Sound Project with Nobuo Kubota
June 6 to July 11, 2010

Thirty participants of all ages spent the weekend of June 5th and 6th working closely with Nobuo Kubota exploring the dynamics of sound.

Kubota began the workshop on Saturday with a discussion about the history of sound poetry. Following this, participants were engaged in a number of vocal exercises that encouraged the free exploration of sound, and investigated ideas such as how to shape sound and create different tonal qualities. Participants then used their digital cameras to photograph each other making sounds.

People returned on Sunday with ten copies of their photographs, which were used to construct this collaborative mural. While the mural was being arranged, participants took turns being videotaped making a sequence of sounds. The original video footage was random and disjointed, so in order to create coherency Kubota made editing choices such as using black and white images, framing the faces, and mixing and cutting sounds in order to create a rhythm.

The mural and the video represent two different aspects of sound documentation; the mural is a silent but active interaction of sound and image, while the video presents an audio and physical documentation of a sound experience.