Risonanze di Vino

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IMG_6898Montesarchio, Italy, October 2018

Risonanze di Vino was a residency project in which I explored the interactions between the sounds and wines, culture and senses in wine regions within Campania, Southern Italy. Curated by Leandro Pisano and supported by Nicola Carfora, this project sought to uncover resonances between the sensory and affective connections of local winegrowers – predominantly located in Sannio/Valle Caudina areas – and their wines and land. These responses helped guide the making of audio recordings in their vineyards and wineries, which were then used in the creation of site-specific soundscapes for one wine from each of the six producers visited.

 

Masseria Fratassi's Pasquale Clemente up Mt Taburno

Masseria Fratassi’s Pasquale Clemente up Mt Taburno

Cantine Giardino's Daniela di Gruttola and her amphorae

Cantine Giardino’s Daniela di Gruttola and her amphorae

Each soundscape aims to reflect the connections articulated by the maker of the selected wine through sounds of that wine’s sonic ‘terroir’, sourced from its place and production. The individual soundscape was also designed to harness perceptual correspondences between elements of the sounds recorded and the salient aroma and flavour characters of the individual wine, which is tasted as part of the work. The wine and sound combined offers a sensory transmission of the complex cultural and personal contexts of the wine’s making, heightened by the works’ crossmodal harmony.

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The works from Risonanze di Vino were premiered on 7 October, 2018 at Cristina Park Hotel, Montesarchio, Italy. The wines used were:

 

Masseria Parisi Resolje Moscato Spumante de Baselice NV

Masseria Fratassi SVG920 2017

Vallissasoli 33/33/33 2013

Fontanavecchia Libero Taburno Falaghina 2007

Cantina Giardino Bianco 2017

Cantine Tora “Spartiviento” Aglianico del Taburno Riserva 2011

 

Further and more detailed documentation may well be forthcoming!

 

 

The Plant Contract

The Plant Contract Cover“If the plant contract is an effort to redress damages incurred upon nature due to human over-dominance and extreme sovreignity over the natural world, then Jo Burzynska is experimenting with changing our perceptions of the vegetal life, and dabbling with the changed usage of a given landscape.”

Prudence Gibson. The Plant Contract: Art’s Return to Vegetal Life. 2018. Lieden: Brill.

I’m honoured to have a section devoted to my work in Prudence Gibson’s excellent new book on critical plant studies, The Plant Contract. In “A Baccanalian Labour,” Gibson writes about my Oenosthesia project and ongoing research into the perceptual interactions between sound and taste/flavour.

 

Recruiting Sydney wine lovers for wine and sound study

Oxford University Experiment picI’m recruiting participants to take part in a study on how sound affects the perception wine characters. This is the final part of an experiment started at Oxford University’s Crossmodal Research Laboratory with Professor Charles Spence and Dr Janice Wang that I will be finishing in Sydney.

To participate in the study you must be over 18, comfortable with consuming a small (125ml) amount of red wine and have a normal sense of smell, taste and hearing. Participants will be given red wines to taste with different sounds, and will be asked a series of questions. The experiment is a single session that takes no longer than 30 minutes. All those taking part in the study will be invited to attend a free wine and music tasting that I will host later this year in Sydney using the results of previous research.

The experiments will take place at the UNSW Paddington Campus:
22nd March 5-8pm
23rd March 11am-6.30pm
24th March 10.30am to 3pm
The 22nd and 23rd March sessions are largely booked up now, but slots are still available on the afternoon of Saturday March 24th.

And UNSW Kensington Campus:
5th April 10am-4pm
6th April (possible extra date)

Those with all levels of wine expertise are welcome. However, I’m particularly interested in recruiting participants who are able to identify body and acidity in a wine.

If you are interested, please contact me using the form below, ideally with an idea of what dates/time might suit. Slots are on the hour and half hour between the specified times.

Please do circulate this invitation to anyone else who might be interested.

Amazuppai

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The Auricle Sonic Arts Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand
June 1-24, 2017

IMG_3737Jo Burzynska’s Amazuppai work for sound and wine was part of An Audacious Decade exhibition at The Auricle Sonic Arts Gallery in Christchurch, NZ. Amazuppai uses the interactions between sound and wine to explore the physical sensations, conceptual contrasts and subconscious synergies of ‘sweet and sour’. The knife-edge balance between these two contrary but often complementary tastes and their semantic associations is explored in Amazuppai (the Japanese for sweet-sour, comparable to the idea of bittersweet). This is reinforced and destabilised through the interplay of a crisp off-dry Riesling with a modulating soundscape.

This work was created as part of Jo’s current doctoral research at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. In this, she is investigating the interactions between sound and taste and applying this in the creation of installations that work at the intersections of the senses.

Wines for the research for this piece generously supplied by the Sydney International Wine Competition and the 2015 Waipara Riesling for the installation by Pegasus Bay. Listen to the soundscape here:

Celebrating International Sauvignon Blanc Day in Style

Lashed by nettles, pummelled by passion fruit, zapped by lime zest; Sauvignon Blanc’s sometimes visceral thrill can be something of an assault on the senses. But between the bombastic specimens, there is an ever-growing number of more refined examples, which in turn can mesmerise with their minerality, appeal with their fruit purity and captivate with their complexity. It’s these styles I’m celebrating in particular this Sauvignon Blanc Day, and suggest that even those who profess to be jaded with the variety should give these a go.

 

Churton-Best-EndChurton “Best End” Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2015

Sourced from the “best end” of its Waihopai Valley vineyard, Churton’s complex and textural barrel fermented Sauvignon is evidence of the elegant power the variety can achieve in the right places and the right hands. Impeccably integrated oak and a crisp line of citrus structure this seamless wine in which pure white fruits and hints of blossom and almond wrap around its stony mineral core. The best Best End yet.

Wildmad Blanc

Lucy M Wildman Blanc Adelaide Hills 2016

The wild man of Australian wine, Anton von Klopper has made a very different expression of Sauvignon from fermenting the grapes in this example with their skins. Cloudy with a peachy hue, it has an aromatic nose that blends notes of sweet spice, clove and white fruits and a tangy palate displaying pear, apple and grapefruit aplenty, a touch of bitter herb and an attractive pithy finish.SAV16-DPV-CMYK

 

Dog Point Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2016

Dog Point are the masters of making classic Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc that combine the region’s vibrant signature with real elegance. This vintage is no exception with its aromatic nose of nettle, herb, blackcurrant leaf and flint, which leads into a palate where subtle notes of passion fruit are joined those of punchy green herbs, lime zest and hints of lemon barley, over a flinty mineral undercurrent.