Narratives of Alienation Part 1 2021
These are two narratives involving the great US secret, area 51. I find this to be a site to explore multiple points of view. If there are aliens there then it is possible they are being mistreated much like the immigrants in detention centers. I also wanted to play with the narrative of someone obsessed with area 51. One of my favorite alien movies is Roswell with Kyle McLaughlin. It does a wonderful job of discussing what it may have been like for soldiers that encountered the Roswell crash in the 50s. Using the film as inspiration, I construct my narratives that confront exploitation and the censorship of information. What we can know is controlled by visual culture(s) and institutions of power. Maps and map-making is a way that individuals can construct and understand one's sense of place. I constructed a map of area 51 from the viewpoint of an alien captive and on the back, a map of an alien obessed American individual to speak to these constructions of knowledge/s. For an installation of this work, I projected layered videos of each map through the windows of the space. On the material that the video played, I methodically placed black rectangular vinyl to black out pieces of the video. As the video plays, pieces of the video will be blocked out. Which speaks to those moments of censorship that people experience throughout their life. Projected into the windows allowed guests to drive up and watch the video. I provided a QR code so that audience members can scan the code and access the works of sonic fiction.
Reversed 2021
Digital and analog reproduction of the voice plays an important role in understanding various communication models. The work of linguist and literary critic Roman Jakobson, for example, explores the poetic function of natural language, which refers to phrases or statements that are constructed particularly because of the way each word sounds. Jakobson argues political slogans are good examples of the poetic function at play. Jakobson does not examine thoroughly how the characteristics of different reproduction technologies interact with the transmission channel. Jakobson examines the transmission and reception channels but does not spend as much time with the specific qualities of the reproduction of speech. Other theorists, such as Roland Barthes, examined how the reproduced voice functions differently from the live performance. Barthes spoke about the unique experience of live music and that reproduced music performances lacked the grain of the voice, which is also the title of the article in which he tackles his subject. Unique qualities of the various kinds of reproductions carry information that informs the receiver. Some of these qualities disrupt the ability of Jakobson’s poetic function to come through the information that is being transmitted in the reproduction of the voice. Some qualities offer other information in its transmission that interacts with the poetic function of the phrase. To address these issues, this piece will explore how various types of reproduction technologies interact with the information that is transmitted to the receiver/listener within the artistic message (or signal). I will transmit my voice using analog and digital reproduction technologies. I will use the same phrase with each technology so that the difference or lack of the poetic function is accessible. The phrases that I will use will include phrases such as Thank You, Please, and I’m sorry. I will argue that these different reproduction technologies privilege or restrict Jakobson’s emotive and poetic function of language.
Feminist Voices 2021
The voice is something that is studied throughout various fields. This exploration plays with the voice and how my voice takes shape and form. My voice it edited to sound different but it is still connected to me. How does pitch affect agency and the interaction with the listener? How is information conveyed through attributes of the voice?
This work is an exploration of techno feminism through sound and image. The piece is constructed with images of myself screaming but the scream is replaced with sounds collected from my kitchen. It speaks to the way that the voice can be lost or drowned out with expectations that are reinforced by expectations outlined by our visual culture.
Unsettle 2019
Unsettle is a sound piece comprised of sounds found around my home. They are sounds that are loud and startle me even though I am comforted with them on almost a daily basis. There are also sounds collected from a found mixed taped of Elvis songs and altered using the Fast Forward and Rewind buttons on the cassette recorder. These sounds are compiled together to make a new alien world.
Alien Podcast - Version 1 2019
Alien Podcast is an interdisciplinary project that plays with our interest in extra-terrestrials and outer space. It explores how an alien might speak and live. Version 1 introduces some of the questions and interests that I will explore throughout the project.
HER Diane Tapes 2019
Constantly throughout the original television series Twin Peaks, Cooper records messages to Diane. I found something beautiful and peculiar about that exchange. I started off by typing, with my type writer (the noise is very affecting, more so than the click of the keyboard keys) out my notes from class, which I typed while Twin Peaks played in the background. Recording the sounds of both the typewriter and Twin Peaks (the source, my source) that is altered by the recording. Once the notes were typed out, written, I re-round the tape and began to become (but not quite, somewhere in-between myself and Agent Cooper) Cooper. I record messages to Diana that are about Roland Barthes “The Grain of the Voice” but in a Dale Cooper manner.
Preservation 2014, erased 45 minute cassette tape
Preservation is a sound and video piece in which I speak the slights to my mother about my childhood. Once I am done speaking I then take the tape and using a magnet I demagnetize the tape, erasing the audio forever. The reason for erasing is to protect my mother from what I said. These statements needed to be released but once I did I knew my mother could never hear them. I never wanted her to hear them. The audio only produces slight static and a rhythm from the sound of the tape head moving.
Rememory 2012 Five audio tracks approximately 30 in duration recorded and rerecorded on cassette tape.
The piece consists of sounds and dialogue that I have collected onto 5 cassette tapes. The tapes are recorded and rerecorded several times; degrading and altering the tapes, and creating a dreamlike memory of the places that I have lived.
The sounds are of things, moments or places that remind one of a memory or a moment. Each tape focuses on a sense: sight, hearing, taste, feeling, touch and smell and relates to one of the senses.
The dialogue that exists within the sounds talks about the differences of the various places I have lived. I record a thought or idea that is specific to one of the places and then later that day or another day I try to record over that thought or idea. Sometimes the viewer/listener can hear the bits of the previous recording and hear that over time my memory or thought changes. At times I feel nostalgic about the memory and at other times I shorten the idea or memory into something simple.