Emily Morandini

Born 1983, Canberra
Bachelor of Electronic Arts (Hons)
Graduation show: 2004, 2006 (Hons)
Graduation ceremony: 2005, 2007 (Hons)

Artwork in Space YZ  

Wall of Sound, 2004/2020
Microphones, cable, amplifiers, speakers
Dimensions variable

Wall of Sound was an in-joke art-school idea that ended in tears.

It was the early 2000s and it seemed everyone (including myself) was pumping out sound and video art. Easy access to digital editing tools was still relatively new, so the ability to quickly and inexpensively experiment with video and audio was exhilarating. To house this accumulating amount of AV work, the Z block rooms typically used as ceramics or photography studios were being used to house sound and video art-reels. So why not mic up all the works, combine them all together, and create one big, messy, literal wall of sound? It will be easy, I thought.

The original work consisted of the entire microphone and cable inventory of the UWS AV department, and 16 hi-fi speakers found on the side of the road. I had three days to install for the 2004 Grad Show, and inevitably, by the second day I called David Haines in tears. He drove me to Jaycar to buy more cable and spent the rest of a long day helping me to wire up the monstrosity. Somehow it all came together, but not without a massive lesson in humility.

This work is direct result of the unique space of UWS Z block, of the artwork of my peers, and of the artistic processes of the time. It encapsulated the physical and social environment of being utterly immersed in the work of those around me, and the thrill of taking a stupid idea way too far.

Radical Rock Video, Sonic Landscapes, Magnetic Fields and Pressure Waves, Spatial Audio. These are the unit titles that lured me to UWS and they did not fail to introduce this once impressionable 19-year-old to sordid world of contemporary art theory and experimental sound. I’m particularly thankful to the Electronic Arts lecturers who started the course and kept it alive for as long as possible despite difficult circumstances. Their vision was unique and brave, and they showed by example how be resourceful, proactive, curious, critical and daring – traits that will always lead one astray in the best possible way.