click on the titles for more details
by Gordon Monahan
Small amounts of water are periodically pumped into a ‘weeping’ or ‘soaker’ hose that is suspended horizontally approximately 8 to 10 feet above the ground. Below the hose, close to the ground, is a row of metal and plastic plates, each of which has a contact pickup attached. The water drops fall onto the metal and plastic objects and the consequent percussive audio signals are sent to a mixer and loudspeakers.
The water drops will drip in rhythmic patterns, and musical elements such as accelerando and decellerando can be affected by regulating the water flow by means of an electric valve.
Opening: Wednesday, August 20th, 10:30 am
Location: The Commons, North Road
by Darren Copeland and Andreas Kahre
Fish on Air is an installation that explores sound as the poetic nexus between the human and non-human world. Based on a series of underwater recordings from various locations on Gabriola, the project offers three components. One is a web-based map of the island where visitors can choose among location recordings and a number of short electroacoustic compositions, to create their own "mix" of the underwater soundscape that surrounds Gabriola. The other parts include a community workshop to create low-powered FM transmitters, which will then be used to create a series of "narrowcast" radio stations.
Each station transmits a continuous loop of that site's underwater soundscape, which can be accessed by any FM radio. Audiences will be able to "tune in" to the underwater soundscape anywhere within the effective range of the transmitters; approximately fifty to one hundred meters from the source, opening a window into the acoustic ecology of marine life in the Gulf islands..
Fish on Air expands on the work Darren and Andreas began in 2007, with "The other night, Underwater", a 50 minute audio art piece commissioned by Deutschlandradio Kultur in Berlin. It explored the notion that the human and non-human world are both separated and inextricably linked by sound and language.
Opening: Thursday, August 21st, 1:30 pm, the Gabriola Public Library
Locations:
– Taylor Bay (West Side of Twin Beaches)
– Degnen Bay (facing Southwest, on the Government wharf)
– Silva Bay (facing Northeast, toward the Marina)
– Descanso Bay (facing West, toward the ferry dock)
- El Verano Beach, near the boat launch area
Taking Time — A View from the Window at Silva Bay Store
by Chris Welsby
This art installation uses digital technology to slow down the process of image recording in order to register the slow, long term, transformations of the natural world. In this piece, the repetitive cycle of the tides, the alternation of night and day, and the passing seasons, take the place of, the more familiar human experience, of breath, metabolism and heart rate. Human activity is seen, in passing, and only then, if at all, against the larger backdrop of planetary time.
A small, high-resolution web cam will be located in the Silva Bay store and coffee station on the south end of Gabriola Island. The view outside the window, will be relayed live via a computer, to a wall mounted monitor display.
Specially written computer soft ware, will change the on-screen image, one pixel at a time. The speed at which the image is updated is infinitely variable, and could take minutes, hours or even years for every pixel to change. Like the brush strokes in an impressionist painting, each pixel will represent a single passing moment but here the similarity ends.
To the computer, time passing is just a series of zeros and ones, line after line after line of them stretching all the way to infinity. The machine is immortal, it cares nothing for our feeble innumerate brains. But to our human perceptions, trapped by the finite beating of the heart, the pixels flickering on the monitor screen, are like so many tiny windows reflecting the light of each passing moment. They are strangely beautiful in their other worldly way. Little bursts of phosphorescent light shimmering on the surface of the screen like mysterious envoys from the unknowable world of machines.
The view of Silva Bay is real enough, but the artwork is neither a still photograph, a movie or a video but a third technology dedicated to slowing time down. The piece has no fixed duration yet, at any given moment, it contains an accurate trace of time present as well as time past. In this piece, there is no recorded image, the work can never be finished and what you will see on the monitor screen will remain as ephemeral as the light which dances on the waters of Silva Bay.
Opening: Friday, August 22nd, 1:30 pm
Location: Village Foods South
Village “HMMMM” and the Gabriola Sound Treasure Hunt
by Kathy Kennedy
Come to the Village at noon with a portable radio (if you have one. Some will be provided!) and gather for one of Kathy’s inspiring community “HMMMMs”. Kathy will be there with her very own personal radio station, and you can tune into it and hum right along with her and the voices of many other Gabriolans who have already participated in this project.
Attention hunters large and small! (no weapons requires, just ears): get ready for the first Gabriola Sound Treasure Hunt - a two hour sound expedition that will lead you to some far out sonic places. Beginning at 1pm, listen to 101.7 Radio Malaspina for clues! Be sure to find a copy of the accompanying booklet with the other clues. You will need this booklet to redeem your prize for finding each site!
Saturday, August 23rd, 12:30 pm
Location: Start at the Village
An Avian Apparition – A Community Performance
by Dinah D and Deborah Dallyn
Degnen Bay - an enviro-acoustic wonderland in true surround sound - is also home to an incredible variety of birds. An Avian Apparition is a performance piece conceived by Dinah D and Deborah Dallyn (both residents of Degnen Bay) specifically for the bay. The piece has two components: the launch of a hundred lantern replicas of local birds into the bay; and birdsong and other “found” sounds from around the bay performed by host of humans.
Please note: performers for this event are part of the Bird Sound and Lantern Making workshops. Workshops are suitable for all ages, 11 and under must be accompanied by and adult. This event is free to pass holders, and donations are happily accepted.
Friday, August 22nd, 8:30pm, Degnen Bay
Ulterior Space – A Community Sound Installation
by Kelly Price
“Ulterior space” refers to an area that is intentionally hidden or that exists beyond what is obvious or admitted. The Huxley Park skateboard park on Gabriola is located directly behind the most public location on the island, the Folklife Village, and yet it is a space that many people don’t see, know about, or venture into.
Through a collaborative process involving seniors, youth and the individuals and groups who use Huxley Park skate park, this sound installation explores the theme of ulterior space; why it exists and how it functions in a community. Where is the installation? (hint: enter the space between worlds)
And there is more...
Did you know that Gabriola has its own Onomatopoets? Visit the Village Foods front window and see (hear?) what they’ve been up to.
And be on the lookout for Sounds Like Gabriola: notes for an island soundscape and add your very own note!
Darren Copeland
Darren Copeland is an electroacoustic composer and sound designer who has produced work since 1985 for concerts, radio, theatre, dance, and site-specific installation. He is also the Artistic Director of New Adventures in Sound Art (NAISA), which produces electroacoustic and experimental sound art events in Toronto (Canada). Darren is an Associate Member of The Canadian Music Centre, and currently serves on the board of directors for the Canadian Association for Sound Ecology (CASE). He writes: “Without conscientious efforts to approach environmental sounds with some imagination and a sensitive social awareness, the language for coping with the everyday sound world will remain crude and ineffectual. If sound shapes people's experience in the world, than a vocabulary for documenting this interrelationship needs to develop.”
Dinah D
(http://www.myspace.com/dinahdmusic)
As long as the air comes in, the sounds come out. Dinah D has been experimenting with sound the whole 33 years she’s been breathing air. As a professional Upright Bassist, Dinah has seen a lot of ground-but not without standing tiptoe to keep her head in the clouds. She writes: “…experimenting with Spoken Word and Soundscape has become my new passion. I have found if I sit still and just listen, I learn a lot more about my surroundings. Some sounds are very annoying, some beautiful--that’s what life is all about. The soundtrack is already written, it’s just picking up on it….”
Deborah Dallyn
Deborah Dallyn is a contemporary, issues based artist who recently moved to Gabriola from the UK. Her work, which includes site specific installations and interventions using a variety of media, often focuses on environmental issues and ideas of loss. She has taught sculpture in art school, and for many years has been an advisor and consultant to art grant boards. She has exhibited widely both nationally (in the UK) and internationally, and has great experience running projects that encourage members of the community to work together to make very special events.
Andreas Kahre
Andreas Kahre is an interdisciplinary artist, designer, writer, and musician, whose work involves images, sound and text in many different configurations. He has been involved in the creation of more than a hundred interdisciplinary projects with theatre, dance and music ensembles across Canada, and specializes in sited interdisciplinary performance. His collaborative project with Darren Copeland explore the aural, historical and lyrical dimension of the underwater domain by combining hydrophone recording, text, and sound processing to create interactive ‘performance installations using holosonic speaker systems — tightly focused beams of sound that work like audio spotlights. Recent examples include a shortlisted proposal for Toronto’s Harbourfront festival and a commission for Deutschlandradio Kultur in Berlin scheduled for 2008.
Kathy Kennedy
Kathy Kennedy is a sound artist with a background in classical singing. Her art practice generally involves the voice and issues of interface with technology, often using telephony or radio. She is also involved in community art, and is a founder of the digital media center for women in Canada, Studio XX, as well as the innovative choral group for women Choeur Maha. Her large scale sonic installation/performances for up to 100 singers and radio, called "sonic choreographies," have been performed internationally including the inauguration of the Vancouver New Public Library and at the Lincoln Center's Out of Doors Series.
Patricia Ludwick
Patricia Ludwick has worked across Canada as a professional actor, playwright and dramaturge, conducted workshops in a variety of creative fields, and for the past twenty years as a Gabriola resident has made a living of sorts as a screenplay consultant, editor, and writing coach, with occasional forays into performance, just to keep the juices flowing. She has published poetry and articles in literary journals, and her plays have been performed in Canada and the U.S., with radio plays broadcast on CBC and Australia. She has no plans to move anywhere else, no matter what the real estate market does.
Gordon Monahan
Gordon Monahan's works for piano, loudspeakers, video, kinetic sculpture, and computer-controlled sound environments span various genres from avant-garde concert music to multi-media installation and sound art. As a composer and sound artist, he juxtaposes the quantitative and qualitative aspects of natural acoustical phenomena with elements of media technology, environment, architecture, popular culture, and live performance.
Kelly Price
Kelly Price is a writer, media artist and musician. Originally from Toronto, she currently lives on Gabriola Island via Vancouver. Kelly graduated from Emily Carr Institute in 2005 with a Bachelo of Media Arts Degree. Kelly’s current work includes radio and film documentary, sound design, video art, songwriting and photography. She also works as a graphic/web designer, sound technician and editor on a freelance basis. Kelly has over seven years experience as a community youth worker, and has designed and facilitated a variety of community art projects.
Chris Welsby
Chris Welsby has been making and exhibiting work since 1969. His films and film/video installations have been exhibited internationally, at several major galleries. He writes:
"In my single screen films and single channel videos the mechanics of film and video interact with the landscape in such a way that elemental processes—such as changes in light, the rise and fall of the tide or changes in wind direction—are given the space and time to participate in the process of representation. The resulting sequences of images make it possible to envisage a relationship between technology and nature based on principles other than exploitation and domination.”
