UC Irvine Langson Institute and Museum of California Art’s fall exhibition, “Habitat: Making the California Environment,” which opens Sept. 20, explores the state’s changing landscapes through early 20th-century paintings. Composer Andrew Weathers reinterprets these scenes using field recordings and layered sound.
Tell us about your sound piece, “Landscape Hocket.”
The piece is in conversation with Curtis Chamberlin’s painting “The Old Coast Road” (1915) and is made up of contemporary recordings made at the site featured in the painting, as well as recordings of native grasses present in the painting.
What will visitors experience when hearing it?
This piece will be presented with two stations projecting sound to one or two people at a time. Because of this setup, it’s impossible to experience the totality of the work in a single moment. That will hopefully provide an opening for the audience to fill in gaps based on their perception.
What do you hope listeners take away from your piece?
I’m just finding mundane sound and framing it as sublime to point at its presence in our everyday lives. We can appreciate the sound of a suitcase rolling just as we do the music of Debussy or Waylon Jennings. If an audience feels moved listening to coffee being made in the morning, that’s a success.
