Posts By Michael Shirrefs
Radio Yak Yak
Sonic Structures
Our world is a complex organism, more interrelated than the silos in which we typically place it. One area of research to recognise this is the new discipline of participatory architecture, which explores among other things the relationship between music and buildings. But the idea has antecedents, including composers like Benjamin Britten and Edgard Varèse, and architects like Renzo Piano and Carlo Scarpo. Michael Shirrefs explores the search for harmony in the built environment.
Have you ever looked at a building and wondered what it would sound like? I’m not just talking about acoustics and air conditioner hum—I mean, what if that building was a piece of music? … Continue Reading
Acoustic Architecture
How does music speak to the buildings that house it? Music has always been a conversation with its environment, but from the 15th Century on, the craft became much more deliberate. And acoustic architecture has changed a lot since Dufay and the Gabrielis were composing their choral works for the Basilicas of Italy. … Continue Reading
Ishan Khosla—Designs on India
RN’s Michael Shirrefs is talking to Ishan Khosla who returned to India from the US five years ago and quickly realised that the rapid rise of the Indian Tiger economy was coming at a cost. In the headlong rush to be a big global player, India was at great risk of losing its unique design traditions.
As India’s huge metropolises become ever more infatuated with the gloss and mystique of global design trends, alarm bells have sounded amongst many who see a downside. With a very wealthy new Indian middle-class being seduced by the power of ‘the global’, a vast number of distinctive local design skills and knowledge systems are being ignored or marginalised. This has prompted a counter-push from high-profile designers and commentators, aiming to elevate the profile of the myriad, rich design traditions across India’s length and breadth.
Ishan Khosla is one of those who believes that, for this to work, new designers must be decentralised and trained closer to these sources of India’s material and aesthetic identity — only then will these materials and artisan skills gain high status in the eyes of a domestic audience and thus be proudly promoted on that global stage.
Sangam means confluence and refers to the meeting of the 3 rivers—Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati, which is used here as a metaphor for the artisan, designer and user.
First broadcast on By Design, ABC RN, on 17-7-2013
Also broadcast on The Arts Hour, BBC World Service, on 3-8-2013
Guest
Ishan Khosla — Indian designer, based in Delhi, and Head of Visual Communication at the Sushant School of Design
Interviewer + Producer
Michael Shirrefs
© 2013 — Michael Shirrefs & ABC RN
Remotely Connected: A big rural orbit
Rural artists have typically found themselves trying to translate their experiences of living on the land to gate-keeping gallery owners in the major cities. But new informal networks of artists, brought together on the internet, are cutting out the middle man and staging their own shows and happenings. Michael Shirrefs investigates.
One of the truths of rural life is that power and money and modernity usually lie elsewhere—in the metropolitan other. Well, it’s a truth of sorts. But it’s a truth that’s starting to loosen its grip.
Rural life, the world over, is in the midst of changes that are altering, not just who lives remotely, but what they do there. In this mix, artists have often seen rural life as an option that allows them to live and work on meagre incomes, but it usually comes at the cost of profile, access and any semblance of urban arts cool.
However, even that’s starting to change, because technology has begun to make geography less relevant, not only for artists, but for rural communities in general. … Continue Reading
Remotely Connected
On the NSW Central Coast lives farmer and artist Neil Berecry-Brown. For him, those two titles describe what he does in equal measure and the roles are interchangeable.
However, while living on the land has always meant being relatively isolated, this is starting to change. And for many rural artists around the world, technology has allowed them to find each other and form strong networks.
For a hybrid like Neil, the power of this connectivity has wider implications than just the art. His farm, on Mangrove Mountain, has become a hub for his community and, through that, for a global conversation about agriculture, life on the land and how to confront change.
It’s a conversation that has a universal resonance and the long-term implications of these networks will be to help bind communities globally as we witness seismic economic, social and environmental shifts. And one of the fundamental questions that this sort of dialogue raises is whether geography is less critical. Does it matter any more where you live? … Continue Reading
Canberra: Green Tights & Camomile Tea
Australia’s Capital is keen to move into a new era as it passes 100 years since its inception. But what does it mean to be a Canberran?
For the rest of Australia, Canberra has remained a staple of parody and caricature for its entire, short life, but surprisingly the residents of Canberra aren’t quite as quick to shrug off the old clichés as you might think.
For the people that choose Canberra as home, the idea of peace and quiet, trees and space, the things that are such a source of mockery—they’re the very reasons they stay.Canberra has remained a staple of parody and caricature for its entire, short life, but surprisingly the residents of Canberra aren’t quite as quick to shrug off the old clichés as you might think. … Continue Reading
Gaspard de la Nuit
Why did that very modern 20th Century composer, Maurice Ravel, compose images of spectres, goblins and death?
Gaspard de la Nuit is the title of one of the most arresting and spectacularly difficult works ever written for the piano, but the name of this 3-part suite has it’s origins much earlier. This remarkable piano work by Ravel is actually a conversation between the composer and a little-known poet living more that 60 years earlier. And today’s Into the Music feature enters into their dialogue—between the words and the music.