Roger Dean Roger Dean i(A61837 works by)
Also writes as: Australysis
Gender: Male
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Works By

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1 Dolphins in the Reservoir Hazel Smith , Roger Dean , Will Luers , 2022 single work prose
— Appears in: TEXT Special Issue , no. 69 2022;
'‘Dolphins in the Reservoir’ is an interactive recombinant work of moving images, text and sound. It confronts the many social challenges we face through the subjective, contradictory and often uncanny experiences of individuals. Thematically it passes through challenges to health, the environment, and fast-eroding democracy; our attempts to educate order out of chaos; philosophical and scientific ways of thinking about consciousness; and possible futures, including the rise of AI. Its recurrent dolphin theme transmutes many of these ideas.Saturated with media, the individual experiences a multimodal montage of the imaginal and mundane, the institutional and vernacular, the dystopian and utopian.. Juxtaposed and multilayered, the text, images and sound employ polysemy and synaesthesia while the interface evokes a murky, liminal realm. ‘Dolphins’ is structured in six distinct cycles, which repeat with variation. A single cycle of the work grows from isolated media fragments towards a dense plurality and diversity. V/users can drive the piece with clicks, and they can drag to rearrange elements. Three preformed musical sources juxtapose acoustic and digitally transformed sound, including sonified Covid-19 wave statistics. ‘Dolphins’ features trumpet by internationally renowned soloist John Wallace, our collaborator in (austra)LYSIS, the creative ensemble of which all three authors are part.' (Publication abstract)
1 form The Afterlives of Betsy Scott Australysis , 2007 single work drama radio play

''The Afterlives of Betsy Scott' is a sound technodrama: it interweaves spoken text, sound and technological manipulation of voice and sound. The work focuses on events leading up to the hanging in 1863 of Elizabeth Scott, who was the first woman to be executed in Victoria.

'Elizabeth was accused, together with her alleged co-conspirators David Gedge and Julian Cross, of murdering her husband. However there was no direct evidence to convict Elizabeth, and there were also mitigating circumstances. The script explores the ambiguities around the case and Elizabeth Scott's character, and mixes historical documentation with fiction. Combining drama, narrative and poetry, it moves in and out of time and between real and unreal environments.'

Source: ABC Radio National website, http://www.abc.net.au/rn/
Sighted: 22/10/2007

1 Time, the Magician Hazel Smith , Roger Dean , 2005 2005 single work poetry
— Appears in: How2 , vol. 3 no. 2 2007; The Erotics of Geography: Poetry, Performance Texts, New Media Works 2008;

'Time, the Magician (2005) is a collaboration by Hazel Smith and Roger Dean written in the real-time algorithmic image-processing program Jitter. The piece begins with a poem, written by Hazel, on the subject of time: influential on the writing of the poem was Elizabeth Grosz's The Nick of Time. The poem is initially performed solo, but as it progresses is juxtaposed with live and improvised sound which includes real-time and pre-recorded sampling and processing of the voice. The performance of the poem is followed (slightly overlapping) by screened text in which the poem is dissected and reassembled. This screened text is combined in Jitter with video of natural vegetation, and the sound and voice samples continue during the visual display. The text-images are processed in real time so that their timing, order, juxtaposition, design and colours are different each time the work is performed.'

Source: How2 3.2 ([2007])

1 Sound AFFECTs : Friendship, Community, Bodies Anne Brewster , Hazel Smith , Roger Dean , 2004 single work
— Appears in: TEXT : The Journal of the Australian Association of Writing Programs , October vol. 8 no. 2 2004;
1 The Writer, the Performer, the Program, the Madwoman Hazel Smith , Roger Dean (composer), 2004 single work
— Appears in: How2 , Spring vol. 2 no. 2 2004;
'the writer, the performer, the program, the madwoman is a performance piece which involves sampling and real-time manipulation of voice and text using interactive computer programs written by Roger Dean. The piece is different each time it is performed, because the sampling and real time manipulation are always improvised. The piece is about the struggle between the different identities of a contemporary writer as she moves beyond words on the page, and allows her work to be transformed by performance and technology. Real-time manipulation blurs the roles of writer, performer, audience and computer program, and creates a productive conflict for the writer between control and loss of control. In the piece this tension is dramatised as a power struggle between the writer and other forces, and a balancing act between madness and sanity.' (Working Note: How2 Vol. 2 no. 2, Spring 2004)
1 Minimal Hazel Smith , Roger Dean , 2002 2002 single work poetry
— Appears in: How2 , vol. 3 no. 2 2007; The Erotics of Geography: Poetry, Performance Texts, New Media Works 2008;

'Minimal (2002) is a relatively sparse and ironic piece with text performed by Hazel Smith. In addition, pre-recorded samples of the voice are employed by Roger Dean with minimal processing in order to create multiple conflicting strands of speech. ... [E]ach performance of the piece is unique.'

Source: How2 3.2 ([2007])

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