5x5x5 is an Arts Centre Melbourne initiative which creates a mentorship program for five emerging Victorian-based composers aged 30 years and under, increasing their skills, professional networks and public profiles. The project supports five emerging composers (mentored by an established musician) to each create a new composition of five minutes, created especially for five specific sites at Arts Centre Melbourne. Each new work will respond to a specific site, and will seek to illuminate, articulate and draw inspiration from an unusual site.
The piece I made for 5x5x5 is a participatory audio-visual work designed to be played in Mezz Bar. This public space interested me as a place where people often come to sit alone, and the piece aims to create a very private and intimate experience within a very public space. To play the piece you are invited to sit in one of 4 allocated seats, with a lampshade directly to your right and a vacant seat to your left and to follow my actions as precisely as possible so that your tactile sensation is coupled with the sound. The piece is titled hapnophobia, which is a rare phobia of touching or being touched.