Sara Bouchard: Forest for the Trees
August 22–September 22, 2023
Reception: 5–8pm Friday, September 1
Performances: 4pm Sat. Sept. 16 & 5pm Fri. Sept. 22 (details below)
VCUarts and The Anderson are pleased to present Forest for the Trees from Sara Bouchard, recipient of the 2023 Excellence in Adjunct Research Award.
Forest for the Trees is a sound environment which responds in real time to sensors placed in the trees outside the Anderson. Tree branch movement triggers sonic shifts inside the gallery, where audio samples of organic matter are amplified through wood and found materials suspended in space. As the piece evolves, tension arises between equilibrium and disruption while shifts in scale emphasize the rift between human and arboreal perspectives and the precariousness of our position amidst the current climate crisis.
In a nod to David Tudor’s seminal sound installation Rainforest IV (1973), Bouchard has attached transducers, which convey sound through vibration, to hanging objects in the gallery. In this case, the objects and sounds consist almost entirely of fallen tree matter which the artist collected locally. Outside the Anderson, vine-like extension cords snake into the trees, powering two Arduino microcontrollers in the branches. Each Arduino collects data about its spatial orientation at a rate of 10 times per second from an onboard accelerometer and transmits this data over WiFi to the computer in the gallery. Using the software Sonic Pi, Bouchard has written computer code to trigger audio samples at different volumes, durations and playback speeds based on the incoming data. More tree motion, caused by wind, will create a denser sound in the gallery while less motion will create a sparser environment.
Besides exploring creative coding and sound technologies, Bouchard in her current practice pursues scientific discussion and collaboration with local ecologists. While she has sonified existing environmental data in previous works, Forest for the Trees began with the hope that using her own sensors to capture raw data would increase the scientific value of her artistic work. Ironically, the piece collects an enormous amount of data from a tiny sample without permanently logging the information, thus contributing very little to the scientific community. Furthermore, Bouchard questions whether the work is in fact “for the trees” as the title suggests or simply another example of human exploitation of nature. In titling the work thus, Bouchard acknowledges the dubious nature of these ineptitudes while commenting on the insufficient action of governmental policies to fight climate change: being unable to “see the forest for the trees.”
Performances
Performances are free and open to the public.
4pm Sat. Sept. 16 – Performance by Alan Biller and Sara Bouchard: guitar, effects, loops, voice and live coding
5pm Fri. Sept. 22 – Closing Performance by Kinetic Imaging MFA students and alumni Chrystine Rayburn, Lindsey Arturo, Kaitlyn Paston and Yvonne LeBien: bass clarinet, natural materials, voice, movement and more
Sara Bouchard (b. Stockton, CA) is a multidisciplinary artist and composer who uses sound, installation, works on paper and performance to interweave song, history and the landscape. She is currently based in Richmond, VA, where she teaches at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in the Department of Kinetic Imaging.
Sara received her BA in painting from Yale University in 2003. She was subsequently based in Brooklyn, NY, for 13 years where she embedded herself in her local community through socially engaged art practices and American roots music. In 2017 she relocated to Richmond, VA, to study with sound artist Stephen Vitiello, receiving her MFA from VCUarts in 2019. Sara has exhibited internationally, including at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum (CT), The Center for Book Arts (NYC), the ERES Foundation (Munich, Germany) and InLight Richmond (VA). She has performed extensively, including at The International Conference for Live Coding (Utrecht, Netherlands), The American Folk Art Museum (NYC) and numerous festivals. Her work is in a growing number of public collections, including the Princeton University Library (NJ) and the University of Richmond Library (VA).