WINDGATE . 2021

Windgate is a one-of-a-kind musical object. A twisted form that echoes the shape of a skyscraper and can be played like an instrument.

The work reflects on the quiet estrangement often felt in high-rise architecture. It emerged during the 2021 lockdowns, as I walked through Melbourne’s CBD. The streets were still, almost emptied out, but above me, the skyline had changed — a wall of new residential towers built over the past decade.

With a background in architecture and experience working on high-density residential projects, I became more attuned to their presence and the social hierarchies embedded in their design. When I visited the Prima Pearl tower, I noticed that access was stratified: separate luxury lifts for penthouses and upper floors, more limited access for the rest. Those at the top enjoyed sunlight and views; those below lived closer to noise and shadow. It reminded me of J.G. Ballard’s High-Rise, where architecture itself reinforces invisible divides.

This reflection deepened as I read news reports. Residents in towers like Victoria One and Eureka described creaking and cracking noises — unsettling, boat-like sounds — signalling that their buildings were swaying. Spending more time at home during lockdown, people became more attuned to the structures around them. These weren’t just sensory impressions; they suggested a lack of structural preparedness for increasingly extreme wind conditions, symptomatic of broader inattention to climate resilience.

These impressions shaped Windgate's sonic and material language — and also its form. Rather than extending upward like a typical tower, the structure bends and loops into itself, forming a kind of portal. This inward twist feels like a quiet refusal of the vertical logic often associated with separation and status.

The sound component of Windgate was developed in close collaboration with musician and sound designer Jonathon Griggs, who also designed the custom interactive system that drives the work. The sound responds to the movement of a participant’s hand through the strips of wool partially veiling the entrance to the portal. Feedback is captured via an ultrasonic sensor, processed through a custom algorithm, and played through an integrated speaker. Wind and chimes can be heard, responding to the body’s presence and evoking crystal caves or windswept peaks. When left alone, Windgate breathes and sighs like the ocean — occasionally quivering as if receiving an interdimensional signal.

Its surface, composed of off-cuts from my Totems, foil, and resin, invites touch and shifts visually with movement with a lenticular effect. Windgate feels alive: it vibrates and resonates, punctuated with wind and drone tonalities that invite closer interaction.

The work was presented at MPavilion in 2022 through Windgate Sings the City, an immersive live performance developed in collaboration with artists Jonathon Griggs and Aarti Jadu. For this iteration, Jonathon incorporated recordings of creaking and cracking noises reported by high-rise residents during lockdown directly into the soundscape of the sculpture, returning those architectural murmurs into the public realm. A commissioned poem by Tess Maunder accompanied the project, offering a layered reading of its social and spatial resonances.

Windgate brings the body to the centre — opening new channels of sensory and spatial dialogue.