Orchestra Victoria and Newmarket Collective will present Across Silence in Melbourne/Narrm this August, Australia’s first orchestral performance to combine Auslan poetry, live chamber music and vibro-tactile haptic technology in a shared experience for d/Deaf and hearing audiences.
Presented at Blackwood Box, Meat Market on Saturday 8 August, Across Silence brings together Deaf artists Walter Kadiki and Marnie Kerridge, three-time ARIA-award winning composer and pianist Andrea Keller, vocalist Gian Slater, conductor Nick Buc, and musicians from Orchestra Victoria and Newmarket Collective.
At the centre of the work is the innovative use of vibro-tactile haptic technology developed by Music: Not Impossible. Kadiki and Kerridge perform wearing haptic vests, body packs and wrist and ankle bands that translate live music into vibration across 24 points on the body. Each point can be programmed to respond to specific instruments, frequencies and intensity levels, creating a detailed, physical mapping of the orchestra in real time. A number of audience members will also be able to experience the work through the technology during the performance.
The concert features newly commissioned composition by Kadiki and Keller, Little Fledgling #2. The work was developed using the haptic vest throughout the creative process. Rather than writing solely for sound, Keller composed this with vibration at its core, working closely with Kadiki to explore how music can be felt as well as heard. The collaboration extends into live performance, enabling real-time improvisation between piano and vibration, with Kadiki able to feel each note as it is played.
Kerridge brings her Auslan interpretation to poems by W.B Yates, E.E Cummings, Sara Teasdale and Walt Whitman through selections from Keller’s Still Night album newly orchestrated for chamber ensemble by Mark Buys.
Across Silence marks the first collaboration between Orchestra Victoria and Newmarket Collective, uniting d/Deaf and hearing artists in a work that reimagines how orchestral music can be created, performed and experienced.
