Climate Notes

Climate Notes is a multimedia installation and performance project by Anna Mcmichael (violin) and Louise Devenish (percussion) It builds on the Is This How You Feel project, a collection of handwritten letters from 50 leading international climate scientists created in 2014 and 2020. This powerful collection of letters expresses both despair about lack of action, and hope for effective solutions. This emotive project features new musical works for violin and percussion by Australian composers Damien Barbeler, Kate Moore, Bree van Reyk, Cathy Milliken, Dylan Crismani and Daniel Blinkhorn, presented both in video installation and live music performance, alongside an interactive letter wall that attendees can contribute their own ‘climate note’ to. Climate Notes propels us to consider what it feels like to live through a time when climate change affects every aspect of our lives. These musical works for violin, percussion, and electronics are paired with moving images, including material from the Melbourne Royal Botanic Gardens' collections. They are presented as part of this installation and in performances that combine the original letters from scientists with new music from composers and invite people to consider their own emotions surrounding the threat of climate change by writing their own letter and sharing it in the installation. In this project, composers and performers reflect on these letters, bring musical life to pressed plant specimens, perform in place at Cranbourne Desert Gardens, improvise using discarded “flotsam and jetsam” such as styrofoam and plastic, build and perform on a “replica tree”, integrate field recordings of various natural biomes, and use the existing natural environment as inspiration. Understanding and withstanding a major challenge calls for emotional not just intellectual effort: feelings as well as facts, stories as well as statistics. Climate Notes propels us to consider what it feels like to live through a time when climate change affects every aspect of our lives. 'Climate Notes' Performances and exhibitions have appeared at Melbourne Royal Botanic Gardens (2 weeks 2022), Backstage Music Festival (Sydney 2022), Mona Foma Festival (Hobart 2023), COP28 (Dubai 2023), across 3 libraries at Monash University (October- November 2023) and Adelaide Botanic Gardens (10 days - 2024). Read more about Climate Notes: Monash Lens [2022]. Fragments of the works can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWGdGzq0w24 https://www.monash.edu/mcccrh/projects/completed/climate-notes