Auricular Arrangements
Soundwave presents Auricular Arrangements as part of the popular Friday Night series at the de Young Museum. Four artists probe invisible architecture entangled within the iconic museum built by architects Herzog and de Meuron. Returning artist Matthew Howell’s augmented soundwalk lets participants explore sonic architecture of varied audio environments in the gardens and perimeter of the Museum. Jeff Cravath activates Turrell’s Three Gems with a solo and interactive performance using tone chimes. Amaranth string trio presents a live performance of the “Companion Guide to Rome” at Wilsey Court, and Yann Novak will create new a site-specific work meditating on the experience of being within the Hamon Observation Tower.
Schedule of Performances
Hamon Observation Tower: 6:00pm and 7:00pm
Artist: Yann Novak, “Surrounding”
Wilsey Court: 6:30pm and 7:30pm
Artist: Amaranth, “The Companion Guide to Rome”
Three Gems: James Turrell Dome: 8:00pm
Artist: Jeff Cravath, “Chromatic Conversations: Scoring the Environment”
Outdoor Interactive Demo: 5:00pm – 8:30pm
Artist: Matthew Howell, “Polyenvironments”
Artist Matthew Howell presents his next iteration of Polyenvironments, an evolution of this piece presented during our SonicLab series in 2015. Participants are invited to experience a freeform soundwalk using their own (or provided) headphones via their smartphones to explore a virtual soundscape by walking around the gardens and interior of the de Young Museum. With existing GPS navigation on their phones, their position will alter the soundscape while they move about the museum. As they walk to different sites, the sound will change to the site-specific music designed for that area. The alternate soundscape will be available for participants to transform their experience through replacement, reimagining, or obstruction of the natural sounds already available. Their daily perceptions will be available for critical dissection while their peripheral awareness is augmented by this artificial means of sonic sensory transformation.
Matthew Howell, (aka. misterinterrupt) is a hacker and audio synthesist focused on uncovering exoteric truths via hypnogogic sound and mediated proprioception.
https://soundcloud.com/misterinterrupt
Amaranth performs The Companion Guide to Rome, composed by Andrew Norman. Like many of the buildings in Rome, this piece is the product of a long gestation with numerous renovations, accretions, and ground-up reconstructions, finally emerging in a collection of nine portraits of the composer’s favorite Roman churches. The music is informed by the buildings’ proportions, the patterns in their floors, the artwork on their walls, and the legends of the saints whose names they bear. These portraits come to life not as the direct representation of actual buildings, but rather as character studies of imaginary people–the composer’s companions for a year in the Eternal City.
Helen Newby, Abigail Shiman, and Erica Zappia make up the string trio Amaranth.
Cellist Helen Newby continually seeks ways to expand the technical and expressive boundaries of her instrument through close collaboration with other innovative performers and composers. She received her Master’s in Cello Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory and has performed widely across North America and Europe with venues ranging from Carnegie Hall, Disney Hall and The Fillmore to jazz clubs, dive bars and art galleries. In addition to Amaranth, Helen is a founding member of string trio Chartreuse, jazz sextet Deturtle, and noise quartet HK&tCS. She is currently on faculty at The Crowden School in Berkeley in addition to maintaining a private teaching studio.
Violinist Abigail Shiman is based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Committed to bringing music past the traditional walls of the concert hall, she has performed in a number of diverse venues across the world including The Fillmore, Stanford’s Anderson Gallery, Alte Weberei Ahrenshoop, and Viracocha. A passionate educator, Abigail has been a resident teacher in the San Francisco Public Schools, a teaching artist at Summer Music West, and a teaching assistant at New England Conservatory’s Project Step Classes. She is presently on violin faculty at the Community Music Center of San Francisco.
Violist Erica Zappia shares her love of viola by regularly working with composers, genre blending, visiting or performing in unique venues, and reaching the human experience through heartfelt performances. Originally a native of Cleveland, Erica earned her M.M. at the San Francisco Conservatory and has studied privately with Jodi Levitz, Alan de Veritch and Jeffery Irvine. She currently teaches a studio of students through the Young Musicians Choral Orchestra, a Bay Area program providing high quality, intensive, musical training, and personal guidance for low-income students, ages 9-18.
Yann Novak presents Surrounding, a site-specific sound performance created for the Hamon Observation Tower at the de Young Museum in San Francisco by sound artist Yann Novak. The performance will incorporate field recordings captured throughout Golden Gate Park and perform synthesized sounds created to situate themselves within the field recordings. Surrounding is intended to echo the symbiotic relationship between the architecture of the de Young and Golden Gate Park while creating a deep and meditative listening environment to compliment the panoramic views of the Hamon Observation Tower.
Yann Novak is a sound and visual artist living and working in Los Angeles. Through the use of sound, light and space, he explores how these intangible materials can act as catalysts to focus our awareness on the present moment and alter our perception of time. Novak’s work, whether conceptual or rooted in phenomenon, is informed by his investigations of presence, stillness and mindfulness. His works can be experienced as audiovisual installations and performances, durational performances, architectural interventions, sound diffusions, concerts and recorded sound works.
www.yannnovak.com
At sunset, Jeff Cravath presents Chromatic Conversations / Scoring the Environment beginning with a solo semi-improvisational set using tone-chimes and manipulated field recordings collected from the Sonoran Desert within James Turrell’s Three Gems acoustic Dome. Upon entrance to the dome participants trade the use of their voice for one soft-striking bell. Each of the 24 bells or “Tone-Chimes” make up two octaves of twelve semitones. Participants are invited to “chime in” to the dome’s projected color narrative based on the tone they have received. This opens a space for the participants and audience to explore and experience abstract dialogue stripped down to single tones that play out in an allegoric sonic story guided by the changing chroma of the environment.
Jeffrey Cravath was Born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1987. Cravath works predominately in Video and Sound, concentrating on themes that explore the human body as a tool in non-ordinary dialogue, authentic movement, and ecstatic group ritual. He has completed one year intensive study programs at the Sedona Film School (2006), The Tamalpa Institute (2013), and The Arizona School of Integral Studies (2015). Jeffrey graduated Pima College with an AA in Fine Arts and is currently finishing a BFA at The University of Arizona with plans to attend Portland’s PNCA for his MFA program.
https://soundcloud.com/capeday
The Architecture
Founded in 1895 in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, the de Young Museum has been an integral part of the cultural fabric of the city and a cherished destination for millions of residents and visitors to the region for over 100 years. On October 15, 2005, the de Young Museum re-opened in a state-of-the-art new facility that integrates art, architecture and the natural landscape in one multi-faceted destination that will inspire audiences from around the world.
Website: www.deyoung.famsf.org