Synthetic Forest, 2023

Synthetic Forest was an installation and a live performance I created with Andrei Jay during an artist residency at Coaxial Arts in Los Angeles.

The concept was inspired by the time we spent camping in national forests during our five-month road trip across the US. Throughout our travels, we made video and sound recordings in nature, which we sampled and remixed in the performance. At Coaxial, we created an environment that combined materials from the natural landscape with the synthetic elements of our electronic sound and video processing techniques. We used real and synthetic plants and moss, chalk on the floor, overhead projectors, CRT screens, and a fog machine.

Andrei performed live video using a combination of liquid light show techniques, camera feedback, footage from our travels, and gravity_waaaves, a video processor/frame buffer device they created.

I performed quadraphonic sound with field recording samples, a foley box containing dried leaves, bells, a kalimba and an AM radio, synths, and granular and spatial processing. It was my first time performing in quad to create an immersive sonic landscape.