Center for Integrated Media Explores Sonic Possibilities in Latest Sound Project at JACCC

Sonic possibilities abound in Release: Heard in LA, the latest sound project presented by The Center for Integrated Media (CIM) at CalArts and its web-based curatorial initiative viralnet-v4.net. CIM will begin exhibiting the work virtually starting Wednesday, June 1, as well as a site-specific experience at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center (JACCC) in Los Angeles on Saturday, May 28. 

This collection of new audio works will be hosted from 10 am to 4 pm at JACCC’s James Irvine Japanese Garden, where viewers can listen by scanning from the assembly of QR codes printed on bamboo panels. CalArtians across disciplines collaborated on works developed from the “desire to expand the critical and conceptual understanding of sound as a countercultural alternative” to the contemporary mainstream. 

More about CIM’s latest project from the press release:

Release: Heard in LA encouraged the participating artists to invent new and personal projects that explored a full range of sonic possibilities, spanning spoken word, noise, electronics, acoustic and multi-instrumental compositions and improvisations.

The artists are current and former residents from the Los Angeles region, responding to the word “Release.” We chose the word “Release” as a play on the word for “dropping” a new recording, juxtaposed with the aspiration that we can be released from the restrictions of our current crises into a post-future consisting of meaningful networked relationships, ecological sustainability, and mutual socio-economic justice. However, the title and responses are not meant to be a direct correlation to the Covid-19 virus or other current issues––instead, the artists were asked to create works that were based on their personal interpretations of the word and as a means to interrupt our habitual patterns of listening.

Participating artists include DMA lecturers Alex Buck and Sam Wells, Jing Dong (Art MFA 21), Weilu Ge (Art-IM MFA 20), Brian Griffith (Music MFA 21), Tatum Howey (Critical Studies MFA 21), Kai-Luen Liang (Music MFA 20), Dongpu Ling, Shan Ni (Art MFA 21), Sara Sithi-Amnuai (Music MFA 19), and Provisional Collective (with Tyler Harper).

Release is the latest iteration of viralnet sound projects; past exhibitions include Imagining Tellus #28: Heard in LA (2017), Project Scream (2019), Dry Run (2012), and The Lament Project (2008). Another notable CIM project is the multimedia group art show Transitional Objects, which was also on view at JACCC’s George J. Doizaki Gallery in May 2021.