radio radia

Questions of Travel

By Jo Burzynska

Questions of Travel is a sonic travelogue inspired by two poems that chart different but interlinked journeys, created largely from recordings made on my own travels around the world. The first part, created specifically for this programme, draws on and uses fragments of the Elizabeth Bishop poem, Questions of Travel. The second, was the sound element of an audio-olfactory installation at the Institute for Art and Olfaction (2016, Los Angeles) and takes a sensuous journey through external to internal worlds using Charles Baudelaire’s La Chevelure as its guide.

Additional Creative Commons recordings used courtesy of Taira Komori, Andy Gardner, Glen Faramach and Panta Rei.

Jo Burzynska – who also works under the name Stanier Black-Five – is an Australasia-based sound artist and writer. Her audio work largely comprises soundscapes created by the manipulation of her own minimally processed environmental recordings. In a career that spans twenty years, she has recorded, exhibited and performed her works internationally. In recent years this has seen her make a number of sound releases, such as her CD album Avast! on Belgium’s Entr’acte label and Alone with the Black Spirits vinyl release on the UK’s Rail Cables; exhibit sound installations at Australasian galleries to Rome’s MAXXI; and perform shows and festivals around the world. In recent years her work has increasingly been created at the intersection of the senses; always using sound, but often combined with taste and olfactory elements. Also a writer and editor, she has contributed to specialist publications such as The Wire, and co-edits Australasia’s only sonic arts print publication, Writing Around Sound. She currently lives in Sydney, where she is researching sound and the multisensory for a PhD at the University of New South Wales.

More information about Jo and her work can be found at joburzynska.com