Philip Samartzis

Professor Philip Samartzis

Leader of the Sound Art and Auditory Culture Lab in the School of Art

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Photo of Philip Samartzis outdoors in a snowy environment. Rocky mountains in the background with snow covering it. Philip is standing on an elevated platform, with a railing in front of him. Philip is holding two large microphones in his hands, holding them a shoulder width apart. Philip has headphones on and is looking into the distance.

Contact details

DSC | School of Art


Centre for Art and Social Transformation (CAST)


Email: philip.samartzis@rmit.edu.au


Phone: +61 46751 7778


Campus: Melbourne City


Programs

Photo of Philip Samartzis outdoors in a snowy environment. Rocky mountains in the background with snow covering it. Philip is standing on an elevated platform, with a railing in front of him. Philip is holding two large microphones in his hands, holding them a shoulder width apart. Philip has headphones on and is looking into the distance.

Contact details

DSC | School of Art


Centre for Art and Social Transformation (CAST)


Email: philip.samartzis@rmit.edu.au


Phone: +61 46751 7778


Campus: Melbourne City


Programs

Philip Samartzis is a sound artist, researcher and curator with a specific interest in the social and environmental conditions informing remote wilderness regions and their communities.

Overview

Philip Samartzis is sound artist, curator and researcher investigating the social and environmental conditions informing remote wilderness regions and their communities. The sound recordings he makes deploying advanced audio technologies are used within teaching, exhibition, broadcast and publication to demonstrate the transformative effects of climate change within a contemporary art context. In recognition of his research, Philip was selected by RMIT to represent the 1905 category of the 2018 ERA review for its impact and engagement. Philip was recently presented with the Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools Distinguished Research Award.

Philip leads two major projects in the School of Art focusing on building sound research through national and international transdisciplinary cooperation and evolving the School’s reconciliation action plan by working with remote indigenous communities in the Pilbara through collaborative sound art projects. He also co-leads the AEGIS Art and Ecologies Network which supports students and researchers investigating cultural responses to global climate change, the poetics of place, and relations between humans and animals.

Philip is a three-time recipient of the Australian Antarctic Territory Fellowship which he is using to document the effects of extreme climate and weather events. He is undertaking the most comprehensive sound study ever produced of the ice continent spanning 15 years. Philip has presented various iterations of his practice led research in France, Switzerland, Italy, Japan, NZ, UK and US. Philip’s book Antarctica, An Absent Presence (2016) is included in curricula focusing on soundscape studies and geohumanities offered by London College of Communication, Musashino Art University, Durham University, the University of Syracuse, and the Zurich University of the Arts. In recognition of the innovation of his research, Philip was selected by Australia Post to appear on the $2.20 postage stamp commemorating the Australian Antarctic Territory Arts Fellowship.

In 2019, Philip was awarded a Swiss National Science Foundation Fellowship to undertake research at the High Altitude Research Centre at Jungfraujoch. This is the first time either organisation has supported an artist – researcher within their respective programs evidencing a growing awareness of the capacity of art to advocate for rarefied and endangered ecologies. Philip’s high alpine research has been featured in DW Radio, Swiss Info and Les Temps news services and exhibited in China and Japan (2019) and Switzerland (2021). It also featured in an exhibition titled Sampling the Future (2021) that was held at the NGV Australia.

Web

Industry experience

  • Australian Antarctic Division
  • Bogong Centre for Sound Culture
  • High Altitude Research Station at Jungfraujoch and Gornergrat
  • The Italian Institute of Culture
  • The National Gallery of Victoria
  • Swiss National Science Foundation
Web

Research

Philip's research investigates the social and environmental conditions informing remote wilderness regions and their communities. The sound recordings he makes using advanced audio technologies are used within teaching, exhibition, broadcast and publication to demonstrate the transformative effects of climate change within a fine art context. Philip is the recipient of three Australian Antarctic Territory Fellowships which he is using to map the soundscape of Eastern Antarctica. He is also the recipient of a Swiss National Science Foundation Fellowship to record the impact of climate change on high altitude alpine ecologies. His research has been presented nationally and internationally including the National Gallery of Victoria; the Art Gallery of South Australia; the Intercommunication Centre in Tokyo; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Research keywords

Sound Art, Soundscape, Eco-Acoustics, Acoustic Ecology, Bioacoustics, Antarctica, Alpine Environments

Research output summary

3

Publications

48

Projects

6

Awards

Web

Supervisor interest areas

  • Sound Art
  • Experimental Music
  • Acoustic Ecology
  • Antarctica
  • Alpine Ecologies

Supervisor projects

  • Jessie Boylen: Uncertain Atmospheres - Art & Science Response-abilities in a Changing World
  • Byron Dean: Sounding Transformation In Three Cities: Articulating encounters of sonic shifts in Kaifeng, Melbourne and Suzhou through field recording practice and sound composition
  • Justas Pipinis: Porosity of the Frame: material experiments on the boundary between art and everyday life
  • Damien Rudd: Future Memories: Rethinking climate communication though the essay film.
  • Eamon Sprod: Sound of Space: Spaces from Sound

Feature publications

Atmospheres and Disturbances: Mapping the eco-acoustics of Jungfraujoch (forthcoming chapter)

Sound in the construction of knowledge, practices and representations in the Alpine space

Editions Antipodes, Lausanne

Samartzis, Philip (2022).

At the End of Night: explorations of Antarctica and Space in the sound art of Philip Samartzis

The Polar Journal, Volume 7, Issue 2 Pages 336-350

Philpott, Carolyn., Samartzis, Philip (2017).

Antarctica, An Absent Presence

Thames and Hudson Australia

Samartzis, Philip (2016)

Web

Feature projects

Sampling the Future

$12,500

Philip Samartzis and Roland Snooks

2021

Mutable Ecologies

$31,800

Philip Samartzis, Kristen Sharp and Andrew Tetzlaff

2021

Eco Acoustics: Listening to a Changing Environment

Philip Samartzis

2021

Key projects by year

Exhibitions

  • The Blizzard in Design The World That You Want, NGV Melbourne Design Week, The Capitol (2021)
  • [with] Ughetti, E. ‘Polar Force Array’ [Installation] in Site & Sound: Sonic art as ecological practice, McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery (2021)

 

Curated Projects

  • [with] Cornish, M. ‘Notes from the Field’ [Curated Exhibition], Murray Arts Museum Albury (2021)

 

Performances

  • ‘Floe’ in This Sounds Like Science, City Recital Hall, Sydney (2021)

 

Recordings

  • Array LP/DD (with Eugene Ughetti), Room40, Brisbane (2021)
  • Polar Force CD/Book/DD, (with Eugene Ughetti), Room40, Brisbane (2021)
  • Katabatic Wind (with Eugene Ughetti), The Wire Tapper 56, Wire Magazine, London (2021)

Exhibitions

  • Contact & Isolation’ [Composition] in Antarctica: Five responses, Art Gallery of South Australia (2020)
  • ‘Boleskine’ [Composition] in AUDIOSPHERE: Social Experimental Audio, Pre- and Post-Internet, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2020)

 

Exhibitions

  • Atmospherics and Disturbances’ [Composition] in 0℃, InterCommunication Centre, Tokyo (2019)
  • [with] Snooks, R. ‘Cloud Affects’ [Installation] in The Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism / Architecture, Shenzhen (2019)
  • [with] Hutchinson, R. ‘Polar Patterns’ [Installation] in Polar Convergence, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne (2019)
  • ‘Conduction and Transmission’ [Installation] in Jack’s Reloaded: Material as Memory, NGV Melbourne Design Week (2019)

 

Recordings

  • Boleskine’ [CD/Book], Surpllus: Melbourne (2019)

Exhibitions

  • Perpetual Motion’ [Composition] in Interferenze 2003-2018: Risonanze Rurali, Manifesta 12, Palermo (2018)
  • [with] Snooks, R. ‘Floe’ [Installation] in Triennial Extra, National Gallery of Victoria (2018)
  • ‘Antarctica, An Absent Presence’ [Composition] in Kino Ear: Audio Document / Audio Documentary, Taiwan International Documentary Festival (2018)

 

Recordings

  • A Futurist’s Cookbook’ [Digital Download], Galaverna: Naples (2018)

Radio Commissions

  • A Surrender to Wind in 9 Parts radio commission by France Culture (2017)

 

Curated Projects

  • [with] Cornish, M. ‘Super Field’ [Curated Exhibition], RMIT Design Hub Gallery, Melbourne (2017)

 

Performances

  • 'Antarctica, An Absent Presence' in Balance/Unbalance Sonic Reckonings, Arizona State University, Tempe (2015)

Radio Commisions

  • Antarctica, An Absent Presence radio commission by France Culture, INA-GRM & the ABC Radio National Audio Arts Unit (2014)

 

Performances

  • 'Davis Station’, in MOTUS, Centre Barbara Fleury, Paris (2014)
  • 'Flow', in Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria (2014)
  • 'Davis Station', in Acousma, Auditorium Saint Germain (2014)

Radio Commisions

  • Flow commissioned by Kunstradio ORF Austria (2013)

 

Exhibitions

  • [with] Darling, J, & Farwood, L. 'River to Ocean' [Installation], in Heartland, the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide (2013)
  • 'One Hundred Years from Here' [Soundscape Composition], in Design 29: Creating a Capitol, National Archives of Australia, Canberra (2013)

 

Curated Projects

  • 'Place' [Curated Listening Program] in Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2013)
  • [with] Cornish, M. ‘Bogong ELECTRIC’ [Curated Festival], Bogong Village (2013)
  • [with] Sharp, K. 'Sonic City' [Curated Festival], in Liquid Architecture 14 Festival of Sound Arts, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane (2013)
  • [with] Charles, C. 'Sounds of Weather' [Curated Exhibition], Konnoh Hachimangu Shrine, Tokyo (2013)

 

Performances

  • 'Icebreaker', in Whites Nights, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2013)

 

Exhibitions

  • 'Isolation' [Installation] in Antarctic Art, People, Science and Polar Dialogs, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2012)
  • ‘Crush Grind’ [Sound Installation], in Enlighten Festival, National Archives of Australia, Canberra (2012)
  • ‘Microphonics’ [Sound Installation], in The Adelaide Biennale of Australian Art, the Art Gallery of South Australia (2012)

 

Curated Projects

  • [with] English, L. ‘Antarctic Convergence’ [Curated Festival], in Liquid Architecture 13 Festival of Sound Arts, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane (2012)

Recordings

  • Insect Woman’ in Magnetic Traces: A survey of French and Australian Sound Art [CD], Swarming: Paris (2010)
  • ‘Captured Space’ in SNO Contemporary Art Projects Catalogue 2005 2010 [CD], SNO: Sydney (2010)

Curated Projects

  • [with] La Casa, E. Magnetic Traces: A Survey of French and Australian Sound Art [Curated Exhibition], West Space and RMIT Project Space/Spare Room, Melbourne (2009)

 

Recordings

  • [with] Vorfeld, M. ‘Sheckenrock’ [CD] Non Visual Objects: Vienna (2009)
  • ‘Insect Woman’ in The Arts of Sound [DVD], Art Monthly Australia no. 225, Sydney (2009)

Curated Projects

  • Variable Resistance: Ten hours of Sound from Australia’ [Curated Exhibition], The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2002)
Web

Awards

ACUADS Distinguished Research Award

Award date: 2021

Recipients: Philip Samartzis

Australian Antarctic Territory Engagement Fellowship

Award date: 2020

Recipients: Philip Samartzis

Swiss National Science Foundation Fellowship

Award date: 2019

Recipients: Philip Samartzis

Key awards by year

  • 2021 ACUADS Distinguished Research Award

  • 2020 Australian Antarctic Division Engagement Fellowship

  • 2019 Swiss National Science Foundation Fellowship
  • 2019 Prix ARS Electronica Honorary Mention for Digital Musics & Sound Art (with Eugene Ughetti)

  • 2015 Australia Antarctic Territory Arts Fellowship

  • 2010 Australia Antarctic Territory Arts Fellowship
Web

Grants

  • Mutable Ecologies: Art, Design and Architecture interfaces for environmental futures, funded by the Australia – Japan Foundation; Philip Samartzis, Kristen Sharp & Andrew Tetzlaff; 2020
  • Global Intensive Study tour Japan funded by New Colombo Plan; Philip Samartzis, Kristen Sharp & Andrew Tetzlaff; 2020
  • Unclear Cloud funded by the National Gallery of Victoria; Philip Samartzis & Roland Snooks; 2020
Web

Public and media engagements

Web
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torres strait flag

Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Luwaytini' by Mark Cleaver, Palawa.

aboriginal flag
torres strait flag

Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business.