Damian Castaldi is an independent sound and digital media artist and academic. He currently lectures in the Bachelor of Audio Production program at the Sydney SAE Institute and has previously lectured at the University of Technology Sydney in Media Art Production (MAP) and the University of Newcastle in Foundations of Media Art Production.
He works as a sound designer, sound installation artist and audio producer and has an interest in gestural and sculpture based interfaces for sound synthesis and electronic music production.
Previously Damian has worked for and been associated with Renew Newcastle, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Toos Neger residency, RAW Space Galleries residency, The Performance Space, d/Lux/MediaArts, Metro Screen, Sydney College of the Arts, Kiron Espace, ANAT, IRCAM, CMAI, Octapod and the Australian Museum
From February 2009 to May 2010, Damian co-directed Loop Space in Newcastle with partner Solange Kershaw. Loop Space ran as a Sound & Digital media artspace as part of the Renew Newcastle project initiated by Marcus Westbury.
Damian currently lives in Sydney, NSW, Australia.
More information and a full 2012 resume can be downloaded here
Project documentation 2009 – 2011
• BALANCE UNBALANCE CONFERENCE MONTRÉAL — November 2011
Paper presentation and artist talk at the Balance Unbalance conference Concordia University, Montréal, Canada. This paper presented the prototype for the installation of a networked public sound sculpture planned for the Newcastle central business district. Conference details Session #2 – Changing Environments: http://balance-unbalance2011.hexagram.ca/?page_id=304
Project website: http://wildweather.net.au• ELECTROFRINGE FESTIVAL PERFORMANCE Newcastle — October 2011
Performance – TiYC (Travel if You Can) is a satirical look at Australia’s international role as a migration nation. The performance featured projected animation, recorded video interviews, live music and sound design. At it’s heart the work was driven by a series of video interviews with people who have migrated to Australia from Bosnia, Afghanistan and the East Congo democratic republic and looked at their conditions and experiences relative to the idea of home & having a place in the world.
Festival website details: http://electrofringe.net/2011/program/
Project website: http://tiyc.com.au/• 2011 annual conference of the Australasian Computer Music Association – July 2011
Paper presentation and artist talk at the ACMC11 conference Auckland, New Zealand. The ‘Wild Weather’ paper presented the prototype for the installation of a networked public sound sculpture planned for the Newcastle central business district in mid to late 2012.
Conference website: http://acma.asn.au/conferences/acmc2011/
Project website: http://wildweather.net.au• Serial Space Artists Residency – June/July/August 2011
4 month artist residency to develop a performance and screen projection interface for the Electrofringe Festival 2011.• Conversations (at and about Government House) – August 2010
Government House, Sydney. NEW IDEAS: New Ways of Interpretation to Develop Access. Curated by Mantej Singh, Commissioned by d/Lux/MediaArts.• The Memory Pendulums – May 2010
Armory Gallery. A project for the Centre for Media Arts Innovation. Curated by Sophia Kouyoumdjian, Norie Neumark and Deborah Turnbull.• Play 109 - December 2009
Loop Space. An interactive sound, video and graffiti installation curated by Damian Castaldi & Solange Kershaw in collaboration with the artist/programmer Neil Jenkins and Jake Lewis of the Amerg Collective.• Play 44 – October 2009
Villa Alba Museum, Melbourne. For the REVERIE exhibition curated by Sarah Parker.• Coal Country – April 2009
Mixed media sound installation at the Newcastle Art Space.Sound installation projects produced > 2001 to 2005
• Time’s Up – December 2005
Casula Powerhouse. Mixed media installation for the Artist Against Sedition Laws Exhibition. Curated by Nicholas Tsoutas.• i(k)now(w)here – January 2005
Artist residency at the Performance Space Sydney to develop a travelling telephonic sound installation.• Dawn – 2003/2004
Research in France to develop a Distributed Arts Wireless Network. Project development in collaboration with Emmanuel Flety (formerly of IRCAM Paris).• Ghost Songs from Pekina – August 2002
Radio broadcast and photomedia installation at the LOFT Gallery UTS. Commissioned by Robyn Ravlich for the ABC Classic FM: The Listening Room.• SIEXOS (Sight Explicit Oscillations) – December 2001
Sound Installation, The Performance Space, Sydney. Artist notes and review by Ann Finegan.• Beyond the Razor Wire – September 2001
Sound installation and audio excerpt exhibited as part of the Borderpanic exhibition, Performance Space, Sydney. Curated by Deborah Kelly and Zina Kaye.