Omniaudience
Public Engagement
This program is organized as part of Triple Canopy's Public Engagement residency at the Hammer Museum, which revolves around gatherings comprised of listening sessions, conversations, and performances at the Hammer and partner institutions.
SATURDAY:
Artist and UCLA Department of Art alum Nikita Gale facilitates a listening session devoted to the creation, distribution, and reception of “River Deep, Mountain High,” which was produced by Phil Spector and performed by Tina Turner. More generally, Gale will ask how audio engineers manipulate performances and recordings in order to mold the identities of artists and cultivate (or target) audiences.
Alexander Provan delivers a lecture, illustrated with chart-toppers, on the use of consumer-behavior data and neurobiology research in the production of pop songs designed to please as many listeners as possible.
C. Spencer Yeh presents a live quadraphonic performance of material from The RCA Mark II (Primary Information, 2017), which is composed of recordings of non-musical sounds created with the eponymous, 60-year-old synthesizer—an avant-garde icon, now in disrepair. Yeh eschews the signature tones of the synth in favor of live recordings of mechanical parts clicking and whirring. In doing so, he demystifies the technology and confronts the legacy of rarefied electronic music.
Nour Mobarak speaks about the vocalization of sound and phonetics in relation to her recent work, which employs recordings of utterances from dozens of languages made by the UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive. She will then be joined in conversation by Gale, Provan, and Yeh to discuss how recordings of human voices quantify and categorize speakers—and how the components of language might, alternatively, be experienced as indeterminate sonic materials.
This event is presented by the Hammer Museum at UCLA.
SUNDAY
Lynnée Denise presents a multimedia essay that employs recordings of interviews and performances to portray the experiences of black artists in the music industry, which she identifies as an economic institution that emerges from chattel slavery. Denise asks how the pervasive narratives of fame, addiction, and financial exploitation minimize the ability of black artists to benefit from their labor and intellectual property.
Harmony Holiday listens with the audience to neglected musical recordings that manifest traditions of collective improvisation and diasporic gathering.
This event is presented by the Hammer Museum at UCLA.
Event Date: Saturday, May 4, 1:30 p.m. & Sunday, May 5, 6 p.m.
Venue: Saturday: Hammer Museum & Sunday: Coaxial Arts, 1815 S. Main St.
Price: Free
The Hammer is located at the corner of Westwood and Wilshire boulevards in Westwood Village, three blocks east of the 405 freeway’s Wilshire exit.
Parking is available under the museum.
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