Belief System
Belief System is a large-scale sound and visual installation made from thousands of voiced beliefs collected from residents across the city.
This work is a growing and adaptive system that weaves every voiced belief through each other. Each recording has been treated as anonymous and arranged into thematic groupings (flocks) to form the main compositional element. Emphasising the fluidity of beliefs, and inspired by starling bird's murmurations and wind patterns on the water, these flocks travel though the installation's 120 speakers, sometimes swarming en masse and sometimes moving as if blown gently through the space on a breeze.
Reinforcing this organic line, the movement of these beliefs will be triggered by the weather. Wind speed, direction and barometric pressure will provide data points, collected from a small weather station fixed to The Substation's roof, to propel the beliefs through the system, building rhythms and intersections between the personal and societal, the optimistic and the pessimistic.
Credits
Co-creators - Adriano Cortese and Anna Tregloan
Composition/Programming - Bob Jarvis
Lighting Design - Govin Ruben
Production Manager - Govin Ruben
Control System - designed and developed by the UNSW Interactive Media Lab and UTS Creativity and Cognition Studios. Team: Oliver Bown, Sam Ferguson, Kurt Mikolajczyk, Ella Mannor.
Producer - Nic Clark
Thank you to the multitude of participants who so generously shared their beliefs.
This work was created on the lands of the Gadigal, Yalukit-willam, Boon Wurrung and Bunurong people.
Photo credits - Damien Raggatt
History
2023 - The Substation, Melbourne
Support
Commissioned by The Substation.
This project has been supported by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, RISING through their seed funding, and the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.
