Ringing Change

"Pell's Bell's" Creative Development, 2020. Exhibition 12 March - 9 May, 2021.

Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) and City of Nipaluna|Hobart Biennial Exhibition (replacing the 27yr Hobart Art Prize).

Who chooses freedom for whom, in what space and during what time? Rosie Dennis, Creative Director of the inaugual Hobart Current, selected ten contemporary artists to help find the answer. Featured were Tasmanian artists Sinsa Mansell, Brigita Ozolins, James Newitt, Jacob Leary, Dexter Rosengrave and Nadège Philippe-Janon as well as interstate and international artists Uncle Wes Marne, Suryo Herlambang, Jagath Dheerasekara and Sarah Jane Pell. Working across the mediums of film, installation, performance and visual art, the works commissioned for Hobart Current: Liberty offered personal and vulnerable perspectives on the theme, challenging notions of agency and representation, surveillance and exile. In the new COVID-19 world of quarantine, isolation, lockdown, contagion and illness, ‘liberty’ is arguably more relevant than ever.

Entering the inaugural Hobart Current: Liberty exhibition, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Nipaluna|Hobart AU. Exhibition 12 March - 9 May, 2021.

Artist Statement

If Liberty is the quality individuals have to control their own actions, and with these actions, sounding continual change, then it is time to make noise.
The Holy Trinity tower in West Hobart holds the oldest ring of bells outside England, and Hobart Current: Liberty now holds the boldest. For centuries, bell ringers have mastered tightly controlled actions to produce successive striking sequences, known as changes. The tradition is highly structured. Adhering to a series of fully memorised mathematical sequences over 17-hours of continuous ringing on 8 bells completes a full peal. Methods require mental endurance, spatial awareness, rhythm and grace. Campanology, the study of bell ringing, is also described as a sport, a mathematical puzzle, and an art all-in-one. I think of it as an extreme act, action and activism.

Ringing Change, 2021. Interactive Instrument by Sarah Jane Pell. A commissioned artwork for the Hobart Current: Liberty exhibition, TMAG, Nipaluna|Hobart AU, 2021.

Play the eight bell mini ring

You are invited to ring a bell adding to a unique collective changing ringing visualisation and recording. Each quarter peal activates the micro bells, and to a full extent triggers play back of the inaugural Hobart Current Peal. 8 Bells = 40,320 Variations or Ring Changes (called a full-length peal or extent), 5280 Changes is the minimum peal (to qualify as a performance), and 1260 changes known as a quarter peal (or anything less is referred to as a touch).

Ringing Change, 2021.Interactive performance installation. Bells: cast Aluminium. Tower: steel. Wheels: marine ply, Huon pine, Golden Sassafras, Blackheart Sassafras, Myrtle, Leatherwood and Blackwood. Ropes: jute. Sallies: merino wool. Headstock: stainless steel, zinc and Myrtle. Clappers: timber, nylon, stainless. Mats: polypropylene. 3D-printed micro bells: gold steel, nickel, steel, silver steel, bronze steel, bronze black, carbon. Handle: stainless. Clappers: Darwinite.

Ringing Change, 2020 by Sarah Jane Pell. Details of the installation: the 8 hand-cast aluminium bells, the bell tower transmitter, the individually hand-veneered timber wheels, clappers, wool sally ropes, hemp/jute rope and microtower of 3-D printed precious metal bells, the bellfry mats, and the interactive mandala (visual peal) of the interaction sequence.

Change ringing, traditional English art of ringing a set of tower bells in an intricate series of changes, or mathematical permutations (different orderings in the ringing sequence), by pulling ropes attached to bell wheels. The rules of ringing are determined by the mechanics. On 3 bells, only 6 changes, or variations, in the order 1 × 2 × 3 can be produced; on 5 bells, 1 × 2 × 3 × 4 × 5 = 120; and so on, up to the astronomical total of 479,001,600 changes on 12 bells. On five, six, or seven bells, a peal is the maximum number of permutations (orderings) possible (120, 720, and 5,040, respectively); on more than seven bells, the full extent of possible changes becomes impracticable (given everything must be continuous and memorised). In the case of 8 Bells, the permeations are calculated as 1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 x 7 x 8 = 40320 changes or variations (which has been recorded taking between 17- 18 continuous hours to ring), so gruelling it is that 5,000 or more changes are said to constitute a modern day "peal". As such, Method ringing peals today consist of a minimum length of changes, or permutations, depending on the method, and the number of bells. A short composition, lasting perhaps only a few hundred changes, is called a touch, which got its name from the 16th-century expression a "touch" of music, meaning "a brief piece of instrumental music".;[8] For 8 Bells, a quarter peal is equal to 1260 changes or a peal is called at 5280 changes on 8 bells, which is referred to as a "Performance". The full extent of eight bell changes comprises 40,320 variations on all eight bells, and would be referred to today as a long-length peal. (i.e. a full length "Major Performance" where 'Major' refers to 8 Bells). With the 8 bells, wheels and ropes that I have configured, experts like the Hobart Bell Ringers for example, could demonstrate a short work called a touch in ~10 minutes, or a quarter peal (rung continuously) for ~45-50 minutes on this unique Major Mini Ring. The python script for the visual display is currently set to trigger at every quarter peal (playing out LIBERTY after 1260 changes or variations), and will continue to do so at each of the 32 quarter peals until it reaches the full recorded extent of 40,320 changes. That will become an officially recordable "Extent" for the record books! It is unclear how the Museum Covid-19 restrictions impactde the TMAG Visitor experience including audience attendance, interaction and space allocation and participation, howewver it was reasonable to imagine during 'normal' conditions, 10-15 mins accumulative change ringing per week, more if school groups attend, and therefore a quarter peal triggering say every 1-3rd week during the exhibition, and more frequently via professional demonstration if the local Bell Ringers generously get involved. There is potential therefore to play with the accumulative outcomes and add in some surprise and delight with how the 32 quarter peal progress towards playing back the full extent for the public and capturing that on camera.

Acknowledgments

Credits: Artist/Producer: SARAH JANE PELL. Electrical design: MATTHEW GINGOLD. Visualisation Coding: DANIEL WAGHORN.
Thank you to advisors and service providers: DOUG NICOLLS Hobart Bell Ringers Association, ANTON HASSELL Antons Bells, JONATHON PARSONS Experimenta. Melbourne Creative Castings. Richwise Australia Pty Ltd, KIM & ROB FABRIS Australian Premier Veneers. PAUL DIMENTO, BALAJI KESAVAN, SMS Laser Cutting. Peter Johnston Ship Chandlers. Shiver Me Timbers Eastern Pty Ltd. PHILIP & DIANNE PRATT Avon Ropes, BECKY DUNNETT Mendip Ropemakers Limited. SeaRoad Logistics P/L. STEVE KELLY Projects. MELISSA KEMP, Tasmanian Museum Art Gallery, CHRISTINE & RICKY Red Arrow. JOHNSTONE, McGEE & GANDY P/L.

www.hobartcurrent.com is presented in partnership between the City of Hobart and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

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