April 3-13, 1996

about...

April 3-13, 1996, the San Francisco Bay Area will host SoundCulture 96, the third transpacific festival of contemporary sound practices. It follows two highly successful SoundCulture events presented in Sydney in 1991 and Tokyo in 1993. Participants will include artists, researchers, cultural theorists, presenting organizations, academic institutions, and others working with sound. Events will include performances, exhibitions, symposia, radio transmissions, experimental and indigenous musics, and new media arts. As well, listening rooms will provide an opportunity to hear a wide variety of recorded sound works in an informal setting. SoundCulture 96 will bring together local and international sound practitioners of the Pacific to explore the varieties of culture that are perceived through our ears.

SoundCulture is the only festival of its kind to be held in the United States; no other art or music festival in this country has focused on the sonic arts with this kind of scope and format. Due to its ephemeral nature, sonic art work does not fit well into the structures that support the presentation and discussion of either visual art or music. While the influence of sound work can be found in everything from film to installation to the media arts, the form itself has not been accorded the kind of attention its influence warrants. SoundCulture's unique focus on this kind of activity presents an opportunity to expose experimental sound work well beyond Eurocentric cultural boundaries, and to demonstrate links, crosscurrents, and diversity in the sonic arts of the Pacific Region. history

SoundCulture was initiated by artists and arts organizers in Australia working with the Performance Space, the Listening Room at the Australia Broadcast Corporation, and the Sound Studies Program at the University of Technology-Sydney. A festival composed of exhibitions, performances, radio broadcasts, and symposia was held in October, 1991 under the name of Invisible Cities/Impossible Objects. Representatives from Japan, New Zealand, and the United States were invited to attend. Events included installations by Paul DeMarinis (USA), Minoru Sato (Japan), performances by Anna Sabiel (Australia), Rodney Berry (Australia), a sonic taxi ride through Sydney, and a piece by Alvin Curran (USA) for ship horns in Sydney Harbor.

This was followed in November, 1993 by the second festival, SoundCulture Japan '93, held in Tokyo. Events took place at several sites including Theatre X, Kiryu Yurin-kan, the Kawasaki City Museum, Art Forum Yanaka, and the Tokyo Bunka Kakikan. It included works by Mamoru Fujieda (Japan), Douglas Kahn and Frances Dyson (USA/Australia), Chris Mann (Australia), Phil Dadson (NZ), and Mineko Grimmer (Japan/USA).

SoundCulture 96 was made possiible possible through the support and participation of a large number of local and international institutions.

sponsors

host committee

credits

SoundCulture 96
Box 731
Oakland, CA 94604

(510)848-0124 x623
(510)430-3314 fax