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HUMAN RUINS

Human Ruins invites audiences into a virtual garden of sound sculptures.

 

Conceived and begun during the Covid-19 pandemic, the work draws upon interview materials gathered remotely from my birth country New Zealand. This work has received funding from the New Zealand government through Creative New Zealand.

 

Interviewees were invited to share a memory, to voice an opinion, to tell stories and reflect on their life and relationship to the country. These spoken words are placed within a series of virtual sculptures which populate the simulated environment.

 

The landscape of Human Ruins was created using topographical data from New Zealand’s Mt. Taranaki, the sound sculptures that make up the work are scattered across the surrounding lakes and grasslands, or upon the mountain’s very summit. In this way, the stories and thoughts expressed throughout the work are more firmly placed within their environmental context.

 

Audiences are invited to explore this landscape and to encounter the sound sculpture within; each one acts as pool of memory, the words and experiences from multiple interview subjects are fragmented, deconstructed, and recontextualised against one another.

 

Through the process of exploring, hearing, seeing, and interacting with these sculptures, a story is told. Not the story of an individual life, but of a cascade of thoughts and impressions, virtues and flaws, hopes and fears.

 

Human Ruins sees Clovis McEvoy taking on the role of composer, sound designer, visual artist and programmer – generating all sound and musical elements, creating all visual materials and designing all interactive systems.

 

The project is still a work in progress, and early 2026 is planned for its premiere.

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