live broadcasts of Art, news and community based discussions throughout the festival.
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Organology Jan - April 2022
Had the pleasure of showing a couple of Intonarumori in this exhibition of instrument making in Launceston, Tasmania with master Intonarumori builder Dylan Banks. Some amazing instruments on show. Curatorial statement below as well as link to Gallery Exhibition Catalogue.
Mat Ward/Marco Lucchi - Empirica Records/REF Resilience Festival 2021/2022
With long time collaborator Marco Lucchi ( Modena, Italy) we released “ We Lay In The Grass, Staring At The Sky, Breathing With The Machines” as part of both the inaugural first REF Resilience Sound Festival and the debut compilation from Empirica Records. Link to the album on Spotify below.l
relay//country remembers her names
JAN 2021
Feeling very lucky to be involved in this recent festival project. Link to website at the bottom of the post. There is a lot to this one! The short version: Under the guidance of Composer Madeleine Flynn myself and 6 other musicians performed a beautiful work on two different rivers in my home state of Tasmania during the MONA FOMA 2021 festival. The instrumentation included horns, strings, sirens/fog horns, intonarumori and many other sound and trad instruments as well as a beautiful and moving text from Theresa Saintly. Here is a small summary from the program guide….
Relay / Country Remembers Her Names
Madeleine Flynn, Tim Humphrey with Theresa Sainty
A slowly unfolding relay of land and sea signals echoes across our fair island, opening and closing the festival. Foghorns streamed from Low Head, boat horns, sirens, experimental intonarumori instruments, palawa kani (the language of Tasmanian Aboriginal people), bagpipe streamed from Queenstown, and other sound-making apparatus call each other over land and water, and ask us to reflect on where we are. From wukalina / Mount William and pilawaytakinta / Low Head, to Queenstown, Launceston and nipaluna / Hobart.
You will hear the work projected from a moving vessel meandering close to shore. In Launceston, listen from the banks of kanamaluka / Tamar River around Riverbend Park, Royal Park and Seaport. In Hobart, listen from the banks of the Derwent around the Hobart foreshore, to Long Beach, Sandy Bay, and on the eastern shore between Howrah and Bellerive.
Below is a small section of one of the performances
Personal
Created by Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey with Theresa Sainty.
Collaborators: Zoe Rimmer, Merinda Sainty, Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, Ron & Zanette Crowden - Foghorn Volunteers Low Head Pilot Station Support Group, Andrew Bell, Rona Hollingsworth and Mike Webb and the Maritime Museum of Tasmania
Band: Mat Ward, Julia Drouhin, Dylan Sheridan, Dylan Banks, Phillipa Stafford, Emily Sheppard,
Remote site managers: Dan Rawlins, Chris Burton
Vessels and crew provided by the Australian Maritime College and Pennicott Wilderness Journeys.
Produced by Alison Wilkes and Bureau of Works
Technical manager Tom 'Billy' McKeand
Production support Rory Cadman
Videography Gabe Commerford
The Smiling Madame Beudet
Jan 2021
New Expanded Cinema performance from Dani Kirby/Mat Ward. Premiered 22nd January 2021 at MONA FOMA festival Hobart, Tasmania.
Kirby/Ward present the the latest chapter in their ongoing investigation both the history of sound in the era of silent cinema and the pioneering role female artists played (most often overlooked) in the avant garde.
The Smiling Madame Beudet is credited as the first Feminist movie. The protagonist Madame Beudet is trapped in a suffocating marriage with her only escape being music and the fantasy that she lives in a different world. Her husband is domineering, boorish and frequently pretends to shoot himself (sometimes in front of guests) to taunt and belittle her. Far from portraying Madame Beudet as a victim it casts her as a heroine who, rather than submitting to a life of cruelty, seeks to assert her desires and free herself from the bonds of domestic misogyny.
Dulac uses groundbreaking cinematic artistry to embellish and add detail to both the narrative and the investigation of sexism and gendered roles through techniques such as super-imposition, ultra contrasting of focus, slow-motion, repetition of shots, abstraction and extreme camera angles. These techniques powerfully enforce the Dulac’s desire to show both the oppressiveness of the situation and the absolute need for an imagining of a better life.
The compositional approach focuses on highlighting the sub-text and philosophical underpinnings of the film with emphasis on the meta-narrative behind the protoganist’s story - which is a timeless critique of marriage, gender and sexism. Cinematically this is expressed through Dulac’s focus on Madame Beduet’s internal world as she moves between the disparity of escapism and reality. It is her complex voice and thoughts, as a metaphor for the broader issues of the film that Kirby/Ward bring to life through a dynamic score that incorporates multiple genres ranging from ultra minimalist melody all the way to deafening sub-bass drone.
La morte mi troverà vivo
La morte mi troverà vivo is a 90 minute sound piece/installation commissioned by Contemporary Art Tasmania and exhibited in their gallery Jan 24 - Feb 23 2020. It was curated by Sarah Jones.
The piece is a contemporary ‘sonic seance’ where the sound is both the medium of evocation and the manifestation of the spirit itself. The concept developed from my decade long research of Futurist and pioneer of noise art Luigi Russolo who believed noise could be ‘spiritualised’ to create an environment where communication with the supernatural could unfold.
The closing weekend featured a performance by my Intonarumori Trio featuring myself, Dylan Banks and Dani Kirby responding live to the piece.
Complete Sound-piece
93 mins
Written and mixed using field recordings captured in Italy July/August2019 Milano/Siena/Matera/Firenze/Laveno-Mombello/Cerro/Portogruaro/Torino/Modena
Intonarumori recorded in Hobart, Australia September 2019 Intonarumori played by Mat Ward and Dylan Banks Intonarumori built by Dylan Banks
Catalogue Essays/Reviews
Three Essays were produced for La morte mi troverà vivo
The first, by myself looks at the year long processs of producing the sound work including how it developed from my ongoing research into Luigi Russolo. The second, by Dani Kirby explores the occult aspects of the exhibition.The third, by Sarah Jones looks at the experience of sound with the context of a gallery space.
The catalogue was designed by David Campbell.