Sonic Miniatures

Works

A Train Is Arriving / Departing

Sound narrative. 1:00
Announcements for intra-terminal passenger trains arriving and departing in Denver International Airport provide an overlapping narrative for passengers.

Exhibitions / Publications / Broadcasts

A Train Is Arriving/Departing
CD #38, 1 Minute Autohypnosis project
Juried, limited edition of sixteen copies
Project website
Zaragoza, Spain
November 2016

Curated by international sound artist Pedro Bericat, for inclusion in his ongoing 1 Minute Autohypnosis project. Each iteration released as a limited edition CD and distributed as mail art. Each includes multiple genres of sounds: minimalist, musique concrète, field recordings, radio-art, synthesis, samplers, improvisation, circuit-bending, collages, drones, experiments with time, poetic micrologies, molecular soundscapes, amphibian monologues, and sonic pathologies.

Another Cougar First Down

Sound narrative. 3:00
The noise of an American university football game is surprisingly rhythmic, relaxing, even meditative.

Exhibitions / Publications / Broadcasts
Another Cougar First Down
Audiograft 2017 jukebox
Juried, international, 1:00
Event website
Sonic Art Research Unit (SARU), Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, England
7-19 March 2017
Introduced at Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford, England, Live Friday, 3 March 2017

Audiograft is an annual international festival of experimental music and sound, exhibitions, artists talks, and workshops, curated by the Sonic Art Research Unit (SARU), of Oxford Brookes University, in Oxford, England. The jukebox portion of the festival showcases short sound art works in an online, on demand context.

Beginning-Middle-End

Radio art. 1:00.
Aristotle was perhaps the first to propose that every story have a beginning, a middle, and an end. When a ringing telephone is answered, this improvised sonic micro-narrative begins with the opening line of Beowulf, continues through its middle with a sample from Radio Ruins of Art by Wojciech Bruszewski, the longest work of radio art broadcast by a radio station dedicated to radio art, June 1988-November 1989, and concludes with Hugo Ball reciting his Karawane at Cabaret Voltaire just before its closing in July-August 1916, all with background drone. This work was jury selected for a sonic collage with works placed in order of their receipt, and broadcast as Microtopies 2018, the seventh annual special edition of Música i Geografica, a weekly radio art program curated by Gràcia Territori Sonor, who organize activities around experimental music in Barcelona, Spain, including the LEM Festival. Different genres of work—minimal pieces, musique concrète, field recordings, radio-art, synthesis, samplerism, improvisation, circuit-bending, collages, drones, experiments with time, poetic micrologies, molecular soundscapes, amphibian monologues, sonic pathologies, and more—were encouraged for this project. Seventy five works by sound artists from fifteen countries were included.

Exhibitions / Publications / Broadcasts
Beginning-Middle-End
Juried, international, 1:00
Música i Geografica
Ràdio Gràcia FM, Barcelona, Spain
14 June 2018
Bandcamp website

Each year, Gràcia Territori Sonor selects works from international open calls for Microtopies, a special broadcast of their weekly radio art program, Música i Geografica. Microtopies 2018 was the seventh annual broadcast. The intent was to create a radio art broadcast by compiling selected submissions in the order of their receipt so to create a sonic mosaic. Each work is followed by the next. Meaning is made by the listener. Seventy five submissions, from fifteen different countries, each one minute in length, were selected. Entire compilation work can be heard here.

Flight Control

Sound narrative. 5:41
The rapid fire directions of flight controllers, and nuanced responses from airline pilots weave a narrative we can only imagine. Flight Control uses live feeds from Athens, Brussels, Chicago, Kuwait City, Moscow, Sao Paulo, Singapore airports, and the Apollo 8 moon landing approaches to demonstrate.

Exhibitions / Publications / Broadcasts
Flight Control
Audiograft 2017 jukebox
Juried, international, 5:41)
Event website
Sonic Art Research Unit (SARU), Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, England
7-19 March 2017
Introduced at Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford, England, Live Friday, 3 March 2017

Audiograft is an annual international festival of experimental music and sound, exhibitions, artists talks, and workshops, curated by the Sonic Art Research Unit (SARU), of Oxford Brookes University, in Oxford, England. The jukebox portion of the festival showcases short sound art works in an online, on demand context.

Beirut, USA: July 4

Sound narrative. 1:00
The Fourth of July is a celebration of loud and prolonged explosions. This was the sound in my neighborhood in 2014.

Cats Eating

Sound narrative. 1:00
My cats are dainty eaters. They are quiet, so listening with headphones is advised.

Cruisin' the Gut

Sound narrative. 1:00
This car rally in downtown Vancouver, Washington, July 2014, has cars and trucks driving up and down Main Street (the gut), a long slow cruise up to the Dairy Queen, turn around and head back downtown. Cruisin' the Gut is about watching the vehicles drive by and hearing them approach and recede. Use headphones for the best listening experience.

DHSI 2012, First Day

Sound narrative. 1:00
Walking across the University of Victoria campus, Victoria, Canada, to the opening ceremonies for the Digital Humanities Summer Institute 2014. Some interesting sounds.

East Wind 9/11 Chimes

Sound narrative. 1:00
There is a strong wind from the east today, 11 September 2014. The wind chimes under the house eave are active. They add their sounds to the bells ringing around the country in remembrance of those who died on this day in 2001.

Mind Your Step

Sound narrative. 1:00
This announcement is everywhere as I use the moving walkways in Schipol Airport, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, August 2015. Strange that the voice is that of a British English speaker. What is the story behind this choice?

Prime Meridian

Sound narrative. 1:00
The Prime Meridian, Greenwich, England, zero degrees longitude, marks the division between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Astride the brass marker at the Royal Observatory, May 2014, I literally am standing in both hemispheres. What stories might one imagine here?

PSA: Interrupted Suspense

Sound narrative. 1:00
A Public Service Announcement (PSA) for listeners concerned about suspense during a special edition of Música i Geografica, a weekly radio art program curated by Gràcia Territori Sonor, who organize activities around experimental music in Barcelona, Spain, including the LEM Festival.

Exhibitions / Publications / Broadcasts
PSA: Interrupted Suspense
Microtopies 2017
Event website
Juried, international, 1:00
Ràdio Gràcia FM, Barcelona, Spain
8 July 2017

Each year, Gràcia Territori Sonor selects works from international open calls for Microtopies, a special broadcast of their weekly radio art program, Música i Geografica. Microtopies 2017 was the sixth annual broadcast. The intent was to create a radio art broadcast by compiling selected submissions in the order of their receipt so to create a sonic mosaic. Each work is followed by the next. Meaning is made by the listener. Fifty nine submissions, from eleven different countries, each one minute in length, were selected. The hour-long work can be heard here.

Steelyard Passage

Sound narrative. 1:00
The Steelyard was the walled, main trading base of the medieval Hanseatic League in London, located near present day Southwark Bridge (built 1814-1819), on the Thames River. The site is commemorated by Steelyard Passage, a sound installation situated along a walkway through the car park under a modern office building. What you hear imagines what might have been heard in this former river shipping and warehouse area. I made the recording from which I edited this short narrative in May 2014.

Trafalger Tavern

Sound narrative. 1:00
A leisurely lunch and several pints of cider at the Trafalger Tavern, Greenwich, England, built in 1837, on the banks of the River Thames. Allegedly, this tavern was a last stop before leaving with the outgoing tide. This narrative imagines a chorus of contemporary voices as sea captains and pirates. I made the recording from which I edited this short narrative in May 2014.

Background

I created my first one-minute sonic narrative, "A Train Is Arriving/Departing," in 2016, in response to an international open call from Spanish sound artist Pedro Bericat, for his ongoing 1 Minute Autohypnosis project. My submission was accepted and included on CD #38 as part of a collection, like all thirty seven before, of different sounds, each one minute in length. The following year, 2017, Música i Geografica, Ràdio Gràcia FM, Barcelona, Spain, issued a similar international open call. The intent was to create a radio art broadcast by compiling selected submissions in the order of their receipt so to create a sonic mosaic. Each work is followed by the next. Meaning is made by the listener. My sonic miniature, "PSA: Interrupted Suspense" (see above) was accepted and included in this project. Again in 2018, another sonic miniature, "Beginning-Middle-End" (see above) was accepted by Música i Geografica and included in their annual project. Since then, I have continued to make sonic miniatures as an ongoing experiment in sonic narrative.

Artist Statement

Sonic Miniatures is a project to create short—often only one minute in length—sound based narratives where the primary sound source is not always human vocalization. Instead, I use environmental or mechanical sounds from my field recordings to create narratives with perceivable beginnings, middles, and ends. The desired end result is engagement with these micro-narratives through listening and imagination.