Cecilia Novero has written a fairly lengthy critical essay about my work with birdsong and radio called Birds on Air: Sally Ann McIntyre's Radio Art. It incorporates a few interviews we did just after the Kapiti Island residency in 2012, and includes an in-depth critical discussion of the projects I did on the residency. The issue places this work in very appropriate, fascinating, and distinguished company. I am very grateful to Cecilia for her research and intelligent explorations!
From the editorial: "Starting from the notion of recording natural sounds as central to the practices of institutionalised preservation for the purpose of education and entertainment explored by Craig Eley, the issue focuses on the quintessential animal voice: that of birds. Our starting point is therefore grounded in the affirmation of classical mimetic values. From here on, the issue attempts to depart from such trope through the reconfigurations of a number of contemporary artists and scholars. The multifaceted human-bird relationals revisited through the medium of sound are thus explored through the artistic practice of Catherine Clover; connections between listening and thinking, perceiving and imagining, sound and movement, language and the city are considered in this piece with specific reference to the everyday and the ordinary. Cecilia Novero’s discussion of New Zealand- based artist Sally Ann McIntyre's site-specific art transmission raises questions about colonialism, nationalism, and the environment. Novero argues that operating in the realm of sounds both with an ear to birds, and with critical attention to the technological and institutional history of the medium of radio, McIntyre broadcasts Mark Dion’s call to resist nostalgia in our relationships with animals. An exploration of the potentialities proposed by the intertwining of sound and visuality is drawn by a series of graphic works by Sari Carel in which a soundtrack incorporating the original recordings of extinct and nearly extinct birds creates a layered sonic environment enveloping the viewer. As sound turns into drawing and unfurls notions of transformation, translation and extinction, the piece emerges as a document chronicling that which is slowly disappearing. A clear activist approach to preventing the extinction of birds is brought into focus by Ceri Levy, well known film-maker, writer, and curator. In an extensive interview with Matthew Brower, Levy discusses the challenges involved in preventing the extinction of protected bird species and demonstrates how visual and sonic arts can aid the process."
Cecilia's article can be read (and downloaded) here: Birds on Air: Sally Ann McIntyre's Radio Art
issue 27 of Antennae can be downloaded and read in full here: www.antennae.org.uk
