Experimental Sound Studio

JULIA MILLER: leave(leaf)/believe: A Meditation on the Complex Intersection between Emotions, Reason, and Faith

May 9 – August 31, 2009
Opening reception: Saturday, May 9, 3-5pm

When entering the Fern Room of the Lincoln Park Conservatory, you hear leave(leaf)/believe: A Meditation on the Complex Intersection between Emotions, Reason, and Faith—a sound work by Chicago composer Julia Miller, and the next installation in ESS’s ongoing Florasonic series. The composition is an amalgamation of words, voice and electronic sounds.

Miller began the auditory project with text; she combined names of common weeds with other poetic language, then used a mathematical text organization method called mesostics—a system developed by the American composer John Cage—to extract words, phrases and syllables. Then, through various types of sound synthesis, she created accompanying “pitch clouds” that are produced in specific locations throughout the Fern Room by means of four-channel playback. These electronic sound compositions are like shifting fields in which the transformed words float and interact, evoking complex emotional and metaphysical experiences.

Lincoln Park Conservatory
2391 N. Stockton Dr
Open daily 9am - 5pm
Free