SOUND HOUSE is an activated performance/ installation centered on a series of tasks that shape the sound in the room. The tasks, based on sets of instructions, are enacted by a group of performers and designers manipulating objects, controllers, walls, video, and wooden figures/puppets. Their tasks are specific and interdependent and emerge from our interest in several areas: bricklaying/construction, sound spatialization, the history of the Minuteman Missile project, time and its measurement, and object/task performance.
In SOUND HOUSE, everyone is working, the general effect is one of focused activity. In this installation, the room is the instrument. Its dynamics are mechanically complex, but simple in nature: the sound sculpts the space as the room structures the sound.
SOUND HOUSE is conceived and created by John Eagle, Janie Geiser, and Cassia Streb
SOUND HOUSE premiered at the Wende Museum on Feb. 4, 2022 as part of the Music at the Wende series. It was developed through two earlier iterations, in collaboration with a core ensemble of artists including Stevie Nemazee, Miranda Kahn, Moira MacDonald, Brain Hashimoto, Chu-Hsuan Chang, Hsuan-Kuang Hsieh, Audrey Densmore, Natalya Serebrennikova, Tane Kawasaki, and Ting Zhang.
On June 2, 2022, the next iteration of SOUND HOUSE was presented at UC Irvine’s The Art of Performance festival in the Experimental Media Performance Lab (xMPL), curated and produced by Deborah Oliver.
Credits:
Scenic/Wall Design: Vincent Richards
Network Audio System Design & Construction: John Eagle & Eric Heep
Sound Design: John Eagle
Sound Content: John Eagle & Cassia Streb
Wall Technical Direction: JT Studio
Welding/Fabrication: Urbaniron
Video Design: Hsuan-Kuang Hsieh
Video content: Hsuan-Kuang Hsieh & Janie Geiser
Lighting Design: Chu-Hsuan Chang
Puppet Design: Janie Geiser
Puppet and Prop Construction: Kristy Baltezore, Moira
MacDonald, Aubree Lynn, Janie Geiser, Miranda Kahn, Natalya
Serebrennikov and Stephanie Nemazee
Wende Museum Performance credits:
Performers: Ducky
Anderson, Miguel Ayala, Chu-Hsuan Chang, John Eagle, Natalie Ferguson, Janie Geiser, Brian Hashimoto, Hsuan-Kuang Hsieh, Tane Kawasaki, Moira MacDonald, Natalie
Nicholas, Cassia Streb, and Olivia Xing
Video Tech Assistant: Natalie Nichols
Production Manager: Brooke Harbaugh
Additional Camera, Live stream to FB Live: Ly Eisenstein
UC Irvine performance credits:
Performers: Ducky Anderson, Miguel Ayala, Ghazal Barzagan, Zach Dorn, John Eagle, Natalie Ferguson, Janie Geiser, Hsuan-Kuang Hsieh, Tane Kawasaki, Moira MacDonald, Natalie Nicholas, Cassia Streb, and Olivia Xing
Support for the UC Irvine performance was provided by the UCI Claire Trevor School of the Arts, Department of Art, 21C Arts Research and Innovation Grant, Automata, the CalArts Alumnx Council, the CalArts Center for New Performance and the Doris Duke Performing Artists Award.
The development of Sound House was supported, in part,
by NEW/NET: a project of Los Angeles Performance Practice
and Automata; the Doris Duke Performing Artist Awards, The
CalArts Center for New Performance, MediaThe, and the CalArts Faculty Development Fund.
Special Thanks to Miranda Wright, Deborah Oliver, George Lugg, LAPP &
Automata, Travis Preston, Kristy Edmunds, Meryl Friedman,
Susan Simpson, Jorge Martin, Kristy Baltezore, Cordelia Istel,
Jordan Biren, Emily Call, Noel McCarthy, Lisa Dring and Brian
Getnick, Lewis Klahr, Alan Eagle.
Images from UC Irvine performance:
John Eagle 