Sustainable Sound Installations — Opening

About this event

Join us in a meeting place between sound and material, technology and nature, and waste and possibility. These reclaimed pieces of Douglas fir have arrived at UBC from Hope, British Columbia. Passed from hand to hand, we are finding new life within these slabs, together. Under the guidance of multi-talented musician and composer Giorgio Magnanensi, we have milled, planed, and then sanded the edges of the wood so the sound waves you will hear around you – a soundscape – can flow easily through the material. What once would have been abandoned as waste wood has become fully functioning “resonators.” Transforming unwanted material into creative new products is called upcycling. By journeying through this upcycling process, we have become a part of this wood’s history. By sharing in our resonating soundscape, you can too. Bringing together artists, engineers, designers, and researchers at UBC, this project gives discarded materials new public life. __ This exhibition and study were made possible by generous funding from the Public Humanities Hub at UBC, supporting the Systems Beings Lab. The project was carried out in coordination with the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability and the Faculties of Education, Forestry and Environmental Stewardship, Applied Science, and Land and Food Systems. Our aim is to explore how waste materials can become usable, public-facing art that can also tell educational stories about upcycling.