VP x Jonathan Zawada

Desert

Digital Premiere

Medium
Video (colour, sound)

Duration
4min 38sec

In Desert, a digital collaboration born from VP’s album COSMOSIS, sonic and visual worlds entwine to evoke speculative ecologies that are at once uncanny and dreamlike. VP, a bioacoustics researcher and sound artist, transforms her field recordings—from forests to deserts to subterranean hums—into immersive, otherworldly soundscapes that redefine how we listen to the Earth’s pulse. Jonathan Zawada answers this auditory terrain with hyperreal imagery: meticulously crafted digital landscapes that blur the boundaries between the artificial and the organic, the imagined and the material. Together, they map a sensory realm where images and sound echo each other in an expanded experience—a realm where speculative biomes come to life through fractured beauty and immersive resonance.

A new digital collaboration between VP and Jonathan Zawada—commissioned by Cement Fondu and supported by Vital Commons—Desert is shared across the digital channels of Cement Fondu, Vital Commons and Phoenix Central Park.

Vital Commons is a new curatorial practice that reimagines the role of art in public. It collaborates closely with artists to create innovative, site-specific works that have meaningful social and cultural impact.

COSMOSIS is assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia. The Cement Fondu–commissioned VP × Zawada collaboration is proudly supported by Create NSW. 

  • VP is an Australian interdisciplinary artist, sound installation creator, composer, and bioacoustics researcher based in Paris. Her work spans performance, installation, radio, exploring deep listening, speculative ecologies. She transforms field recordings from her work as an archaeologist and biologist into immersive sonic worlds, blending organic sound with electronic synthesis to create otherworldly ecologies.  

    Her work has been exhibited and performed internationally, with institutions and festivals such as Tate Britain, Sydney Opera House, ACCA, Now Or Never, VIVID amongst others. VP is the founder of EARTHLY FUTURES STUDIO, a Paris-based acoustic ecology and bio-design lab, and works as a radio host, sound producer, and collaborator, expanding the possibilities of sound as an immersive, living practice. 

  • Jonathan Zawada (b. 1981, Perth, Australia) is a multi-disciplinary artist exploring the complex interplay between technology and human experience through painting, sculpture, drawing, video, installation, and object design. On the surface, his work presents an inviting aesthetic of bold colour and modern pop sensibilities, however, beneath this veneer lies a deeper investigation into interconnected networks, systems, and architectures that shape our cultural and social landscapes.

    Zawada's practice is rooted in his early background in web design and coding, synthesizing the virtual and physical realms. His hyperreal pieces seamlessly blend the artificial and natural, oscillating between intricate detail and dynamic expression. Whether rendering objects through precise pencil drawings, constructing multimedia environments, or crafting sculptural forms, Zawada translates the intangible or unseen into tangible artifacts, developing his own language for the properties of networks and systems.

    He has exhibited internationally at 21st century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan; VIVID Festival, Sydney, Australia; Natural History Museum Los Angeles County, CA, USA; Prism Gallery, CA USA; Kurt Beers, London, UK; Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney Australia, Calm & Punk, Tokyo, Japan. He has presented at conferences around the world including Semi Permanent Sydney, and Us By Night, Antwerp and recently sat on the Create NSW government Artist Advisory Panel in developing a 10 year vision for the government’s role in the arts.