Seddon Archives

Seddon Archives
Presented by Big West and Tamara Saulwick (Vic). Creator/Director: Tamara Saulwick. Audio Designer: Peter Knight. Visual Artist: Susan Purdy. Performer: Rachael Dyson-McGregor. Site Management: Tirese Ballard. November 16 – 27, 2011

Seddon Archives is an inspired and inspiring personal journey in time and space.  It is a walking tour of a small part of Seddon that through story, anecdote, description, memory and sound explores old and more recent history of the area.  

One sets off, alone, into a small community park with just a simple mp3 player, comfortable speakers and the assurance there are chalk arrows drawn on the footpath that can be used as reference for directions.

A little unnerving at first, after a relaxing introduction, whilst sitting on a park bench, to the ambiance of the area by a pleasant female voice, atmospheric sounds and some stories of park life, one is directed to walk at a comfortable pace. 

The sounds, integrated by Peter Knight as Audio Designer, are lush and add a beguiling element though out.

One really only gets to travel three or four blocks; it seems much further as the area is dense with history and the journey with sourced memories.   

I delighted in a time spent in the warm spring sun – listening to community uses of the building I was resting my back against.  From the same spot an especially rich picture is drawn of past residents of number three Thompson Street.  This is done with simple and telling description of domestic changes after the war, the sounds of piano, a cat and particularly a hen house.

Throughout the tour I experience a pervading sense of the preciousness of the here and now as it is ‘experienced’ in contrast with, and because of, the imaging of the past.

The shifting and changing nature of memory is examined - particularly in the various accounts of the history of one particular block of land.  

One of the challenges in making the work would surely have been judging the amount of stimulus necessary for an enriching experience. Questions of how much, or how little, is required to spark a person’s imagination and how much stimuli is too much.  I felt I was experiencing too much visual and audio intake at the same time at the window of Seddonia the shop.  This may have been evasion on my behalf and a reluctance to hear a story that contained violence or who knows perhaps there was too much happening around me at the time.  And it is a particularly intriguing gift shop.   

Having been proactively introduced to a community chalk board I am wondering where one can be installed in my town.  I have discovered a new reverence for Magnolias and still find geology a confusing and dense subject area, and as always, think of Russians and romance as synonymous.

As I left the ‘box office’ to travel to my next show there was an elderly couple sharing their experiences of living in Seddon.  What a wonderful bonding event for this community that appears to be so welcoming to strangers.

Thankyou Seddon!

Suzanne Sandow

Photographer: Tirese Ballard

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