Alexandra Spence & Katrinas Stamatopoulos

Artist Statement

Transmission ring explores overlooked moments in city environments, reclaiming potentially missed signals within our ‘noise’-filled environments. Acknowledging and embracing the unique interactions that take place between objects/people, movement/vision and sound/vibration, this film occurs between the signals, objects, bodies and territories that are located amongst city spheres. It considers the digital rubble manifest in material goods and the chaotic hidden behind controlled appearances. 

Viscerally connecting us to a cityscape we are perhaps unaware of, the images of this film travel through and amongst flesh, mechanics, communicative signals and ideals of beauty. Whilst the sounds, sourced from electronic, electro-optical & electromechanical devices within downtown Vancouver, such as radio towers, power stations, telegraph wires, neon lights, microwaves and mobile phones, reference the electromagnetic spectra of our cities. Transmission ring brings our attention to the technological and communication networks of our cities, and consequently the invisible territories that lie beyond the boundaries of both our bodies and the physical world. 

Transmission ring is part of an ongoing audiovisual collaboration between two Australian artists based abroad. London based artist Katrina Stamatopoulos and Vancouver based artist Alexandra Spence navigate notions of geographical identity coinciding with a globalized existence. It is part of an ongoing project that explores the delicately complicated link between sound and the moving image.

About the Artists 

Alexandra Spence is a sound artist and improvising clarinettist from Sydney, Australia, currently based in Vancouver, Canada. She works within the fields of improvised music, electroacoustic composition and multimedia installation. Alex is interested in the relationship between humans and their sonic environments, in the connection between sound and its context, and its relationship to experience, feeling, memory and place. Alex is influenced by landscapes, cityscapes and considerations of geographical identity. She is inspired by the idea of ‘collaborating’ with one’s environment. Alex has performed and presented work in concerts, festivals, symposiums and galleries in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Italy and France, including the NOW Now Festival, Sydney, Australia, the Toronto International Electroacoustic Symposium, and the FKL Symposium, Besenello, Italy. In collaboration with artist Katrina Stamatopoulos, Alex has presented work at DAS2015, Belfast, Ireland and Festival Images Contre Nature, Marseille, France. Alex is a MFA candidate at Simon Fraser University.

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Katrina Stamatopoulos lives and works in London. In 2013, she participated in various exhibitions and screening events, including MiniArtVideoFest, Boudapest, We live as we dream, Alone, Archive_, Sydney and BorderBody, Mixing Cities and identities, Poland. Katrina has also held a solo show 'Specimens of a Collective Condition' in both Sydney and Melbourne, and is a previous resident of the BigCi (Bilpin Ground for Creative Initiatives) in Wollemi National Park, Australia. In 2014, Katrina curated her first show titled 'Props in a game of make-believe'. 

Exploring ideas on an imaginary truth, the group show featured 7 Sydney based artists working with photography. In collaboration with Toronto based sound artist Alexandra Spence, Katrina has participated in the Windsor Artcite Festival, Canada, Festival Images Contre Nature, France and the Toronto International Electroacoustic Symposium, Canada. In 2015, Katrina’s work has been featured in the first publication of The Multiple Exposure Project titled 'Self as Subject', and in VIDEOFOCUS, Stigmart10, VideoBiennale. Her work has also been screened at DAS2015, which was held at the Beanbag Cinema in Belfast. 

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