One of the exciting installations that we’ll have at the festival this year is called LISTEN. It is a three part experimental project in sound and sculpture, prepared for the 2010 Communikey Festival of Electronic Arts. Rob Fitzgerald of Boulder, Colorado is working with Denver artist Jess Webb to create an interactive ambient music experience based around introducing people to music that focuses on active listening and awareness. In the lead up to the festival, there will be listening stations placed around Boulder that are examples of works of music that employ creative use of audio sampling and field recording. Each listening station podium was hand-built and designed specifically for it’s location by Jess, with headphones attached so that one may listen closely to the piece of music selected for that station. Three out of the four stations will be playing experimental/ambient musical pieces by artists local to Boulder/Denver, with the fourth coming from a well-established San Francisco-based ambient sound artist. These stations will be located at Espresso Roma, the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder’s Public Library and the ATLAS building on the CU campus – so make sure to stop by and take a look at these podiums and listen to the music! They will be running all week during the festival until Monday April 19th.
On Saturday April 17th from 1pm to 5pm, festival goers are encouraged to come down to CMKY Headquarters at 18th and Pearl for the second part of the project, Listen: Soundwalk. Rob will be giving introductory lessons on using field recorders to record found sounds from around Boulder. After a quick tutorial, we’ll take the field recorders out on a walk around Boulder to find natural/street sounds and ambient noise. This workshop is based on participatory involvement, and the idea is that average people can find creativity in the ambient world, when they stop to listen to all that is around them. The sounds that are captured on Saturday’s Soundwalk will then be incorporated into a loose musical structure to create an ambient loop of Boulder’s sounds.
This music will be exhibited on Sunday night at the Fiske Plantetarium, during the third part of the project, Listen: Headroom. Attendees of the the Dub Galaxies Finale showcase are invited to take a moment during this show to relax on beanbags and cushions in the lobby of the planetarium and listen on headphones to the ambient piece of music created by Rob Fitzgerald and attendees of the Soundwalk, incorporating the field recordings from Saturday. The collaborative recording experiment will be re-interpreted with harmony, rhythm, and spacial character in a seamless, continuously evolving music piece. The soundscape environment will provide a contrast and complimentary space to the Dub Galaxies Showcase. As listeners, when we are given the opportunity to re-examine these recorded moments in a separate listening environment, our minds can freely associate our memory with fresh perspective and new context. Headroom is intended to be a relaxing way to end the festival, perhaps providing a moment of contemplation for all you’ve heard throughout the festival in Boulder.
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Listening Station Locations:
+ KEYS @ Boulder Museum of Contemporary Arts
1750 13th St.
offthesky (Denver, Colorado)
Title: CommuniKeys
interactive sound sculpture
+ BOOKS @ Boulder Public Library
1001 Arapahoe Ave.
Kim Cascone (San Fransisco, California)
Title: anti-musical celestial forces (27:47)
from the 2009 Anechoic release, anti-musical celestial forces
+ RECORD PLAYERS @ Espresso Roma
1101 13th St.
Hallopatric (Denver, Colorado)
Title: Last Dance (5:11)
unreleased 2010
+ VHS @ ATLAS Institute
1125 18th St. at CU campus
Morgan Packard (Denver, Colorado)
Title: Moment (8:24)
from the upcoming Anticipate release, Moment Again Elsewhere
Listen is made possible in part by the Boulder Arts Commission Mini-Grant and the Boulder County Arts Commission Mark Addison Mini-Grant.
