BETWEEN SOUNDS AND GROUNDS
For the last few years, Olivia Valentine, an associate professor of art and visual culture at Iowa State University, has collaborated with composer Paula Matthusen to explore the relationships between space, time, music and textiles through an innovative project known as Between Systems and Grounds. Valentine’s “instrument” of choice in this groundbreaking collaboration: a weaving loom.
To bring this unusual collaboration to life, the two artists work in the same room or connect virtually. Matthusen creates an electronic soundscape that influences Valentine, who sits at a loom and weaves together intricately designed fabrics. As the fabric grows and takes shape, it inspires the decisions Matthusen makes in creating the audio component of the project. The loom doesn’t make sounds traditionally associated with music, but the complex fabric it produces helps to shape the music, nonetheless, making the loom something akin to a musical instrument.
It’s an experiment that illuminates some of the surprising commonalities between music and textiles and weaves the two disciplines together, Valentine said................
To bring this unusual collaboration to life, the two artists work in the same room or connect virtually. Matthusen creates an electronic soundscape that influences Valentine, who sits at a loom and weaves together intricately designed fabrics. As the fabric grows and takes shape, it inspires the decisions Matthusen makes in creating the audio component of the project. The loom doesn’t make sounds traditionally associated with music, but the complex fabric it produces helps to shape the music, nonetheless, making the loom something akin to a musical instrument.
It’s an experiment that illuminates some of the surprising commonalities between music and textiles and weaves the two disciplines together, Valentine said................
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