In spring 2019, Experimental Sound Studio invited me to create a 4-channel audio installation for the Florasonic sound art series at the Lincoln Park Conservatory in Chicago. From the press release (edited by Meg T. Noe):
Experienced like an audio collage, Hackle 2 mixes a variety of materials that connects with themes of transparency and hidden information. Through the use of hydrophones, 4-channel and 8-channel ambisonic microphones, and homemade piezoelectric crystal microphones, Andy blends together sounds from live performances, field recordings and an extensive set of tuned water glasses (played by Edward Schocker) to build a spatially rich sonic environment cultivated and inspired by the glass greenhouse frame.
In a sheet of glass, the surface near a fracture point may be unmarked. But minute marks present in the fractured edge can act as a map of the fracture, describing the history of the event that caused the glass to crack. Short parallel marks called “Hackle marks” can be read to tell us the direction in which the crack propagated along the glass. Hackle 2 is essentially a pile of broken glass, material left over, half-formed thoughts that can be shifted through and overlaid to create something resembling a collage.
Cole Swensen’s book “The Glass Age,” a collection of poems from 2007 surrounding the early cultural history of altered vision, through greenhouses, windows, film, etc. A composition, Hackle, which was performed on January 10 by the Other Minds Ensemble (Randall Wong, Liam Herb, Edward Schocker, Flora Espinoza, and Sydd Urgola), uses this text as its main source material. From her text: “i grieve for the infinitesimal difference between what you can see and what you cannot see.“
A greenhouse is a frame, focusing the attention on something inside. The flora in the Fern Room is meant to represent a prehistoric Chicago, based on archeological interpretation. Similarly, our sonic debris and decaying media may be used in the future to create an archeology of us, one that may be heavily distorted from reality. The many fragments that fell into this work will shed their contexts and stories in service of something hidden.
Photos from the installation opening by Meg T. Noe:
