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Sonia Leber and David Chesworth's 'Local Positioning Systems' at the Victorian Quaker Centre presents a sonic exploration of the experiences of people whose notions of home are unsettled and adrift. People experiencing homelessness reflect on systems of alienation and support, personal safety, and self-determination. The surround soundscape is accompanied by performances by Jenny Hickinbotham and David Shearman. Under the portal, the space invites a Quaker form of communal listening, to bear witness and consider how we might respond.

Local Positioning Systems
Victorian Quaker Centre
484 William Street West Melbourne
25-26 July 2025

Deakin University Commission
via HOME and Public Art Bureau
Incorporating the Homeless in Hotels interview archive
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Shapes of Listening prompts questions around the act of listening across our water and forest ecologies. What if listening were our primary mode of sensing?

Shapes of Listening
Dancenorth, Gurambilbarra/Townsville
Project for PUNQ Festival/Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts
27 July-11 August 2024
First presentation of iterative project
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Serving Suggestions is a participatory video and sound installation created for the Alfred Hospital Innovation & Education Hub.

Where Lakes Once Had Water, an exhibition that is audible as much as visible, features a large-scale, dual-screen 28-minute video work Where Lakes Once Had Water (2020) that transports us to remote ancient dry lakes of Australia's Northern Territory. In 2018 and 2019, the artists travelled with a team of Earth scientists who were investigating changes in the climate, landscape and ecology in the Northern Territory. Their journey took them to the remote, ephemeral Lake Woods, to Nitmiluk/Katherine Gorge and to Girraween Lagoon— to the lands and waters of the Mudburra, Marlinja, Jingili, Elliot, Jawoyn and Larrakia communities.

The exhibition also includes three new sound, video and sculptural works. Sound Before Sound I: One and Three Scores (2022), Sound Before Sound II: Auditioning the Archive (2022), and Sound Before Sound III: Lyrebirdity (2022) explore sound, landscape and the archive.

Sonia Leber and David Chesworth: Where Lakes Once Had Water
TarraWarra Museum of Art
Wurundjeri Country, Healesville, Australia
30 July to 13 November 2022
Curator: Victoria Lynn
See Project Page