Witness Stand

Witness Stand is a new work in its first stage of development by Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey, audio conceptual artists who create unexpected situations for listening. The work is conceived as an evocative and simple seating tier for listening to commissioned, site-specific sound works, installed at contested sites.

Witness Stand is about enacting a public hearing of places that demand witnessing and reflection; the sites may be the site of historical battle, or current controversy; or both as is often the case when sovereignty has never been ceded.

The artists will use the waterfront of Port Adelaide as a case study in how this work might develop on locations; a prototype seating tier will look out over the Port River at the sites of significant Kaurna land rights struggles, the monstrosity of Newport Quays, the absence of Shed 26 and the Jenkins Street boatyards, backdropped by Hart’s Mill. The artists will research content and design questions, and conduct artist talks.