Life as a nomadic artist on a kaleidoscopic trip through Europe’s cultural underground.
DOWNLOAD PDF: Singing Bridges – Artist Travel Guide
SINGING BRIDGES ARTIST TRAVEL GUIDE
Let me take you on a kaleidoscopic trip through the cultural underground across Europe – and bridges – to experience the highlights and challenges of a precarious artist’s life.
Once I heard the call of a mysterious language vibrating in bridge cables, I followed their strange music around the world, until landing in the creative maelstrom of Berlin.
I lived for the music of bridges. For over a decade, I travelled the world in search of their secret voices, I wanted to hear their cables sing, to uncover the secret language of their vibrations. Hearing the sound of a new bridge is always thrilling, every structure is a sonic adventure. On the bridge you are suspended in space, neither here nor there, lifted above the everyday world in a moment of pure presence, and the possibility of transformation.
Where did it all start?
While Sydney’s Anzac Bridge was under construction, on my way to art school I looked up at the monolithic concrete structure being built over Blackwattle Bay. Somehow the blending of public sculpture, sound, and deconstructive theory swirling in my sleepy brain leads me to wonder; how would this harp-like structure of cables and concrete sound? Could I link bridge cables around the world as instruments in a global bridge symphony? I made my first recording of this bridge in 1995, taking a team of radio producers and sound engineers from ABC Radio to capture the industrial yet ethereal voice of the cables.
In 2002, following my dream to create a global symphony of bridges, I set out to capture the sounds of these architectural instruments. This quest took me from the Mekong Delta to Rotterdam, Helsinki, Berlin, Bratislava, London, New York and San Francisco.
Moving to Berlin to become a full time artist, the pursuit of creative work involved nearly constant travel and constant financial uncertainty. Thanks to Viator Travel Blog, I supported my artist travels by writing about electronic art & experimental music festivals.
Where will it all end?
This travelogue offers a glimpse into the life of a bridge nomad, traversing the cultural underground across Europe & is a companion to the memoir based on my travel diary.
Join me on the quest for the music of bridges from Sydney to the Mekong Delta, Helsinki, Paris, Berlin and Barcelona, via Glasgow, Ljubljana, Singapore, Zagreb, Vilnius and beyond, looking for a bridge of my own, true love and a place to call home.
WHO ARE YOU TO CALL YOURSELF AN ARTIST?
SURVIVING THE CULTURAL UNDERGROUND
Staubgold – Music out of Place
ARTIST IN PARIS
SURVIVAL ON THE DANUBE
SURVIVING SINGAPORE
EXILE IN CROATIA
CITY SONIC SURVIVAL KIT
Micro Travels: Wallonia, Belgium
ARTIST LIFE ON THE ROAD
Micro Travels: Brittany and Beauvais
GLASGOW GOES INTERNATIONAL
SURVIVING THE CULTURAL APOCALYPSE
Supermarkt Berlin & Cultural Value
RVK 9 (Reykjavík Nine) NOT GUILTY!
TRACES OF SURVIVAL
T.R.A.C.E.S. Transcultural Research
