Confluence – bridges that come alive
Kent MacPherson, an instrumentalist and composer, sonic artist, lecturer and researcher, has done something radical in the eyes of musicians all around New Zealand.
Kent describes ‘sonic art’ as “ basically recording and documenting the sounds around us.”
MacPherson has once again collaborated with Luke McConnell; another tutor at Wintec, and has done an experiment in sonic art where he recorded bridge sounds, specifically the bridges in Hamilton crossing the Waikato river.
“We (McConnell and I) came up with Confluence as a title because essentially it means ‘where waters meet’,” Kent said.
Confluence is an installation where the viewer is invited to immerse themselves within the work.
The idea behind the project was to give the viewer a different, more dethatched perspective of a familiar environment through visual and aural viewing.
The audio component consists of two parts; Field recordings made using contact microphones which are attached to the bridges resonating structures, and sub-aquatic hydrophone recordings of the bridge vibrations from under the surface of the river.
The visuals show a cross section of the environment displaying both the river and the bridges in a two dimensional perspective
The project is part of the Survey Hamilton exhibition at the Waikato Museum in Hamilton and runs from 23 August to 23 November 2014.
Kent has been a tutor at Wintec for many years now and doesn’t consider himself to be a fine arts tutor because in his own words he says, “I know nothing about painting and sculpture.”
The first instrument he learned to play was the piano, which was just the beginning of a life long fascination with weird and wonderful instruments.
Some of the instruments Kent composes with include, Bass, Guitar, Saz, Sitar, Keyboards, Mandolin, Zither, Irish Bouzouki, Mandola, Banjo and many more.
MacPherson names his personal interest as sonic music rather than lyrics because they challenged him more and had a darker mood to them.
He cites Powerhouse and the Banshees as major influences on his career as a sonic artist.
His next project is a Light Resonating Structures performance played on electric guitar at the Wellington Fringe Festival next year.
