The Ecotone: Visualising Cross-talk of ‘The Gully’ - Deep Listening on Gundungurra Country

Dr Greg Hughes

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The Ecotone: Visualising Cross-talk of 'The Gully' project emerged from my collaboration with The Painted River Project and Gundungurra Traditional Owners, under the guidance of Uncle David King, at 'The Gully', Garguree. This project intricately weaves together colour, form, sound, and motion observed during my visits to 'The Gully,' processing it alongside weather data from the location and time. 'The Gully' becomes a medium and generative conduit, more than a subject to be captured or recorded. The metaphor of signal cross-talk serves as a lens to explore the dynamics at the intersections of art, science, culture, and the environment. Just as engineers manage cross-talk in technical systems, we must identify and process cross-talk here. Disruptions and resonances blur boundaries, challenge assumptions, and inspire innovation. Indigenous knowledge, Country, art and science intersect, offering fertile ground for collaboration, understanding, and transformation. My work, a result of time spent immersed in 'The Gully', Garguree blends first-hand experiences with custom designed audio-visual data processing, providing a relay of my deep listening on Gundungurra Country.

Dr Greg Hughes

Dr Greg Hughes is a Wollongong-based media artist and a Lecturer at Western Sydney University's Design (Visual Communications) program. He's a versatile creative who uses design, visual programming, and audio-visual production to perform data painting. Greg sees creative practice as a valuable form of research, aiming to kindle curiosity, engagement and hope around critical subjects. He explores crosstalk and patterns in communication channels, human and more-than-human. Focusing on video-based outcomes, he employs custom audio-visual systems for expressive data interpolation, creating immersive viewing experiences that have been exhibited in an array of community and major regional galleries alongside prominent Australian artists.