Inland

It was with this dreamscape I entered the ABC, as artist in residence at the Audio Arts unit. I had six, blissful months to create an audio arts piece - writing, recording, composing. Inland is in four, elementally themed parts. In 2000 it was performed live at the Studio Theatre, The Sydney Opera House.  Inland, is a dream of place in four sections. Immersion tells the story of the stowaway convict, who dreams of piping water through a mountain range, Flight tells of a woman whose fantasies of flight are also dreams of death, in Stonean alcoholic opal miner finds unexpected love underground, and Heat is situated at the Maralinga bomb site, whose beauty can be found in the naming of each of its artefacts. Inland was created during an ABC Australia Council New Media Arts residency in 1999. During the residency Gretchen made several recording trips to Lightening Ridge, through the tunnels of the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Scheme, and flying in a glider, using contact microphones to make uncommon recordings not often heard on the radio. She also revisited recordings from previous trips to the Birdsville track, the Gulf of Carpenteria and the Coongie lakes in Corner Country. Inland features the voices of Aboriginal elder and Maralinga witness the late Yami Lester, pilot the late Nancy Bird Walton, opal dealer the late Greg Sherman and aviatrix Sally McCosker. Readings are by Sherre Delys, Virginia Baxter, Yves Stenning and Gretchen Miller, and the music featured is by Daryl Pratt on percussion, Peter Jenkins on clarinets and Dave Ellis on double bass. This program contains the voices of Aboriginal people now deceased.  This residency project was assisted by the Australia Council.