Gardens: Scores In Bloom

Olivia Valenza's MFA Defence
Monday, November 8, 2021 | 12:30 PM | Zoom
RSVP to sca_gpa@sfu.ca

The garden is a living site of respite and reconstitution, and in my score-making I turn to the garden as an interlude that carries the potential to manifest shifts in modes of listening and to realize listening’s positionality. Falling down, gazing up - the 3 floors of a well-like atrium become a structural score in an installation inviting curiosity and reflection around sounding and hearing.

Three performances further explore scores as living sites using clarinets, electronics and found objects to dig deep into embodied sound that blooms in action nd a renewed sonic sensibility. Gardens: Scores in Bloom builds upon a foraging practice of improvisation, field recording, poetry, collaboration, and structure-borne sound to foreground the multivalent possibilities of a score.

Gardens features work created in long distance collaboration with two other artists; composer Jessi Harvey and composer/performer Margo Harms. Making scores together exploring place, memory and the humble potato.  

Keywords: gardening, score-making, improvisation, garden scores, collaboration.