Rendered Imperfectly Rendered

BACKGROUND This project is located within the field of sonic ambiance studies, a debate current in Brandon Labelle (2010) and Jean-Paul Thibaud. Building on questions of translation in the emerging concept of ambiance theory, this installation asks in particular: In what ways can the multiple translations of sounds and images from landscape to gallery be presented to complicate simplistic notions of representation? CONTRIBUTION This work's contribution is to explore in both sonic and painted forms a complex interplay of compositional and procedural inter-relationships that accumulate in layers of experiencing and doubt. I designed the work's 4 paintings as prompts, two extensive sound compositions and a live microphone feed to create a staged ambiance at the theatricalised listening/viewing location. I recomposed field recordings to complicate legibility of their spatial character, wrote and narrated a textual composition that self-reflexively traces the scenario faced by both artist and visitor, the live microphone feed self-consciously performing a spatial translation. Notions of cross-reference, memory and visual and sonic traces are brought together in unique form to propose an interrelated, site-specific set of deferrals and interruptions. As a set of framings the installation draws attention to the conditions implicating ambiance through constructive doubt. SIGNIFICANCE My new work was commissioned by curator Dr Jordan Lacey for "Translating Ambiance" exhibition at Yarra Sculpture Gallery forming a central part of his DECRA ARC grant "Translating Ambiance: restorative sound design for urban soundscapes" (2019-21). Accompanied by a printed catalogue, a website comprising 4 scholarly essays by significant scholars in the field including JP Thibaud and Sarah Pink, the exhibition has now culminated in a special issue of Unlikely journal Issue 06 "Translating Ambiance". The exhibition was co-funded by Yarra City Council and featured in Foreground journal.