SPECTRAL ECOLOGIES

14 ECHOES

Location: Chicago, Illinois, United States

Students in the graduate seminar MUSI 45022: Composing for Spatial Audio have written site-specific compositions for locations throughout the University of Chicago's campus. When the Echoes app is open you will see a map of each sonic location. As you progress, sounds will activate and begin playing based on your location.

Spectral Ecologies featured contributions by: Xiaofeng Dong, Krystal Egbuchulam, Ryan Garvey, Sherry Guo, Gabi Kinlock, Benjamin Martin, Gasira Timir, and Kari Watson

Ryan Garvey

coastal anachronisms - The indexation of nostalgic audio highlights how nature helps me find grounding and stability in times of chaos. During the most challenging parts of my undergrad, I would head out to the local fisherman point in the dead of winter to breathe and find myself. Hopefully, the crisp air and the sounds of the ocean will bring moments of clarity and a connection back to nature. Close your eyes, sit near the tall grass, and reflect.

1 sound

Gasira Timir

"Rereading The Marble Faun" is a soundtrack inflected by dark romanticism. Weaving field recordings, processed vocals and solo cello, my composition is an accompaniment for reading and rereading in Walker Museum, which hosts the offices and seminar rooms of the Department of English and Division of the Humanities.

1 sound

Benjamin Martin

The first location is the pathway between the Oriental Institute Museum and the Saieh Hall for Economics. I often walk this particular path on my way to the main and classic quads. I’ve noticed that, walking through it, one becomes acutely aware of the spectral sounds of the university carillon reflecting off its various surfaces. Because of its eerie, overtone-rich timbre, I find it very pleasantly difficult to discern the qualities of various chords being played on the carillon. This in mind, I wanted to create a piece that takes bell tones and gradually distorts them, eventually turning into a strange mix of wonky chords. In this piece, I’ve tried to use polarized panning locations as a way to represent the two buildings enclosing the pathway, as well as attempt capture the daunting ornateness with which Rockefeller chapel looms over campus.

1 sound

Benjamin Martin

The second piece is written as an experiential representation of coming on to the main quadrangle from the aforementioned path. I got excited about this particular route because it looks like a written-out musical gesture—something tautly contained that suddenly splits open. This in mind, I wanted there to be a shocking, energetic transition between the two tracks. The bell noises become abstracted even further, bouncing every-which-way atop a bed of string chords. In the middle of the piece, there’s a transition from metallic textures to a more organic-palate of nature noises, culled from self-recorded whistles and vocalizations. All other sounds in the two works are taken from Noteperformer samples.

1 sound

Sherry Guo

if Botany Pond Wasn't Under Construction. Birds aren’t real. How else would it be so easy for UChicago to remove the ducks from Botany Pond and drain away the water for a year-long restoration project? Regardless of your stance on birds, put on your headphones, close your eyes, and enjoy a sonic encapsulation of a sunny, idyllic, spring afternoon at Botany Pond, ducks included.

1 sound

Gabi Kinlock

A Sonic Intervention on the Statue of Linnaeus. materials: field recording of snow crunching, found demolition noises, guitar distortion, synth, vocal stems from GloRilla’s “F.N.F. (Let’s Go)”

description: Often called “the father of modern taxonomy,” Carl Linnaeus’ 18th century taxonomy of race mobilizes science in service of racism to this day. Through a sonic intervention, I enact a demolition of this statue and invite the listener to envision in its void room for black life.

1 sound