First time at the CCAM (Center for Collaborative Arts and Media) clubhouse in a brutalist enclave behind the Yale Rep Theater. The CCAM nerds have done it again bringing octogenarian soundscape sculptor Fontana in for an installation and Q and A. He spoke of his vast experiences recording the natural and human world. Commissioned by a wealthy patron to accessorize his Frisco area estate, Fontana buried 10 speaker systems around the property that pulsed various frequency loops of water bodies that he recorded around the world. Niagara Falls, the Nile et al had a subliminal audio effect to those strolling the grounds. Multiple microphone placements on buildings in the city of Cologne gave rise to a long form drone from the city piece. Synthesized fog horn bellows from SF bay. Magnified tree noises from a Sequoia forest. My favorite, positioning himself in an Australian rain forest in the 70s to witness a total eclipse away from people but in line with the eclipse path. He said that the bird call pattern went from the normal, seemingly call and response mode, to simultaneous squawks as the eclipse approached, to silence during the event, and then reversed order back to normal. The piece today was Silent Echoes: Notre Dame. To commemorate the fifth anniversary ( to the day) of the Notre Dame fires, Fontana’s piece had multiple large scale video loops of the views from the 10 refurbished bell towers of the historic cathedral. He recorded and amplified the activity of the bells as they responded to the din of the city. He said the bells acted like big sonic ears, the result was a bell drone loop that changed when one walked through the darkened studio room at CCAM viewing the vertigo inducing video. I chatted with Fontana and wife, asking him how he got permission to be in all of these places, “perseverance “ his wife chimed, seemed that she dealt with the administrative part of his work. Another fascinating endeavor sponsored by well connected undergraduate art theory kids.
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