Sound Ecology

My work is concerned with sound ecology as expressed by the medium of electroacoustics and radio art. Through experimentation, I have come to believe in certain forms of 'soft technologies' as ecology. I think of radio as the transmission of information that can be received as fact, fiction or fantasy, depending on the listener's attention, intention and retention, which allows artists a presence in the ear of the world. I think of radio as an ecosphere: the sum of the Earth's ecological systems (all living organisms interacting with the physical environment) with the implication of a conscious ecological stewardship of the Earth and all that is in it. I enjoy feeling soundscapes in time and in process. The ecology of sound is in finding a balance. My recent work as a composer and producer presents the joys and pains of discovering and rediscovering the implications of environment. In 1990, I curated a series of radioecology capsules for the Musique Actuelle program of Radio-Canada (the French network of the Canadian Broadcasting Company), which questioned the role of electroacoustics in the ecology movement. Later in 1990, I completed a work for cello and tape called ABBNF, an ecological portrait Claude Schryer, 3582 Cartier, Montreal , Quebec H2K 4G2, Canada. Fax: (514) 844-6263 SOUND ECOLOGY Fig. 3. Sonya Rapoport, TheAnimatedSoul-Gateway to YourKa, interactive installation, Ghia Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 1991. A participant pastes a 'words of power' label onto her printout in order to validate her 'ticket' to everlasting life. (Photo:Jay Mrozek) rI· .'.'' ..--.--·If'.' 1'.' ! 1 ' r '. .J:',~:',' ", .' i .' . '.;- ....:. '~ 1.;.t,'· .:.; ticipant's ancient Egyptian double is revealed. The image of the double is duplicated on a printout that has the format of a ticket. The participant at the Ghia Gallery , with the printout ticket in hand, then went through the portals to the back area (Fig. 3) where 27 caskets represented each of the possible ancient Egyptian doubles in the database of the computer program. Gold balloons (souls) that had been printed with the Declarations and their corresponding doubles' images, floated above each of these sarcophagi . The images of the double on the printouts matched both the images on the balloons and the pillow masks in the sarcophagi. Near the pillows in chemical beakers were 'words of power' printed on labels. Pasting the proper label on the printout validated this 'ticket' as a 'boarding pass' to the everlasting life. From an audiocassette player were heard excerpts of interviews that revealed contemporary attitudes about life after death. These statements, which 1taped and edited with Andrew Smolle, ranged from reincarnation, pollution and gene pools, to belief in the immortal existence of the soul. Responding to each excerpt was a comment from the philosophies of the Egyptian god Shu. Kathryn Woods designed the computer program. In 1992, The Animated Soul will be installed at Takada Fine Arts in San Francisco, California, and at the Kuopio Museum in Finland. this life, and the double's assigned 'words of power' can expedite this purpose. Traditionally, the 'words of power' were secured with the deceased's headrest and had the magical formula of carrying out its wishes and needs for a safe journey into the next world, a place resembling life on earth. The first venue for The Animated Soul-Gateway to Your Kawas in 1991 in San Francisco, California, at the Ghia Gallery, a cavernous space that specializes in selling funerary objects and is associated with nonprofit funeral societies. For this installation, the front section of the gallery had been separated from the back with scrims and large plaster portals that resembled archeological architectural remains. One wall displayed a projection of the computer program's introduction to the work. Nearby hung a printed cutout of the soul-bird, a human-headed hawk that in ancient Egypt had freedom to go anywhere. In the introduction, he is animated and plays the part of a guide who takes the viewers through the steps that they will encounter when interacting with the computer. In another area, the high-tech tomb room, were two computers and printers on a large plaster table that resembled the architectural portals in the gallery. Here the viewers became participants when...