1:00pm | This Saturday, the artist group FLOOD presents the 8th annual SoundWalk, a one night exhibition of 40 art works that, in one way or another, feature sound. Taking place in Downtown Long Beach, the free 5 hour event starts at 5 PM, and spans the area between 1st and 4th streets, and between Elm and Linden Avenues.
Since its inception, SoundWalk attracted international attention, drawing artists and media from all over the world to Long Beach. The work presented has been diverse: Site specific installations, sculptural works, performance based pieces, some that utilize advanced technology, and others that are shockingly simple.
Audiences have steadily grown, attracted by the uniqueness of the event, and the sense of wonder and delight it evokes. Word of mouth, of course, has helped, but the event was also featured on an episode of Visiting With Huell Howser.
I had the opportunity to speak with members of FLOOD about the history, evolution and future of SoundWalk. FLOOD includes Frauke von der Horst, who is on the faculty of Otis College of Art and Design. Marco Schindelmann is Artist Professor in the School of Music at the University of Redlands. Kamran Assadi has, for the last two years, served as board president of the Arts Council for Long Beach. He’s also co-owner, with Amir Zee, of Utopia, a restaurant located on 1st and Linden. Nick Dynice, the newest member of FLOOD, is a freelance web developer, marketing strategist, and electronic musician who works under the name of N.Sputnik. Shelley RuggThorp and Shea M Gauer were absent.
Frauke: I do remember clearly when Kamran first came up with the idea of doing something with the neighborhood to make it sort of be less dead.
Kamran: The first SoundWalk was in 2004. A year or two prior to that I contacted Shea Gauer about this idea that I had to use four identical cars that would be parked in a cross formation in a parking lot and then use their stereo system to create this sound sculpture.
Shea wrote a piece for 4 channel audio, and it was really interesting. It basically cost us the rental of the cars, and that was it. It was $20 per car, so $80, and the cost of the parking lot. The result was really interesting. So, after that, I was thinking that we could do this on a larger scale.
I am a visual artist by training. I didn’t know much about sound art, but I knew certain things, like we didn’t need a gallery space. Back then, I had a business in an “arts district” that had very little art. So we tried to bring the arts into the arts district. Sound art was a logical solution to the existing problem.
Sander: How did you put funding together for that first SoundWalk?
Kamran: My wife helped me create my first Power Point presentation for SoundWalk, which I presented to the board of the DLBA (Downtown Long Beach Associates). I was quite amazed that they supported it because the whole thing was so experimental. You should have seen their faces! “What are you talking about? Sound?” “What kind of music?” Well, we are not doing music. “What do you mean by ‘not doing music’?” But there were some people on that board who saw the potential, and I am grateful to that organization because, from 2004 until today, they are the main source of funding for this event. It was pretty risky for them, but they saw the potential.
At 8:00 PM on the night of that first SoundWalk, when I was walking through the neighborhood, it was pure magic to me. And Frauke experienced the same thing. We had no preconceived notion of what this thing would look or sound like. We had no idea. It was very abstract, but the first year, to me, was absolutely magical.
Sander: What kinds of work have been exhibited at SoundWalk?
Marco: We’ve had sounding sculptures where the visual element might be every bit as important as the sonic element. There are works that are performative in nature. Finally, there are those works that really deal with sound and spaceiality, and creating inner architectures of spaces that are sort of deflecting and working off of the existing architecture. With those works, it is all about the experience of listening and hearing, without any other input.
They can be a real reaction against the Western notion of the hegemony of the eye. Within Western art, the eye is a very important thing. With sound art there is this reaction, a response to that desire to grasp all of that which is visual. As is typical of more recent genres, much is intermedia or multimedia, frequently.
Frauke: Some of the works were stunning because of their complexity while others were stunning because of their simplicity. In terms of simplicity I am thinking of the eggshells pounded in Morse code in different languages, the word “peace” for 5 hours, and transforming the sidewalk into this white, eggshell covered area. [The piece, titled Breaking Code, is by Long Beach artist Betsy Lohrer Hall. She recently recreated the piece as part of a solo exhibition at El Camino College. -srw] It was a stunningly simple idea, and the sincerity of the execution was really quite amazing.
Another one came from New Zealand. Four little cups that had solar panels attached, where the light made them rotate on top of the cup. The solar panels would just occasionally hit the cup, and that was the sound it produced. It was a tiny sound, but mesmerizing. That was next to Wizman’s piece, an amazingly intricate computer program that produced sounds in different stations in a huge area, with an interactive chair, bridge, panel and podium.
So there you had, side by side, totally minimal and totally complex pieces, both of them using current technology. In that exhibit, those two pieces were outstanding to me. And then there were, of course, these absolutely over the top, extravagant performative pieces by MLuM, held in the lobby of the Cooper Arms Building. It is a grand lobby with this grand installation, and it appropriately matched.
From year to year we get proposals, but we don’t know what the execution of the pieces is going to be. And so, year after year, we are surprised by the pieces when they actually unfold.
Kamran: Sometimes pleasantly, sometimes less so. Some of the pieces, in the description and supporting material, seem really awesome but, when you see the pieces executed, it is not really that great, and vice versa. There are always several pieces that we wondered whether to include in the show or not and then, amazingly, they turn out to be very popular, well executed, and well received. But it’s like any other group exhibition; you have great pieces, you have small pieces, you have monumental pieces..
Frauke: You have so-so pieces..
Nick: It seems to me there is a new category this year that I would call interactive performances. Artists are performing their piece with the audience by playing instruments or singing. That seems pretty cool.
Marco: You will find that the event does build on itself. Participants from previous years are inspired by what was there, and they they want to build upon that. And the level of sophistication has increased a little.
My perception: The work presented in the first year, with a few exceptions, featured sculptural elements that had a simple sound element. In the meantime, we get artists that are now applying for grants for really good equipment, and playing with the ideas of spaceiality and sound distribution and such. People are really investing in producing something where, if there is a visual element, the sound and the visual are really integrated rather than juxtaposed.
This arises from artists observing other artists, or their own art. People don’t really have an idea of what sound art is. They assume it is just art and sound. In the meantime, a lot of these artists have done some research and better understand the tradition of sound, the history of sound, the origins through the century, then move into mid-century and technology and catch up to the concept that was originally imposed by the futurists in Europe. It is building on itself. It is snowballing.
There is a new generation of sound artists. Before, you had people who were disciplined in other media and they decided to experiment in the area of sound. Originally a lot of sound artists did come from other areas, let’s say sound engineering or music, or visual arts or performance art. Now, though, you have people who, from the beginning, identify themselves as sound artists. That is what they do specifically.
Frauke: Because sound art is an evolving art form, we are able to give artists the opportunity to meet each other, to see other work, and inspire them along the way. The artists are able to create work for specific spaces or areas in the neighborhood, transforming them. Walking is also a key part of the exhibition. The empty spaces between exhibitions allows you to clear your ear impressions.
Kamran: It is like a little slice of cheese between two glasses of wine.
Sander: One of the things I noticed, and found to be absolutely delightful, is that in observing people who come to SoundWalk for the first time, there is a certain moment when they begin to question where the exhibition ends and where the neighborhood begins.
Kamran: I think people become hypersensitive. For example, we have this vent system along the street. There is one by the community garden. It always makes sounds but, during SoundWalk, I see people staring at it, looking for an exhibit number. Ordinary objects become really blurry, people don’t know where the pieces are. They become very sensitive.
Frauke: For the first year we didn’t have exhibit numbers, so you had to actually discover the pieces on your own.
Marco: People would walk around rather timidly, engaging, but not necessarily engaging in a very aggressive manner. As time has gone by, people are running around with their maps from one exhibit to the next, and they are not ashamed now to engage with the art. They are open to exploration, which is really a very nice development.
Sander: What are some of the unique challenges of the SoundWalk curatorial process?
Kamran: The difficult part starts when we think “what are we going to do with these pieces?” Some of them are big. This year, one piece has 20 performers involved. Some have a lot of equipment, a lot of electricity, huge sound. So putting them in different places and in a way that they can live with a piece next to them, that is the challenging part. We’re constantly shuffling and reshuffling until we come up with something that makes sense. Afterward, we always wind up thinking “we should have done this or that.” It is a difficult process. It is much more difficult than putting paintings on a wall.
Marco: We always have these overlap zones which are interesting in and of themselves. That is something we sometimes take into consideration. We’ll have these two pieces bleed into each other in the overlap zone. That may produce a very interesting effect, and create a third sound piece, where you have a macro installation composed of these micro installations.
Frauke: We also have an instance where two pieces really interfered with each other because the description didn’t indicate that the sound was going to be as loud as it was. Artists actually kind of competed by turning their pieces up against each other. I would go and say “Down, down!”
You really don’t know what to expect ahead of time. That’s part of dealing with sound art. That is something that inherent in sound art. If you don’t get a whole room for a piece, you have the bleed.
I went to a sound art show at the Pompidou Center in Paris and the curatorial choices there were absolutely horrid. One piece had a big presence and you had to really go and listen to the others, but you couldn’t really get them. It’s a difficult medium to curate.
Marco: You know, they still have not come up with a solution to create a sound art museum, a venue for this. They’re still in a period of exploration, trying to understand it within the curatorial community because, again, sound does not respect boundaries. You can’t really frame sound.
Frauke: It’s an ideal concept to spread it through the neighborhood and let people go to the sound. If only our spaces were as ideal as the concept.
Sander: FLOOD is very open to excepting submissions from new artists, from emerging attests, and seasoned veterans as well.
Frauke: It is an opportunity for people starting out to test their work against people who have been longer in the medium, and to find inspiration, or maybe humiliation, from it. It’s a way of growing the medium. If you only take the ones that are already established, where are the others going to go? They need a place to sort of test the waters.
Sander: How does the future look for SoundWalk?
Kamran: I think we have the potential to become the most important sound event in Southern California. We are international. We can grow 10 times bigger with the help of some people. This year Nick joined the group. It’s amazing. He actually introduced us to the 21st Century. He has done a tremendous job by bringing fresh ideas.
Nick: I created pages for all of the artists and their pieces, and I am featuring an artists each day on the home page, Facebook, and Twitter. I also made a promotional video, Google map of the area marking the exhibition sites, an audio catalog, and QR codes that link to the artists’ pages, UStream channel, Twitter updates.
Kamran: We have a lot of potential to grow much bigger than what we are, but we wanted to have total control of the events, and that became counter-productive. We never extended our hand, we never asked for more help, and that was a mistake, but I am glad we realized that and we are changing our approach and attitude. If we had three more people like Nick, we can take this event to a whole different level.
Frauke: It would be very nice that if, along with the Nick’s, came the sponsors, because we had inquires from international artists who just did not have the money to fly out. If we could give a stipend to them and provide them with plane tickets, we would have artists from Germany, Lithuanian, and South America. If we could support the artists in coming out we would have more international artists at the event.
Sander: What is the budget for SoundWalk?
Kamran: If you don’t count the time we donate to the effort, we spend about $10k. That includes our advertising budget, permits, fees, stipends, and everything else that is involved. Since we are talking about the budget, once again I have to thank the DLBA because, without their help, especially the first year, none of this would have happened. I am really grateful to them. Still, we actually need a budget 10 times bigger if we want to do what we want to do. We need a $100k budget.
Sander: And what is it you would want to do with that level of funding?
Kamran: Well, we have grandiose ideas. Glow, in Santa Monica, is a great show but, like SoundWalk, there are great pieces and mediocre pieces. But nothing can justify the amount of attention they get. I mean, the first year I was utterly shocked. I had never seen that many people in Santa Monica. There were tens of thousands of people there.
With all due respect to Marc Pally, SoundWalk is as good as Glow. But we get 1,500 people. We get 2,000 people. Promotion takes money. We need to purchase advertising. We need to work with more media outlets. We don’t pay our artists.
My dream, actually, it to be able to pay the artists a stipend. Everybody works for something. Artists are undervalued, taken for granted. But that is not the right way.
Sander: How does Santa Monica create that success?
Kamran: The City of Santa Monica buys into it. Here, the City supports us, but they don’t see us as an asset. In a best case scenario we work along with the City but we still pay for all of the permits. The best case scenario is that we work with the City toward the common goal of bringing 50,000 people to Downtown Long Beach, and creating a signature event for the City. Unfortunately, that dynamic doesn’t exist right now.
There are some people in the city government that see the value of arts and culture but, unfortunately, they are a minority. Art becomes lost during conversations about other important issues like safety and police. We don’t want to get to that point. There is great potential.
Sander: How has the City supported you, and what would you like to see the City do in addition?
Kamran: We are grateful to the Redevelopment Agency. To me, they are probably the government agency that is most supportive of the arts. Without their support we would not have Summer And Music, which is one of the best things that has happened in Long Beach.
Because of the Redevelopment Agency, we have been using the Phantom Gallery spaces for the last several years and, hopefully, this year. They let us use it because they see the value of art. If that mentality was shared with other departments in the City we would be in a better place.
Sander: Have you started planning for the 10th anniversary in 2013?
Kamran: I am very hopeful. I see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. We are not giving up.
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A complete list of participating artists, an interactive map, and archives from past years can all be found at SoundWalk.org.