Aaron Hopper Music

Mona Foma 2021. Netherlands, Belgium & France 2022.

Composition: Aaron Hopper. Visuals: Anna Cadden and Jordan East. Produced by Big hART.

Acoustic Life of Zinc is a sound, video, music, performance and installation piece, capturing the incredible hidden world of Nyrstar’s Zinc Works globally, in sound vision and installation.

Initially developed at the Zinc Works in Hobart Tasmania, to international musical acclaim, the project has since made an impact in the Northern Europe, partnering with Nyrstar’s plant at Budel

Music meets machinery in Acoustic Life of Zinc, as composers, filmmakers and animators incorporate industrial sounds sampled at the Zinc Works and combine it with percussion played on amplified zinc ingots and instruments, along with machine–inspired rhythms and ambient noise, all recorded on site, to bring alive the sounds of Nyrstar factories in Northern Europe and Australia.

Acoustic Life of Zinc is a remarkable exchange between Nyrstar’s factories in Northern Europe and Australia bringing together workers, artists and school students across the globe. For instance, extensive sound recordings from Nyrstar’s plants are transformed into music; drawings by Dutch school students are animated; in Tasmania, recycled timber from the Nyrstar site was used to create textured wood cuts which were animated as part of the video; drone footage featuring each location is subtly inserted into the projection; artists living with disabilities were mentored into the composition; and the audience were invited to perform percussively on an amplified zinc ingot sculpture. 

Acoustic Life of Zinc takes the audience on a journey through intriguing industrial environments using these live percussion improvisations lush drones, the delicate whirs of Nyrstar motors, beats of machines, twangy instruments, and driving rhythms to create a cacophonous industrial orchestral atmosphere based on Nystar’s Zinc works. The music is based in part on words from the zinc mineral lexicon which create melodies with a technique called alphabetic junction.

Zinc extends the life of steel by twelve times. The manufacture of concrete is the fifth largest emitter of carbon globally. Therefore, zinc can extend the life of reinforced concrete, and in so doing help to reduce carbon emissions. These positive themes are part of the implicit messaging of this remarkable collaborative project.

Acoustic Life was shortlisted in Berlin for Classical:Next Music Innovation Award 2022.  

Acoustic Life of Zinc premiered at Australia’s MONA FOMA Festival in Tasmania, sold out and received exceptional reviews – 

“Five Stars. A bold work…hypnotic. Drawing together several different visual and audio media, Big hART have reflected the complexity of the site and the processes that people make happen inside it. Zinc is a fabulous tribute to things that humans can make.”

Arts Hub

“Thrilling…a mesmerising sound and video installation utilising noises and images sourced from a zinc processing plant…. an industrial symphony of intimidating beauty and power, perfectly complemented by the ghost in the machine of video art.”

The Age

Acoustic Life of Zinc is created and produced by Big hART.