dry landscape

sound installation
2001
raid projects
fullerton california

dry landscape was created for the exhibition ‘atmosphere’, at raid projects, which was back then, in fullerton california. the exhibition attempted to deal with ‘digital space’, and my interest was to create a ‘virtual landscape’ through the use of a very tactile and physical landscape. the piece was built using recordings that i had made in joshua tree, using a microphone to physically touch the surface of sand, rocks, and cactus. i then chopped up the recording into tiny fragments of audio – a sort of audio bit maps – and transformed the sounds using non-computer technology to create a piece of music that felt evocative of the processes of digital technology, but which, in truth, was built through analog techniques – referencing less the bit map era and more the ben-day-dot era. i was a bit reactive of the current digital scene, and thus, offered a visual aesthetic more akin to the funk and tactility of george herms, using found wood and allowing all of my gear to be visible. the resulting sound was very quiet, indicative of both insects and the tiny fans and whirs of small machines.