Downtown Gazette

8.16.2004

Outdoor Sound

Walk Exhibits Artful Noise

By Steve Irsay

The East Village Arts District will be a little noisier than usual this Saturday night.

The portion of the district bounded by Broadway, Elm Avenue, Ocean Boulevard and Atlantic Avenue, will host the first ever SoundWalk, a self-guided walking tour of sound art installations.

It is a chance for the district itself, which has several small and improvised exhibit spaces, to be a large gallery without walls for the night, organizers said.

“What we wanted to say was we don’t really need large spaces — although we’d like them — but since we don’t have them, we can’t abandon the idea of an arts district,” said Kamran Assadi, a member of the artist group FLOOD that is producing the event and a co-owner of the downtown restaurant Utopia. “That is how we decided to use the streets and alleys and non-conventional venues to produce quality work.”

The medium of sound art was appealing because it is inexpensive to produce, does not require a set space and lets artists explore high-tech opportunities, Assadi added.

More than 30 artists from Los Angeles and Orange counties will be embedding sound exhibits “in all sorts of nooks and crannies,” said Shelley RuggThorp, a member of FLOOD and a co-director of Koo’s Art Center.

Those spots will be detailed on a map available at Koo’s, said RuggThorp, adding that the SoundWalk event may shed some light on the medium of sound art, which is arguably not as well-known as more traditional art forms like painting.

“It brings all of these people who quietly work on their process together in a large group so the impact of the art form is a little greater,” she said. “And bringing the art to the streets is a great way to introduce people who would not normally see this stuff.”

The exhibits will be diverse, RuggThorp promised, with some artists sampling environmental sounds for an abstract effect while others will use voices to tell a story. There will be some performance art and other exhibits will use natural street sounds, such as a passing car, to trigger something visual.

During the planning process the artists took a tour of the eventual SoundWalk site in an effort to make some installations “site specific,” RuggThorp said. For example, one artist selected a spot near a dumpster for a piece about the plight of American farmers, the idea being that the farmers themselves are being thrown away, she said.

Other locations will include various street corners, the tree in front of Koo’s, a community garden and even a room in a nearby motel.

RuggThorp said the unique installations intermingling with the sounds of the city should make for a very interesting experience.

“Whatever sounds might happen naturally will be fused with the artists’ work you are experiencing,” she said. “It should be very surprising and be a fun adventure for people to go on.”

SoundWalk 2004 takes place Saturday from 6 to 10 p.m. Maps are available at Koo’s (540 E. Broadway). Koo’s will host an opening reception from 5 to 6 p.m. and a closing from 10 to 11 p.m. Admission is free. For more information visit www.soundwalk.org.