Robert Iolini
Artist | Filmmaker | Composer
I’m an internationally recognised artist who’s spent over twenty years creating time-based art – typically video, music and radio pieces that experiment with narrative, documentary, and hybrid forms. Underlying all of it is a single conviction: that cultures capable of error correction are cultures capable of survival.
It seems obvious, at least in theory, that narrative feature film would be an ideal medium for my multi-disciplinary approach. To test this theory, I wrote and produced Safety Suppression Protocol — a feature-length, music-driven speculative intrigue about creativity and freedom. Happy with the result, I’m currently developing more films for the series. The next feature, Café Fallible, is in post-production as of February 2026.
Thank you for visiting my site. If you’re curious to learn more about specific projects or potential collaborations, I invite you to explore or reach out directly to me. – Robert robert@iolini.com
→ Biography → Commissions → Education → Prizes → Residencies → Exhibitions → Broadcasts → Presentations → Film → Transmedia → Music → Radio → Theatre → Documentary
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Biography
Robert Iolini is an internationally recognised filmmaker, composer and artist whose work spans narrative film, music, video art, comics and radio. His current project, Scenes from Parallel Lives, is a transmedia universe expressed through an ongoing series of films, music, comics, video art and artefacts that exist both in the real world and within the fictional world itself. The first feature film, Safety Suppression Protocol (SSP), is a music-driven speculative intrigue about creativity and freedom set in a society that has administered itself into silence. The second feature, Café Fallible, is in post-production as of early 2026.
The roots of Scenes from Parallel Lives reach back to I in the 22nd Century (i22), which Iolini developed from 2016 under the Studio Syncandi banner — a project that established the fictional universe, its characters, and the artefact logic that now underpins the film series.
Iolini’s previous large-scale work, the experimental hybrid documentary The Hong Kong Agent, has been exhibited internationally at Hong Kong, Seoul, New York, Sydney and Locarno. The project exists across eighteen short films, gallery installation, radio drama, online interactive and augmented reality.
His compositions span a wide range of genres. He has written for chamber ensembles and theatre, and composed large-scale electro-acoustic works for radio broadcast. He holds two critically acclaimed solo albums on British avant-garde label ReR Megacorp. His radio works have been nominated for international competitions, including Hong Kong: City in Between, a prize-winner at the Amsterdam Soundscapes (be)for(e) 2000 festival.
Iolini holds a Master of Arts in Advanced Composition from Macquarie University, Sydney. His thesis examined simultaneity in music.
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Grants/Commissions
The Australia Council for the Arts
Screen Australia (Australian Film Commission)
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Danish Broadcasting Corporation
Netherlands Program Service (NPS). Holland
Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA). Spain
The Hong Kong Arts Centre. Hong Kong
Australia-China Council through Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT)
The Ian Reed Foundation. Australia
Videotage. Hong Kong
Big hArt Inc. Australia
d/Lux Media Arts. Australia
4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art. Australia
Ian Potter Cultural Trust. Australia
Danish Music Information Centre. Denmark
Zeppelin Sound & Media Art Festival. Barcelona / The Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona
Nordlys Ensemble. Denmark
Musica Mirabilis. Denmark
Extra/Ordinary Dress Code: Costuming and Second Skin in Asia. Symposium and Exhibition. Hong Kong
Synergy Percussion. Australia
austraLYSIS. Australia
Katrien Jacobs. Hong Kong / Belgium
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Education
Master of Arts degree in advanced composition. Macquarie University, Sydney Australia.
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Prizes/Nominations
Hong Kong: City In Between – Prize-winner in the Soundscapes (be)for(e) 2000 festival in Amsterdam. Holland
The Sound of Forgetting – Australian Broadcasting Corporation Music entry for the 2005 Karl Sczuka Prize Südwestrundfunk. Germany
Marking Time – Australian Broadcasting Corporation Music entry to the 2000 Karl Sczuka Prize Südwestrundfunk. Germany
Impermanence – Australian Broadcasting Corporation Music entry to the 1996 Prix Italia. Naples, Italy
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Artist Residencies
2023
Barcelona Artist Residency. One month residency at L’Estruch, Fàbrica de Creació de les Arts en Viu, Sabadell, Spain. Shoot scenes for Art e Fact Feature Film.
2022
Sabadell Artist Residency. Two month residency at L’Estruch, Fàbrica de Creació de les Arts en Viu, Sabadell, Spain. Shoot proof of concept scenes for Art e Fact Film project.
2021
Italy Artist Residency. Two week residency at in Domicella Campania, Italy supported by Kulturfactory. Research and Development for i22 Film project.
2019
Bogotá Artist’s Residency. One month residency in Bogotá Colombia at LIA LAB (Interdisciplinary Laboratory for the Arts). Research and Development for i22 project exhibition at LIA.
2007
Hong Kong Artist Residency. Eight months. Supported by Arts & Culture Outreach Hong Kong, The University of Hong Kong, Asialink residency through the Australia Council for the Arts, the Australia-China Council through Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT)
Visiting Scholar. Eight months. University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre.
2003 – 4
New Media Artist Residency Sydney. Six months.The Listening Room – Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Supported by The Australia Council for the Arts.
2003
Barcelona Artist Residency. Four months.Orquestra del Caos – an organisation dedicated to artistic research in the field of sound & media art. Based at CCCB (Centre for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona). Supported by Australia Council for the Arts.
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Exhibitions | Screenings
2022
The Hong Kong Agent: 18 Short Films About Hong Kong
Film. 01 /05/2022-31/08/2022 Hallucinatory Hereafter – M+ Mediatheque. Kowloon, Hong Kong
2017
The Hong Kong Agent: Vertical Narratives
Film. 30/6/2017-29/7/2017. Reload_HK Project at Cattle Depot Artist Village – Kowloon, Hong Kong
Geminoid Tear
Film. 18 -21 May 2017. Athens Digital Arts Festival. Greece ADAF Festival
2013
The Hong Kong Agent: Vertical Narratives
Film. La Rada Space for Contemporary Art A side event of the 66th Festival del film Locarno, Switzerland. 07 ~ 17 August 2013. Presented by Videotage & Fair-Play
Vertical Narratives
Film. TEMP Art Space – Living As Form (Wikitopia Version). NEW YORK. 01 December 2012 ~ 31 January 2013. Presented by Videotage and ICI’s Curatorial Hub
2012
Vertical Narratives
Film. Microwave Festival 2012 – Living As Form (Wikitopia Version). Hong Kong. 03 ~ 18 November 2012 info
2010
Daimaru Ghost Bus
Film. VAFA – Video Art For All. Macau. 12 Nov~ 03 Dec VAFA
Routine Duet
Film. VAFA – Video Art For All. Macau. 12 Nov~ 03 Dec VAFA
Spectral Times
Film. VAFA – Video Art For All. Macau. 12 Nov~ 03 Dec VAFA
Vertical Narratives
Film. 23rd Festival Les Instants Vidéo in partnership with Anemic Festival Prague. Czech Republic. 4~ 16 November.
Vertical Narratives
Film. 20th Seoul International New Media Festival 2010. Korea. 12~ 13 August
2009
The Masked Woman of Kyoto
Film. Videotage Hong Kong. China. 10-24 December
Dream City
Film. Kyoto City Hall ‘Imagine you + Kyoto in 10 years’ competition. Japan. 27 Oct – 4 Nov.
The Holographic Ear
Film: International Festival Signes de Nuit Program @ REJECT Festival Rotterdam (NL), January/February
2008
The Hong Kong Agent
Transmedia Installation. Hong Kong Art Centre, Hong Kong, China, August
The Hong Kong Agent
Installation. Lismore Regional Gallery, NSW. Australia, December/January
The Hong Kong Agent
Installation. Gallery 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (Sydney, Australia, July.
The Holographic Ear
Film: The 6th Festival Signes de Nuit – Paris, France, April.
Forat de La Vergonya
Film: Fehva , Byron Bay, Australia, March.
2007
City in Between
Sound Art + Works on Paper. In Midair Festival, Hong Kong, China, 1a Space, Hong Kong, China. June/July.
The Holographic Ear
Exhibition Film: The 6th International Kansk Video Festival Kansk, Russia, September.
2006
Forat de La Vergonya
Film: EXiS 2005 Experimental Film + Video Festival Seoul, Korea
Forat de La Vergonya
Film. Architects for Peace Melbourne, Australia.
2005
Black Sheep
Film: Videomedeja 9th International Video Festival 2005, Serbia
Black Sheep
Film. dEadly diGital scReen aRt tOur 2005 Alice Springs, Australia Boohoray ABC Digital, Australia
2004
Forat de La Vergonya
Film: Zeppelin Festival, Centre for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB), Barcelona, Spain, May.
A Japanese house, My favorite place, The sky
Film: Cielo, Todo Alrededor – Sky, All Around. Zeppelin Festival, Centre for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona(CCCB), Barcelona, Spain, May.
Black Sheep
Multi Channel Projection + Sound Art. 24HRArt Northern Territory Centre for Contemporary Art, Australia, November.
2002
Hong Kong: City in Between
Sound Art: En red 0 Cityphonics 17 @ Centre for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona(CCCB), Barcelona, Spain, December.
1999
Marking Time
Exhibition: Australian Perspecta 1999: Living here now – art and politics. August/September.
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Broadcasts
2018
The Edwin Armstrong Overture | Marking Time | Silent Motion | Vanunu | Congo | Zimbabwe | Lingo Babel | Whyitiso |City in Between
49.3 Radio – France
City in Between
Opposition de Phase RCV99FM Lille, France
2016
City in Between
The Corporación de Radio y Televisión Española RTVE
2015
The Edwin Armstrong Overture
Friday 28 August and Sunday 31 August. Australian Broadcasting Corporation – Radio National. Presented on SOUNDPROOF program
2012
Barcelona Experimental Music Series
Music Documentary. Into The Music & New Music Up Late. ABC. From 11 August.
2011
Sonic Kyoto
Soundscape Composition. Into The Music. ABC.
Post Human TNA version
The Night Air program. ABC, Australia. March.
Silk on Wood
Into the Music program. ABC, Australia. October.
The Veena: Instrument of Devotion
Into The Music program ABC RN October.
2010
Geminoid Tear
360 Documentaries, Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 23 Nov
Post Human
360 Documentaries, Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 23 Nov
The Edwin Armstrong Overture
Frequency Oz – An On Air Festival Of Australian Radio Art. Broadcast on Resonance 104.4fm (London). September 2010.
The Veena: Instrument of Devotion
Into The Music program ABC Radio National.
2009
Rise Above The Living
Supplement. NPS, Netherlands, January 5
Rise Above The Living
RAI Radio 3 File Urbani: By Paola De Angelis. Italy, 17 October.
2008
The Hong Kong Agent
The Night Air program ABC Radio National, Australia, April
The Hong Kong Agent
All Day Every Day program Resonance 104.4fm, London, UK, May
Silk On Wood
Into The Music program , ABC Radio National, Australia, May
Museum
The Night Air program , ABC Radio National, Australia, May
2007
Limbo
The Night Air program , ABC Radio National, Australia, June
2006
Rise above the Living
Music up Late program ABC Classic FM, Australia, June.
The Wounding Song
ABCRN Online, Australia.
Vaganza Malti
ABCRN Online, Australia.
Shackified
No Place Like Home program Resonance 104.4fm, London, UK, October
Shacks
The Night Air program , ABC Radio National, Australia, June
Blood
The Night Air program , ABC Radio National, Australia, August
2005
A Shack at the Edge of the World
Radio Eye program, ABC Radio National, Australia, October
Shacks
The Night Air program , ABC Radio National, Australia, October
2004
The Sound of Forgetting
The Listening Room program, ABC Classic FM, Australia.
Blood
The Night Air program , ABC Radio National, Australia, November
2003
Goddesses & Rabbits
The Listening Room program, ABC Classic FM, Australia.
Limbo
The Night Air program , ABC Radio National, Australia, June
Museum
The Night Air program , ABC Radio National, Australia, September
2002
Malta-Inland
The Supplement program, Netherlands Program Service(NPS), The Netherlands.
Mixing the MCA
The Listening Room, ABC Classic FM. June.
2001
Heartwork
The Listening Room, ABC Classic FM.
Black Sheep
Radio Eye, ABC Radio National.
2000
The Edwin Armstrong Overture
City In Between
Silent Motion
Marking Time
Kunstradio Austria
Fire, Water, Speed
2JJJ Radio ABC.
1999
Marking Time
The Listening Room. Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
1998
Silent Motion
The Listening Room. Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
1997
The Edwin Armstrong Overture
The Listening Room. Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Hong Kong: City in Between
The Listening Room. Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
1996
Impermanence
The Listening Room. Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
1994
Vanunu
The Listening Room. Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
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Seminars, Presentations + Workshops
2019
Seminar @ The National University of Colombia Master of Visual Arts Students – A socio-political approach to narrative art.
2014
Presentation @ Room 801 Sydney Australia – a niche anime convention held in Sydney, Australia for over-18s only, with a special focus on yaoi and yuri. “Real Love in a Synthetic World”
2014
Presentation @ Doshisha University Kyoto. “Breathless: Inanimate Love in Japan”.
2014
Presentation @ Japan Studies Program at Doshisha Women’s College for Liberal Arts Kyoto. “Real Love in a Synthetic World”
2012
Presentation @ Radio Beyond Radio. Sydney Australia. Making it Real: Conceptualising and Realising Stories Across Multiple Platforms. A range of creative practitioners come together to discuss the future of radio in Australia 3 – 7 September 2012. Presented by The Ian Reed Foundation and ABC Radio National in association with the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism, University of Technology Sydney.
2010
Presentation @ Kyoto Art Story. Museum of Kyoto. Kyoto. Japan. Title: Making Art About Kyoto: In search of the Prefect Cyborg.
Presentation @ Pecha Kucha Night Kyoto Hosomi Museum. Kyoto. Japan. Title: Post Human Japan
2009
Presentation @ Kyoto University Art + Design. Artlink International Salon. The Hong Kong Agent.
2008
Presentation @ FEHVA – Visual Arts Festival. Byron Bay, Australia. The art of digital capture.
2007
Seminar @ Lingnan University. Hong Kong. Cultural Studies Department. Chaired by Prof. Meaghan Morris. Co-organized with Visual Studies + Department of Philosophy. Sound / Image / Text : Narrative structure in a concrete world.
Colloquium @ The University of Hong Kong Department of Music. Chaired by Giorgio Biancorosso. Sound / Image / Text : Narrative structure in a concrete world.
Seminar @ School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. Chaired by Linda Lai. Media Concrete and Music.
Seminar @ School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. Chaired by Linda Lai. The Hong Kong Agent.
2006
Seminar @ University of Los Andes. Bogotá, Colombia. Music Department. Media Concrete and Music.
2004
Conference paper @ “Sounding Out a Cultural Heritage” ScreenSound Australia, ACT. Organized by ASRA (Australian Sound Recordings Association) The Sound Of Forgetting – Archives and the Sound Artist
3 Day Media Concrete Workshop + Presentation @ Zeppelin Festival, Centre for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB), Barcelona, Spain. Forat de la Vergonya + The Sound of Forgetting: Sonic Artefacts#1.
2003
Talk @ OPEN AIR RADIO 03 – Centre for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB), Barcelona, Spain. City in Between.
1999
Sound Art & Radio Workshop @ University of Sydney, Australia. The Making of Hong Kong City in Between
1998
Presentation @ Royal Academy of Music, Copenhagen, Denmark. Simultaneity in Music.
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Work List
Here is a list of my work to date. Feel free to contact me at robert@iolini.com to request copies or details of any work
Film Production
2026
Café Fallible
Feature film → View Film
70 minute narrative film produced as part of the Scenes from Parallel Lives project. In the ruins of a liberal golden age, two performers running the wrong kind of café attract the wrong kind of attention. What survives when freedom defeats itself? Café Fallible has one answer: art that refuses to behave, in a city that’s watching.
2026
Safety Suppression Protocol
Feature film → View Film
90 minute narrative film produced as part of the Scenes from Parallel Lives project. An art curator tasked with archiving a mythic dissident discovers she was never the archivist. She was always the archive. Produced while artist in residence at L’Estruch, Fàbrica de Creació de les Arts en Viu, Sabadell Spain.
2023
ART e FACT
Short film
20 minute experimental narrative film produced as part of the Scenes from Parallel Lives project. An early iteration of Safety Suppression Protocol. Experimental. Fragmentary. Unresolved. Produced while artist in residence at L’Estruch, Fàbrica de Creació de les Arts en Viu, Sabadell Spain.
2014
Ghosts of the Tsunami
Short Film.
An artistic response to the phenomenon of spirit possession amongst survivors of the 11 March 2011 tsunami which killed nearly 20,000 people in Fukushima Tohoku Prefecture Japan. Iolini collaborates with Kyoto based photographer White-Rice to seek out seemingly invisible entities inhabiting the Japanese landscape and to present the resulting images as a film with original soundtrack. Watch video excerpt
2010
Geminoid Tear
Short Film
An android couple question their love. Featuring real androids shot on location at ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories. Kyoto, Japan. Commissioned by Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Watch video excerpt
2009
The Masked Woman of Kyoto
Short Film
Today in Kyoto and elsewhere on planet earth. A woman dons a black mask and gloves and ventures out into to a bright and dangerous world. The mysterious qualities of her dark accessories render her impenetrable to all . . . Commissioned by Extra/Ordinary Dress Code: Costuming and Second Skin in Asia. Symposium and Exhibition Hong Kong.
Dream City
Short Film
Kyoto 10 years from now. Created for Kyoto City Hall Imagine you + Kyoto in 10 years project.
2007 – 2008
The Hong Kong Agent – 18 short films about Hong Kong
Feature Film
Eighteen 3 to 5 minute vignettes that follow the adventures of an enigmatic protagonist, simply referred to as the agent as he searches for meaning in Hong Kong. Supported by Arts & Culture Outreach Hong Kong, Asialink residency through the Australia Council for the Arts, the Australia-China Council through DFAT, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Screen Australia. Visit website
2006
The Holographic Ear – Film Version
Short Film
Mn is sleeping in bed. The sun is rising on another apparently normal day, outside the birds are singing. He begins to stir, there’s something odd about the birdsong – sounding more like a complex musical composition it gradually builds in intensity, as it reaches a crescendo Mn wakes up with a start. Thus begins a journey of transformation in which Mn is subjected to a series of extraordinary encounters which force him to confront the nature of reality and perception.
Vaganza Malti (Maltese Holiday)
Short Film
Shot entirely on location in Malta & Gozo in 2004. Vaganza Malti (Maltese Holiday) is a poetic audio visual montage exploring contrasting aspects of Maltese culture. Commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
2005
Black Sheep
Short Film
Through the extraordinary testimonies of aboriginal teenagers we become witnesses to a world in which the interviewees are continually told that they are surplus to requirements.
Black Sheep uses materials gleaned from an arts project I was involved with involving young people in and around the notorious Don Dale Juvenile Detention Centre situated in Darwin, Australia. The project was run by Australia’s leading arts and social change organisation Big hArt Inc, a non-profit arts organisation that collaborates with communities, groups and individuals to produce art with people experiencing the effects of marginalisation in rural, regional and remote areas of Australia.
Photographer Randy Larcombe and I collected image and sound material for the project. This material has also been used to produce a multimedia theatre work, a radiophonic composition and sound/image installation work. Watch video
2004
Forat de La Vergonya
Short Film
Forat de La Vergonya is Catalan for hole of shame. It’s a residential area right in the heart of the medieval part of Barcelona called El Born. It’s a big tourist area but Forat de la Vergonya is located down some back streets and seemingly invisible. The plaza is actually a huge demolition site, a wasteland surrounded by ruins. Supposedly the area is being redeveloped for the low income communities who live there, but there is cynicism from some quarters about the sincerity of local government’s intentions. The residents whose houses were spared the initial re-development live on the edge of this desolate expanse. The community is made up of mainly immigrants from North Africa, Dominican Republic, locals and squatters.
The work focuses on the fragile gardens that the squatters and locals planted. The gardens are a poignant symbol of both resistance and resilience as they struggle to survive in the hostile environment of Forat de la Vergonya. The work is the result of a 3 day workshop I gave at the Zeppelin 2004 Sound & Media Art Festival in Barcelona. Watch video
A Japanese house, My favourite place, The sky
Short Film
Cielo, Todo Alrededor – Sky, All Around. Commissioned by Zeppelin Festival, Centre for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona(CCCB), Barcelona, Spain, May.
Transmedia
2016 – Present
Scenes from Parallel Lives
A fictional universe developed across film, music, visual art, and literature over a decade. Its narratives engage questions of artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, and political authority — framed not as warning but as possibility.
2015 – Present
Studio Syncandi
Publishing | Writing | Film + Music Production | Illustration | Sequential Art | Animation | Photography.
Iolini establishes Studio Syncandi [sɪn ˈkændi] in Kyoto Japan as a digital platform to produce and distribute SYNCANDI — a narrative about life, love and death set in a future Japan. The project involves commissioning an international team of creatives which include an illustrator, songwriter, animator, 3D modeler and graphic designer.
2013 – 2014
ZINC
Inspired and influenced by Japanese anime and popular culture, ZINC was a research and development project which explored the idea that an artwork could exist as a Platform, a simultaneously real and imagined place in which its characters, worlds and stories could flourish.
“I am particularly intrigued by the philosophical approach adopted by Japanese fiction makers when imagining future human scenarios. And how these narratives affect people not only in Japan but elsewhere. I want to investigate the relationship between real and imagined science, by examining how Japanese scientists, particularly roboticists, manifest these fictional scenarios. And again, how their creations affect cultural thinking within and outside of Japan.” Iolini 2013
Supported by the Ian Reed Foundation, Australian Broadcasting Corporation and The Australia Council for the Arts.
2007 – Now
The Hong Kong Agent
A cross-media multi-platform art project about China’s special administrative region (SAR) Hong Kong. It can be experienced as a film series, gallery installation, radio program, online interactive & locative media. At the heart of the project are eighteen audio-visual episodes that follow the adventures of an enigmatic protagonist, simply referred to as the agent. His poetic renderings of what he experiences, and the stories and dialogues of numerous characters he encounters reveal the richly layered complex world of Hong Kong.
Supported by Arts & Culture Outreach Hong Kong, Asialink residency through the Australia Council for the Arts, the Australia-China Council through DFAT, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Screen Australia. Go to Page
2006
Bogota Project
Two months in Bogota, Colombia, collecting materials for a multimedia art installation. The work was intended to connect narratives around La Violencia — a ten-year civil war in Colombia from 1948 to 1958, with a cash strapped orphanage and the crumbling iconic Hotel Continental.
2004
Archaeology: The City That Never Was
Film | Music | Sound Art | Media Concrète
Invitation to participate in Zeppelin Sound & Media Art Festival in Barcelona and to present sound/image/text work in progress and to conduct a series of workshops.
Supported by the Australia Council for the Arts.
Music
2020 – Now
Ikkyu’s Journal Songs
A collection of Avant Pop songs composed for the Safety Suppression feature film as part of the Scenes From Parallel Lives project.
2019
Hirajōshi Love Song
Music theatre commission for Big hArt inc.
2017
Ghost of Sister Ping
Music | Soundtrack. A series of electronic music pieces for a multi channel video installation. Commissioned by Hong Kong artist , Katrien Jacobs. Premiered at Videotage Hong Hong. October 2017. Visit website
2011
ZINC Song Studies
Experimental Music. A series of electronic music studies utilising Japanese synthesised singing program UTAU. Supported by The Australia Council for the Arts.
2005
Rise above the Living
Music | Sound Art | Drama. The work is a response to my experiences while working at John Northcott Place, the first high-rise public housing estate in Sydney, Australia.
Rise above the Living traces the history of Northcott told from the point of view of the building itself – the Building as a living organism, a witness – keeper of secrets and knowledge. The music is a mixture of spoken word, melodic electronic chamber music and musique concrete.
Musical Direction | Music | Sound Design. Multimedia theatre production Sticky Bricks, premiered at the 2006 Festival of Sydney by Big hArt inc.
Rise above the Living commissioned and produced for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
2005
The Holographic Ear – Radiophonic Version
Music | Sound Art | Drama. Explores the nature of psychic transformation using sound as the catalyst. Radiophonic component commissioned and produced for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Songs from Hurt
International release of second solo album on British avant garde music label ReR Megacorp. Available now online from ReR website. ‘Songs from Hurt is a troubling masterpiece’~ François Couture, All Music Guide. Read review
2001
IOLINI solo album
International release of first solo album on British avant garde music label ReR Megacorp. Available now online from ReR label website.“Iolini represents a new breed of electroacoustic composer who puts his heart as well as his intellect into his work, and composes from a broad cultural perspective.” Bill Tilland BBC. Read review
Black Sheep
Music | Sound Art | Writing. Based on my experiences working in Darwin with young people in and around the Don Dale Juvenile Detention Centre. The work asks questions about Mandatory sentencing, society’s youth persecution complex, lack of adequate communication and interpreting systems for indigenous people, why so many indigenous people in custody? Commissioned by Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
2000
Okinawa
Composition for violin, piano, bass clarinet and cello. Commissioned by Danish New Music Ensemble Nordlys. The piece is based on an Okinawan folk song. Premiered in Copenhagen 18 June 2000 with Iolini in attendance.
Fire, Water, Speed
Three short electronic pieces composed in collaboration with writer Scott Rankin through workshops with young people in Palmerston, Darwin as part of the local government’s Literacy Week. The pieces were broadcast on ABC’s national youth radio 2JJJ.
1999
Marking Time
Music | Sound Art | Writing. In a world constantly on the brink of, and undergoing, minor and major apocalypses, the periods before and after the new millennium act as focal points. These periods allow an intensification of multiple simultaneous apocalyptic activity, both actual and rhetorical. Why do humans, particularly in western culture, feel the need to manifest such apocalyptic activity? Marking Time delves into the human condition with particular focus on the nature of power, change and transformation. Marking Time was nominated for the 2000 Karl Sczuka Prize.
Commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Excerpt released on solo album IOLINI electroacoustic, chamber ensemble, soundscapes and works for radio. Available now online from ReR label website or Listen now
The Cavern of I.
Composition for Violin, piano & electronics. Commissioned by Danish duo Musica Mirabilis. World Premier at The Copenhagen Radio Hall. Denmark. 9th May 1999.
1998
Silent Motion
Composition for voice, keyboards and sampler. “Silent Motion is a lyrical, critical, and often amusing guide to society’s expectations as to the proper place of music in film. Focusing on the silent film era as an historical juncture which all but sealed the fate of film scoring, Iolini adjusts the lense and turns up the volume to assert music’s potential as more than just a supporting player. Iolini creates strange, wonderful and at times touching music from sampled projectors, pianos and a 1927 fotoplayer. Silent Motion lampoons those who would set up hierarchies in art.” Limelight Magazine. Commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Released on Iolini’s 2005 solo album ‘Songs from Hurt’. Available now online from ReR label website.
1997
The Edwin Armstrong Overture
Electroacoustic composition. Edwin Armstrong was the inventor of the frequency modulation (FM) system. The basis for almost all radio, radar, and television reception. His story is one of genius, obsession, betrayal and tragedy. After inventing FM, Armstrong had a vision of replacing the then inferior AM system with the far superior FM. Unfortunately, the Radio Corporation of America, under the advice of David Sarnoff, a twenty-five year friend of Armstrong’s and president of RCA, had other plans. Even though they had funded Armstrong’s research, RCA decided it would be unprofitable for them to switch from AM to FM. And so began the endless legal battles over patents, between Armstrong and RCA. Even when RCA developed television, which relied on FM for its reception and transmission, they refused to pay Armstrong his rightful royalties. Twenty-three years to the day after patenting FM, exhausted and out of hope, frustrated by all the litigation, Armstrong put on his hat, coat, scarf and gloves and walked out of his apartment window, 13 floors to his death. Commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Released on solo album IOLINI electroacoustic, chamber ensemble, soundscapes and works for radio. Available now online from ReR label website.
Hong Kong: City in Between
Music | Sound Art.
Prize-winner in the Soundscapes (be)for(e) 2000 festival in Amsterdam. Holland.
At midnight of June 30 1997, the British colony of Hong Kong reverted to Chinese sovereignty. As the ‘Pearl of the Orient’ however, it is a jewel that must be both incorporated into the body of China, and sealed off from it. The political and public ritual of the handover has been well documented. City in Between transforms into music and sound, the more subjective experiences and ambiguities experienced by Hong Kong people. The work is based on field recordings made by musician & social researcher Dr. Phillip Mar, who was in Hong Kong conducting PhD research on Hong Kong emigration.
The work uses Hong Kong voices and sounds, transmuted by sampling, manipulated as elements for further improvisation and composition, to trace the trajectory of a city and people whose destiny remains unknown. Commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Released on solo album IOLINI electroacoustic, chamber ensemble, soundscapes and works for radio. Available now online from ReR label website.
1996
Impermanence
Composition for voice, flute, violin; hurdy-gurdy, soprano and alto saxophones, Qin (Chinese zither), guitar midi controller, emax sampler. Iolini recasts Ted Hughes’ poem A Disaster and snippets from the Jean-Luc Godard films Vivre sa vie and Le Mépris, into a musical meditation on the impermanence of life and love. The composition is in four movements. Each movement places the texts in highly contrasting musical settings that seek to generate a symbiotic relationship between music, sound and text, where music functions not merely as an accompaniment to the narrative, but where the two are inextricably interwoven. Featuring members of seminal Australian experimental performance ensemble Machine For Making Sense.
Commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Nominated for the 1996 Prix Italia, Naples, Italy.
Even Bodhisattvas get the Blues & Meetings with Him
Chamber Music. Two compositions for Trombone, Vibes and Cello or Piano. Commissioned by the Australian new music ensemble Pipeline.
1995
Whyitiso & Lingo Babel & Congo & Zimbabwe
Chamber Music. Four compositions arranged for Australian ensemble Synergy Percussion. Premiered at The Enmore Theatre, Sydney 29 October, 1995.
1994
Vanunu
Opera. An opera for radio for three singers, samplers, digital editor and radio archival material. In 1986, Mordechai Vanunu revealed to Britain’s Sunday Times, corroborated with photographic evidence gathered while employed as a technician in Israel’s Dimona nuclear reactor, that Israel was engaged in the production of offensive nuclear weapons, unknown to the rest of the world and unknown to the population of Israel itself. He was kidnapped by Israel’s secret service and returned to face trial. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison and is currently in his 6th year of solitary confinement.
The story of Vanunu embraces a comprehensive array of 20th Century obsessions and phobias – nuclear war, technology, religion, racism, human rights, democracy – in particular raising questions about the meaning of democracy without freedom of information and freedom of speech. It also embodies issues of individual conscience, risk, sacrifice and the enactment of ideology.
Co-written with D.Nerlich. Commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Carne Bianca & Lingo Babel
Two compositions for violin, piano, bass clarinet and saxophone. Commissioned by Australian new music ensemble austraLYSIS . Performed, 27 August 1994.
1993
Anyong Arrirang
Composition for violin and piano. Premier performance by Ensemble Nordlys at Toldkammeret, Elsinore. Denmark. 19 May 1999.
Radio Art
2011
Post Human TNA version
Sound Art | Experimental Documentary. Cyborgs, Androids and Humans. Late night dreamtime radio, featuring Hiroshi Ishiguro – Geminoid, Donna Haraway – Cyborg Manifesto, William Gibson – Neuromancer. Commissioned by The Night Air for Australian Broadcasting Corporation. info + podcasts
Sonic Kyoto
Soundscape composition. From ancient temple bells to futuristic electronic games, Sonic Kyoto examines how sound can be used as a means of control, protection, pleasure and escape. Commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Read more and Listen now
2005
Shacks
Sound Art | Experimental Radio Documentary. Radio feature exploring the idea of home. Commissioned by Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
2004
The Sound of Forgetting – Sonic Artefacts #1
Sound Art | Experimental Drama. The Sound of Forgetting is a non linear narrative work that uses ‘lost sounds’ from Sydney’s past, media archives and scripted dialogues to explore issues of identity – property ownership – denial of history – corporate greed – legal and illegal violence – government cynicism – loss of self, function and place – mass media – the relevance of art – colonialism – surveillance – social engineering – public space. In the work, the character of Sha and her alter ego A’Shamedia function as a vehicle to convey Iolini’s concerns about contemporary western urban life. Sydney is the space that the character inhabits and acts as a kind of generic city model. The protagonist’s inner dialogues, which consist of rephrased quotes and original text, relate not only to herself, but to Sydney, both metaphorically and literally. Sha in a sense, is a media archaeologist excavating sociopolitical events. During the process she is also on an internal journey, excavating parts of herself. Through her thoughts, discoveries and creative output we are taken on a journey that embraces universal concerns which affect many of us today. Produced while Iolini was New Media Artist in residence at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s acoustic arts program The Listening Room. Read Transcript
2003
Goddesses & Rabbits
A music/sound/text composition. Goddesses and Rabbits is Iolini’s homage to his mother, to all mothers and to Malta – the island of the Great Goddess. Iolini takes us on a personal and at times surreal voyage of (re)discovery to his mother’s homeland, the island of Malta. Along the way we encounter mysterious 7000-year-old megalithic goddess temples, Madonna cults, rabbit restaurants, and an eclectic assortment of characters. This is a work that is simultaneously travelogue, drama, fiction, documentary, biography and contemporary opera! Goddesses and Rabbits extends the boundaries of what traditionally defines a musical composition, using spoken word, songs, field recordings, electro-acoustic textures, improvised and detailed scored performances. Commissioned by Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Listen now
Limbo Dub
Radio Art composition for experimental radio program The Night Air. Exploring the concept of Limbo. Commissioned by Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
2002
Malta: In-Land
Sound Art | Experimental Documentary. A sound work commissioned by the Dutch broadcaster Netherlands Program Service (NPS) for their new music program Supplement. The work is Iolini’s personal response to Ghana (pronounced /a:na/). The living folk music practice of the Maltese. For this project Iolini travelled from Australia to his mother’s homeland, the island of Malta, to record ghana practitioners, aficionados, commentators and environments. Go to website
Museum
Sound Art | Experimental Radio Drama. Created for experimental radio program The Night Air. Explores the concept of the Art Museum. Commissioned by Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Mixing the MCA
Sound Art. A sound collage from Sydney 2002 Biennale at the Museum of the Contemporary Art. Commissioned by Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Heartwork
A radio feature which explores important issues facing marginalised young people in the Australian community. The work centres around eight ‘songs’ each containing a recording of a young person narrating an experience of family violence or disfunction. The vocal recordings were taken from the film soundtrack of ‘Hurt’ the award winning feature length docu film directed by Phillip Crawford. For Heartwork the music in each song was derived from the rhythmic and melodic patterns inherent in each speaker’s speech patterns. The piece is partly composed of materials gathered during the development and final production of the ‘Big hArt Works’ project performed at the 2000 Adelaide Festival, Australia. Commissioned by Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Theatre
2006
Sticky Bricks
Musical Direction | Music | Sound Design. Multimedia theatre production Sticky Bricks, premiered at the 2006 Festival of Sydney by Big hArt.
2005
Radio Holiday
Musical Direction | Music | Sound Design. 16 short sound works commissioned by Australia’s leading arts and social change organisation, Big hART and Tasmanian arts festival ‘Ten Days On The Island’. Radio Holiday is a multi-artform project combining sound works, video, photography, painting and theatre around the subject of ‘shacks’. Across Australia, shacks in isolated locations have held a unique place in our culture. They are often the keepers of secrets, the location for celebration, symbols of individualism over the state, improvised architecture, hideouts, places for growing up, and sponges for nostalgia. As avarism sweeps the coastal fringe, shacks are falling victim to the national retreat from community to individualism.
2003
Beasty Grrl (Beasty Girl)
Musical Direction | Music | Sound Design. Multimedia play about the life of Errol Flynn as an allegory for the apparent self destructive tendency of humankind. The work involves real time interactive performance between actor, musician and video artist. Beasty Grrl is written and directed by Scott Rankin. The play is toured nationally throughout 2003 and wins the ‘Green Room’ award for best innovative theatre for 2003.
2002
Leaves Falling At Midnight
Musical Direction | Music | Sound Design. Multimedia play set against a city skyline as it succumbs to the lowest common developer, a silo of Autumn leaves burn, a man confesses to a murder he didn’t commit and we discover a trivial history of the twentieth century in the basement of the State Archives. Commissioned by Scott Rankin and Glynn Nicholas’.
2000
Big hArt Works
Musical Direction | Music | Sound Design. Large scale multimedia theatre piece that focuses on cruelty, beauty and isolation as seen through young eyes. It premieres at the Adelaide International Arts Festival 2000 and is one of four critically acclaimed shows at the festival. Commissioned by Australia’s leading arts and social change organisation, Big hART.
Wrong way Go back!
Musical Direction | Music | Sound Design. Multimedia theatre piece. The work is based on the experiences of inmates, former inmates and potential inmates of Darwin’s notorious Don Dale Juvenile Detention Centre. I acted as arts mentor (composition, recording & production) to the core group of young people involved in the project both inside Don Dale and in Palmerston City. The project is funded by the Australian Immigration Department as part of its Living in Harmony initiative. It is premiered at the Darwin Entertainment Centre on August 23. Commissioned by Australia’s leading arts and social change organisation, Big hART.
1998
Happy Water Sad Water
Surround sound installation for voices, found sounds and five CD players. Commissioned by Big hArt for the Manly Arts Festival and Carnivale. Sydney, Australia.
Documentary
2012
Barcelona Experimental Music Series
Radio Documentary. A rare opportunity to learn about the remarkable emergence and rapid growth of experimental music practice in Barcelona since 1975. The idiosyncratic history and cultural milieu of post Franco Barcelona is expressed in the unique creative approach of deep artistic, philosophical and political consideration that each artist brings to their music. This is an Australian Broadcasting Corporation commission in collaboration with Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA). info + podcasts
Post Human
Radio Documentary. Scientists at the cutting edge of robotics express their hopes and fears about a future in which the lives of humans and robots are inextricably entwined.
Featuring interviews with Hiroshi Ishiguro of ‘Geminoid’ fame, roboticists and anthropologists. Commissioned by Australian Broadcasting Corporation. info + podcast
The Veena: Instrument of Devotion
Documentary music feature for radio and online. Focuses on the life and music of renowned 87 year old female veena virtuoso Kalpakam Swaminathan. She is amongst a dwindling group of older generation Carnatic (South Indian) musicians dedicated to maintaining, through teaching and performing, the 500 year lineage of Carnatic music tradition. Commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Visit website
Silk on Wood
Music | Film| Documentary. Explores the cultural milieu surrounding the Qin (chin) with silk strings, a 3,000-year-old, seven-stringed, fret-less Chinese zither. Silk on Wood focuses on a small group of musician scholars living in Hong Kong, dedicated to maintaining the Qin tradition passed on to them by their master Madame Tsar Teh-yun. Listeners are afforded the rare privilege of entering the very private world of the only surviving Silk String Qin society, to witness the dedication and resilience of this reclusive community in the face of the behemoth that is New China. Commissioned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Visit website
The Wounding Song
Radio Documentary. Includes a music feature for radio and website exploring the vibrant phenomenon of Ghana (pronounced /a:na/), Maltese vernacular singing. Ghana is a living art – simultaneously music, song and performance, deriving its vitality from immediacy and context. Ghana contains a passion, which reflects the heartbeat of the people, and their endurance through the years as a nation. Ghana is music of survival, from quaint rural setting, to gritty dockland bar, to a backyard garage in an Australian suburb. Commissioned and produced for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Visit website + Listen now
A Shack at the Edge of the World
Sound Art | Experimental Radio Documentary. A radio feature based on Iolini’s experiences in Tasmania’s remote north west shack communities. Commissioned by Australian Broadcasting Corporation.