Soundscape / Sound Escapes

Soundscape / Sound escape is a multi-modal work, supported by the Herberger Institute through the Herberger Institute Research Building Investment grant. The principal investigator is Fernanda Aoki Navarro. Rodrigo Meirelles is the co-pi, and Jean Howard was the student-assistant.

The work is in continuous expansion, and its first Chapter (Chapter 1: Arizona) was co-created by Fernanda Aoki Navarro, Rodrigo Meirelles and Jean Howard, with the invaluable support of Ryan Pottle.

This first iteration of the work will be presented as an interactive audiovisual installation, featuring field recordings of metropolitan areas and nature preserves in Arizona, such as the Chiricahua National Monument (photo above). The field recordings encompass High Order Ambisonics diffused through a 7.1 multichannel system that works in tandem with infrared cameras that are activated by audience participation. The audience is also immersed in large-scale visual elements, exhibited through a 270º sonically transparent screen.

Soundscapes / Sound Escapes - Chapter 1: Arizona will be premiered on November 3, 2023, 7pm, at the Enhanced Immersion Studio, at the Media and Immersive eXperience, in Mesa, Arizona.

Chapter 1: Arizona
Team
Fernanda Aoki Navarro is a composer of acoustic and electroacoustic music, developing concert music, intermedia works, performance art and installations.  She is interested in sound, space, in the idiosyncratic relationship between the corporeality of the performers and the physicality of their instruments, in the exploration between music and language, the use and misuse of technology, and in the transformational power that experimental music can exert on issues related to feminism and social otherness. Fernanda is also an educator, working as assistant professor of Composition at Arizona State University.
Rodrigo Meirelles has been working for more than 20 years in the audio industry in various art forms, from music to sound for picture and emerging media. He worked for Globo, one of the largest media companies in the world as the Sound Executive Supervisor and was part of Globo’s UHD research and implementation group, in charge of the Brazilian loudness standard and the implementation of immersive audio technologies such as Dolby Atmos and MPEG-H 3D Audio. He contributed to the first live streaming in Dolby Atmos worldwide and the first Brazilian content mixed in Dolby Atmos released in a movie theatre. He is assistant professor of Sound at the Pointier Film School.
Jean Howard, a current masters student in the interdisciplinary composition program at Arizona State University with a B.A. in Arts Media and Engineering, has been exploring digital audio technology, electroacoustic music, sound spatialization, and interactive media. Previous works draw on concepts dealing with space and memory, touching on personal experience through sample manipulation/ processing and recording techniques.
Playing the Piano While Being Aware of Colonialism

Playing the Piano While Being Aware of Colonialism (2020)  • interactive installation
Piano, mirrors, feather pen, feathers, small percussion shakers.

The Unattainable / The Intimate

The Unattainable / The Intimate (2015) • touch responsive immersive audio and video installation

This interactive installation was a collaborative creation dealing with issues surrounding embodiment, intimacy in physical and digital spaces, haptic interaction, and mediated images. This work was created for the Immersive Lab, an artistic and technological research project of the Institute of Computer Music and Sound Technology (ICST) at the Zurich University of the Arts. It is a media space that integrates panoramic video, surround audio with full touch interaction on the entire screen surface.
The Immersive Lab project, along with creators Jan Schacher and Daniel Bisig, visited UC San Diego for the Fall of 2015. Students and artists were invited to create new works that use the platform of the immersive lab and explore idea of touch, interaction, and immersion. This new interactive work, The Unattainable/The Intimate, was made in collaboration with Stefani Byrd and Juan David Rubio R. and will become a part of the traveling repertoire a works for the Immersive Lab
Can you draw this sound
Can you draw this sound • interactive installation
Sound wave generator, Chladni plate, sand.

Children and adults are invited to find the frequency that will match the given visual pattern (left side), by putting sand on the Chladni plate, turning the knobs on the sound generator and listening to the different sounds/images.
Wall of Fame -> Wall of Old Women
Wall of Old Women (2017)
This site-specific occupation/installation was developed to honor old women as a way of resisting sexist ageism.
All photos from the "wall of fame" at Conrad Prebys Music Center were replaced by photos of mature or deceased female musicians (teachers, community musical organizers, famous and non-famous performers, conductors and composers).
Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, Marin Alsop, Laurie Anderson, Violet Archer, Martha Argerich, Ysaye Barnwell, Bebe Barron, Amy Beach, Frieda Belinfante, Cathy Berberian, Teresa Berganza, Margaret Bonds, Nadia Boulanger, Antonia Brico, Phyllis Bryn-Julson, Harrie Busby, Teresa Carreño, Wendy Carlos, Suzanne Ciana, Alice Coltrance, Eleanor Cory, Jean Coulthard, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Sara Davis Buechner, Eve de Castro-Robinson, Alicia Delarrocha, Delia Derbyshire, Sophie-Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté, Chiquinha Gonzaga, Sofia Gubaidulina, Nancy Hermiston, Leonie Holmes, Imogen Holst, Joelle Leandre, Sister Mary Leo, Tania Leon, Chiu Ling Lin, Melba Liston, Annea Lockwood, Alexina Louie, Meredith Monk, Thea Musgrave, Jacqueline Nova, Pauline Oliveros, Daphne Oram, Eve Queler, Else Marie Pade, Rulan Pian, Maria Joao Pires, Zenobia Powell Perry, Leontyne Price, Florence Price, Eliane Radigue, Ma Rainey, Kaija Saariaho, C. Saraswati Bai, Clara Schumann, Verdina Shlonsky, Germaine Tailleferre, Tui St. George Tucker, Mary Watkins, Mary Lou Williams, Ruth Wood Harris, and Liao Qiong Zhi.

This project was developed in collaboration with Annie Hsieh, Caroline Miller, Celeste Oran, Elisabet Curbelo and Hillary Young, and it was part of the XX Concert, in April 2017.
 Dinner Music
Dinner Music (2015) •  site specific piece for 10 or more portable speakers

This piece was composed to be performed at UCSD Price Center, in the fast-food dining area.
10 performers triggered the sound track using their phones, connected to small portable speakers.
They were supposed to act naturally and walk discretely through the dining area, around the costumers, carrying phones connected to portables speakers that should blast the music as loud as possible.
The speakers should not be visible (performers can hide them in their pockets, hats, bags etc) but should be pretty audible.
It is intended that the "audience" should not be able to recognize where the music is coming from.
The performers should disperse discretely when the music is over.

Many thanks to Colin Zyskovski for building some of the portable speakers used in this performance.

Performance:
February 26, 2015
California - UC San Diego
Food court at Price Center
Music for a Metal Bench

Bench Piece (2015) • site specific sound installation
for amplified large metallic bench, large metal spring and 8 untrained percussionists

Performance:
Fernanda Aoki Navarro, Juan Rubio, Sara Perez, Lai T Szedo, Alexandria Pulido, Hillary Young.
March 11, 2015
California - UC San Diego