Three Structures Touching: An Immersive One-Day Sound Installation

In this one-day immersive sound installation as part of Danish artist Maj Hasager’s solo exhibition Three Structures Touching, the composition by Ask Kaereby unfolds as an investigation of space, sound, and place—where community engagement is the starting point. The composition consists of sounds from the local surroundings in the 90404 area of Santa Monica, and some of the sound material was collected by ‘local ears’: members of the Santa Monica Youth Orchestra (SMYO) who recorded sounds in their neighborhood and later interpreted them through their acoustic instruments. These sounds will undergo severe processing so that new expressions and moods emerge, expanding our notions of time and space. The new experimental composition will be premiered as a one-day immersive spatial audio speaker set-up. Visitors are welcome to come experience the immersive soundscape on site at 18th Street’s Airport Campus throughout the afternoon of September 11 from 1-5 PM, and then view the exhibition in the Propeller Gallery.
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ABOUT THE ARTIST
Maj Hasager is a Danish artist based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Her work deals with power structures, identity, memory, architecture, and the construction of history, looking at how these interlinked phenomena are interpreted and represented culturally and spatially. Her artistic approach is research based and she works predominantly with text, sound, video, and photography. Hasager uses oral history interview techniques as a method for accumulating and creating narratives that address personal stories in a sociopolitical context.
Her work has been exhibited internationally in events and at institutions such as Lunds Konsthall; Fondazione Pastificio Cerere, Rome; Critical Distance, Toronto; GL STRAND, Copenhagen; Moderna Museet, Malmö; Cleveland Institute of Art; Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art, Gdańsk; Liverpool Biennial. Since 2011 she has been the Programme Director of Critical & Pedagogical Studies at Malmö Art Academy (SE). She studied photography and fine art in Denmark, Sweden, and the UK, earning an MFA from Malmö Art Academy, Sweden.
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Ask Kaereby is a Danish composer based in Copenhagen, Denmark. His artistic practice is interdisciplinary and research-based, involving experimental composition, soundscapes and electroacoustic music. He’s interested in the presentation of narratives by means of sound – not through traditional musical gestures, but using different approaches such as musique concrète or the futurists’ brutism. By placing himself in an intersection between known formats, Kaereby wishes to challenge our ways of listening – to music (live as well as recorded), to our surroundings and to (sonic) art.
SUPPORT
The exhibition Three Structures Touching and related programming is generously supported by the Danish Arts Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and generous 18th Street Arts Center donors.