Music – Page 14 – Ian Gibbins

not absolute

Not Absolute was a collaborative exhibition at the Flinders University City Gallery, 24th July – 27th September, 2009, featuring work by Ian Gibbins, Catherine Truman, Judy Morris, Gabriella Besetto, Vicki Clifton and Rachel Burgess, curated by Janice Lally.

with my eyes closed
with my eyes closed
with my eyes closed

The following is from the curator’s comments in the exhibition catalogue:

“NOT ABSOLUTE has been a collaboration over some time by artists and scientists … to discover and communicate new understandings of the human body derived from interconnections between science and art practices. The visual, aural and tactile aspects of the works offer others opportunities to gain fresh insights into notions of what the body is and how it might be understood by the individual. The nature of the creative processes of artists and scientists is also part of the investigation.

“Knowledge about the body, in the abstract and from a personal viewpoint, is a concern for us all. The daily experience of living within and communicating about our bodies is central to all of us. How we wash and dress ourselves, how we move, or see, or hear, how we communicate, our … Click here for more.

projects

Collaboration is absolutely the norm in modern science, so perhaps it is not surprising that much of Ian’s creative work involves collaborative projects with other artists. Click here to see a full list of Ian’s collaborations.

Follow the links or the menu items to see some of them:

The Taken Path: a durational project with Catherine Truman

The Microscope Project with Catherine Truman, Deb Jones, Angela Valamanesh & Nicholas Folland

Floribunda with Judy Morris

not absolute with Catherine Truman, Judy Morris, Vicki Clifton & Rachel Burgess

Vocem Video, a video interpretation of Impossible Music by Sean Williams

Body of Evidence, curated by Carollyn Cavanagh

Signs of Life and Way to Go: Tramstop 6 with Mike Ladd & Cathy Brooks

the art & science of embodiment with Catherine Truman

heartsong with Cheryl Pickering, Richard Chew, Dwani Oak and Sally Francis

Australian Dance Theatre with Garry Stewart

The Microscope Project: How Things Work

What were we going to do with a collection of decommissioned research microscopes? Two scanning electron microscopes, one almost completely disassembled, fluorescence microscopes, once state-of-the-art, that generated the images underpinning the international recognition of a generation of neuroscientists at Flinders University, a whole room of ancillary preparatory equipment and spare parts?

… and then there was all their supporting documentation: schematic diagrams and plans, manuals, advertising brochures, catalogues, certifications of performance, packing lists.

Some of the texts were so powerful, they needed only to be sampled and edited according to a pre-determined rule. Others formed the core of a new piece of writing. And in cases where we lacked any clear documentation, new texts were invented, imagining, re-imagining how things might have been, who might have been involved, how things might look, how things work…

Over more than 12 months, Ian Gibbins, Catherine Truman, Deb Jones, Angela Valamanesh and Nicholas Folland collaborated with these elements in the unique shared environment of The Distillery to create The Microscope Project, exhibited at the Flinders University Art Museum & City Gallery, 26^th July – 21^st September, 2014, and curated by Fiona Salmon and Madeline Reece.

How Things Work… Click here for more.

shop

ABN 39 580 050 698

Books

sd18: A Skeleton of Desire

10 poems, 22 pp
Garron Publishing, Spring 2018,
Southern-Land Poets, Edition 6
ISSN 2202-7246
A$5.00 plus $1.50 postage and handling (Australia wide).

fb15: Floribunda

19 full colour plates by Judy Morris, 13 poems by Ian Gibbins, 32 pp
21 x 21 cm, paperback, published June 2015
ISBN 9780646937892
A$22.50 including postage (Australia wide)

Nearly sold out – contact Ian if you’d like a copy.

mp14: The Microscope Project: How Things Work

TMP How Things Work front cover COVER small

Large format, 17 poems, 72 pp
Full colour images by Catherine Truman, Deb Jones & Ian Gibbins
Flinders University Art Museum, 2014
ISBN 978 0 9925472 1 9
A$35.00 plus A$5.00 postage & handling (Australia wide)

ub12: urban biology

45 poems, 96 pp
Wakefield Press / Friendly Street Poets, 2012
ISBN 978 1 74305 099 6
A$19.95 plus A$5.00 postage & handling (Australia wide)

CDs

CD 014: Microscope Music

15 tracks, total playing time: approx 50 min, 2014
A$10.00 plus A$3.00 postage & handling (Australia wide)

CD 010: urban biology – audiodraft

12 tracks, total playing time: … Click here for more.

audio

Although he can knock out a pretty decent boogie-woogie on a real piano, mostly Ian produces electronic music, generally composed to accompany his poems, videos and collaborative installations. Styles range from retro R&B riffs and beats through to abstract noise compositions… Much to his surprise, Ian won the Studio Instrumental section of the SCALA 2015 Festival Of Original Music for his piece, Caza. Listen to it here.

Ian has made several sound installations as part of gallery exhibitions, including not absolute, The Microscope Project, Floribunda, and Water Under the Bridge, and public art projects, most notably, 25 Pirie Street: Heard on the Wind, commissioned by Adelaide City Council.

In 2019, Ian collaborated with Swedish-French artist and musician Frédéric Iriarte to produce Meta ‘Pataphysical Interactions, an album of Ian’s poems with Frédéric’s music, recorded in his studio just outside Stockholm. Click here to see more about the project and links to the tracks. In 2020, Frédéric and Ian collaborated on a second project, where Ian remixed Frédéric’s music tracks with his poetry, to create the album Sent From Elsewhere.

A wide selection of Ian’s music can be found on Bandcamp. Click here to explore and … Click here for more.