[BCMA] RAIN Gatherers - Listen to the Sound of Rain

Wed Mar 20 16:40:26 PDT 2013

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden presents

The Rain Gatherers
Workshops and an exhibition of electronic art using rain water 
Exhibition: March 16 - April 14, 2013
by Second Site Collective (Diana Burgoyne, Don Chow, Peter Courtemanche,
Robin Ripley, Matt Smith and Lori Weidenhammer)

The Rain Gatherers is a multidisciplinary project that translates the many
aspects of rain. It consists of a rain lab, a birdsong choir, and an
exhibition of four outdoor electronic art installations that are
rain-sensitive. Built in a rainforest, Vancouver is often called the city of
rain. The trees are gone but the weather system remains. Within the Dr. Sun
Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, the rain creates a unique sense of poetry
and place. The Garden is surrounded by covered walkways that allow visitors
to stay dry. The roof of this walkway is made up of many "drip-tiles" that
collect and funnel rain water down to the edges of the roof, where they
create long beaded curtains of water droplets. Inspired by this special
architectural feature, artists create site-specific installations that offer
intersections of science, technology, art and nature. They also play with
concepts of rain collection, rain "switches" or sensors, and the idea of
collecting energy from individual rain drops. Audience members are invited
to experience and redefine the relationship between artworks, electronics
and the often chaotic outdoor environment. 

Schedule of Events

Workshops will be held on the following dates in the Hall of One Hundred
Rivers
Rain Lab and the Starling Cloud Choir: March 9, 10, 12, 13, 14 (please see
the "Event details" section)

Outdoor installations displayed in the Garden
March 16 to April 14, 2013

Opening Reception & the Starling Cloud Choir performance
Saturday, March 16, 2 - 4 pm

Artist Guided Tour + Talk
Saturday, March 23, 1:30 pm

Event Details

The Rain Lab invites members of the community to drop by, meet the artists,
and work with the ideas and technologies that will be used in the art
installations. Some parts of the artworks will be developed in this
collaborative environment. Diana Burgoyne, Peter Courtemanche, Robin Ripley,
and Matt Smith will be on-site at various times from March 9 - 14. They will
be installing work and doing mini-workshops with rain collection, "rain
power", rain sensors, and sound. 

*	The artists will be on site March 9, 10, 12, 13, and 14 for two
"drop in" sessions each day:
10:30am - noon and 1:30pm - 3pm

Lori Weidenhammer will be hosting community choir sessions for the Starling
Cloud Choir. Come and join in an improvisational choir creating the sounds
of bird calls and the rain fall.

*	Saturday March 9th from 2pm - 3:30pm
*	Sunday March 10th from 2pm - 3:30pm
*	Don Chow will join Lori for a "recording and remixing" session
Tuesday March 12th
from 1:30pm - 3pm

Opening Reception and Performance on March 16th.

.         On Saturday, March 16th the completed installations will be
revealed at 2 pm. At 3pm the community choir will perform the Starling Cloud
Choir, and following that Don Chow will do a performance using remixed
recordings of the choir and other "bird + rain" inspired soundtracks.

Tour + Artist Talk + Ideas Session on March 23rd

.         On Saturday, March 23rd at 1:30pm, "Group of X", a group of
Vancouver computer artists and thinkers, will facilitate an artist talk and
tour of the exhibition with artists Diana Burgoyne, Peter Courtemanche,
Robin Ripley, and Matt Smith. The plan with the Tour + Talk + Ideas Session
is to showcase the four installation artworks, talk about the inspiration
for using rain water, and then open up the discussion. 

About the Artists

Second Site collective is a group of artists (mostly from Vancouver, Canada)
who create and present electronic art (sound, kinetics, robotics, primal
circuitry, sculpture) in public spaces. The collective is particularly
interested in green spaces - parks, gardens, areas of urban agriculture,
beaches, and "urban wilderness". The art created by Second Site causes the
audience to do a "double take", transforming a familiar space into a
"meta-site" where art has created a heightened sensory experience. It causes
a sense of curiosity and enchantment in the viewer. A meta-site is a place
where one hears a set of sounds behind the expected sounds, where familiar
sites are remapped and re-inscribed with artistic inventions.

About the Artworks

The installations in the exhibition include: The Acoustics of Rain by Diana
Burgoyne, Drop = Blip = Clatter (Rain Stick) by Peter Courtemanche, Possible
Showers by Robin Ripley, and DroPlayer by Matt Smith. Lori Weidenhammer will
create "The Starling Cloud Choir" with improvisational sound work by Don
Chow.

Diana Burgoyne, The Acoustics of Rain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qK_erhrIx5w 

The Acoustics of Rain consists of ten audio recordings each using rain as
their source (rain dripping on metal as one example). Each recording will be
uploaded into an audio chip that will be activated by moisture, the sun
and/or the viewer. Some will stop when it rains while others might be
activated by the rain thereby creating a variety of acoustic experiences for
the viewers. The piece will re-position the sounds of rain, pulling them
from one time and place into another, thus causing the listener to stop and
think about both the sounds and process of rain.

Peter Courtemanche, Drop = Blip = Clatter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcpeTbiKDPI
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcpeTbiKDPI&list=UULVQLmXexKTyLmoCbf4N6Dg&in
dex=4> &list=UULVQLmXexKTyLmoCbf4N6Dg&index=4 

In order to break the paradigm of using massive energy systems to power
civilization, Peter invites the audience to think outside of the box and
imagine ways of integrating small-scale alternative energy sources into
daily lives. What would it be like to surround ourselves with low-powered
gadgets such as small lamps, transistor radios, and even laptops that were
powered by local sources of energy - the power of the sun or even the power
of a single rain drop.

Drop = Blip = Clatter is a five foot long piece of bamboo. Inside its hollow
chamber is an energy-harvesting device that collects energy from the sun and
the rain. When enough energy has been collected by the harvester, the device
starts to make noises with each rain drop that falls on its rain collector.

Robin Ripley, Possible Showers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwZ7w1CV03o
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwZ7w1CV03o&list=UULVQLmXexKTyLmoCbf4N6Dg&in
dex=1> &list=UULVQLmXexKTyLmoCbf4N6Dg&index=1 

The presence of rain defines Vancouver, yet we are often unaware of its
qualities and patterns. Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden, designed to heighten our
awareness of natures' rhythms, provides a suitable backdrop for
investigating our water cycle. Robin Ripley draws upon the Garden's
philosophy of harmony through the balance of opposites, installing a series
of rain/condensation traps, which illustrate both metaphoric and
quantitative aspects of gathering rain. To address possible microclimates,
digital and regular rain gauges as well as "cloud" condensation traps will
collect data from a variety of locations in the Garden. A visual diary of
the gathered information will evolve throughout the exhibition.

Working with collected rainwater and other mediums, Rain Lab participants
will have the opportunity to reconsider the qualities of precipitation while
creating their own rainwork.

 <http://firstfloor.org/~matt/> Matt Smith, DroPlayer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfzuffoAnDE 

DroPlayer is a sensing matrix suspended in the open, collecting drops of
rain and dew to generate a rhythmic composition in real-time from the
distribution and frequency of these drops. Water drops accumulate on a
simple sensing matrix, which is mapped to a grid of harmonic tones. The
tones as determined by the position of water drops on the physical matrix
are played back sequentially in a tempo generated by the frequency of drops
falling on the matrix. This generates wildly diverse compositions, depending
on the current conditions.

Lori Weidenhammer, The Starling Cloud Choir

This is a family-friendly workshop and performance where participants will
use their voice to make sound poetry in a group in a piece inspired by rain
and birdsong. Participants will be working with bird behaviour and the
mnemonics and phonetics of local bird song. 

This project is founded by through the Artists and Community Collaboration
Program at the Canada Council for the Arts.

Media contact: 
Debra Zhou, 604-662-3207 ext 209
 <mailto:communications at vancouverchinesegarden.com>
communications at vancouverchinesegarden.com
Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden
578 Carrall Street, Vancouver, BC, V6B 5K2
www.vancouverchinesegarden.com <http://www.vancouverchinesegarden.com/> 
Facebook: vancouverchinesegarden
<http://www.facebook.com/vancouverchinesegarden> 
Twitter: @vangarden <http://www.twitter.com/vangarden> 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------

Susan Ma

Education Manager

Dr

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden

578 Carrall Street 

Vancouver, BC  V6B 5K2

604-662-3207 ext. 205

 <http://www.vancouverchinesegarden.com/> www.vancouverchinesegarden.com

 <http://www.facebook.com/vancouverchinesegarden>
www.facebook.com/vancouverchinesegarden

 <http://www.twitter.com/vangarden> www.twitter.com/vangarden

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