Poetry

Microscope Music

Microscope Music sets some of the texts from The Microscope Project: How Things Work to electronic music derived from the microscopes themselves, as well as their documentation. Sound samples were made by striking, bowing, rasping, dropping and otherwise physically interacting with parts of decommissioned electron and fluorescence microscopes. Other samples were made by taken images or texts associated with the microscopes and converting the raw files into sound files. Each piece uses only a single set of samples.

Listen to Microscope Music via Bandcamp:

Buy the Microscope Music CD via PayPal at the Shop.

Floribunda: Judy Morris & Ian Gibbins

flori_radiance_1

Drawings by Judy Morris, poems and sound installation by Ian Gibbins, exhibited at the Hahndorf Academy, Hahndorf, 13th June – 26 July, 2015.

Floribunda was originally conceived by Judy as a collection of drawings inspired by native and introduced plants growing in the bush, urban gardens and nurseries in the greater Adelaide region. Judy is particularly attracted to the more unusual shapes and textures of these plants, carefully observing and documenting their emergence and eventual turnover. She uses a slow process of detailed mark making with graphite and coloured pencil on paper to interpret the beauty of the overall form and colour as well as the detailed structure of the plants. She seeks to discover and represent the universal appeal of these amazing works of nature in her larger than life-size drawings, encouraging others to look more closely and make discoveries of their own.

The poems in Floribunda were written by Ian in response to Judy’s drawings, their titles, and meanings hidden within the formal Latin titles of the plants: gardneri, after the curator of the Western Australian Herbarium, Charles Austin Gardner; the “bearded” Isopogon; stoechas, referring to the Mediterranean islands where Jason and … Click here for more.

The Microscope Project

The Microscope Project

Flinders University Art Museum & City Gallery, 26th July – 21st September, 2014.

Ian Gibbins, Catherine Truman, Deb Jones, Angela Valamanesh and Nicholas Folland, curated by Fiona Salmon and Madeline Reece.

For much of his time at Flinders University, Ian managed the main microscopy research facility, contained divers kinds of sophisticated microscopes. In 2012, several old scanning electron microscopes, some fluorescence microscopes, and other ancillary equipment were decommissioned. Once state-of-the-art, they were now largely dysfunctional and no longer practically operational. However, they had long histories of contributing to internationally-recognised research into the nervous and cardiovascular systems, the gut, and much more.

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

Although much of the equipment had been disassembled down to their component parts, it was all to valuable to be dumped for scrap. There were many more stories to be told about these instruments. Perhaps we could re-imagine their pasts, their futures, the people who had made them, maintained them, used them…

So, over more than 12 months, the artists collaborated with these elements in the unique shared environment … Click here for more.

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

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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

 

poems published on-line

Ian has published many poems in on-line journals. Here is a sample. Click on the titles to see them.

Cordite

Cordite has published several poems, a video poem and an audio poem.

Five Islands Press Ron Pretty Prize 2014 shortlist

• Afterthoughts

otoliths

• The Various Contrivances By Which…  and Game Over: Grand Final Edition (animated GIFs including a video of Game Over.

• a skeleton of desire and eclipse midsummer (animated GIFs)

• egress and phillip adams headshot (animated GIF)

e•ratio

• cataplexy with video.

 • glimpse.

• The Guide

• The White – A Note on the Text

• future perfect  with video

Found Poetry Review

• and furthermore (indexed)  Listen to an audio version here.

• WILLIAM DAMPIER LOSES BEARINGS, HEADS EAST, RENEGOTIATES ABEL TASMAN, DRAWS A BLANK

Uneven Floor

• open home poem with video.

Right Hand Pointing / One Sentence Poems

• Why Mice Cannot Type

Overland

• Editor’s Selection (video-poem)

Transnational Literature

• Space Invaders // Squirrel Hill // Taboo // The Impossibility of Flight and 100 Words // A Captain Cook

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal

• Prospectus // Open Door

Southerly / The Long Paddock

• Dr Korsakoff … Click here for more.

Floribunda

floribunda front cover pic 1

Drawings by Judy Morris with accompanying poems by Ian Gibbins,

exhibited at the Hahndorf Academy, Hahndorf, 13th June – 26th July, 2015.

Floribunda was originally conceived by Judy Morris as a collection of drawings inspired by native and introduced plants growing in the greater Adelaide region. Judy is particularly attracted to the more unusual shapes and textures of these plants, carefully observing and documenting their emergence and eventual turnover.

The poems in Floribunda were written by Ian Gibbins in response to Judy’s drawings, their titles, and meanings hidden within the formal Latin titles of the plants. They imagine an expedition into unknown, dangerous country, the explorers struggling with the environment and themselves in equal measure.

Here is the poem relating to the title image:

Helleborus x hybridus

– Winter Rose –

Type description

Parenthetic warnings to maintain distance,
deceptively comfortable,
too often prone to swoon.

Field notes

Temperatures fell, vacated sodden nights,
reft seditious drowse, queathed stoney quave.
We should have predicted she would follow
her own route, her singular disjunctive path.
Tough and perpetually feisty, resilient turns
of phrase poised sharp on her perfumed lips.
Yet she surprised us, and faltered, overtaken
by qualm on a cusp of

… Click here for more.