By Kate Hill
Staff Writer
Last weekend, Stone Quarry Hill Art Park (SQHAP) presented a mobile version of “Paradise,” an interactive sound installation featuring wildlife and soundscape recordings from around the world.
Paradise was commissioned by the Syracuse-based Society for New Music (SNM) in 2016 and co-created by artists Doug Quin and Lorne Covington.
“When SNM commissions a new work, there is discussion with the creators — co-creators in this case — as to what form it will take,” said SNM Program Advisor Neva Pilgrim. “Doug Quin is renowned for his recordings of bird and animal sounds from around the world. Lorne is an expert at electronics and interactive environments of both sounds and visuals. They put their heads together and came up with this amazing interactive installation.”
Quin is a composer, sound artist and designer, wildlife recordist, public radio commentator, and educator, who has traveled and documented the natural soundscape for more than 30 years.
He is a professor in the television, radio and film department at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and an adjunct faculty member in the School of Creative Arts and Media at the University of Tasmania.
The artist is the recipient of numerous commissions, awards and grants; his soundscape compositions, music and installations have been featured at numerous festivals and venues.
Quin created the sound design for and mixed “Encounters at the End of the World” — Werner Herzog’s Academy Award nominated documentary film about Antarctica. He also worked on “Jurassic Park III” and designed and consulted on exhibits for the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Polish Academy of Sciences.
Covington is the creative director and principal of NOIRFLUX, a design firm that develops participatory and immersive artworks, data visualization environments, and highly interactive transformational learning exhibits.
According to his artist’s bio, Covington is “fluent” with visual and performing art, electronic hardware, embedded systems, and all layers of software development.
He recently became part of COOLTURE IMPACT, the largest interactive platform for public art, located at the Port Authority Bus terminal in Times Square, New York City.
Paradise was premiered at Syracuse Stage and later repeated in the SQHAP Gallery and at the Schweinfurth Museum in Auburn. It was also featured at the 2016 Venice International Performance Art Week in Italy. A version of the installation was created with Skaneateles students for their high school.
Funded by the SNM and the art park, the most recent iteration of Paradise is the first to be presented in a natural setting.
“The idea here is that people will be able to stand facing the woods and ‘conduct’ an orchestra of . . . different sounds coming from the branches, the ground, etc.,” Covington said. “If more than one person is conducting, each will get their own palette of sounds to create the sound experience together — ‘jamming’ with nature and each other, if you will.”
According to Quin, the latest Paradise system uses eight loudspeakers — four on the ground and four in the trees — covering about a 180-degree sound field.
“Usually, we use 24 loudspeakers and a sub-woofer for bass,” Quin said. “We use a motion capture camera to track people and use their motion as information to trigger, move, and process or morph sound dynamically in response to their movement. What will be different this time is that people will be more or less stationary and will be able to make things happen through arm gestures and bending in place, rather than roaming about and dancing.”
Paradise includes thousands of sounds, including recordings from Antarctica, the Arctic, Africa, Australia, South and Central America, New Zealand, New Caledonia, and space (atmospheric whistlers).
The installation also featured choral recordings made with Syracuse University students at the S.I. Newhouse School recording studio.
“Both Lorne and I have been involved in interactive and passive installation work for many years, including designing audio and multimedia exhibits for museums, zoos and other public spaces,” Quin said. “Much of my work as a sound designer has involved natural history in one way or another over the years. We wanted to bring this experience into a contemporary artistic framing where we had broader latitude to design an instrument and situational experience that went beyond the interpretive role that much of this work had involved in the past.”
While Quin’s work on the project centered on building the soundscape palettes and editing and conforming the audio for delivery, Covington was responsible for designing the system and software.
“I am more the geek of the pair, coming from high-tech/Silicon Valley,” said Covington. “[At] the age of 50, I decided [to turn] my skills to hopefully bringing direct joy to people instead of making just another new piece of industrial equipment. So my focus for the last 10 years, along with Bill Saiff, my partner in NOIRFLUX, has been figuring out the hardware and software to make interactive spaces that give people an effortless way to become co-creators in their own experience. I see my role in this as providing people the ability to paint with Doug’s sounds . . . I have done almost exclusively visual immersive installations, but I am a musician and have dabbled with immersive interactive sound and had always wanted to do more, so the opportunity to work with Doug was a no-brainer.”
The installation was presented as part of SQHAP’s summer-long exhibition titled “Personal Programs.”
Unlike typical Art Park events, which are scheduled for set dates and times, these programs can be experienced by visitors independently, either in person or online.
“The temporary and flexible nature of the piece was a great fit for Personal Programs,” said SQHAP CEO Emily Zaengle. “Installations happen spontaneously and promote access and enjoyment of art without gathering . . . Paradise was selected to be a part of Personal Programs because it’s not something people sit and listen to, it’s something to be moved through. It’s actually this movement, people waving or walking that activates the sounds and determines what people will hear as they engage with the installation.”
For more information on the Stone Quarry Hill Art Park, visit sqhap.org.
To learn more about the Society for New Music, visit societyfornewmusic.org.
