satellite
Sound installation
with performance activation by Anne Bourne
Part of Every sound is a small action and broke world
8-11 Gallery, Toronto 2016
satellite utilizes sub-bass and infra-sonic sounds via a large subwoofer installed directly within the gallery wall itself. satellite works with the real-time phases of the moon's orbit (a cycle of 29.5305882 days) as its form. Throughout the entire exhibition, a software program generates a series of bass tones synthesized in real-time using divisions of the moon’s orbit time as inputs (frequencies and durations derived from the moons phases). This process takes the entire duration of the exhibition to play out, creating a continually evolving series of tones that fill and transform the room each day. These tones, which are often so low as to be felt more than heard, provide a slow, almost imperceptible, clock to the exhibition.
The moon is a natural satellite. It circles the earth in cycles that phase with the position of the sun/earth. A new moon occurs when the moon is exactly positioned between the earth and sun. This “synodic period”, as it’s called, is exactly 29.5305882 days long. There are several major events in the phases of the moon: the new moon, the full moon, the first quarter, the third quarter, and the phases in between them. On December 13th 2016 a concert marked a moment in that cycle: the last super-moon (at 7:05pm Toronto time) of 2016. The event featured musician and composer Anne Bourne, whom Christopher invited to respond to and performing along side the installation. Among other notable activities, Anne has been a dear friend and frequent collaborator of the late American composer Pauline Oliveros, whom the works in the exhibition are greatly indebted.
8-11 Gallery
233 Spadina ave. Toronto
We acknowledge the support of the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts in developing this project.
Photographs by Claire Harvie
Anne Bourne is a composer/sound artist who improvises parallel streams of extended cello and voice. She has arranged, recorded and toured internationally with awarded songwriters, noteably Jane Siberry. Anne has created works with Eve Egoyan, Fred Frith and John Oswald, Andrea Nann and Michael Ondaatje, Peter Chin, Duane Linklater, Peter Mettler and renowned composer Pauline Oliveros. She played on the premier recording of Pauline Oliveros’ composition ‘Primordial/Lift’ in New York, 1998, and has appeared on all subsequent performances and recordings of this piece, a listening experience based in the resonant frequencies of the earth. Her work ‘Silo: there is beauty in decay, Agnes Varda,’ a site specific sound piece installed in 9.1 surround in a silo, was presented at In/Future, 2016. She recently performed with Pauline Oliveros, Ione, and Doug van Nort at XAvantXI Music Gallery 2016; and in a solo electroacoustic concert at Tone Deaf, 2016. In 2013, Anne performed with Christopher Willes at the many faceted Weybourne Project, Luff art & dialogue. Anne’s creative meetings with Christopher Willes inhabit the futureworld of possibility.
Christopher Willes is a Canadian artist and composer. He makes performances, music, exhibitions, and writes about contemporary art. Select projects have been presented at The Art Gallery of Ontario, The Music Gallery, Intersite Visual Art Festival, The Rhubarb Festival, and Open Ears Festival. He works often within experimental dance and theatre as a sound maker and dramaturge, include works with Public Recordings, Urbanvessel, Small Wooden Shoe, Dancemakers, Ellen Furey, Ame Henderson, Evan Webber, and Adam Kinner. He studied music at the University of Toronto, and received an MFA from Bard College. In 2016 he was awarded a Chalmers Art Fellowship, and was a MacDowell Colony Fellow.
The project was created with support from the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.