And Through We Went

Last week was a great one for the project. I completed interview 62 with Brittney Leeanne Williams, an amazing visual artist, and then interview 63 with Psalm One, incredible rapper and youth advocate. How lucky I was to talk with both of them. I can't wait to share those interviews with you!

Psalm One will be performing at the Hideout on July 1st for Psalm One's Sh*tty Punk Birthday: http://www.hideoutchicago.com/event/1200623-psalm-ones-sh-tty-punk-chicago/

Brittney Leeanne Williams will be in the group show Women We Love at Gallery 19 at 4839 N. Damen. The opening reception is June 3rd. Check out the gallery website for more information: http://www.gallery19chicago.com/

Edra Soto is in several shows right now including: "There was no joy in the brilliance of sunshine" curated by Rusiana Lichtzier at Efrain Lopez Gallery until June 22nd.She'll be in "Manual GRAFT" at  the Defibrillator Gallery for the Rapid Pulse Festival June 1st to June 5th and "White Feelings" curated by Albert Stabler at Figure One Gallery from June 4th to June 22nd.

Ruth Kaufman, romance writer and actress, also released the romance medieval My Once and Future Love on May 26th. For more information: http://www.ruthkaufman.com/

I'm going to turn briefly to a project I've been working on. I'm still learning how to create audio pieces because I really would like to do something larger with all of this audio that I've collected with the project. Third Coast International Audio Festival was having another one of its Short Docs competitions. This time, they are partnering with another favorite Chicago organization: Manual Cinema. Puppets and audio. What more could I want? We were charged with using our mic like a camera. The rules were: 1. we had to be inspired by a Manual Cinema video 2. We had to go two places 3. We had to use Manual Cinema music.

So I decided to get a little creative and reach a bit. I needed audio background noise. Lots of it. And as different from one another as possible. So for weeks, I was wandering around Chicago with my recorder, trying to capture as much sound as possible. Since people do take weirdly to a recorder, I often hid it in my purse. Now before you get all worried about illegal recording, I wasn't recording people. I wanted the CTA mechanized announcements on the Blue line, the sound of flamingos and monkeys at the zoo. I even recorded people clapping at two events (the first one was too muffled). 

Of course, in the course of this piece, I learned some interesting things about my view of sound . I just started a new job where they are doing construction with drills and other loud things right next to the front door. It didn't even occur to me until a week ago that it would have been great to include those sounds in my piece. I didn't really consider it at all. I had seen it as a nuisance instead of a sound opportunity. What other opportunities am I passing up?

Now, I'm planning on carrying my recorder everywhere. I did catch some wonderful midnight tolling of bells in my neighborhood (though too soft to work in the piece). But now, everything is a potential sound opportunity.

Here's the piece for those of you who are interested: http://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/explore/feature/and-through-we-went