Art, in all the wrong places

There is no generic description that captures the essence of darkness. And this is what makes darkness so compelling.Thank you to all the friends who have generously shared with me their thoughts. You are my inspiration. Thank you.Written, edited and produced by M. Cristina MarrasFeaturing (in alphabetical order):Hala Abdelnour, Christian Astourian, Fabio Bruno, Essan Dileri, Samantha Easton-Cavanagh, Brett Ellenport, Daniele Ferlito, Magica Fossati, James Jackson, Kenton Miller, Nicola Morelli, Peter ‘Chook’ O’Rourke, James Panichi, Maurizio Pascucci, Samuel Sakama, Andi Snelling, Cate Taylor, Chloé Thibaux, Claudia van Vliet, Frankie van Vliet, Michael van Vliet, Tony Yap.Photo by Matthias Müllner on UnsplashMusic Epidemic SoundThis is part #3 of my explorations on darkness. See also EXPLORATION #1 (games we play in the dark) and EXPLORATION #2 (why is dark-ness).[23/09/2021]

My take on Piazza San Marco's soundscape. A narrative interpretation inspired by the memory of a trip that I took to Venice many years ago with my Australian boyfriend who didn't manage to captured with his toy camera the beauty of a deserted Piazza San Marco. My last trip to Venice resulted in a surreal feeling as I found myself alone in the square. [11/09/2021] Created for Cities and Memories

There are many questions related to darkness, so many that it is difficult choosing where to start from.Darkness is an overused metaphor to describe negative feelings. We need to remember that, like all metaphors, it is just an image.This is part of my explorations on darkness. Its reality is rich in meanings and suggestions. Here I explore some of them.Words, production and sound design by M. Cristina MarrasVoice Romeo M. Minutolo[12/08/2021]

Always a pleasure playing at Sarag Geis' Audio Playground. This is my take on Assignment#16: "Make a podcast for your current commute" compiled while Italy was in total lockdown because of COVID. Photo by Benoit Roy on Unsplash[02/10/2020]

A tale of killer fish, a killer lion, an expensive camera (that I hoped was going to save someone's life), a mysterious video animation and dreams so vivid that you have to get dressed and go out (and even then you think that going out could be itself part of the scary dream).And then lockdowns, fears, water, fish tanks, memories and why I avoid thinking of interesting things before falling asleep.Voice, words, production and sound design by M. Cristina Marras[01/10/2020]

Inspired by David Foster Wallace's essay of the same title, created for Radiotonic (ABC Radio National) and produced by Jesse Cox. Fascinated by lobsters, I take on a journey that starts from the stalls of Melbourne busy Victoria Market and takes me straight into an adventure that includes Sardinian wisdom, lobster police, a protective German shepherd, Jean Paul Sartre, the B-52’s and religious enlightenment.No lobster was harmed in the making of this program.Writer: Cristina Marras Sound Engineer: Mark Don Producer: Jesse CoxHere the link to the original broadcast - Consider the lobster (Radiotonic | ABC Radio National, 13 Nov 2015) Radiotonic was the best thing that could happen to sound.

ON AIR FEST OFFICIAL SELECT 2022 Imagine being unable to speak your native language, and that your choice is between using whatever language you were taught as a kid or to use English, if you want to be heard. Welcome to my world! Fluent in three languages but unable to communicate with my illiterate grandmother, who only spoke Sardinian, I found myself mourning the loss of culture and familial connection this bizarre situation brought.This piece was part of #AllTheBest programming allthebestradio.com/featured/459-lost-connections/Voice, words, production and sound design by M. Cristina Marras[30/03/2021]

Created for Sarah Geis' Audio playground "Roll a pair of dice. Make a 1-minute doodle inspired by that number. Guest prompt from Rob Rosenthal and Gwen.Here all assignments www.audioplayground.xyz/assignments.Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

In Italy we devote three years to the study of Dante’s Holy Comedy, but despite of analysis and exegesis, no one remembers Purgatory and Heaven, we all remember Hell.Amongst the many characters encountered in Hell, Odysseus is one of those that I’ve always loved because I very much identified with his spirit of rebellion against rules and his passion for discovery. Reading the story of Odysseus today, I still love it, but I cannot avoid thinking that behind every hero there is a multitude of enablers, people who must take care of the dirty, hidden, unsatisfactory and unheroic daily tasks, so that the destined hero can take his masculine place among the other masculine heroes.I decided to tell the heroic story through the eyes of one of those enabler, making her a woman in love who doesn’t regret having followed her hero to Hell, at the cost of hiding her true self, because her love for Odysseus is second only to her love for discovery and adventure.Part of the Inferno project to imagine and compose the sounds of Dante’s Hell, marking the 700th anniversary of The Divine Comedy. To find out more, visit www.citiesandmemory.com/infernoVoice, words, production and sound design by M. Cristina Marras

Some things are better left untold.Created for Sarah Geis' Audio Playground www.audioplayground.xyz/Photo by 8 verthing on Unsplash

Sonic poem inspired by my last 5 Google searches, created as Assignment #12 for Sarah Geis' Audio Playground www.audioplayground.xyz/[02/10/2020]

What does it feel like when you want to hug someone but you know that you should not? Or when you do, despite knowing that you should not?This is the new normal, when even the most mundane tasks, like taking the shopping to your elderly mother, become source of worry and doubt.Initially created as Assignment #10 for Sarah Geis' Audio Playground, "Create an audio hug, 1-minute or less", Hug was featured on Australian broadcaster FBI Radio, on the program All The Best, and was also one of 2021 On Air Fest Official Selects.[02/10/2020]

What does the opposite of inspiration sound like? It's an endless litany of audio prompts delivered with horrible audio and without any sense or order. Created as Assignment #13 for Sarah Geis' Audio Playground www.audioplayground.xyz/[02/10/2020]

You are a weatherperson. Dress up, go outside, and give a 1-minute weather report. Created as Assignment #2 for Sarah Geis' Audio Playground www.audioplayground.xyz/[02/10/2020]

It’s 2pm on a regular Thursday in the year 2050. Record a 30-second dispatch. Created as Assignment #11 for Sarah Geis' Audio Playground www.audioplayground.xyz/[02/10/2020]

I don’t have a single picture from when the wall came down. That Thursday in 1989, I didn’t even take my camera with me, on purpose, and mind you, I never stepped outside without my Minox. Rule number one is that you don’t take pictures if you don’t understand what is happening. But not having taken any picture doesn’t mean that I don’t keep the images of those days safe in my mind.

"At the end I didn't meet Franca, and Michaela was in Spain on a study trip. Can you believe it? You are one of the few people who was actually born in Berlin and you miss it. For a stupid study trip to Spain."Cristina has moved to West Berlin to learn German. She is young and everything is exciting. Even the occasional trip to East Berlin. Then on the afternoon of the 9th November 1989, history happens.STORY AND SOUND DESIGN: Cristina MarrasVOICE: Cristina Marras and Stefano Olla (voice messages)[26/09/2019]

So, I guess this is the suspended time we keep on talking about, a time that is not here nor there. Like the time...Text, production and sound design by Cristina MarrasPhoto by Mohammadreza Asherloo on Unsplash

Museums as machines to create stories. Sometimes things happen, on a summer afternoon, when there is nothing better to do.This came back to me from some forgotten lane of my past, after listening to a lecture given in Melbourne by Rory Hyde in August 2015.Voice, words, production and sound design by M. Cristina MarrasOpera singer courtesy of Ramston Soprano riffs courtesy of tweedledee3 Music Epidemic sound[13 Aug 2015]

ON AIR FEST OFFICIAL SELECT 2022 When I think about the dark, I think about a game that I used to play as a kid. I am here, in a house that is not mine. I’m here with my friend, I’ll call him Mario (I’ll tell you later why). I’m 11, he is one year younger than me.Text, Voice and Production by M. Cristina Marras[10/06/2021]

Sarah Geis' Audio Playground. assignment #20Eulogize an object you have lost. Guest prompt from Zak Rosen.EulogyAudioPlaygroundSoundrich[28/07/2021]

A woman arrives at Melbourne Airport after a 24-hour flight from a frozen Berlin winter. The reunion she has been counting down to is moments away — and something has shifted. This is a quiet interior portrait of a traveller caught between the momentum of a decision already made and the uncertainty that surfaces only when the moment of no return is finally here.Created for Cities and Memory

A lone figure moves through Venice with a hidden recorder, gathering voices and sounds from strangers who have no idea they are being captured. Part field recordist, part outsider, part something harder to name — this is a first-person account of listening as compulsion, observation as survival, and sound as the only thread connecting someone to a world they no longer quite belong to.For Cities and Memory

A reluctant tourist's stream-of-consciousness spirals through Rome's sun-drenched Giardino degli Aranci: acrobatic jets overhead dredge up a grim German tragedy, an off-key Elvis crooner grates, heels sink into pebbles, and a too-polite, too-short suitor fails to impress—or even buy a prosecco. From bored sighs to bladder panic, one woman's hilariously miserable June day begs the question: why didn't she stay home?

2018 is the 26th anniversary of the Mafia murder of anti-mafia prosecutors Paolo Borsellino and Giovanni Falcone and of their escorts. They have become symbol of an Italy that fights and does not surrender to organised crime. Cosa Nostra bosses have been condemned for the killings but there is still the shadow of alleged State-mafia talks over the two bomb slayings of Falcone and Borsellino. Sicilian prosecutors called the investigation into the Borsellino killing "the biggest cover-up in Italian history".In my recording I have put together the newsreader breaking the news of Falcone’s killing, together with the voices of people discussing the impact of those killings, as well as pro-mafia protesters at a ceremony for the naming of a public space to their memory. I have also included the voice of Falcone himself saying that the mafia is a human made phenomenon, and as such it’ll pass soon or later.I have distorted the original sound to make it ominous and menacing, highlighting basses and low frequencies. The original recording appears as a contrast of 'joyous patriotism'. I am not implying any relation between the soldiers singing at the parade and the killing of the two magistrates, I have just used the song as a representation of the Italian state, covering up and colluding with the mafia.Created for Cities and Memory.