Frisson investigates physical and psychological sensations experienced when listening to music. The project uses experimental analogue photography and screen printing to depict abstracted portraits of Melbourne musicians. Installation is used to study how cultivating interactions between the artwork, observer and exhibition space can produce a visual experience that unfolds in real-time. The project title directly references the phenomenology of frissons, defined as a sudden, intense emotional response to something. Many people experience frissons when listening to music, which often manifests as tingles, chills and goosebumps. As such, the studio-based research of this project responds to the theoretical study of frissons to investigate how experimental analogue photography, printmaking and installation can be used to reinterpret and iterate physical and psychological responses to music experienced as objects. Notably, the musicians who participated in this project play in several bands and maintain 'day jobs' working as sound engineers, tattoo artists and fashion designers, with several running independent recording studios and record labels. Each embodies the multilayered creative associations that ground and sustain the live music industry. Consequently their participation informs and influences the project themes and topics from the perspective of live music creative sectors. Best known as Zo Damage, I have worked in Melbourne’s live music industry for two decades as a social documentary and concert photographer and experience physical and psychological sensations when listening to music and making art which underpins my motivations for creating this project.

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Frisson (installation view, Building 50, RMIT University, Melbourne), 2021  

photographic screen-prints on acetate (35mm in-camera multi-exposures + photograms)  

800 x 800 x 2 mm

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Frisson (installation view, Building 50, RMIT University, Melbourne), 2021  

photo screen-prints on acetate (35mm in-camera multi-exposures + photograms)  

800 x 600 x 2 mm

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Frisson (installation view, Building 50, RMIT University, Melbourne), 2021  

Photo screen prints on acetate  (35mm in-camera multi-exposures + photograms)  

800 x 600 x 2 mm

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Intentional messiness (detail 1), 2021  

photo screen-print on acetate (35mm in-camera multi-exposure)  

800 x 600 x 2 mm

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Intentional messiness (detail 2), 2021  

photo screen-print on acetate (35mm in-camera multi-exposure)  

600 x 800 x 2 mm

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