Documentation of August 8, 2020 ‘Bird2vec’ performance and works in progress by Nire (@hysteric_astetic ): “Bird2vec is a machine learned model trained on a collection of recordings of birds that are now extinct. I'm using a synth made in MaxMSP, triggered via a handled quartz crystal bowl and a stethoscope mic acting as an envelope follower for the machine learned sounds. With this project I'm thinking of how machines can be involved in ritual, and relations that form when things are put in proximity in machine learning that don’t interact directly otherwise. The sounds of these extinct species are interacting with each other in a way that they wouldn't in their natural setting. Triggered via a handled quartz crystal bowl, a healing tool created using tech biproduct waste.
(1/2) ‘Prelude to Wake’ by @johanndiedrick was developed and originally performed at the Shell House on August 8, 2020. It was performed again in Brooklyn in collaboration with Matt Evans (video documentation and sound engineering, drumming). Vocals and improvised lyrics by @cayliestaples
Statement below 👇
“Johann Diedrick’s ‘Prelude to Wake’ is a ~20 minute, urgent, mournful, and world-building sonic performance that centers the loss of ourselves and environments due to climate change. The work is performed by a fictional character named “The Sound Collector” who collects buried vibrations and releases them from material through an ancient technological device. Combining field recordings, original music composition, and generative audio techniques, Prelude to Wake stages an encounter between the audience, a past that we are losing due to catastrophe, and what may exist in the future.
SUB (mit / merge) by @in_a_can
under projections of water pulsing with patterns created by sonic vibrations, swallowed in swells of sound, there is possibility for a collective experience of submission to the waves (of sound, of light, of water). The human Dom becomes a sub (in the depths of my simulated ocean and pulses of sound).
‘we are amazed
uselessness is the last form love takes
so liquid till the forgone conclusion
here we are, the forgone conclusion’
- Underneath (13) by Jorie Graham
(1/2) @matt_evans_in_the_simulation writes “‘Another Pass Through’ was a temporary intervention and series of musical performances sited on the Shell House grounds in Roxbury, NY. These transient performance intrusions centered around the sonic activation of a 30 year old sugar maple tree that was outfitted with microphones, amplifiers, and synthesizers, that allowed the tree to activate digital instruments and provide sonic accompaniment for live musical performances. Evans considers this eco-fictional performance practice an empathetic act toward nature, in which making music with the tree represents an equalizing relationship between their human and non-human existence.
I workshopped multiple sonic interventions and installations at Shell House, using basic sound gear— extension cables, xlr cables, contact microphones, amplifiers, keyboards, and drums— to give the tree passive sonic capabilities. Of these temporary collaborations, two seemed the most successful: The first, a sound installation where wind passing through leaves was given a harmonic glow through the help of a digital audio harmonizer. And the second, a performance installation where the tree was rigged with amplifiers, microphones and self-playing keyboards to accompany a solo drum performance. Looking back on this short two week romance, I realize how much I placed my own collaborative expectations on the tree, failing to listen on multiple accounts, but ultimately ended the residency feeling a visceral love and adoration for the tree.
@sarahgvanburen writes “I spent two weeks at Shell House experimenting with a 36” Chinese wind gong. Gongs are one of the most ancient instruments — before the Metal Age, Neolithic gongs were made from resonant dolerite stones. The sound of the gong is both vast and primordial. Its resonance extends to the listener, who can physically feel the impact of its vibrations. I am attracted to this ancient method of soundmaking and listening, and its connection to our origin story as a species.
I explored the gong in relationship to the external environment (through a series of recordings in and around bodies of water in the Catskills), as well as in relationship to my internal environment (gong as portal and vector for healing through vibration). I came away with a number of recordings I will work with later, but decided to focus on a performance piece as a cumulative representation of my work here.
Using the idea that Sound = God, the gong becomes an analog for the universe and cycles of time. Its resonant body becomes an analog for my own; when it resonates, so do I. The piece I present in unfinished form investigates seven key moments in the life of Earth: its birth and each mass extinction (its own cycle of death and rebirth) including our current era, the sixth mass extinction, or 6X.
I condensed the Earth’s cycles down into a 12-hour phase, assigning each event a “cosmic time”... (continued)
Read the group statement in it’s entirety below👇
“This residency is different than any we’ve done before. We’re in the middle of a global pandemic and uprising against white supremacy, police brutality and the systemic injustices that plague our country and disproportionately affect BIPOC. We are also centered deeply within the Anthropocene, an epoch that will later be a blip in geologic time, but will make record of how colonization, industrialization and globalization have made an indelible mark upon our planet.
All five of us arrived here after a long period of quarantine / social distance, and found that we had a lot to talk about — both related to our artistic practice and also our inner lives. We processed a lot during the first week and became good friends. We acknowledged that it took more time than we all anticipated to get grounded in the space and feel ready to make work. We experienced a release of emotional backlog accrued from the last five months — one of the most difficult times we’ve experienced collectively in our lifetimes, still with no end in sight. To find solace in a small group of likeminded people has been a gift. These two weeks at the Shell House felt like the calm at the center of a raging storm. Our time here together was incredibly important for our own mental health, and will undoubtedly inform our work for years to come.
The site specificity of the Shell House — tucked into the Catskills on unceded Haudenosaunee land — gave us the opportunity to explore our environment and our relationship to it through sound. We listened through time to the histories of this land, illuminating past layers — from previous geologic eras of meteorite impacts, ancient forests and million-year-old glaciers to the more recent story of colonization and land occupation. We acknowledge the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas) and the neighboring Munsee Lenape and Mohican communities, who bear rightful claim to this region. Responding to the context of the environment around us, many of us followed various trails of experimentation and play which lead to different spaces than originally planned.
Last summer the Shell House became refuge for five artists working with sound to connect and process their experience living through the extraordinary year. The theme ‘Music After Us’ was created and curated by Michael Yarinsky from @waycoolergallery .
Over the next week I’ll be sharing a peek into the experience, process, and performances that were shared within the residency pod.
2020 Cohort: ACTIVATE
A warm welcome to the five sound artists and musicians who kicked off the summer session with @waycoolergallery today ✨ ☁️
#musicafterus #residency
