FLYNN AND HUMPHREY
Short biography
Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey are Australian artists who create unexpected situations for listening. They have a long-term highly awarded collaborative practice. Their work is driven by a curiosity about listening in human and non-human ecologies and seeks to evolve and engage with new processes and audiences through public and participative interventions. They work with emerging technologies, cultural groups, sites, and experts across practice and ensemble-made processes. Their current creative obsessions include acoustics of the dark, existential risk, and ecological and cultural impacts of practice. Maddie and Tim are based in Naarm/Melbourne, Australia.
Maddie and Tim’s works have been presented by major festivals and contemporary art spaces, including Setouchi Triennale and Kinosaki Arts Centre (Japan); Busan Sea Art Biennale, Ansan Arts Festival, and Seoul Street Arts Festival (Republic of Korea); Brighton Festival and Science Gallery London (UK); Sonica Festival ; Edinburgh Festival and Counterflows Festival (Scotland); ANTI Festival and Oulu Capital of Culture (Finland); Prague Quadrennial (Czech Republic); Theatre der Welt (Germany); Ars Electronica (Austria); Melbourne Festival, Perth Festival, Sydney Festival, MONA FOMA, ACCA, ArtsHouse, Melbourne Recital Centre, Substation, Sydney Opera House and Bundanon, and Science Gallery Melbourne (Australia). Their awards include the national Australia Council Experimental Arts Award, APRA-AMCOS awards for Experimental Music, GreenRoom Awards for Sound and Hybrid Arts, Melbourne Festival award and an Honourable Mention Ars Electronica.
A bit longer here
Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey are leading Australian audio conceptual artists who create unexpected situations for listening. They have a long term collaborative practice. Their work is driven by a curiosity and questioning about listening in human culture and seeks to evolve and engage with new processes and audiences, through public and participative interventions. Their highly awarded practice intertwines local, national and international relationships. Employing diverse approaches of experiencing and sensing through sound, they seek to push for a sensitive, critical, and learning practice of listening with care and innovation.
Commissions in 2022 include Dark Quiet at Bundanon, by Finding our Voice, curated by Genevieve Lacey: Deluge for Science Gallery Melbourne: Witness Stand for Brighton Festival UK: Ghost Tunes for Counterflows Scotland: There is no point of no return for Sonica Festival Scotland: bellwether for WIREDLAB, and new scores for Sarah Austin’s An UnCertain Time and Child of Now, Arts Centre Melbourne.
Commissions in 2021 include relay/country remembers her name for MONFAFOMA, Witness Stand for Perth Festival Witness Stand for Homo Novus Festival Latvia, Listening Club for Science Gallery Melbourne and Artshouse: Wave Gate with artist Lyno Vuth for Busan Sea Art Festival and Ghost Tunes for the UK/Australia season. They composed mutual support of precarious times for Genevieve Lacey and Marshall McGuire ARIA award winning album Bower.
In 2020, they presented their new work with Korean artist Jihyun Kim When it Rains at AsiaTopa, were part of the APAM curatorial panel, Maddie curated the ADAM Online Lab in Taiwan with River Lin and the Transient Collective, facilitated the Proximity/DADAA artists lab, and together they created an online work how much time do we have? for ACCA and presented the PGH National Address on music as a chatbot, while being active in mutual aid and support projects across communities. They continue to stay connected to their art kin.
In 2017 their practice was awarded the prestigious Australia Council Award for Emerging and Experimental Artforms, making them one of only 4 artists to have received this honour.They have an ongoing practice in scoring for film and documentary: most recently Imagined Touch for the ABC. Their work is in high demand locally, nationally and internationally: recent commissions and presentations in Australia include ASIATOPA Melbourne, Perth Festival, MONA FOMA, Sydney Festival: in Asia Setouchi Trienalle, Japan: Kinosaki International Art Centre, Japan: Asian Cultural Centre, Gwangju, Korea: Seoul Festival, South Korea: TPAC, Taiwan: in Europe/UK Theater der Welt, Germany: ANTI Festival Finland: Prague Quadrennial, Czech Republic: Brighton Festival, UK and Sonica Festival, UK.
Ongoing projects include Five Short Blasts for a flotilla of boats, Pivot , a field of artificially intelligent seesaws, and Weekly Ticket, an artist at Footscray Station for 15 years. They are key collaborators and curators in both national and international programs, supporting emerging and established artists: these include curatorial roles for APAM ( Australian Performing Arts Market), ArtsHouse Melbourne, ADAM (Asia Discover Asia Meeting) Taiwan, PAMS ( Performing Art Market Seoul) and Counterflows, Scotland. They are currently working with Lyno Vuth, of SASA arts Cambodia on the development of a long term artist led translocal festival.
Awards include several Green Room Awards for Excellence in Hybrid Arts, two Australian National AMC-APRA Award for Excellence in Experimental Music, and the Melbourne International Festival Award. They are in high demand as creative collaborators across artforms and international regions. Their current areas of interest are sound and audience embodiments, the acoustics of the dark, existential risk, artificial intelligence in public space, and long form socially engaged public art interventions. Their work is documented at www.madeleineandtim.net