EAST LA REP/ Sonido Series presents
World Premiere of ORGAN OF CORTI
A vibratory sound installation by Alan Nakagawa
Saturday, September 21, 2013
5:00 PM to 10:00 PM
EAST LA REP
1350 San Pablo
Los Angeles CA 90033
Suggested donation $5 at the door
VIDEO SHORT DOCUMENTING THIS EVENT (click)
The event:
- World Premiere of Organ of Corti*
- Unveiling of five Sound Beds & two Sound Suits
- Organ of Corti LP Release Event
(photographs courtesy of Elon Schoenholz)
This is an audience participatory installation.
Balloons and ear plugs will be available at the door.
If you have your own ear plugs and/or balloon, please bring them.
Organ of Corti is the first full length vibratory sound work composed specifically for Sound Beds. Organ of Corti will be a sound art performance consisting of a live electro acoustic performance which will be amplified through a sound system including speakers inside each Sound Bed--a series of aluminum and wood bed like structures. The sound composition is designed to hear as well as feel the vibratory sound composition. The audience will experience frequencies, sound textures and vibrations in a uniquely intimate and transformative sound environment. Using a series of frequencies inspired by the work of 1930s scientist Royal Rife, Nakagawa will perform a sound work consisting of audible and sub-sonic tones in a combination of modulators, oscillators, effect boxes, and found objects, as well as my Iso Cube and field recordings. The audience will venture through the room wearing ear plugs and holding inflated balloons at their fingertips to feel the vibrations. They may also take turns laying on the bed-like structures, wearing the Sound Suits and listen as well as feel the tonal composition via the vibrating musical bed. It will be like laying on a cello. The goal is to present music in an inventive way and enjoy the tactility of sound.
ALAN NAKAGAWA is a sound artist and hyper-collagist based in Los Angeles. He combines sonic and subsonic frequencies inspired by the scientist Royal Rife with noise music and video montage. Nakagawa developed his main instrument, the Iso Cube, to isolate micro percussion and found objects. He plays objects in the Iso Cube and processes the sound through modulators, distortion effects and sound loops. He is currently developing vibratory music using Rife's frequency studies with interest in micro and sub-sonic tones.
He has presented his work at REDCAT, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Getty Center, Japanese American National Museum, Eternal Telethon, the wulf., Oogimachi Museum Square (Osaka), and La Panaderia (Mexico City). He curates the weekly experimental music webcast Ear Meal and co-founded the multi media arts collective Collage Ensemble Inc. Nakagawa is a recipient of the 2012 California Community Foundation Mid-Career Artist Fellowship, the Monbusho Scholarship and the Cultural Exchange International Grant through the City of LA Department of Cultural Affairs. He received his BFA from Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design and his MFA from UC Irvine, and researched stage design at Japan University School of Fine Arts in Tokyo.
In addition to his solo work, he is currently working with Ear Diorama Ear (Kaoru Mansour), Joseph Tepperman and the Southern California Soundscape Ensemble. More information: collagecollage.com
After seven years of being a theatre company, EAST LA REP transitioned into a creative center. The company went through a complete change, including, structure, logo, mission, vision and core values, but, the essence of the company, to support art, artists and the communities in and around East Los Angeles remained, and helped shape the new path. As a creative center, EAST LA REP was able to branch out into other disciplines and is steadily building an infrastructure that will support the new model and the programs, projects and events that stem from the creative center. East LA Rep is currently housed at the former Hazard Park Armory in partnership with social service organization, Legacy L.A.
This event is made possible in part by the California Community Foundation, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, DEW Foundation and USA Projects.
Thanks to Catasonic Studio, Infrasonic Sound, Bill Smith Custom Records, Stroughton Records, REDCAT, and laartstream.com.
Special thanks to Heidi Zeller, Michael Amescua, Greg Mena, Ironwood, Jason Saunders, Kim Abeles and Carl Stone.
*The organ of corti, found only in mammals, is part of the cochlea of the inner ear and is provided with hair cells or auditory sensory cells. [1] It evolved from the basilar papilla found in all tetrapods, except for a few derived species that have lost it.
The organ was named after the Italian anatomist Marquis Alfonso Giacomo Gaspare Corti (1822–1876), who conducted microscopic research of the mammalian auditory system.