My chapter in the new book Creative Research in Music, edited by my colleagues Anna Reid, Jeanell Carrigan, and Neal Peres Da Costa, accounts for the creative research process for my 2015 release Noise Husbandry, an electro-acoustic installation at the Australian National Maritime Museum on Sydney’s Darling Harbour, performed by Ensemble Offspring.
Abstract
This chapter presents a case study of the work Noise Husbandry as an example of how a composer’s ongoing development of their aesthetic over several decades naturally results in a perpetual search for the new, and ongoing innovation in artistic practice. Noise Husbandry is an installation work on board HMAS Onslow (a retired submarine of the Royal Australian Navy) and HMAS Vampire (a destroyer) as part of the Action Stations exhibition at the Australian National Maritime Museum on Sydney’s Darling Harbour. In this multi-movement, interactive electro-acoustic work, composer James Humberstone extended philosophies and compositional approaches established in his earlier work, and fused them with a new study of digital media, bespoke computer network system, and ideas that have compositional currency. The resulting work evidences innovation at the core of aesthetic exploration.
Noise Husbandry
Noise Husbandry still plays remotely on board the HMAS Onslow and HMAS Vampire, every day. The album was released by Ensemble Offspring and can be listened-to on all good streaming services, such as this one:
James Humberstone 