Bob Drake discussed the experience of creating an immersive audio installation.
Interview Summary
This person did a long-term multifaceted project involving the cicadas and when they emerged to America. They visited Cuyahoga Valley National Park in the Kendall Lake area, where they recorded hours of the cicadas’ singing, a complex sound of three different species. A couple of years later, this person created a specific installation at the National Park, that was purely app-based. The app uses GPS to figure out where you are and plays back combinations of the cicadas, as if you were there. They wanted to share the experience, and to be immersive, as the real cicadas only come out, every 17 years looking for their mates.
There is a strong tradition of acoustic ecology, where they learn natural sources as well as field recording to support the work. A Facebook group with around 200 people who all shared the same interest, helped by reporting their sightings. This group helped make this person more connected to other people and made them feel less alone.
This person hopes to never settle, and to always keep advancing in their work. They learned that there is a deep importance of the capacity to remain open-minded. As their work continues, it deepens their appreciation for sound phenomenon. And our place in the world. It is important to be present, as a spiritual practice. It was an awe-inspiring experience; they are continually amazed at what they believe is higher power.
This person is 66 years old, and they perceive their work as very successful.
Interview Transcript
Interviewer: In this interview we are interested in asking you to tell us about an artwork that you created. We're going to ask you to describe this experience in detail.
Why did you choose this one? (Specialness)
Participant: I did a long-term multifaceted project involving the cicadas when they emerged here. It was 5 years ago, in 2016.
So, this is a this is a flyer, a little postcard for a geolocated immersive audio installation that is, that I created in Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Kendall Lake.
It’s a culmination of a bunch of work starting with the emergence of those of the cicadas in in 2016, well, I don't know if you were in the area at that time, if you experienced 17-year cicadas.
So, it's a mass emergence of billions of bugs about this big, this long, who have been underground for 17 years. They come out, they sing hearts out for about 3 weeks trying to find a mate, and if they're successful, then they mate and and lay eggs, and then they all die, and they all come back in another 17 years.
So, the experience of that singing they do is devastating. I measured it at 96 decibels. It's it's like an aircraft, it's that loud.
And I spent most of the month of June in 2016 when they were emerging in the field, making field recordings of their songs, hours, and hours of recordings.
My first salient, you know, recollection of that was how mind altering really, the experience the immersive experience of being in the middle of that sound you know was, I would come out of a recording session literally feeling like I've been dosed with LSD. I mean, it was just totally enveloping.
And it's a very complex sound of 3 different species that emerge, and each have different specific different songs that they sing.
As you're listening to them there’s these enveloping waves that kind of come and go. And so that was the first kind of experience, first stage first stage of creating that artwork. Subsequently I made an installation of a channel, immersive sound installation in the gallery in Tremont, based on these recordings, trying to reproduce that sound a little bit.
And then, a couple of years later I sent some of the same recordings and created this spatialized site-specific installation at Cuyahoga Valley National Park, which is an app-based installation. So, you bring up the app, and as you walk around a lake, about a mile loop around this lake, the app uses GPS to decide where you are and based on where you are, plays back different combinations of these cicada recordings.
So, you're actually kind of mixing them live. It changes over time, and it changes it over experience. There’s a hint of that kind of immersive enveloping kind of space.
And I know it works because when I was testing out the app, and I was walking around playing back the first recordings.
I noticed that there were a bunch of birds that had started to gather overhead and follow me around. The cicada emergence is a wonderful smorgasbord for all sorts of, racoons like them and birds eat them up. It's a great for berries when they come out, because the birds are eating the bugs instead of the berries. And so, it’s very complex ecological environment.
So, I know, I know that somebody else was listening and could hear them and the other thing I think I talked about mentioned in that I have a really strong memory of from making that piece, or the interconnected series of pieces.
So, I’m out getting ready to go record my bugs, I park, and there's this little old lady in the parking lot. And she was 75, you know. The stereotype Audubon Society lady in this kind of floppy hat and binoculars, and you know, and she’s passing out flyers about the cicadas.
And she’s telling people look go here, where you can hear them.
It's great, you know, so we started talking, trading notes about what we learned and stuff. And she said she, at one point, she says to me you know I probably won't be here the next time they come out, they only come out every 17 years. And I, I just stopped in my tracks.
And they don't know how to come 17 years—I don’t know how they all know how to come out at the same time. But they're all they’re all pinning their hopes and dreams on this one moment, when they’re all going to come out and have this big party or something, you know and hope they get lucky. And then they all die all at once. It's another ecological, and the amount of biomass that they put back into the soil all at once is has a real impact on ecology. But here’s this gal, and you know we’re enjoying this, and she’s talking about her mortality. It kind of took it to another level for me.
Interviewer: So, why did you choose to talk about the cicadas?
Participant: I’m pretty concerned about ecological issues and global warming is the most important political issue for me. So, and I spend a lot of time in nature, listening to these natural sounds.
Pauline Oliveros, who started a practice called deep listening. It involves listening with your entire self all at once. Not necessarily listening for information, listening with just wide-open listening.
And as a sonic phenomenon, the cicada emergence is pretty unparalleled. There’s very little that happens short of avalanches or something that is that impactful naturally that’s that impactful from a silent perspective. Thunderstorms too, I spend a lot of time recording them, things like that.
Interviewer: So, what led up to the creation? What motivated you to create this piece?
When and where did the experience happen? Who was involved besides you (if anyone)?
Participant: For a couple years. There is a strong tradition of acoustic ecology. It started with R. Murray Schafer, and his work in British Columbia. So, I learned, natural sources, I learned field recording, in support of that work. So, I have that background. I've done installations that contributed to creating multi-channel installation and I'm really interested; I did a number of workshops during the pandemic.
With folks who called themselves walking artists, who spent time doing sound walks or actually just walking, and not necessarily producing any artifacts as a result of that.
And so, depending on if you’re interested in walking as an activity as an artistic activity, there is a venue for artwork. And the geolocated stuff kind of came out of that, it’s a way of making things.
Interviewer: So, what motivated you to create the piece like specifically the installation and the walk-through experience?
Participant: The temporality of a cicada emergence. The fact that it only happens, you know every 17 years. And so, there are 16 years where you can't hear the cicadas in in this area, maybe there are other places. I really wanted to share that experience. And you can't get that on a walk because there's no bugs in the off years. And so, it was a I guess the there was a motivation of wanting that sound experience not to be lost for folks who didn’t happen to be there.
Interviewer: Did this artwork involve anyone else besides you?
Participant: We started a Facebook group about the cicadas, and we wound up with about 200 people who were kind of watching out for them.
They emerge at a certain time when the ground temperature is just 58 degrees, they pop out. And so, we had kind of this block watch party of everybody, you know, taking temperature of the ground and talking about where they'd seen them and swapping hints about places to go, pictures, lots of pictures. And a number of folks made and shared recordings with me.
There also a number of folks, became involved with a couple of different, in that group, became involved with a couple of different citizen science art projects.
There were some researchers in Long Island, Cincinnati, and a group of folks in Maryland, back in New England someplace, who collect data from kind of just laypeople. And so, they got hooked into this network of folks who report their sightings and contribute to a larger database.
There’s a lot of very interesting things going on with some 17-year groups of cicadas are switching to 13 years, and they appear in different parts of the country at different times, and some of the borders end up changing.
And unfortunately, in a lot of cases the emergences are getting smaller because of loss of habitat. So, there are all of those people who originally were like, start off with, you know, my local friends or friends of friends and friends of Facebook friends.
And I kind of wound up with this little temporary, autonomous community of folks with a shared interest. So, that was another outgrowth of that work.
Interviewer: That’s pretty good. So, what were you thinking and feeling at like different times throughout the process of creating this artwork? Like how did you feel at the beginning? How do you feel at the end? In the middle of the process?
Participant: I felt happy being out in the woods, I was feeling kind of taken aback about this. Originally, I was just going out in the woods with my tape recorder by myself and the gradual connection to other folk interested in the same thing. It happened and it was kind of facilitated by that Facebook group in particular.
And just connecting to the, to those groups made me feel a little less alone and weird. But that that that sense of a growing sense of community across the period of that project was kind of special for me.
Interviewer: Can you describe like any high points or low points or challenges that came up along the way while creating the artwork?
Participant: That conversation with that gal in the parking lot was certainly impactful. What happened, this is a little nebulous but, so, I was, actually I had a guest artist come to talk to my one of my art classes.
And she was this artist from New York, and she was making books. And then she decided to make a book about clouds, so she was taking a lot of pictures of clouds. And she was thinking about what's behind those clouds I mean, outer space. She was thinking about satellites, and just outer space. And then she started researching the satellites and the next thing you know she was building this installation that had sounds of satellites in this fluorescent dome. And as she was talking in this lecture, and I was thinking, boy that is, what a model of, first I was thinking about this, and then it made me think about that, and then it made me think about this other thing.
So that's what happens in my projects, I guess. Like first I'm thinking about I’m thinking about bugs, and I’m thinking about sound.
And then I’m thinking about recordings and then I’m sort of thinking about some kind of installation related to those recordings, I didn't have that in in mind when I started making the recordings.
Then I learned about multi-channel audio from that. And then I started being curious about other people who were listening to bugs, and some of them were walking, and I found a couple walking groups in Europe, and then they're talking about these geo-spatial stuff.
And I just, really, it’s the importance of staying open. If I had just said, well, I'm going to make some recordings of bugs. I would have missed out on all sorts of other, you know kind of trailing threads. You know that we're very enriching. And I hope I never settle for what I think I want in advance.
Interviewer: So now we're going to talk about the impact of the artwork on yourself and others. Did you learn anything about yourself while creating this artwork?
Participant: So, kind of what I just talked about I think the importance of the capacity to remain open. It's not necessarily news to me but it was kind of really enforced for me.
Interviewer: Okay, Thank you. Has anyone else seen this artwork, and if so, how did they receive the artwork? Did you intend for the artwork to affect others in any particular way? Have you seen anyone interact with your art? And if so, what was your reaction to their interaction with your art?
Participant: I didn’t have like an intention particularly. The hope would be that folks would engage in more careful listening to their environment in natural environments, that would have been my hope. I know a number of folks have used that app version of the sound walk. And you can say, I know that some birds have been fooled into thinking that there was a good meal there for them.
Um, and I know that one guy who became enthused about the recording process has gone on to become engaged every year.
As I do, he goes and does citizen science work. He actually drives around back country roads for 2 weeks every year with a recording device around this area. He maps out habitats and locations of the different species of the cicadas. And he’s gotten credits in scientific papers because of the data that he has contributed to their studies.
Interviewer: Have you been able to like, see anybody work with your art, or like, and if you have like what was your reaction about them listening at your art?
Participant: I haven't actually had a lot of experience with that. The installation experience in in Tremont. I did not observe that opening very much. I heard back from a couple of folks who had gone to me, but I didn’t. watch folks.
Interviewer: How did your experience affect your understanding of others and the world?
Participant: Certainly, certainly more the world and you know and the process of engaging with the data col-- with the sound collection sound recording the actual sitting and listening to hours and hours of this deafening roar.
Interviewer: Okay, so When some people think about themselves, they see parts of themselves as deeply true, real, or authentic.
If this idea resonates with you, did you learn anything about your true nature during the process of interacting with the artwork? Did you have any insights about your own authentic (or inauthentic) self?
Participant: I’ve been, I've been doing this kind for work, especially the deep listening kinds of work, you know the recording one for quite a while. Every time every time I spend time listening to it, it changes and deepens my appreciation for sound phenomenon, and for our place in the world.
Interviewer: So, some people believe in ultimate meaning. This defined as deep, underlying meaning that transcends subjective personal meaning. It is about the nature of existence and identity, and it may include ideas about the significance of suffering as well as spirituality.
If this idea resonates with you, did you learn anything about ultimate meaning during the process of interacting with the artwork?
Participant: I'll point back again to that experience with the Audubon lady, and of the importance of being present as a spiritual practice. We teach, Pauline Oliveros, who I mentioned in deep listening practice. A core practice of that work is a series of pieces that are called Sonic Medications. These might be either [inaudible] or some kind of transcendent [inaudible] that is relevant to the kind of work that I do.
Interviewer: Thank you. So, some people believe or perceive a reality beyond the physical or material world. This may include religious beliefs/experiences (such as perceived interactions with God) but also may include mystical or transcendent experiences, or interaction with spirits. Did you have any kind of these experiences during the interaction with the artwork? Does this affect your artwork or your beliefs?
Participant: Nothing unusual. I do believe in, spiritual experiences and again the bugs come out every 17 years all on their own. I don't think they can do that, yeah, something's going on. So, I would, I have those experiences all the time and this work was no exception.
Interviewer: What was the experience like?
Participant: Hmm. Awe-inspiring. I’m continually amazed at what I believe is a higher power manifesting in nature.
Interviewer: Does this affect like your artwork, or like you as a person, or like your beliefs if it if anything, if at all?
Participant: Same, you know it kind of expanded, it expanded, and like reinforce my tendencies in spiritual practice and art practice and kind of the [inaudible]
Interviewer: Thank you. So, I need to ask, how old are you?
Participant: 66.
Interviewer: So how did you perceive the quality of this artwork? Did it turn out how you envisioned?
Participant: As a total experience for me? Yeah, I think it was very successful. Both the installation and the art walk. I didn't have any illusions that those would be completely successful at the producing the experience that I had in the field. But they fell pretty short of that it's like looking at a picture of a of a piece of fruit instead of eating it.
It reminded me that that these experiences rather be experienced than replicated.
Interviewer: What about this artwork distinguishes it from others, and what makes it special? What was going on in your life around the time that you created this artwork?
Participant: I honestly don't know of other folks that have done that particular kind of work. There’s a lot of field recording based work that attempts to use natural recordings in an artistic way.
Interviewer: So, what was going on around that time in your life when you created the artwork?
Participant: I was actually in the process of transitioning from a money making career of 30 years in IT, and gradually transition out of that and more towards a full time commitment to my area and creative work.
Some other people might call that retiring. But not me, I’m busier than I’ve ever been.
Interviewer: Okay, Thank you!
This person did a long-term multifaceted project involving the cicadas and when they emerged to America. They visited Cuyahoga Valley National Park in the Kendall Lake area, where they recorded hours of the cicadas’ singing, a complex sound of three different species. A couple of years later, this person created a specific installation at the National Park, that was purely app-based. The app uses GPS to figure out where you are and plays back combinations of the cicadas, as if you were there. They wanted to share the experience, and to be immersive, as the real cicadas only come out, every 17 years looking for their mates.
There is a strong tradition of acoustic ecology, where they learn natural sources as well as field recording to support the work. A Facebook group with around 200 people who all shared the same interest, helped by reporting their sightings. This group helped make this person more connected to other people and made them feel less alone.
This person hopes to never settle, and to always keep advancing in their work. They learned that there is a deep importance of the capacity to remain open-minded. As their work continues, it deepens their appreciation for sound phenomenon. And our place in the world. It is important to be present, as a spiritual practice. It was an awe-inspiring experience; they are continually amazed at what they believe is higher power.
This person is 66 years old, and they perceive their work as very successful.
Interview Transcript
Interviewer: In this interview we are interested in asking you to tell us about an artwork that you created. We're going to ask you to describe this experience in detail.
Why did you choose this one? (Specialness)
Participant: I did a long-term multifaceted project involving the cicadas when they emerged here. It was 5 years ago, in 2016.
So, this is a this is a flyer, a little postcard for a geolocated immersive audio installation that is, that I created in Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Kendall Lake.
It’s a culmination of a bunch of work starting with the emergence of those of the cicadas in in 2016, well, I don't know if you were in the area at that time, if you experienced 17-year cicadas.
So, it's a mass emergence of billions of bugs about this big, this long, who have been underground for 17 years. They come out, they sing hearts out for about 3 weeks trying to find a mate, and if they're successful, then they mate and and lay eggs, and then they all die, and they all come back in another 17 years.
So, the experience of that singing they do is devastating. I measured it at 96 decibels. It's it's like an aircraft, it's that loud.
And I spent most of the month of June in 2016 when they were emerging in the field, making field recordings of their songs, hours, and hours of recordings.
My first salient, you know, recollection of that was how mind altering really, the experience the immersive experience of being in the middle of that sound you know was, I would come out of a recording session literally feeling like I've been dosed with LSD. I mean, it was just totally enveloping.
And it's a very complex sound of 3 different species that emerge, and each have different specific different songs that they sing.
As you're listening to them there’s these enveloping waves that kind of come and go. And so that was the first kind of experience, first stage first stage of creating that artwork. Subsequently I made an installation of a channel, immersive sound installation in the gallery in Tremont, based on these recordings, trying to reproduce that sound a little bit.
And then, a couple of years later I sent some of the same recordings and created this spatialized site-specific installation at Cuyahoga Valley National Park, which is an app-based installation. So, you bring up the app, and as you walk around a lake, about a mile loop around this lake, the app uses GPS to decide where you are and based on where you are, plays back different combinations of these cicada recordings.
So, you're actually kind of mixing them live. It changes over time, and it changes it over experience. There’s a hint of that kind of immersive enveloping kind of space.
And I know it works because when I was testing out the app, and I was walking around playing back the first recordings.
I noticed that there were a bunch of birds that had started to gather overhead and follow me around. The cicada emergence is a wonderful smorgasbord for all sorts of, racoons like them and birds eat them up. It's a great for berries when they come out, because the birds are eating the bugs instead of the berries. And so, it’s very complex ecological environment.
So, I know, I know that somebody else was listening and could hear them and the other thing I think I talked about mentioned in that I have a really strong memory of from making that piece, or the interconnected series of pieces.
So, I’m out getting ready to go record my bugs, I park, and there's this little old lady in the parking lot. And she was 75, you know. The stereotype Audubon Society lady in this kind of floppy hat and binoculars, and you know, and she’s passing out flyers about the cicadas.
And she’s telling people look go here, where you can hear them.
It's great, you know, so we started talking, trading notes about what we learned and stuff. And she said she, at one point, she says to me you know I probably won't be here the next time they come out, they only come out every 17 years. And I, I just stopped in my tracks.
And they don't know how to come 17 years—I don’t know how they all know how to come out at the same time. But they're all they’re all pinning their hopes and dreams on this one moment, when they’re all going to come out and have this big party or something, you know and hope they get lucky. And then they all die all at once. It's another ecological, and the amount of biomass that they put back into the soil all at once is has a real impact on ecology. But here’s this gal, and you know we’re enjoying this, and she’s talking about her mortality. It kind of took it to another level for me.
Interviewer: So, why did you choose to talk about the cicadas?
Participant: I’m pretty concerned about ecological issues and global warming is the most important political issue for me. So, and I spend a lot of time in nature, listening to these natural sounds.
Pauline Oliveros, who started a practice called deep listening. It involves listening with your entire self all at once. Not necessarily listening for information, listening with just wide-open listening.
And as a sonic phenomenon, the cicada emergence is pretty unparalleled. There’s very little that happens short of avalanches or something that is that impactful naturally that’s that impactful from a silent perspective. Thunderstorms too, I spend a lot of time recording them, things like that.
Interviewer: So, what led up to the creation? What motivated you to create this piece?
When and where did the experience happen? Who was involved besides you (if anyone)?
Participant: For a couple years. There is a strong tradition of acoustic ecology. It started with R. Murray Schafer, and his work in British Columbia. So, I learned, natural sources, I learned field recording, in support of that work. So, I have that background. I've done installations that contributed to creating multi-channel installation and I'm really interested; I did a number of workshops during the pandemic.
With folks who called themselves walking artists, who spent time doing sound walks or actually just walking, and not necessarily producing any artifacts as a result of that.
And so, depending on if you’re interested in walking as an activity as an artistic activity, there is a venue for artwork. And the geolocated stuff kind of came out of that, it’s a way of making things.
Interviewer: So, what motivated you to create the piece like specifically the installation and the walk-through experience?
Participant: The temporality of a cicada emergence. The fact that it only happens, you know every 17 years. And so, there are 16 years where you can't hear the cicadas in in this area, maybe there are other places. I really wanted to share that experience. And you can't get that on a walk because there's no bugs in the off years. And so, it was a I guess the there was a motivation of wanting that sound experience not to be lost for folks who didn’t happen to be there.
Interviewer: Did this artwork involve anyone else besides you?
Participant: We started a Facebook group about the cicadas, and we wound up with about 200 people who were kind of watching out for them.
They emerge at a certain time when the ground temperature is just 58 degrees, they pop out. And so, we had kind of this block watch party of everybody, you know, taking temperature of the ground and talking about where they'd seen them and swapping hints about places to go, pictures, lots of pictures. And a number of folks made and shared recordings with me.
There also a number of folks, became involved with a couple of different, in that group, became involved with a couple of different citizen science art projects.
There were some researchers in Long Island, Cincinnati, and a group of folks in Maryland, back in New England someplace, who collect data from kind of just laypeople. And so, they got hooked into this network of folks who report their sightings and contribute to a larger database.
There’s a lot of very interesting things going on with some 17-year groups of cicadas are switching to 13 years, and they appear in different parts of the country at different times, and some of the borders end up changing.
And unfortunately, in a lot of cases the emergences are getting smaller because of loss of habitat. So, there are all of those people who originally were like, start off with, you know, my local friends or friends of friends and friends of Facebook friends.
And I kind of wound up with this little temporary, autonomous community of folks with a shared interest. So, that was another outgrowth of that work.
Interviewer: That’s pretty good. So, what were you thinking and feeling at like different times throughout the process of creating this artwork? Like how did you feel at the beginning? How do you feel at the end? In the middle of the process?
Participant: I felt happy being out in the woods, I was feeling kind of taken aback about this. Originally, I was just going out in the woods with my tape recorder by myself and the gradual connection to other folk interested in the same thing. It happened and it was kind of facilitated by that Facebook group in particular.
And just connecting to the, to those groups made me feel a little less alone and weird. But that that that sense of a growing sense of community across the period of that project was kind of special for me.
Interviewer: Can you describe like any high points or low points or challenges that came up along the way while creating the artwork?
Participant: That conversation with that gal in the parking lot was certainly impactful. What happened, this is a little nebulous but, so, I was, actually I had a guest artist come to talk to my one of my art classes.
And she was this artist from New York, and she was making books. And then she decided to make a book about clouds, so she was taking a lot of pictures of clouds. And she was thinking about what's behind those clouds I mean, outer space. She was thinking about satellites, and just outer space. And then she started researching the satellites and the next thing you know she was building this installation that had sounds of satellites in this fluorescent dome. And as she was talking in this lecture, and I was thinking, boy that is, what a model of, first I was thinking about this, and then it made me think about that, and then it made me think about this other thing.
So that's what happens in my projects, I guess. Like first I'm thinking about I’m thinking about bugs, and I’m thinking about sound.
And then I’m thinking about recordings and then I’m sort of thinking about some kind of installation related to those recordings, I didn't have that in in mind when I started making the recordings.
Then I learned about multi-channel audio from that. And then I started being curious about other people who were listening to bugs, and some of them were walking, and I found a couple walking groups in Europe, and then they're talking about these geo-spatial stuff.
And I just, really, it’s the importance of staying open. If I had just said, well, I'm going to make some recordings of bugs. I would have missed out on all sorts of other, you know kind of trailing threads. You know that we're very enriching. And I hope I never settle for what I think I want in advance.
Interviewer: So now we're going to talk about the impact of the artwork on yourself and others. Did you learn anything about yourself while creating this artwork?
Participant: So, kind of what I just talked about I think the importance of the capacity to remain open. It's not necessarily news to me but it was kind of really enforced for me.
Interviewer: Okay, Thank you. Has anyone else seen this artwork, and if so, how did they receive the artwork? Did you intend for the artwork to affect others in any particular way? Have you seen anyone interact with your art? And if so, what was your reaction to their interaction with your art?
Participant: I didn’t have like an intention particularly. The hope would be that folks would engage in more careful listening to their environment in natural environments, that would have been my hope. I know a number of folks have used that app version of the sound walk. And you can say, I know that some birds have been fooled into thinking that there was a good meal there for them.
Um, and I know that one guy who became enthused about the recording process has gone on to become engaged every year.
As I do, he goes and does citizen science work. He actually drives around back country roads for 2 weeks every year with a recording device around this area. He maps out habitats and locations of the different species of the cicadas. And he’s gotten credits in scientific papers because of the data that he has contributed to their studies.
Interviewer: Have you been able to like, see anybody work with your art, or like, and if you have like what was your reaction about them listening at your art?
Participant: I haven't actually had a lot of experience with that. The installation experience in in Tremont. I did not observe that opening very much. I heard back from a couple of folks who had gone to me, but I didn’t. watch folks.
Interviewer: How did your experience affect your understanding of others and the world?
Participant: Certainly, certainly more the world and you know and the process of engaging with the data col-- with the sound collection sound recording the actual sitting and listening to hours and hours of this deafening roar.
Interviewer: Okay, so When some people think about themselves, they see parts of themselves as deeply true, real, or authentic.
If this idea resonates with you, did you learn anything about your true nature during the process of interacting with the artwork? Did you have any insights about your own authentic (or inauthentic) self?
Participant: I’ve been, I've been doing this kind for work, especially the deep listening kinds of work, you know the recording one for quite a while. Every time every time I spend time listening to it, it changes and deepens my appreciation for sound phenomenon, and for our place in the world.
Interviewer: So, some people believe in ultimate meaning. This defined as deep, underlying meaning that transcends subjective personal meaning. It is about the nature of existence and identity, and it may include ideas about the significance of suffering as well as spirituality.
If this idea resonates with you, did you learn anything about ultimate meaning during the process of interacting with the artwork?
Participant: I'll point back again to that experience with the Audubon lady, and of the importance of being present as a spiritual practice. We teach, Pauline Oliveros, who I mentioned in deep listening practice. A core practice of that work is a series of pieces that are called Sonic Medications. These might be either [inaudible] or some kind of transcendent [inaudible] that is relevant to the kind of work that I do.
Interviewer: Thank you. So, some people believe or perceive a reality beyond the physical or material world. This may include religious beliefs/experiences (such as perceived interactions with God) but also may include mystical or transcendent experiences, or interaction with spirits. Did you have any kind of these experiences during the interaction with the artwork? Does this affect your artwork or your beliefs?
Participant: Nothing unusual. I do believe in, spiritual experiences and again the bugs come out every 17 years all on their own. I don't think they can do that, yeah, something's going on. So, I would, I have those experiences all the time and this work was no exception.
Interviewer: What was the experience like?
Participant: Hmm. Awe-inspiring. I’m continually amazed at what I believe is a higher power manifesting in nature.
Interviewer: Does this affect like your artwork, or like you as a person, or like your beliefs if it if anything, if at all?
Participant: Same, you know it kind of expanded, it expanded, and like reinforce my tendencies in spiritual practice and art practice and kind of the [inaudible]
Interviewer: Thank you. So, I need to ask, how old are you?
Participant: 66.
Interviewer: So how did you perceive the quality of this artwork? Did it turn out how you envisioned?
Participant: As a total experience for me? Yeah, I think it was very successful. Both the installation and the art walk. I didn't have any illusions that those would be completely successful at the producing the experience that I had in the field. But they fell pretty short of that it's like looking at a picture of a of a piece of fruit instead of eating it.
It reminded me that that these experiences rather be experienced than replicated.
Interviewer: What about this artwork distinguishes it from others, and what makes it special? What was going on in your life around the time that you created this artwork?
Participant: I honestly don't know of other folks that have done that particular kind of work. There’s a lot of field recording based work that attempts to use natural recordings in an artistic way.
Interviewer: So, what was going on around that time in your life when you created the artwork?
Participant: I was actually in the process of transitioning from a money making career of 30 years in IT, and gradually transition out of that and more towards a full time commitment to my area and creative work.
Some other people might call that retiring. But not me, I’m busier than I’ve ever been.
Interviewer: Okay, Thank you!
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