Playback Kandos Museum for Cementa 24

Playback Kandos Museum (PKM) is a community engagement art project delivered in partnership with Kandos Museum for the Cementa 24 festival. PKM invited participants to listen to a narration of an object from the museum collection and then translate it into material form. I worked closely with Kandos Museum Curator Fiona MacDonald, to select an item from the collection, that connected with the mining heritage of Kandos. The item also had to be accessible for participants to independently re-create from audio.

The audio and transcript of the object were available online and the invitation to participate was promoted broadly through digital and print media. Locally, I facilitated listening and making workshops at Kandos Museum and at local schools. Over 50 iterations of the object were created, with participants from neighbouring towns in Central West NSW, as well as, Sydney’s inner-city, western and northern suburbs.

By engaging participants to listen and respond to a narration of an item from the collection, enables multiple social readings of that item to be told and re-told through the kinks of perception and lived experience. Each edition is made signature by the maker’s hand, expressing their relationship to material and place. On the surface this display presents a snapshot of levels of accuracy, similarities and differences. On reflection, the work invites audiences to consider notions of listening and perception on artefacts that are collected and preserved to inform social values and re-count shared histories.

Participants created responses to PKM through materials and mediums including fabric, cardboard, knitting, ceramics, found objects, painting and dance. These works will be exhibited at Kandos Museum as part of Cementa, 19-22 September, 2024.

Anyone from Anywhere – Community Engagement

PKM was developed over a two-year period. In 2023, I facilitated eight listening and making workshops in Kandos and Rylstone. These workshops were attended by over 50 participants and held at Kandos High School, Kandos Primary School, Rylstone Public School and Kandos Museum. Radio interviews were also held with KRR98.7FM and ABC Central West Radio. Funding for workshops was supported by Create NSW’s Country Arts Support Program, a devolved funding program administered by Arts Out West.