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One of the first examples of a sound installation built into a public outdoor space in Australia, is Les Gilbert's Southgate Soundscape, in stalled on the Southgate boardwalk, adjoining the Yarra River. From the outset the infrastructure was designed into the public concourse, with speakers on the building, the speakers in the handrails adjoining the Yarra River and others in the lightpoles. Gilbert's original company, Sound Design Studio, instigated many innovative public sound designs and employed and trained many people who have become major players in this new field. Exquisitely recorded environmental sounds, field trips, and teams of talented employees, many being graduates from La Trobe University's outstanding new music course, were directed by Gilbert to effect his designs. Over the years he has amassed a magnificent sound archive, which is always being added to. Les Gilbert was one of the first sound designers in Australia to include information data from the flow of people visiting into the spatial soundscapes. An array of architectural and environmental features are decoded by sensing devices so that all designs become site and time specific, changing from day to day, moment to moment, according to a variety of factors including the time of day as well as the location and number of people present in a listening space; thus volumes, equalisation, the number of speakers playing as well as the mix of each individual channel can be constantly changing. In the Southgate Soundscape, weather information was used in real-time to compose and shape the flow of sonic data. Gilbert's interactive sound designs for many international installations in museums, zoos and aquariums are well known.
The original sound installation was by Les Gilbert and Magian Design Studio (then known as Sound Design Studio). Sound mixing by David Chesworth and technical assistance by Nigel Frayne in installing the system. Later incarnations of the Southbank Installation featured original compositions by David Chesworth, Nigel Frayne and Lawrence Harvey. Nigel Frayne was responsible for soundscape production, curatorial and system management from 1996 - 2000. He was responsible for the sound design and project management of soundscape on River Promenade, 1993 - 1995. The installation is not currently active.
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Journal Articles
- Bandt, Ros, 'Sound Design as Sonic Architecture', Earshot,Time and Visibility II, Essays on Sound and Architecture, The Journal of the U.K. and Ireland Soundscape Community, vol. 4, 2003, pp. 52-60. [ Details... ]
- Bandt, Ros, 'Designing Sound in Public Space in Australia: a comparative study based on the Australia Sound Design Project’s on-line gallery and database', Organised Sound, vol. 10, no. 3, 2005, pp. 129-140. [ Details... ]
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