VISION

CLOUD LISTENING - for 24 channel overhead speakers

Cloud Listening is analogous to cloud gazing. Spatialized audio will provide a different experience based on where the listener is positioned on the lawn, similar to the different shapes we see in clouds.

Dynamic and contrasting soundscapes will be used to express the paradoxical nature of clouds.

Dark and light, airy and heavy, fluffy and electric are just a few examples of cloud qualities this piece will explore. Generative synthesis shaped to form playful lyrical bursts, rhythmic entanglements, and detailed textures. 

I’ve programmed an exciting tool to parametrically control the placement of audio in the 6x4 matrix of speakers.    

Beyond just sound placement, it’s built to transform the speaker data fluidly over time. This allows for  gestural movement of sounds across the entirety of the Pritzker Pavilion.

This tool will be used in-studio to simultaneously automate the level of each of the 24 individual channels. The audio will be compiled back into a DAW, which opens the possibility to push the sound further yet.

Listeners will delight in hearing clouds of sound pass by overhead.

Formally the piece will go through the 10 cloud classifications.

• Cumulus

• Stratocumulus

• Stratus

• Cumulonimbus

• Altocumulus

• Altostratus

• Nimbostratus

• Cirrus

• Cirrocumulus

• Cirrostratus

This is not the set order, the aim will be to sequence by what will create the most contrast and carry the most momentum.

Cloud Listening is an opportunity to creatively relate to Chicago’s most unique environment for sound.

demo of a tool I made to automate the the LevelS of the 24 channel speaker array at Pritzker Pavilion.

EXPERIENCE

My experience with multichannel sound production and public sound installation spans both institutional and experimental contexts. 

I co-lead Rave Approved Sound System, a Chicago-based sound system that’s been active for the past three years. We’ve worked with artists and DJs from organizations like International Anthem, Viva Acid, Humboldt Arboreal Society. Events we do are often deployed in non-traditional spaces, including parks, warehouses, mostly temporary installations. It’s been a privilege to share our love of sound design, fabrication, and music with the Chicago underground. 

Audio Video Production for “We’re Not Down There, We’re Over Here” by Amanda Williams at MoMA. I supported the development and production of an audio and video loop. This was a setting of a poem by Amanda. The speakers and projector were housed out of site, in a sculpture of a satellite.

Audio Video Production for DRUMCODE, an installation at Co-Prosperity Sphere as part of Typeforce12. This was an audio video loop presented in stereo, and in headphones. I came up with the concept, wrote the music, performed the video and oversaw the installation.

As a Music Composition/TIMARA major at Oberlin, I developed audio tools for an 8-channel composition and performance class. I’m comfortable developing multichannel work.

Various Sound System Events, MoMA AV Installation, Typeforce12 Installation, Multichannel Studio at Oberlin

WORK SAMPLES

AMBIGUITY ARCADE - 2023 Short Film, Composer

DRUMCODE - 2022 Audio Video Installation, Composer

MST: Mvt3: Frankie Says Bananas - 2014 Pirot Ensemble and Electronics, Composer