Aeon: A secret sonic walk exploring queer ecology

Co-created by a team of multidisciplinary artists, Aeon lands a portable speaker in your palm and invites you to meet your fellow audience members at twilight for a one-hour walk through parkland in the vicinity of Perry Lakes in Floreat.

This site-specific work deftly mixes audience participation with a contemporary art aesthetic. It situates itself in the dance and sound-art worlds and extends into public space.

Aeon is a listening manoeuvre; a participatory experiment of sound, movement and group dynamics to question what we think of as ‘natural’. Drawing on bird flocking studies, it is a communal yet deeply personal experience at the intersection of what is considered ‘human’ and ‘animal’ behaviour.

Informed by three simple rules that govern the synchronised movement of bird flocks; separation, alignment and cohesion, Aeon is activated by silence, sound, civic responsibility and personal desire.

Creator Lz Dunn, who identifies as a queer artist, said that Aeon developed out of an earlier project, Flyway, a cinematic, walking meditation on urban ecology and migratory birds.

“In Aeon I was interested in floating together two ideas: queer ecology and bird flocking. Queer Ecology refers to a way of thinking that aims to disrupt dominant ideas around sexuality and nature. It invites us to reimagine evolutionary processes, ecological interactions, and environmental politics from a queer perspective,” Lz said.

“It’s one of many ways people are trying to navigate this very complex and unsettling period of time as a society. We seem to be looking for a balance between our need for individual expression and a group – or whole species’ – need for survival.”

“Bird flocks have a quite mystical quality because they have these fascinating strategies for navigating together using their various bodily intelligences. I think as humans we may have become less attuned to our own.”

The exploratory nature of the work, both physically and psychologically, makes every performance unique. Originally commissioned by Mobile States and produced by Performing Lines, this will be Perth’s first chance to experience this exciting new work, following seasons at Dance Massive in Melbourne and Sydney’s LiveWorks Festival in 2017.

PICA Director Amy Barrett-Lennard said, “To be able to present an off-site work of the style and calibre of Aeon is very rare. This is the kind of show that audiences could usually only expect to experience at a major arts festival. We are delighted to be presenting Aeon in partnership with Tura New Music as part of the 13th Totally Huge New Music Festival”.

Source:- Media Release

Aeon will be performed at twilight (5:30pm) from October 26th – 29th, with an additional dawn (6pm) performance on the 29th. For tickets and more information head to PICA.org.au

Image:- Bryony Jackson