Finley Wegener. Juried Artist
Dreaming of the Sea. VENTSpace.
Artist Statement
What if musical and audiovisual artworks were phenomena that we could experience tangibly with our bodies? What if our presence within the artwork could be the source from which the media grew? This work, ‘The Human Theremin Project’, has been created in response to questions like these by audiovisual artist Fin Wegener and contemporary choreographer Soleil Harvey. Unfolding from experiments with movement controlled music systems, the interactive performance work uses motion tracking and machine learning to generate artistic potentialities that are unlocked and activated through the human body. Performing movement,Harvey executes composed and improvised choreography that manipulates parameters within Wegener’s modular synthesiser to reveal ambient atmospheres and experimental soundscapes. Meanwhile, Wegener simultaneously directs the music throughout long-form structure and mixes body visualisation projections that suggest new movements to Harvey. Bound together through cross-medium interpretations of sound, dance and visual art, the two performers explore artistic terrain that reveals itself in response to movement, ultimately creating a captivating transperceptual spectacle that highlights the endless possibilities sprouting between digital and physical worlds.
About the artists
The Abstract Human Radio (Abhura) is the creative moniker of Meanjin-based producer Fin Wegener. The project encompasses experimental ambient and dance music production, projection art and interactive installation works that explore immersion and interactivity with the arts through technology. Through fluidity of medium, Abhura’s work is underpinned by an effort to translate energy between senses, creating captivating environments and meaningful experiences.
As a perpetually multimedia project, Abhura continues to escape definition and instead envelopes each new interest and venture that Wegener undertakes, from performances of generative music in surround sound, to audio-generated/reactive visual projections at various events and the development of the Abstract Human Theremin; an infrared motion tracking system that maps body movements to parameters of a modular synthesizer.
Across these disparate elements, the project maintains a definitive conceptual and aesthetic aim: to combat the alienation from the human condition inoculated within late-stage capitalism by welcoming audiences into immersive and calming environments that encourage introspection, peacefulness and meditation.
Soleil is a contemporary dancer, maker and teacher based in Meanjin (Brisbane). She attained an Advanced Diploma in Dance in 2018 through ADPI (Australian Dance and Performance Institute) and completed Sydney Dance Company’s Pre-Professional Year in 2019. Since then she has worked independently, performing in ‘Colossus’ by Stephanie Lake for Sydney Festival 2020, ‘SAND’ by Courtney Scheu and Itamar Freed as a part of Horizon Festival 2022, ‘Raise The Roof: Dionysus Redux’ in Brisbane Festival 2022, ‘LAMINA’ with VOiiiD Collective, ‘Hot & Heavy’ with The Ironing Maidens for Cairns Festival 2023 and Opera Australia’s season of AIDA at QPAC in December 2023. Soleil finds herself in the exploration of her early career and looks forward to developing and deepening her creative practice.
Credits: Finley Wegener, Lauren Sherlock, Soleil Harvey