Dissected, Analyzed, and Reconstructed | February 2020

Caroline Partamian and Ethan Primason were introduced to me by Angus McCullough, a resident back in 2016. A combination of visual artist, and sound artist, Caroline and Ethan were a unique pair doing interesting work democratizing the airwaves and creating intriguing installations. Importantly, they had decided to move to the Joshua Tree area and a February 2020 residency would provide them a soft landing in following some time abroad.






 
The artists had proposed creating a sound installation that synthesized a series of daily ritual walks they were to take, capturing sound and observations on a regular basis. This would build on a similar process undertaken at a  residency in Marfa, TX. However, on further research, they determined that February being a windy month meant that they would be mostly capturing the sound of wind on a daily basis. They then decided to turn this to advantage, to record the wind in some remote abandoned location and then dissect and analyze those recordings to create the installation.

Caroline and Ethan got to work hiking out to abandoned mines to get their recordings and researching and developing software to analyze the sounds in they ways they intended. Ethan also set about welding frames for the speaker/fan combinations they designed and for a large metal sheet that would be used to visualize the sounds through projection as well as act as a speaker in itself. Caroline focused on creating the visual elements, mostly captures and drawings on acetate and old school slides.

 




Caroline and Ethan hosted an artist's tea in the Park on February 23 that got participants involved in various listening and seeing exercises. On February 29, their open house installation drew a sizable crowd to the studio and created a wonderful immersive experience. Many thanks to the artists and welcome to the community!