Benthic community flutes Sketch 1 (sandy ghost shrimp)

at Study residency (Brunswick/Wurundjeri Woi wurrung Country)

May 2021

Benjamin Woods, ghost shrimp burrow flute, hand-blown borosilicate glass tube, 2021.

Benthic Community Flutes is a sculptural and sound work-in-progress.

 

Sketch 1 (Sandy Ghost Shrimp) has been made with the inter-tidal flows of Moonee Ponds Creek in mind. 

Video and audio material has been generated during a residency at s-t-u-d-y.space, Brunswick, 4-18 May 2021. 

This video is a work-in-progress, which also takes place alongside and within the larger context of the ongoing Tributary Project (Geoff Robinson, Ying-Lan Dann, Saskia Schut, Benjamin Woods). It is intended as a sketch for future group performance and sculpture.

This sketch of Benthic community flutes includes blown glass flutes inspired in part by the burrows of the sandy ghost shrimp. 

Thanks to: Study, Brunswick s-t-u-d-y.space (Ender, Sophie, Dilân); staff and students at Monash University (Dale Meehan, Kate Hill, Dr Terri Bird, Dr Fiona Macdonald); folks from Tributary Project (Geoff Robinson, Ying-Lan Dann, Saskia Schut); special thanks to Elena Betros-Lopez for video production; and thanks extend to City of Melbourne, Kaylene Brooks, Riley Lee, Friends of the Moonee Ponds Creek, Dr Fiona Bird, and Moreland City Council. I acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi wurrung people of the eastern Kulin Nation as the traditional custodians and owners of the lands, waters and airs on which this work take place. Sovereignty was never ceded.

FYI

Benthic communities are intertidal ecosystems of flora and fauna alive in rivers and coastal areas. One of my main references for this work-in-progress has been the Sandy Ghost Shrimp, whose burrows have been studied by Dr Fiona Bird (PhD, VU). One proposition is that these kinds of interconnecting structures are integral to sediment health of the intertidal region of Moonee Ponds Creek, given the potential for deconstructing concreted spillways from the 70s and reinstating vegetal and animal spaces. They make the water and ground.