Listen: Warm sounds and cold twinkles

From the lecturer

This online exhibit is the result of an exciting collaboration between Te Papa and the second year music production and composition students at Massey University in Pōneke Wellington. Throughout the students’ composition course, we were exploring ways that they could convey meaning through music, from the way we can use sound design to set a mood, how we can use musical structure to show development, to the way we might use particular instruments or sounds to imply different musical and cultural contexts.

This collaboration saw the students tour Te Papa’s Toi Art with curator Lizzie Bisley and museum education specialist Laura Jones, where the students were invited to choose an artwork and musically respond to the kōrero or kaupapa of that work. It was exciting to see how the music created demonstrates a wide variety of aesthetic and a range of different ways of exploring the themes and narratives connected with the chosen artworks. Many of the artworks prompted students to not only consider a musical response, but to also reflect on their own identity, exploring that through the artwork and their music.

The student’s work explores a range of works from Toi Art and proves to be an interesting way to further engaged with Te Papa’s art collection.

– Dr Jesse Austin-Stewart, Lecturer and Music Practice Major Coordinator, Te Rewa o Puanga - School of Music & Creative Media Production, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa – Massey University

Student responses

Read about why the students chose the artworks and what that inspired in their musical responses

Raewyn Atkinson, I Too Am In Paradise II

Raewyn Atkinson, I too am in Paradise II, time lapse digital video, 2018. Te Papa (2020-0029-1).

Francis Elworthy and Renee Burnett: Cycles of Paradise

Our piece, Cycles of Paradise, named appropriately to reflect upon Raewyn Atkinson’s 2018 work I Too Am in Paradise II, explores the organic cycles of seasonal change, life, and death. We were both drawn to the slow-moving nature of the work, with the changes being gradual and requiring work on behalf of the viewer to distinguish. We were also intrigued by the format of this piece, condensing over 10 months of film into just 50 minutes, giving the viewer a unique look into the seasonal and organic change throughout the year.

Amosa Lene and Riley Piakura: Pots

We selected this artwork piece because we were really intrigued by the themes it was exploring about life and death. The timelapse of the unfired clay pots decaying held a really strong message that we felt really resonated with us. We were in awe of the vibe and the ambience surrounding this particular artwork in Te Papa and, as music students, we wanted to convey this musically.

Xavier Walsh: Untitled

[I Too Am In Paradise II’s] portrayal of the cycle of growth and decay deeply resonated with me, serving as a constant reminder of life's ongoing processes.

Wayne Barrar, Strew from ‘Fos. Marine, Jors, Jutland’

Wayne Barrar, Strew from ‘Fos. Marine, Jors, Jutland’. Slide made by M Rasmussen (NY), c. 1885 (bright field illumination variant), albumen print, 2014. Te Papa (O.049372)

Abby Pretorius and Derek Lowe: Strew

When choosing an artwork to work on, we decided on the ‘Strew’ piece from Wayne Barrar’s collection. We felt drawn to its chaotic layout with the sense of formality due to its scientific nature. Something so structured, yet placed in such disorder, brought up a lot of questions surrounding where this sample was taken and whether it was placed intentionally or left untouched to resemble life’s true order. Many of the other pieces within the collection included colors and patterns of different samples, whereas this particular piece was done with a black and white filter. We felt immersed into a world that we couldn’t see and started to wonder what it would sound like if we were to shrink down and float around in the space-like dimension. This was truly an inspiring experience.

Wayne Barrar, Shattered arranged diatoms from ‘17 forms from Oamaru’

Wayne Barrar, Shattered arranged diatoms from '17 forms from Oamaru'. From a slide by Bernard Hartley, 1996, colour pigment print, 2014. Te Papa (O.049387)

AJ Roberts and Cody Setter: Diatoms – 17 forms from Oamaru

We were inspired by 17 forms from Oamaru because we thought the artist captured the microalgae’s intricate and vibrant elegance. This piece highlights nature’s artistic beauty, all around us, yet invisible to the naked eye. We thought each of the carefully arranged diatoms in the piece had its own character. We wanted to represent as many of them as possible with various sounds, attributing different sonic characteristics based on what we thought they would sound like.

Wayne Barrar, ‘Spread and selected’

Wayne Barrar, ‘Spread and selected’ from R.H. Taylor slide (1988), San Pedro, California deposit, colour pigment print, 2013. Image courtesy of the artist. © Wayne Barrar

Manaaki Tibble and Zach Robertson: Dunes

‘Spread and Selected’ called out to us, inspiring our work because of its seemingly grandiose expanse, despite it actually being microscopic. We thought that the almost space-like look and illusion of planetary formation of the diatoms could be represented by warm sounds representing the once living microorganisms with opposing “cold” twinkles representing space and astronomical bodies. The play between size and illusion sparked musical ideas instantly, causing our compositional focus to match with the nature of this work.

Ta Moko

Markus Lawrence (Ngāti Raukawa) and Zane Binglethorne (Ngāti Tumutumu): Moko Puoro

Zane: I’ve always been fascinated by the Ta Moko exhibit at Te Papa. Since I was young, I’ve been proud of my Māori heritage, which was something my whānau always taught me. So, when we got our project brief in class, the Ta Moko exhibit immediately came to mind.

Zane and Markus: Our project was to create a piece of music inspired by the Ta Moko exhibit. We chose artwork from the Ta Moko exhibit because we were excited to explore how to blend Māori culture with modern sound design, using both contemporary software and traditional instruments.

We aimed to create music that transports listeners 300 years into the past, using sound to reflect Māori identity and rituals.

Karl Fritsch, Kelp

Kelp, 2023, by Karl Fritsch. Commissioned by Te Papa (235702)

Elise Vaudrey and Mabel Affleck: Kelp

We chose Karl Fritsch’s ‘Kelp’ to inspire our piece due to the way it takes a natural element and transforms it into an artistic creation. The juxtaposition of the kelp and the vintage lamps that are intertwined together creates beautiful synergy. The general ambience and outer-worldly feel the piece brings certainly intrigued us and we were interested to see how we could explore these themes musically.