PIVOT | SOUND CREATION RESIDENCY

Residency PIVOT : from March 24th to April 14th, 2023

Diffusion : From April 14 to 16th, 2023

Opening : April 14th, 2023 at 5 pm

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In partnership with the Canadian League of Composers (CLC), Sporobole is pleased to welcome three artists who are participating in the 2022-2023 PIVOT!

Over the past few months, Lina Choi (QC), Sara Constant (ON) and Sam Meadahl (BC) have been working on the production of new works with creative and professional expertise offered in the form of artistic mentorship. The process culminates in a two-week residency at our facility, including the sound studio, where the artists will refine their creations for public presentation.

 

What is PIVOT?

The PIVOT program offers three artists a unique opportunity to work with Sporobole in order to improve their professional skills and advance their practice. The program runs from Fall 2022 to Spring 2023.

A national jury consisting of Eliot Britton (MB/ON), Jessica Thompson (ON), Nathalie Bachand (QC) and William Kuo (BC), reviewed the approximately 50 applications submitted for the 2022-2023 edition. The proposals represented a diverse cross-section of artistic practices, aesthetics, gender, culture, professional experience and geography. August Murphy-King (Canadian League of Composers) chaired the meeting.

 

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SARA CONSTANT

To make pressed felt—often thought of as one of the world’s oldest fabrics—tufts of wool are slowly compressed together using heat and moisture. Over time, the process causes the fibres themselves to become interlocked, forming a single, matted fabric.

mutable bodies #2: matted object uses sound and movement to consider this system of slow, entangled labour. In it, multiple small loudspeakers, hanging encased in layers of industrial felt, emit delicate, almost-inaudible noises. The felt—which is frequently used today as an acoustic treatment for indoor spaces—dampens and filters the sounds produced by the loudspeakers inside. Over time, motors tease apart the felt and reposition the loudspeakers to face open air, laying their sounds and inner workings visually and sonically bare, and revealing new acoustic realities.

As in the irreversible process of felt-making itself, the workings of the small, the hidden, and the quiet here are shaped by systems of labour and loss. Though the loudspeakers and felt work to disentangle themselves from one another, there is no possibility of resolution—their shifting relationships only serving to reveal the messy, contingent nature of the sounds they create.

 

LINA CHOI

Under the Waves is an immersive soundscape project based on an array of water sounds samplings. The audience feels as if water is flowing above them as they walk under the speakers. Why are humans fascinated by the sounds of water? Do they inherently take us back to the womb? Where does this innate sense of calm near a water source come from? Under the Waves is a meditative and sensory experience. Through listening, one can reflect on the various symbols of water as a source of life, peace and purification, but also of fear, destruction and uncertainty.

“My deep fascination with water has led me to explore the surrounding rivers, streams, waterfalls and rainfalls (St. Lawrence River, St. Francis River and Magog River) and to record a myriad of water forms: silent water, peaceful water, loud water, aggressive water, clear water, dark water, deep water, and running water, at different times of the year and in different weather conditions.” – Lina Choi

Each speaker in the Audio Lab broadcasts a specific sound of water that then moves to another speaker, and so on. The resulting soundscape gives the impression that water is flowing around the audience. They can sit/stand and meditate, or walk around and navigate the elusive stream.

 

SAM MEADAHL

Occular Oscillation investigates how we interact with the sonic world as it exists and flourishes around us. The installation revolves around the creation of a soundscape that subtly enhances the space, empowering without overpowering what the room has to naturally offer. While the images of the work are bright, colourful and eyecatching, they hold a secret: cameras that trigger sparse electronic sounds based on movement in the space. In that sense, the viewer becomes the performer, crafting the sounds of the work based on what exists within the space.

 

*Texts provided by the artists

PHOTO CREDIT : Jean-Michel Naud