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Established in 2020, ecoPULSE.art is the web-based home of collaborative, environmental art and social ecology projects exploring rural and regional territories.

ecoBYTE by ecoPULSE

SPRING 2022

More .art less talk

As mentioned in the last ecoBYTE, things have been busy on the ecoPULSE.art front, along with some other big projects taking shape. As a result, we're going to be moving to quarterly updates unless there's some urgent or earth-shattering news we need you to know about in between. We'll send invites to online and face-to-face events separately and in a more timely way, rather than just in a monthly update.

Kim V. Goldsmith leading the inaugural Wambuul Soundwalk in Dubbo (image: Cameron Porteous)

Sonic Territories: Wambuula river stories project celebrating the Wambuul/ Macquarie River from Wellington to Narromine, is now underway after appointing two more artists to join our creative team. They are Suzie Foran and Rob Salt—read more about them on the project page. To date, we've had our open-air lab on the river where we hatched a plan for a spoken word and soundscape to be released on World Rivers Day on 25 September, as well as talking more broadly about storytelling, lost languages, and cultural connections.

Last Sunday, 28 August, three of our team of four participated in the inaugural Wambuul Soundwalk at Biddybungie Reserve on the western bank of the Wambuul/ Macquarie in West Dubbo. The group size was perfect for spending 1.5 hours listening, thinking, walking and discussing the vagaries and influences on a riverine soundscape in an urban environment—something that's quite controversial in Dubbo at present. Creative team member, Milena Sallustio filmed the walk as well, to be shared a bit later.

 
I was genuinely moved by the experiences of spending time listening deeply and consciously to the environment around the river. - J.M.
 
It was interesting to observe the soundscape at different locations and acknowledge the noise pollution that we humans have come to accept as ‘normal’. - S.F.
 
We're also busy gathering stories of people's memories, thoughts about and hopes for the river, and are keen to hear from anyone who may have a story to share. The stories will be first-person audio and written pieces, or photographs with a caption. We'd love a mix of all these formats. You can register your interest via the project page.

Stage One of Sonic Territories: Wambuul has been supported by a Country Arts Support Program (CASP) grant through Create NSW and Orana Arts. One of the Stage One artist positions was also made possible through fundraising with the Australian Cultural Fund.

Your donations did this...🙌🏼

Over 12 months to the end of July 2022, the ecoPULSE.art fundraiser through the Australian Cultural Fund (ACF) raised $2,105 with 25 donors. Honestly, it was a long way short of what was an overly ambitious target, BUT these funds were leveraged to raise $38,730 in grant funding through Create NSW, the Regional Arts Fund, Orana Arts, and a partnership with Dubbo Regional Council, that paid out $25,000 in artist fees + $10,000 in project admin to 31 artists and arts workers over 3 projects - Mosses and Marshes, Inhalare/ breathe upon and Sonic Territories: Wambuul.

A massive thank you for your belief in the work we're doing through this platform. As I've so often said, every donor and every single dollar counts. Those figures prove that. I'm taking a break from fundraising for now, as it's a big job for one person who is also trying to be creative. I am looking for project supporters and partnerships for 2023—for Mosses and Marshes Values. Voices. Action and Sonic Territories: Wambuul, and am always happy to talk about how that might happen.




Kim V. Goldsmith
ecoPULSE Founder & Lead Artist
Email
+61 419 439 923

Listening to the amplification of nearby traffic noise on the river through a man-made structure beside the railway bridge, Biddybungie Reserve, West Dubbo (image: Cameron Porteous)

The impact of Mosses and Marshes

MOSSES AND MARSHES wrapped up at the Window on the Wetlands (WOW) Centre at Warren at the end of July, where the video and sound works were played in the Visitor Information Centre. This was the sixth presentation of the works by Andrew Howe and Kim V. Goldsmith since they first came together in Oswestry, UK, in October last year.

Those who visited the Australian shows may have seen the feedback box in the exhibition. These are the results of those responses across three shows in Canberra, Coonamble and Warren:
  • 81% learned something about the wetlands from visiting the exhibition.
  • 87.5% believe we need to collectively do/ think/ act differently to ensure a future for our wetlands and ourselves.
  • 93.75% were inspired to visit a wetland or other natural environment after visiting the exhibition.
A unique, fascinating and interesting exhibition. Well done.
 
A fantastic exhibition – really enjoyed the soundscapes and accompanying visuals...so much work has gone into this. It encapsulates the Marshes very well.

The public programming for MOSSES AND MARSHES was supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.

Window on the Wetlands Centre Manager, Shona Whitfield with the video work,
An Ancient Land: a history of the wetland in chapters, 2022
LISTEN/ WATCH THE HIGHLIGHTS

RENEWABLES IN AG

Kim attended the National Renewables in Agriculture Conference in Albury on 18 August as part of her research and concept development for the Regional Futures project. It was an opportunity to network, learn and think more about the challenges of the broadscale take-up of renewables needed in Australia.

READ THE BLOG POST

2023 MRAG EXHIBITION

The four Regional Futures artists from the Orana Arts and Arts Mid North Coast regions who have been in conversation for several months about what the future of regions holds in a post-carbon world recently spoke about their collaboration in an online talk (LINK BELOW), where they announced they'll be having a group exhibition at the Manning Regional Art Gallery (MRAG) at Taree in March 2023. They are left-right/ top-bottom: Kit Kelen (poet/painter), Allison Reynolds (visual artist), Kim V. Goldsmith (digital media/ writer), and Ronnie Grammatica (photographer).

WATCH THE CONVERSATION

TRIBUTE TO THE DRIP

Ngayirr Ngurambang: Sacred Country is an exhibition curated by Wiradjui artist and curator, Aleshia Lonsdale, opening at Mudgee Arts Precinct on 23 September. 12 First Nations and non-First Nations artists have responded to the place and water cultures of the Goulburn River and Drip Gorge near Mudgee. Kim is one of the artists in this exhibition.
MUDGEE ARTS PRECINCT

SOUND WALK SEPTEMBER

International network, walk · listen · create (WLC) is the home of walking artists as well as the annual Sound Walk September festival. The authors who were shortlisted in the illustrated poetry and prose anthology, Walking Home, published earlier this year, will be reading their work on 25 September (UK time) as part of the festival. Kim is one of them.
JOIN IN SOUND WALK SEPTEMBER

earth.fm

earth.fm, an international non-profit, free repository of pure, immersive natural soundscapes (with no anthropophony – human-made sound). Kim has recently become a contributor, with her 2020 track, Sunrise at Tupra. Check out the map on the homepage to hear sounds from across the world.
LISTEN TO EARTH.FM

FOLLOW ecoPULSE

ecoPULSE.art is on Facebook and Instagram. Follow us for updates on all our projects, community events and call outs.

SOCIAL LINKS ON ecoPULSE WEBSITE

Don’t think of sounds as something to be recorded all the time, to collect – learn to enjoy listening for its own sake.

― JEZ RILEY FRENCH, 2011

ecoPULSE.art projects are supported by the artists who make our projects possible, regional arts development organisations, such as Orana Arts and Outback Arts, the exhibition venues who provide such great support for the finished works and public events, and funding bodies including the NSW Government through Create NSW, and the Australian Government through initiatives such as the Regional Arts Fund through Regional Arts NSW. We also crowdfund through the Australian Cultural Fund.

We acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of the lands on which we work across Australia and other First Nations countries, and we pay our respects to Elders past and present. Sovereignty has never been ceded. It always was and always will be, Aboriginal land.

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Copyright ©2022 Kim V. Goldsmith. All rights reserved.

This information comes to you from Dubbo NSW Australia/ Wiradjuri Country
PO Box 6150 Dubbo NSW 2830 Australia

We acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of the lands on which we work across Australia and other First Nations countries, and we pay our respects to Elders past, present. Sovereignty has never been ceded. It always was and always will be, Aboriginal land.

www.eco-pulse.art

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