We are delighted to announce that Mel O’Callaghan’s work will be featured in the forthcoming publication Direct Bodily Empathy – Sensing Sound.
Developed following the compelling exhibition of the same name at the Len Lye Centre, New Zealand, the publication is edited by Anna Briers and explores sound as both an artistic medium and a powerful form of embodied experience.
Through practices of deep listening—from audible currents and felt vibrations to sirens and noise—Direct Bodily Empathy – Sensing Sound considers how artists use sound to foster collective attunement, build knowledge and engage critically with a planet in crisis.
Catalysed by the two-part exhibition presented for the tenth anniversary of the Len Lye Centre, the publication places Len Lye in conversation with major contemporary artists from Aotearoa and abroad, pairing essays and expanded texts from leading scholars with intriguing works from the sonic field.
Across sound installation, kinetic sculpture, film, field recording, graphic scores, visual music, choreography and musical composition, the book asks urgent and imaginative questions:
Can architecture be a musical score? Can the body be an instrument? Can colour be heard? What does a healthy ecosystem sound like? What are the techno-politics of machine listening? And what kinds of sirens and warnings are needed to survive the future?
The publication includes access to an audio recording of Mia Salsjö’s A Score for the Len Lye Centre, performed by musicians from the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
Featuring work by Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Roy de Maistre, Andrew Faleatua, Oskar Fischinger, Simon Ingram, YoungEun Kim, Yona Lee, Len Lye, Machine Listening, Ross Manning, Yuko Mohri, Mel O’Callaghan, Mia Salsjö + the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Aura Satz, David Sequeira, Rachel Shearer and Weather Cry.
With texts by Anna Briers, Len Lye, Machine Listening, Gascia Ouzounian, Aura Satz, Rachel Shearer and Janine Randerson, Lleah Smith and Mark Peter Wright.
Following its inaugural release at the New York Art Book Fair from 24 September, Direct Bodily Empathy – Sensing Sound will be available through Perimeter Books and the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery shop.