Open Facade
Enjoy Public Art Gallery
19 March – 12 April 2014

Wellington artist Tom Mackie explores the perceptual effect of colour, light and space. Open Facade occurs in the conceptually overlapping; inside and outside, space and form. The work mediates, rather than separates these notions, asking the viewer for holistic consideration.

Highlighting the gallery’s inherent qualities, Open Facade asks us to examine our surroundings and celebrate the subtleties of the space. The tension between the traditional role of the gallery and the space itself is brought into focus; suggesting the possibility of the ‘white cube’ gallery space as ready-made object. Mackie states “when a space is empty, viewers tend to search for visual stimuli; I want the viewer to find the space.”

Using coloured film, Mackie transforms the Enjoy Gallery windows into a medium for communication and the contemplation of material relationships.  Two shrink wrapped screens encourage the viewer to think of the window and screens as both object and architecture.

Much of Mackie’s current work explores slowing down the process of looking, and in Open Facade this takes the form of paring back the presence of the work in the gallery, creating mystery around its conceptual and physical placement.  Embracing the change of natural and artificial light through each day suggests an inextricable temporality; an inhale and exhale of the interior and exterior, as they are mapped across the gallery space.

Theta 6.3 Hz
Miles McDougall
Friday, April 11 , 5:30pm

Miles McDougall presents Theta 6.3 Hz, a sound work developed as a response to Tom Mackie’s Open Facade.  The work uses a combination of Theta rhythms, whispered dialogue, and natural references to connect with the tranquil, and transitionary, visual and visceral experience of Open Facade.

Theta rhythms are naturally occurring oscillating pattern readings within the brain, recorded through the EEG process. EEG measures the voltage fluctuations from ionic flows within the neutrons of the brain and these readings can be expressed through an aural medium.  Theta waves, with a Hertz reading between 6-7, are closely associated with REM Sleep or Astral Projection (out of body experience).  Theta 6.3 Hz is the pedal tone or “drone” sound that is present throughout Theta 6.3 Hz. It is closely connected to the tranquility of the colour blue and the human state of euphoria.

Whispered dialogue is a strategy that is starting to be explored by sound artists which can prompt corporeal responses in listeners.  Groups such as the Society of Sensationalists, formed in 2008 on Yahoo!, and The Unnamed Feeling blog created in 2010 by Andrew MacMuiris, describe a pleasurable tingling sensation in the head, scalp, back, or peripheral regions of the body in response to visual, auditory, olfactory or cognitive stimuli.  This has in recent years been termed Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response or ASMR.  Whispering is used to transport the listener; It is seldom used as a form of communication and so carries an inherent personal intensity.

Listen/watch here-