Document Type
Creative Work
ANZSRC / FoR Code
1904 PERFORMING ARTS AND CREATIVE WRITING
COinS
Creative Work
1904 PERFORMING ARTS AND CREATIVE WRITING
Publication Details
Bobis, M. C. (2002). The Covenant Poetry Soundscape: composed around a poetic text. National broadcast: The Listening Room, ABC Radio.
Digital file not available. For access to the CD (audio file) of this item, please contact Michael Organ, Manager Repository Services: morgan@uow.edu.au.
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RESEARCH IMPACT STATEMENT
Research Background
Poetry is ideal for radio performance. A poem and a radio piece are oral-aural, intimate, layered and polyphonic. A small image/sound can evoke a domestic scene or all of history. But what if a poem is broken up, and the breaks/spaces filled with historical documentaries? What happens in this junction between fact and fiction?
Research Contribution
The author adapted her poem, ‘Covenant’, which is about the aftermath of a town’s bombing from a child’s ‘innocent’ point of view, into a radio soundscape using excerpts of war/scenes of carnage from historical documentaries, from the bombing of Hiroshima all the way to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. The poem was broken up to map out the progression of wars through history and interrogate issues of arms production and terrorism, especially the hijacking of language as a tool for ‘softening’ the impact of violence. Historical yet highly contemporary, the work marries art and politics. Poetry and the violent, eerie language of war are in constant conversation. This polyphony of voices, sounds, historical landmarks and fact and fiction create a hard-hitting theatre for the ear.
Research Significance
This ABC Radio production has been broadcast nationally four times (2002-2009), among them in The Great War Weekend Series and recently in Bringing the War Home as ABC Airplay’s contribution to the Anzac Weekend (2009). The piece was ABC’s entry to the 2002 international US Third Coast Festival.