Aural Architecture
2021-2024 | single channel video, joint stereo audio
Jay Afrisando is a composer, a multimedia artist, a researcher, an educator, and an Assistant Professor of Music at University of California, Santa Cruz. Jay is interested in the topics of aural diversity, disability and the arts, access as a source of creativity, acoustic ecology, cultural identity, and the practice of decolonizing the arts. He presents his interests through a variety of methods and media, including video, text, spatial audio, mixed media, improvisation, multisensory and interdisciplinary practices, and various collaborative methods.
His works have been displayed at various international institutions, including UCSC Institute of the Arts and Sciences (US), Indexical (US), Curb Appeal Gallery (US), Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum (US), Walker Art Center (US), ARGOS Center for Audiovisual Arts (BE), Attenborough Arts Center (UK), Fridman Gallery (US), Stanford University CCRMA (US).
Jay Afrisando is an Indonesian composer and a multimedia artist who is currently also an Assistant Professor of Music at the University of California, Santa Cruz, United States. His practice focuses on aural diversity, which is manifested in anti-disciplinary works that emphasize inclusivity, accessibility, and disability art.
Based on his research, Aural Architecture was conceived to illustrate the perspective of an individual's understanding of sound, and to question:
Is it true that only hearing people can "listen"?
Does "sound" only come from "objects" outside us?
Do we realize that "sound" and "listening" are comprehensive sensory experiences?
Do we understand that the concept of "sound" is not single and absolute?
Aural Architecture displays a sound experience that originates from within the mind, then communicated through gestures and vocals. This sound experience (aural gestalt) can represent the real world and human imagination through multi-sensory and subjective modes of expression. This works is also a sign of the realization of the prediction of an inclusive environment in music and sound arts through knowledge and awareness that each person has different hearing conditions and diverse sound perspectives. Thus, access to diverse sound experiences is important.
Aural Architecture was inspired by a workshop by an architect, Jeffrey Mansfield, who investigated how "pure" sign language-which recreates the sensation of sound-allows us to hear visually.
Artist:
Jay Afrisando (conceptor, componist, film editor, and recording, mixing, and mastering designer)Eli
Collaborators:
Jamil Haque (signer) and Gelsey Bell (vocalist)
Production team:
Terry Perdanawati (production manager), Arif Angga (camera operator), and Cahya Haniva (camera assistant)
Year:
2022 (English captions)
2024 (with Indonesian translations)
Sign language recorded at
Sign Language Center, New York City, NY, 17 December 2021.
Vocal recorded at
Harvestworks Audio Studio, New York City, NY, 18 December 2021.
This artwork production is supported by Jerome Foundation through Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship 2021-22.
Showcasing this artwork to ARTJOG 2024 is supported by University of California, Santa Cruz.