It's no secret that many artists see the world differently to the average person.
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But NSW composer Vic McEwan wants to help others see the world the way he does.
In his world, this means looking to the land to heal after a loss, and hearing music in physical, industrial landscapes.
And, as the inaugural artist-in-residence at the National Museum of Australia, he has even managed to compose a work based entirely on the sounds produced by the Enterprise, the historic paddle-steamer housed on the banks of the Acton Peninsula that is one of the few waterborne paddle-steamers still in existence.
The 10-minute performance on Saturday night will begin his year in residence at the museum working with the People and the Environment curatorial team, and will be one of three multi-media installations exploring Australia's connection to the land.
"I'll be playing a composition made entirely live on the boat," McEwan said this week.
"There are these wire ropes that are part of it, I'll be playing those with a violin bow, and just finding all these tones that exist just on that boat, and try and play them live for people."
He has also created a visual component to the performance, using archival material from the museum's collection and footage taken on the steamer since he'd been working with the museum.
McEwan, who lives in the NSW Riverina, describes himself as a composer, sound and installation artist, and is interested primarily in landscape, communities and remote spaces.
"A lot of the work I've been making for the last few years is big outdoor installations out in remote places, working with communities and landscape and remnants of landscapes," he said.
"[At the museum], I'm just working with the interests they have in our history and our current use of land in Australia and how people engage with that."
One of his recent projects involved working with the community of Yenda, the NSW town near Griffith that was devastated by floods in 2012.
"No one had flood insurance – everyone lost everything, their buildings, their provisions," he said.
"A lot of it was doing workshops with community members, but it's not just about that sort of stuff. It's also about me making work, with artistic outcomes, and then how ethically I do that, without taking people's stories – how I work with people to ethically make something."
Vic McEwan will be presenting his installation work on the Enterprise as part of Enlighten, during the By The Water Concert featuring Katie Noonan, at the National Museum of Australia on Saturday, February 28.
