cHURCH OF MONIKA: Soundwalks, listening to the urban rhythmics

June 10, 2018
11:00am

Join us at the cHURCH where artist Amanda Gutierrez will be discussing soundscapes. This is a free event. Bagels and coffee will be served.

Is it possible to get a sense of cultural immersion through sound? What does the local soundscape tell us about the growth of enclaves in nature? What sounds are masking the native culture and what sounds resonate, be it sounds of urban development or sounds of a long-standing community? How does the existing soundscape shape the process of adaptation? How can we achieve the historical preservation of these soundscapes?

Amanda Gutierrez work focuses on the analysis and aesthetic interpretation of the spatial memory and recording of the soundscape. Through soundwalks, cartography drawings, and interviews with inhabitants, her work centers on the observation and collection of sound databases of acoustic territories, specifically in a place.

Amanda Gutiérrez (b. 1978, Mexico City) Trained and graduated initially as a stage designer from The National School of Theater, Gutiérrez uses a range of media such as sound art and performance art to investigate how these conditions of everyday life set the stage for our experiences and in doing so shape our individual and collective identities. Approaching these questions from immigrants’ perspectives continues to be of special interest to Gutiérrez, who completed her MFA in Media and Performance Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and is currently elaborating the academic dimension of her work. Accordingly, these techniques also constitute the core of the pedagogical practice Gutiérrez has developed over a decade of teaching in diverse settings.