Assoc Professor Philip Samartzis

Position

Associate Professor

School /
Work Unit

Art

Contact Details

+(61 3) 9925 5207

philip.samartzis@rmit.edu.au

Location

Building: 6
Level: 4
Room: 11

City Campus

College/Portfolio

Design & Social Context

On this page:

Key Activities

Philip Samartzis is Coordinator of Sound in the School of Art, and is currently coordinating and teaching the following courses in the Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) program: COMM1242 Sound Culture; COMM1267 Immersive Environments 1a; COMM1268 Immersive Environments 1b.

Philip researches in the areas of sound art, acoustic ecology and spatial sound practices, with a specific focus on art and emergency medicine, and environmental sustainability. His PhD, Surround Sound in Installation Art, examined the place of sound in contemporary art practice through a range of site determined sound art projects. In 2010 Philip was awarded fellowships by the Australia Council for the Arts, and the Australian Antarctic Division to document the effects of extreme climate and weather events on the human condition at Davis Station in Eastern Antarctica.

Qualifications

PhD 2004; MA (Media Arts) 1996; Post-Grad. Dip. (Art & Design) 1990; Cert. Japanese Language Proficiency Lv 4 1990; BA (Fine Art) 1988.

Availability

By Appointment

Research

Philip Samartzis uses field recordings of natural and constructed environments as his primary material to render densities of space and discrete zones of aural experience, which are arranged and mixed to reflect the acoustic and spatial complexities of everyday sound fields. He draws on a range of practices ranging from acoustic ecology and bioacoustics to musique concrète and sound art to arrive at compositions that highlight the pervasive nature of sound and the myriad ways in which it informs and influences our daily experiences. To emphasize this Philip designs his compositions for multi-channel surround sound systems that afford immersive and tactile listening experiences to demonstrate the transformational qualities inherent in sounds familiar and strange.

School of Art Research Clusters

Art and Environmental Sustainability
Art, Science and the Body

Research Outputs

Research Grants and Projects
  • ARC Linkage Project (2008-2010) Designing Sound for Health and Wellbeing (ID: LP0882346) (with L. Macarow; E. Grierson; G. Jelinek, T. Weiland and D. Brown).
    This is a three-phase interdisciplinary and collaborative project by researchers significant to the fields of music composition and performance, sound art, emergency medicine, art history and clinical psychology to provide a new perspective on the effect of sound and music on the health and wellbeing of patients located in the Emergency department at St Vincent’s Hospital – Melbourne.
  • ARC Linkage Project 2010-2013 Spatial Dialogues: Public Art and Climate Change (ID: 100200088) (with L. Williams; K. Sharp; L. Hjorth; S. Perry and D. Redfern).
    This is an interdisciplinary investigation of how urban media art can best respond to global climate change. Spatial Dialogues identifies ways artists and cultural theorists can collaborate with relevant industry partners to redefine public art as a trans-national and interactive process. In particular, the artworks will participate in civic dialogues on the significance of water as a precious global resource. By extending the use of urban screens with public artworks engaged in a creative use of sound and social network systems, this research pioneers ways in which the arts can play a significant role in the adaptation to climate change.
Book chapters
  • Samartzis, P. (2011). Sound, Art and Curation, in David Forrest (ed), The Curator in the Academy. Australian Scholarly Publishing. (in press)
  • Samartzis, P (2009). The Wilds, in Lisa Byrne (ed), Double Life, RMIT Press.
  • Samartzis, P (2009). Why do Electronic Birds Sing? In Laneways Commissions 09 Artist Book. City of Melbourne.
  • Samartzis, P (2009). Unheard Spaces, in Baruch Gottlieb & Ji-Yoon Yang (eds), Sound+Art: Between Music, Media Artand the Simple Act of Listening. Yonsei University Press.
  • Samartzis, P (2007). The Space of Sound, in Lesley Duxbury (ed), Thinking Through Practice. RMIT Press.
  • Samartzis, P (2006). Surface Noise, in Cat Hope (ed), Sound Scripts: The Totally Huge New Music Conference Proceedings. Edith Cowan University.
Refereed journal articles
  • Weiland, T, Jelinek, G, Macarow, K, Samartzis, P, Brown, D, Grierson, E & Winter, C (2011). Original sound compositions reduce anxiety in emergency department patients. Medical Journal of Australia. (accepted, in press).
  • Samartzis, P (2009). Sound Artists in Extremis in Douglas Kahn, Maurice O’Riordan and Sarah Last (ed) Embracing Sound, Art Monthly Australia. November
  • Samartzis, P (2009). Captured Space in Norie Neumark (ed), Sound.Music.Design. Scan: Journal of Media Arts Culture. Vol 6 No 2 September.
Conference proceedings
  • Macarow, K, Samartzis, P, Weiland, T & Brown, D (2009) Designing Sound for Health and Wellbeing. ACUADS Interventions in the Public Domain. Research 09/10, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University: Brisbane, pp 36-39, ISBN: 978-1-921291-73-9 (ARC Linkage project: LP0882346).
  • Macarow, K & Samartzis, P (2008) Fostering Edgy Practice at the Intersection of Sound Art and Emergency Medicine. The 2008 Annual National ACUADS Conference: Sites of activity / On the edge, Adelaide: ACUADS & South Australian School of Art, University of South Australia, Friday 3 October 2008.
Solo & Collaborative Exhibitions (selected)
  • Crush Grind (2011) – Contemporary Art Spaces Tasmania, Hobart
  • Echoes (2010) – Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
  • Parisonic (2010) – collaboration with Eric La Casa, Dan Warburton & Jean-Luc Guionnet, Le Jardin d’Alice, Paris, France
  • Black Habit (2009) – collaboration with Michael Vorfeld, Goethe Institute, Palermo, Italy
  • Unheard Spaces (2004) – Candiani Cultural Centre, Mestre, Italy
  • Absence and Presence (2002) – Upstream, Statenlogement, Hoorn, The Netherlands
  • Transparency (2001) - Fondation Cartier pour l’art Contemporain, Paris, France
Group Exhibitions (selected)
  • Sur Polar 2 (2010) – curated by Andrea Juan, CCEBA, Cultural Center of Spain in Argentina, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • 16 Daily Experiences (2010) – curated by Joachim Heintz for the City of Hanover, Germany
  • Seven Thousand Oaks (2010) – curated by Ben Byrne, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne
  • Opening Lines (2010) – curated by Emily Cormack, Gertrude Street Contemporary Art Space, Melbourne
  • Hybrid Arts Fest Australia (2009) – curated by Clare Cooper, Radial System V, Berlin, Germany
  • Venice Agendas VI at the 53rd Venice Biennale (2009) - Tate Britain Audio Archive, London, UK
  • 21:100:100 (2008) – curated by Emily Cormack and Alexie Glass, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne
  • Heat: Art and Climate Change 2008) – curated by Linda Williams and Suzanne Davies, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne
  • Transcentric (2008) – curated by Steven Ball & Irene Barbaris, Lethaby Gallery, Central Saint Martins, London, UK
  • Soundmuseum: Online Museum of Contemporary Sound Art (2008) curated by Nathalie Bruys and Katja van Stiphou, The Netherlands Institute of Media Arts, Amsterdam
  • SFX Seoul (2007) – curated by Baruch Gottlieb, Georg Weckwerth & Jiyoon Yang, Songwon Art Centre, Seoul, Korea
  • Promiscuous (2007) –curated by Kristian Haggblom, Gallerie Omotesando, Tokyo, Japan
  • Playing John Cage (2005) - curated by David Toop, Arnolflini Gallery, Bristol, UK
  • Shanghai Science Festival of Art & Technology (2005) - curated by Peter Westwood, Shanghai International News Centre, Shanghai Oriental Pearl Tower Zero Meter Hall, Pudong, China
  • Elastic (2004) – curated by Keely Macarow & Meredith Martin, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art
  • EMA – Electronic Music Archive (2003) – curated by Norbert Moslang, Kunsthalle St. Gallen, Switzerland
Solo Discography (selected)
  • Immersion (2006) – Split record with Bernard Parmegiani, Synaesthesia Records/Plates of Sound, Melbourne/Boston
  • Unheard Spaces (2006) – Microphonics, Melbourne
  • Soft and Loud (2005) – (Vinyl) Plates of Sound, Boston, USA
  • Mort aux Vaches (2003) – VPRO Dutch Radio and Staalplaat Records, The Netherlands
  • Windmills Bordered by Nothingness (1999) - Dorobo Records, Melbourne
  • Residue (1998) - Dorobo Records, Melbourne
Collaborative Discography (selected)
  • Soleil d’Artifice (2009) – collaboration with Eric La Casa and Jean-Luc Guionnet, Swarming, Paris, France
  • Sheckenrock (2009) – collaboration with Michael Vorfeld, Non Visual Objects, Vienna, Austria
  • Wireless Within (2005) – collaboration with Gunter Muller & Voice Crack, for4ears, St Gallan, Switzerland
  • Vinyl Anthology: The Complete Gum Recordings (2004) – collaboration with Andrew Curtis, 23five Incorporated, USA
  • Strange Love (2003) – collaboration with Oren Ambarchi & Gunter Muller, for4ears, Switzerland
  • Dance (2002) – collaboration with Seiichi Yamamoto, FMN Records, Osaka, Japan
  • f [ ] (2002) – collaboration with Kozo Inada, Digital Narcis Records, Osaka, Japan
Compilations (selected)
  • Room40 (2010) – The Wire no. 318, UK
  • Magnetic Traces: A survey of French and Australian Sound Art (2010) – Swarming, Paris, France
  • SNO Contemporary Art Projects Catalogue 2005 - 2010 (2010) - Sydney Non Objective
  • The Arts of Sound DVD (2009) - Art Monthly Australia, Issue 225
  • Room40 (2006) – The Wire no. 266, UK
  • Liquid Architecture (2005) – The Wire no. 257, UK
Performance (selected)
  • 2010, Gekko Gallery, Broome
  • 2010, Gertrude Contemporary Art Space, Melbourne
  • 2009, National Centre of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia
  • 2009, Goethe Institute, Palermo, Italy (with M. Vorfeld)
  • 2009, Rampe Theatre, Stuttgart, Germany (with R. Friedl & M. Vorfeld)
  • 2009, Cave 12, Geneva, Switzerland (with R. Friedl & M. Vorfeld)
  • 2009, Dampfzentrale, Bern, Switzerland (with R. Friedl & M. Vorfeld)
  • 2009, Werkstatt fur Improviserte Musik, Zurich, Switzerland (with R. Friedl & M. Vorfeld)
  • 2009, TUBE, Munich, Germany (with R. Friedl & M. Vorfeld)
  • 2009, Les Instants Chavires, Paris, France (with R. Friedl & M. Vorfeld)
  • 2009, La Favinera del Clot, Barcelona, Spain (with R. Friedl & M. Vorfeld)
  • 2009, VIBRA, Valencia, Spain (with R. Friedl & M. Vorfeld)
  • 2008, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (with Marcia Jane)
  • 2008, WITTS Theatre, Johannesburg, South Africa (with E. La Casa)
  • 2007, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan (with M. Vorfeld)
  • 2007, TOTAL Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
  • 2007, Observatori Festival, Valencia, Spain
  • 2007, Musiques Inventives Festival, Saint Etienne, France (with E. La Casa & JL. Guionnet)
  • 2007, Museum of Strasbourg, France (with E. La Casa & JL. Guionnet)
  • 2007, Teatro Fondamenta Nuove, Venice, Italy (with E. La Casa & JL. Guionnet)
  • 2007, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne (with P. Brophy)
  • 2006, Loop Line, Tokyo, Japan (with David Brown & KK Null)
  • 2006, Interface: Festival for Music and Related Arts, Berlin, Germany (with R. Friedl & M. Vorfeld)
  • 2005, Artspace, Auckland, New Zealand
  • 2005, Physics Room, Christchurch, New Zealand
  • 2005, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, New Zealand
  • 2005, The Dom, Moscow, Russia
  • 2005, GEZ21, St Petersburg, Russia
  • 2005, Museum of Art, Jaroslavl, Russia
  • 2005, Kokoteatteri, Helsinki, Finland
  • 2005, Superdeluxe, Tokyo, Japan

Accomplishments

  • The Arts and Health Australia Awards for Excellence in Arts and Health in Primary and Acute Care (2010)
  • Australian Antarctic Division Arts Fellowship (2009)
  • Australia Council for the Arts – Music Board Project Fellowship (2009)
  • Mention in Section 2 - Quadrivium - Category 4 of the 36th International Competition of Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Art / Bourges, France (2009)
  • Vice-Chancellor's Awards for Research Excellence for Australia Research Council Linkage Grant for Designing Sound for Health and Wellbeing (2007)
  • Asialink Arts Management Scholarship, Musashino Art University, Tokyo, Japan (2005)
  • Innovative Student Led Project Commendation, Design and Social Context, RMIT (2005)

Professional Interests

President of Liquid Architecture Festival of Sound Art

Personal Website

www.microphonics.org