City Partners with CalArts for Unique “Sound Works” Art Experience

“Dry Run,” a new temporary public art experience from the City of Santa Clarita and the California Institute of the Arts Center for Integrated Media, will be up from April 7 to September 7, 2016 along the pedestrian and bike path between the Valencia Boulevard and McBean Parkway Bridges.
The exhibit is designed to re-imagine the landscape through sound. Six Southern California artists created new original sound works that comment poetically on the state’s ongoing shortage of water. The authors’ voices are played back from digital audio files through custom-made sound modules created by the California Institute of the Arts Center for Integrated Media’s faculty, students and visiting artists.
The six sound-art modules take the form of interactive playback devices. The modules are similar to music boxes and are suspended from six poles along the SouthFork Trail. Passersby can engage with the modules by standing underneath the speakers.
Modeled after “Stroll”, a previous public artwork for the City and produced by CalArts in 2012, “Dry Run” is a poetic sound installation that responds to and explores the possibilities and contexts of the word “drought.” The texts generated from the authors are a varied and dynamic reflection on absence and the impact of scarcity on our lives.
“Dry Run” will feature the following sound works:
“Dirge (on drought)” by K. Bradford
“Dry Spell or there is something wrong with all that power” by Dan Bustillo
“How to Worship a River” by Neela Banerjee
“The Vessel” by Ebony Williams
“Drought Prayer Loop” by The Provisional Collective
“Circumstantial Conditions” by Jen Hofer
Other credits for the project include:
Module Design: Tom Jennings and Dave Mickey
Module Production: Tom Jennings
Audio Recording: Jacob Goldman and Rob Ray
Project Producers: K. Bradford and Tom Leeser
Production Management: Tyler Calkin
For more information about the “Dry Run” experience, please contact Jeff Barber, Santa Clarita Arts and Events Supervisor, at 661-250-3779 or jbarber@santa-clarita.com.