Research & Development for Still Flows//Currents: a material investigation of the endangerment of the Colorado River.
An assemblage of gleaned materials; riverside field recordings, wild-fire sourced charcoal, and agricultural mylar, is arranged to recreate an immersive river room. Concerning the endangerment of the Colorado River, the work asks us to listen closely to the current state of the river. This work is an analog data-visualization of a sonic road trip that begins with rapidly melting ice at the basin of the river, La Poudre Pass (CO), and moves downstream, tracing the life and future death of a main-artery river-system.
Historically an artery migrating resources between the US and Mexico, the recreation of this river echoes the ebb and flow of tensions between the two nations. Interruptions by dams and drought are expressed in pulse palpitations, symbolizing the damaging ripple effects of Western imperialism. An expression of the deep, radical listening it takes to converse with non-human systems, the work attempts to reflect the rigid legal and imperialist structures preventing the water from existing in sustainable ways, questioning the ulterior methods to interpret the glitching weather and social systems.
_________
It started with a lifetime of water scarcity and constant drought.
I remember seeing a black cloud hovering over the mountains. At the time, I was staying with my dad in the city. The cloud was where I lived, directly in the mountain pass where I resided with my mother. My heart stopped. This, over the next 20 years would happen time and time again.
In tandem with climate crises, consumption continues and conditions worsen, the frequency just increases, the heat--we would say, feels louder. The water near gone. The air is already dry. Why are we here?
Western expansionism. Tuburculosis. The post-industrial clean air promise. Western paradise. The land of milk and honey.
So they colonized. Since then, the wheels been spinning
I hear the crunch of pine trees. The crackling of hot sap. The sirens. On a loop.
On April of 2022, the US Goverment declared the Colorado River the most endangered species in the country.
Does this actually come to anyone’s suprise?
I started doing sound walks and recording samples of sounds I found interesting. Suddenly sounds I was collecting were all somehow attached to this river, and I could almost hear is dissipating.
Consumption is all encompassing in these scenes of late-capitalism.
If knew I wanted this to be sensory.
Using the materials I collective over the summer, I wanted to weave together the sounds I collected on a sort of sonic road trip.
Would they become the score for a performance? Could they be used in a spatialized sound installation. Or, could they be used to translation the current event of the state of the river itself.
Currents. I got stuck on this word. Current Events. Electrical Currents. River Currents. Their resonance. Our interpretations.
I began by working with the sounds, creating a score to tell the story.
Inspired by William Basinskiís Disintegration Loops, I wanted to gear towards something that degrades over time, as if our ears are tracing the water.
Not to mention how the river hasn’t seen the sea in half a century. Can we keep building things, but think ecologically?
An assemblage of gleaned materials; riverside field recordings, wild-fire sourced charcoal, and agricultural mylar, is arranged to recreate an immersive river room. Concerning the endangerment of the Colorado River, the work asks us to listen closely to the current state of the river. This work is an analog data-visualization of a sonic road trip that begins with rapidly melting ice at the basin of the river, La Poudre Pass (CO), and moves downstream, tracing the life and future death of a main-artery river-system.
Historically an artery migrating resources between the US and Mexico, the recreation of this river echoes the ebb and flow of tensions between the two nations. Interruptions by dams and drought are expressed in pulse palpitations, symbolizing the damaging ripple effects of Western imperialism. An expression of the deep, radical listening it takes to converse with non-human systems, the work attempts to reflect the rigid legal and imperialist structures preventing the water from existing in sustainable ways, questioning the ulterior methods to interpret the glitching weather and social systems.
_________
It started with a lifetime of water scarcity and constant drought.
I remember seeing a black cloud hovering over the mountains. At the time, I was staying with my dad in the city. The cloud was where I lived, directly in the mountain pass where I resided with my mother. My heart stopped. This, over the next 20 years would happen time and time again.
In tandem with climate crises, consumption continues and conditions worsen, the frequency just increases, the heat--we would say, feels louder. The water near gone. The air is already dry. Why are we here?
Western expansionism. Tuburculosis. The post-industrial clean air promise. Western paradise. The land of milk and honey.
So they colonized. Since then, the wheels been spinning
I hear the crunch of pine trees. The crackling of hot sap. The sirens. On a loop.
On April of 2022, the US Goverment declared the Colorado River the most endangered species in the country.
Does this actually come to anyone’s suprise?
I started doing sound walks and recording samples of sounds I found interesting. Suddenly sounds I was collecting were all somehow attached to this river, and I could almost hear is dissipating.
Consumption is all encompassing in these scenes of late-capitalism.
If knew I wanted this to be sensory.
Using the materials I collective over the summer, I wanted to weave together the sounds I collected on a sort of sonic road trip.
Would they become the score for a performance? Could they be used in a spatialized sound installation. Or, could they be used to translation the current event of the state of the river itself.
Currents. I got stuck on this word. Current Events. Electrical Currents. River Currents. Their resonance. Our interpretations.
I began by working with the sounds, creating a score to tell the story.
Inspired by William Basinskiís Disintegration Loops, I wanted to gear towards something that degrades over time, as if our ears are tracing the water.
Not to mention how the river hasn’t seen the sea in half a century. Can we keep building things, but think ecologically?