A Fragile Balance

I work mainly as a composer/sound designer. I collect sounds from location recordings and process them in different ways. I work with various Electro-Acoustic and Acousmatic techniques.

 

I am pulled to the unusual, the unobserved, the discarded. Examining and sometimes challenging given notions of memory. My work is centred around my experience of being a Latin American (Chilean)political exile living and working in the diaspora.

 

Using video, capturing simple minimalistic scenes, trying to evoke an Impressionist like aesthetic. To give a dream-like quality to things we might hear and observe/ignore daily. My goal is to fuse these two practices. So that video and image are interwoven with sound/music.

 

My goal is to quietly establish different ways of listening and seeing. To linger on images and sounds as on a canvas. To stretch a conception of time and question notions of narrative and linearity.

 

Having visited the Hamilton Archives at the Hamilton Central Library I discovered a long history of attempted revitalizations of Barton St. The renewal that is happening now has been awaited for a long time. Since the 80s artists have tried to settle in the street and create hubs. The provincial government in the 90s allocated 10 million dollars to remake the street into an artist community but the funding was cut by the Mike Harris government. There have been many attempts at renewal and what is happening now is perhaps more feasible and realistic but still very fragile. There are many at risk people living in store fronts apartments and surrounding streets. Where will they go? In my opinion streets and neighbourhoods are most interesting when they are a mixed community. With different incomes, backgrounds etc.