West Coast Radians
WEST COAST RADIANS
a great logo by Max Magnanensi
For a few years I have been experimenting with and building various sets of yellow cedar, red cedar, sitka spruce and maple flat audio-panels to create both instruments and audio diffusors that might engage in a more embodied form of listening and sound thinking. The LINKS below give an idea of the various explorations and implementation of these sound sculptures, and in general about the nature and spirit of these sound objects/instruments/resonators and my personal impetus behind them. You can find more informations in the West Coast Radians pagese HERE
The flat audio-panels are built using large boards reclaimed from discarded piles of wood in mill operations and drifting ocean logs on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. After being sliced and smoothly shaped, they are planed and sanded to thin them down to thickness ranging between 2/16”and 1/4” and finally mounted on a stabilizer wood stand.
An amplifier drives the sound into an audio transducer applied to the rear of each panel, exciting the wood boards and transforming their surface into a distributed-mode loudspeaker (DML). In this way the audio is approaching an omnidirectional presence in the way the sound from the panels is dispersed evenly in all directions.
The diffused radiation patterns of all frequencies created on the panels expands the audio source. Sound then propagates through the wood in the most liberated and natural way while becoming omnidirectional in the far field. The diffused sound is stunningly beautiful and softly filtered by the smooth quality of yellow and red cedar or the brighter resonating quality of maple and sitka spruce, which adds to the uncanny character of their physical and sculptural presence.
L I N K S
In January 2018 I presented this project at ECUAD part of Leaning Our of Window (LOoW)
In the Spring 2018 I presented an installation performance space at the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) at UBC with 16 panels driven by a 16-channel system. Both an installation and a performance instrument were also made available to a variety of local sonic explorers during a three-day performance.
I’m currently working with wonderful musicians and friends Marina Hasselberg (cello) and Kenton Loewen (drums) to share the MAGIK beauty of the woods through a diffused space for sound thinking and imagination. A complete list of activities, places and collaborations is at the bottom of this page.
By transferring human-created audio technologies, such as custom made wood resonators, contact microphones, sensors, interactive electronics and scores from exclusive domains of high culture to outdoor public spaces, I wish to create the opportunity to redefine their purpose. In these fresh surroundings, their role shifts towards catalyzing the emergence of grassroots communities while going beyond anthropocentric perspectives. This transformative process becomes here a driving force, facilitating the formation of communities that transcend the artificial divisions between nature and culture, as well as between the ‘privileged’ and the ‘underprivileged’. This approach to sound practices not only welcomes input from a diverse range of life forms and materiality, but also places a strong emphasis on the organic evolution of public engagement through open-ended creative encounters. Within this context, music ceases to be a finished product and becomes instead an ongoing process. This process is deliberately designed to involve a continually expanding collective creativity, nurturing diversity and inclusivity, and pushing the boundaries of artistic practices and expression beyond hierarchical aesthetic debates.
at Zero Waste Conference, Vancouver, Oct 29, 2019
PLACES, WORKS, PRESENTATIONS & COLLABORATIONS
Audiovisual installation for 2 cedar flat panel audio resonators, large cedar round and spectrographic sonification, duration: ad lib. Sechelt Arts Festival, Seaside Centre – Sechelt, BC • 2015
Audiovisual installation with Nicolas Teichrob; Lower reaches of Malcolm Creek – Roberts Creek, BC, July 2016
Sound sculpture (maple flat audio resonator), 2017 Doris Crowston Gallery, Sunshine Coast Art Council – Sechelt, BC
A microsonic environment for variable sound clouds, 1 red cedar flat audio resonator and 6 maple flat audio resonators. LOoW • ECUAD – Vancouver, January/February 2018
Sound installation/performance space for 16 custom-made cedar and maple flat panel audio resonators in a large sonorous space, 2018; UBC Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) Vancouver, March 4-10, 2018
Audiovisual installation with Nicolas Teichrob; Tofino Botanical Gardens – Tofino BC, August 2018
Audiovisual installations/performances with Kenton Loewen (drums), Marina Hasselberg (cello), Nicolas Teichrob (visuals), multichannel diffusion and live electronics, 2018-2019
West Coast Radians
8-channel sound installation at the International Environmental Communication Association’s Conference on Communication and Environment (COCE) – University of British Columbia, Vancouver, June 17-21, 2019
The Art Centre – Powell River Public Art Gallery • Powell River, 2019
West Coast Radians
The National Zero Waste Conference • Vancouver Convention Centre, 2018 and 2019
Octophonic setup with 8 sitka spruce resonators for Hildegrad Westerkamp’s At The Edge of Wilderness installation at the Sunshine Coast Arts Council • September/October 2020
Various Installation in Roberts Creek Forests, Vancouver Hadden Park and other green/forested areas, July-September 2022
Roberts Creek Forest • August 2022
Personum 03 • Homage to Chris Rolfe
July 17-19 • Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre
July-August 2023 • Sunshine Coast Arts Council
Experiencing the Immersive Sound Systems of Wood Waste
October 6, 2023 • BioProducts Institute – Systems Beings Lab joint seminar at UBC CIRS
Decolonizing Sound: Ideas and practices for ecologically, and socially sustainable relationships
May 9, 2024 • event part of Ləléʔnəŋ Listening-With, April 22 / June 2, 2024, Victoria
Sonic Offerings for Here: A Resonant Installation
Featuring audio works made for Ləléʔnəŋ Listening-With, by Yuxwelupton Bradley Dick and Michael Benneyworth, with contributions from Dylan Robinson, France Trépanier, Judy Elk, Genevieve Mack, Mark Atleo, and others. June 1, 2024 • Saanich Gorge Park, Victoria
demoing Red Cedar resonators at VNM, Januray 2020
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Hadden Park, Vancouver, September 2022
Resonators in Salt Spring Island
Listening-With
Arboreal Resonance • Tuwanek Springs Forest, July 2024