Garden Soundscape
Westmead is a large hospital and medical research precinct situated in Western Sydney. Gary Warner was commissioned by curator Marily Cintra for the Westmead Redevelopment Arts and Culture Strategy to develop and deliver a multi-source, multi-speaker soundscape installation in a newly created healing garden near a main entry of the precinct.
Two sets of different speaker types (in-ground and column-mounted) deliver field recorded sounds of running water and local Sydney forests, collected by the artist at various ecologically healthy locations. Various water sounds run down the centre of a large paved space that includes trees in planters, while other speakers delivering forest recordings are located in dense perimeter plantings at widely spaced intervals.
Each collection of sounds is delivered through random playback, to ensure an episodic sense that doesn’t dominate or feel like a looping sequence. In this way, people who visit the garden on multiple occasions will always experience a slightly variant soundscape.
Thanks to Dean Stevenson of Interactive Controls for managing the hardware procurement and installation on site.