Tim Nohe: Sounding Botany Bay
An Exhibition on a Changing Australian Environment
Tuesday, February 16, 2016 · 4 - 5:30 PM
Tim Nohe, intermedia artist, Professor of Visual Arts and Director of the Center for Innovation, Research and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA), UMBC, will introduce audiences to the deeply woven human narrative of Botany Bay, Australia in this American debut exhibition. The artist worked in Australia from 2006-2007 while on an Australian-American Fulbright Commission Senior Scholar fellowship, and returned for intensive research residencies for the next nine years. During that time, change inexorably swept the Bay.
By walking through bush and dunes, suburban streets and industrial estates, Nohe was able to directly observe the Bay with contemplative discipline. The artist was ready to document discoveries with digital audio recorders and cameras, and comprehensive database searches in state and national libraries, and the online market eBay. Over time he became aware of seasonal and long-term rhythms accented by notes of discordant change. A world of inaudible sound was sampled via a radio frequency scanner, allowing Nohe to intercept air traffic at Sydney Airport; hydrophones captured otherwise inaudible underwater sounds in mangroves, docks and tidepools.
These resources reveal truths about a complex place, told with mural prints, video, sound, interviews, archival documents, and material culture. In many ways this story mirrors our American experience related to human stewardship, the colonization and the decimation of indigenous peoples, industrialization, national narratives, globalization and climate change.