Incubation veils
An Acousmatic sound listening room Curated by Jim Strong
Opening Reception: Friday, January 5, 2024| 6-9pm | Free-To-Attend
Friday, January 5, 2024 – Sunday, February 12, 2024
Presented in Black Box
About the Exhibition
Acousmatic music (from Greek ἄκουσμα akousma, “a thing heard”) is a form of electroacoustic music which developed out of Musique Concrete that is specifically composed for presentation using speakers, as opposed to a live performance. The compositional practice of acousmatic music features sound which is heard but not seen. The origin of acousmatic music is said to have been inspired by tales of the akousmatikoi, the outer circle of Pythagoras’ disciples who only heard their teacher speaking from behind a veil. The absence which the veil portends, like the audience rapt in attention before an empty stage, marks the initiation of an invisible exchange with its own numinous gifts. Like the warm dark of the earth around a budding seed, or the body in gestation; an initial act of repose, a turning away from worldly habits is necessitated for transformation. Information Veils invites sound artists working within-without the traditions of electro acoustic composition, sound poetry, radio plays, asmr and interviews to mine subtle psychic-emotional states in the listener. Through sustained exposure to the installation, its absences and presences, incubation veils aim to collaborate with the body’s own intuitive molecular therapies. An experimental therapy which is endogenous to the human experience and is induced through careful observation of sound, space and attention and one’s own boredom. To make this possible vox populi gallery has generously offered to vacate their blackbox video and performance space during gallery hours to provide a safe, temperate, darkened theater-environment as an incubator in which to simply observe, listen and grow.
If absolute attention is prayer, then the polis requires a holiday of the senses. An Incubation Veil. Veil as Incubator. The many overlapping veils of our sensory (and non-sensory) organs massaged with information we can not fully know. Initial user reviews have even reported having grown several inches in height after exposure to the technology. Sound Bath: Bathing in a veil of sound, see also: Forest Bathing.
As you notice your own subtle adjustments taking hold, a question may arise as one listens “Here in this place, what is being changed in me?” repeat this question
Sounds by: Asha Sheshadri, Thomas DeAngelo, Duncan Harrison, Oya Damla, Raul Romero, Andrea Pensado, Renato Grieco, Zach Snyd , David Sutton, early shinada, Alex Tominsky, Thomas LaRoche, Anne Ishii, Olchar E. Lindsann + more
Curator, Jim Strong, will be pairing an original scent for the exhibition acting as a neural digestif to be applied behind the ears only once one has finished their duration within the space.