Aquaphonic at SOMArts

Multi-sensory performances of water-sonic phenomena by Marielle V. Jakobsons, Joshua Churchill, and Matt Baldwin with Moses Hacmon

Water and sound generate incredible phenomena. Artists reveal the mystifying aquatic properties through visible sound and vibration. Artist and composer Marielle V. Jakobsons presents ‘Macro Cymatic Studies,’ which encourages immersion in water reflections connected to droning soundscapes with water wave projections, slow melodic violin, and psychoacoustic synthesizers which plays with our sense of scale and explores unifying matter through sound. Joshua Churchill investigates moving subsonic properties water through the feeling of sound, vibrating our bodies and exposing the unique and ubiquitous nature of this natural element. Psychedelic guitarist Matt Baldwin collaborates with artist Moses Hacmon to reveal the mind-altering beauty of sound moving through air in an all-sensory experience of live music and vibration to literally move water.

Sound artist and violinist Marielle V. Jakobsons creates electro-acoustic compositions of evocative, pulsing drones.  Her installations and instruments expand this practice with heightened visceral experience of natural phenomena.  She has published recordings on Thrill Jockey, Important Records, Digitalis, Mexican Summer and Root Strata, among others, and has toured across the Americas and Europe. A classically-trained musician-turned-sound designer and educator, she creates and collaborates extensively in the experimental arts.  She has taught courses at Mills College and San Francisco State University, and has presented as a visiting artist in several universities. Together with Gregg Kowalsky, she formed the band Date Palms and with Agnes Szelag, Myrmyr. From 2007-2011 she performed under the moniker darwinsbitch, and in 2009, under Digitalis, released the album Ore. Her second solo album of analog synthesizers and violin, Glass Canyon, was released by Students of Decay in Summer 2012. Most recently, she has been creating a new body of work, Macro Cymatic Studies, which explores new photographic and compositional techniques for performance and installation.

Joshua Churchill is a San Francisco-based cross-disciplinary artist whose immersive site-specific sound and light work takes the form of both installation and performance, often blurring the line between the two. Churchill also collaborates regularly with filmmakers, including Paul Clipson and John Davis, in the context of live sound and film performances and is a member of experimental black metal / noise project Sutekh Hexen. Joshua Churchill has exhibited and performed both nationally and abroad. He was an artist in residence at AIR  Krems, Austria in 2013, and the Djerassi Resident Artist Progam in Woodside, California in 2011.

Moses Hacmon is a collaborative artist, photographer and architect. Moses studied cinematography and fine art in Tel Aviv and in the Technion in Haifa before completing his B.Arch with AIA Honors from the Southern California Institute of Architecture. His main interest is the constant creation of physical objects that represent the spirit of the present time and space, both in architecture and art. For the past 10 years Moses has been studying water’s composition, properties, and movement and has developed an original photographic technique that captures the hidden life of water. This project he calls Faces Of Water(facesofwater.com), which exposes the movement within water, previously invisible to our eyes.

Matt Baldwin is a composer and guitarist living in Oakland. In addition to his solo work he collaborates with Nico Georis and has played guitar for Sam Flax and Holy Shit.