For Immediate Release
April 27, 2010
Contact: Susie Stockwell, External Affairs Coordinator
sstockwell@decordova.org, 781/259-3620
DeCordova to host PLATFORM 3: Halsey Burgund, Scapes
Lincoln, MA, April 27, 2010 – DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum will host the third project in its PLATFORM series, Halsey Burgund, Scapes, July 13-November 14, 2010. For Scapes, Burgund has custom-built an iPhone application designed specifically for DeCordova that will enable visitors to experience and engage with DeCordova's Sculpture Park in an entirely new way. In this project, Burgund, a musician and sound artist, explores his interest in the landscape's relationship to sound, history, and social experience through interactive technology. The free application can be downloaded from the Apple App store onto any smart phone and will also be preloaded onto phones for museum visitors to borrow.
Lexi Lee, Koch Curatorial Fellow says, "Scapes is a truly interactive sound piece that will activate DeCordova's landscape for our summer visitors. Unlike traditional one-way communication systems like audio tours or text panels in museums, Scapes is a two-way model that invites DeCordova visitors to both listen and participate in the creation of the work. It is the first-ever sound installation in DeCordova's Sculpture Park and will be the first project to capture and transmit a sampling of the Park's 'audioscape.'"
Scapes is a participatory sound installation that invites visitors not only to listen, but to make their own recordings that are incorporated into the sound-piece for everyone to hear. As participants amble through the Park, they can record their thoughts and responses to the landscape onto the phones. Burgund's program then codes these responses based on the physical location of the recording, and in real-time, folds them into a database containing a collection of past and current voice recordings. Visitors listen to a continuously evolving score of responses. Snippets of spoken word layered with music that Burgund will compose specifically for the DeCordova project will be streamed through the phones. The audio is never the same twice, as new responses are constantly incorporated into the composition. The score is not only time-based, but also location-based. As visitors navigate DeCordova's Sculpture Park with the phones, they will hear location-specific voices, music, and sounds that change as they move through the Park, allowing them to tap into an otherwise invisible landscape of sound.
Layers of voices collected over the course of the project will create a type of oral history recording people's interactions with the land. The application allows visitors to think about the many possible histories embedded in the physical world, and to reflect on their relationship to these other histories and people.
The application utilizes GPS and open-source technology to create dynamic musical scores from participants' spoken words that continuously evolve in real-time. Linking art and technology through interactivity, Scapes reflects DeCordova's curatorial commitment to new media projects and alternative, creative ways of using the Sculpture Park. Visit http://www.decordova.org/decordova/info/pressroom.htm to hear a sample of the work.
Exhibition Programming
The artist will participate in a few programs at DeCordova this summer. On Friday, July 23 at 6:30pm Halsey Burgund's band, Aesthetic Evidence performs as part of DeCordova's program, Free Friday Nights in July. Then on Sunday, July 25 at 2pm, Burgund and Geeta Dayal, music and arts critic and author of the recent book on Brian Eno's Another Green World, engage in a conversation about larger issues in Burgund's Scapes piece, as part of the PLATFORM Discussion Series. Topics will include the role of sound and technology in art, issues in alternative music, and the way Burgund's installation engages with these ideas. Lastly, on Saturday, October 16 at 3pm Halsey will give an Artist Talk about his work.
About the Artist
In 1995 Burgund received his BS in Geology and Geophysics from Yale University. Since the late 1990s and early 2000s, Halsey has been a member of music collaboratives Aesthetic Evidence and Enemies of Enormity, which explore the fusion of various musical styles, spoken word, and electronic re-sampling. Burgund's previous sound-based projects include ROUND (2008) at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT and One Hundred and Four Thousand (2006) at Forest Hills Cemetery, Jamaica Plain, MA. Burgund received a LEF Foundation Grant in 2007. The artist lives and works in Bedford, MA.
About the PLATFORM Series
PLATFORM is a series of solo exhibitions by early- and mid-career artists from both the New England and national arts communities. These shows focus on work that engages with DeCordova's unique architectural spaces and social, geographical, and physical location. The PLATFORM series is intended as a support for creativity and expression of new ideas, and as a catalyst for dialogue about contemporary art.
PLATFORM 3: Halsey Burgund, Scapes has been generously supported by AT&T and by a grant from the Artists' Resource Trust. Additional support has been provided by grants from the Lincoln Cultural Council and the Bedford Cultural Council, local agencies which are supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency. The 2009-2010 PLATFORM series is funded in part by James and Audrey Foster.
About DeCordova
DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum was established in 1950 to educate the public about American contemporary art. DeCordova's unique campus features both indoor and outdoor venues, allowing its visitors to celebrate and explore contemporary art across 35 acres. Inside, the Museum features a robust slate of rotating exhibitions and innovative interpretive programming. Outside, DeCordova's Sculpture Park hosts more than 60 works, the majority of which are on loan to the Museum. DeCordova also offers the largest non-degree granting studio art program in New England. DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum attracts more than 100,000 visitors from New England and tourists from around the world to its campus each year and enrolls more than 3,000 students of all ages in its studio art program.
General Information
DeCordova is open Tuesday through Sunday, from 10am to 5pm and on selected Monday holidays. General admission during Museum hours is $12 for adults; $8 for senior citizens, students, and youth ages 6-12. Children age 5 and under, Lincoln residents, and Active Duty Military Personnel and their dependents are admitted free. The Sculpture Park is open year-round during daylight hours. Guided public tours of the Museum's main galleries take place every Thursday at 1pm and Sunday at 2pm. Tours of the Sculpture Park are given on Saturday and Sunday at 1pm from April to November. All guided tours are free with Campus admission. Visit www.decordova.org or call 781.259.8355 for further information.
Listen to a sample of PLATFORM 3: Halsey Burgund, Scapes:
