Issued by: Beth Stafford
414-229-4800
bstaff@uwm.edu
Date: Feb. 13, 2003
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Issued by: Beth Stafford Date: Feb. 13, 2003 |
MILWAUKEE -The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts presents In Thin Air, a sound and light installation by Rob Danielson, March 20-26, in the Manfred Olson Planetarium on the UWM campus. There are two seatings each night at 6:15 p.m. and 7:15 p.m. Audience members are invited to come 15 minutes early and visit the telescope observation deck.
The planetarium is located in the Physics Building on the west end of the UWM campus at 1900 E. Kenwood Blvd. Admission is $1. Call 229-4308 for more information.
The installation combines 32 channels of sound from outdoor environments around Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the Kickapoo River Valley with a variety of intriguing visual projections. Danielson spent 10 years recording the 1200 sound files used in the installation.
The 25-minute program features a complex progression of sounds that create four distinct urban and rural environments. Ten channels of visual images accompany the sounds. All the sounds are randomly selected so the makeup of the environments is unique at any moment.
While some of the sounds are extraordinary, most are familiar; Danielson wants the emphasis to be on listening itself. "Art is about noticing things," explains Danielson. "Painters help us see light and texture, and we incorporate these pleasures into our everyday experience. Our relationship to sound is different. Our world has just gotten louder and louder over the past 100 years. Often, we're simply trying to screen out what we don't want to hear. This installation asks us to stop and listen to the world around us."
During the years he spent recording the sounds, Danielson says, he became aware that the sounds around him were infinitely more complex and textured than he first thought. Beyond the sounds that initially dominated the environments—mufflerless cars, air conditioners—his recordings picked up subtler sounds that came from longer distances. Being able to tune in to these layers of sound, he says, "opened up" the space around him and made it feel larger and richer.
"If we become fully aware of the complexity of sounds in our environments," says Danielson, "we may become more thoughtful about the sounds we produce."
Consultants who were very helpful to Danielson in creating the installation, including sight- and hearing-impaired persons, audiologists, nature recordists, car audio installers and musicians, will be in attendance at the programs and around for conversation, coffee, and cookies following each program. Danielson has been living in Milwaukee since 1976 and teaching film, video and sound in the UWM Peck School of the Arts Department of Film. His first tool of expression was the portable tape recorder. He made 16mm films from 1974 to 1982, and shifted to video, performance, prize-winning political documentaries and most recently to field audio recording and multi-media installation.
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