Audiosketch is a Chamber Made podcast created and produced by Roslyn Oades. Roslyn created a series of art dates with artists about their practice, with conversations particularly referencing how they have been listening at this moment in time.

Credits

To discover more about Justin Talplacido Shoulder/Phasmahammer’s body of work, including Carrion, The River Eats and the collectives The Glitter Militia and Club Ate visit the artist’s website here.

Hear more of composer Corin Iletto’s work on Soundcloud here.

The art crushes Justin mentioned were: musician and composer 33EMYBW, Indonesian-based sound collective Gabber Modus Operandi, and Naarm (Melbourne) artist Female Wizard.

Our Audiosketch podcast title music is by Fia Fiell. All in the Same Room, is from Fia Fiell’s 2018 album of the same name, which you can find on Bandcamp here.

Additional sound design by Roslyn Oades, using the following samples courtesy of Freesound.org: Underwater Ambience by Kinoton, Underwater Sound by Fabrizo84, Submarine Sonar by Breviceps licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License.

Transcript

{Signature title music by Fia Fiell}

Welcome to audio sketch, a Chamber Made podcast dedicated to innovative artists working across performance, sound and music. I’m Roslyn Oades. And today I’m joining you from the lands of the Gadigal people, also known as Sydney. It gives me great pleasure to introduce this episode’s guest artist, Justin Talplacido Shoulder, who also goes by the pseudonym Phasmahammer. Justin describes Phasmahammer as an eco-cosmology of alter personas based on queered ancestral myth. With an innovative practice that spans visual arts, performance, club culture, theatre and film, Justin’s built a body of work that is visceral, otherworldly, and spectacular…

Roslyn Oades Hi, Justin,

Justin Shoulder Hello.

Roslyn Oades Thank you so much for joining me for this art date. I’m really excited to be meeting you.

Justin Shoulder Thanks so much for having me.

Roslyn Oades One question I like to start with because the focus of this work is sound. If you were to describe yourself as a sound right now…

Justin Shoulder Oh, wow

Roslyn Oades …what sound would you choose?

Justin Shoulder It would be the types of sounds you hear under the ocean. That muffled crunching of coral and the muffling of the sounds from above. Perhaps some sonar. I’ve been spending a lot of time snorkelling and I feel quite a calling to the aquatic space at the moment. For both its generative possibility and as a kind of like creative opening. And I guess thinking about the perception of other beings, and how they might listen? Or what kind of organs they would use to interpret their surroundings, whether that’s through vibration, or, what organisms have ears? Or what other kinds of organs do they have? I guess that’s something I’ve been thinking a bit about.

{AUDIO: underwater field recording compilation}

Roslyn Oades As I touched on in my introduction, your practice straddles a lot of different art forms and contexts. What attracts you to fostering such a multifaceted approach to your art making?

Justin Shoulder I guess I’m… I’ve been working in so many different forms. Because I’m very excited about the possibility to tell stories but also to be in constant practice. I actually studied digital media, photography and sound and video. And I started working full time in retouching as a practice. But simultaneously, I was kind of entering nightlife spaces and had a real calling to them. Mostly, because I needed something very physical to kind of get me off the screen and into my body. That type of working and co-creating space and doing events has really come about because I feel a constant desire to be in collaboration. I think that’s a big part of it.

Roslyn Oades Because you work in those different contexts – like film, club culture, theatre, choreography – do they feed each other?

Justin ShoulderOh, for sure. I like how the languages that I cultivate from all these different spaces can cross-pollinate. In many ways the club...