About the Exhibition

ACOUSTIC RESONANCE presents sound as an artistic medium and tool of transformation in our culture today.

Anyone who has been to a rave or rock concert knows the visceral effects of sound can be all too palpable. In today’s urban landscapes we must sift through myriad overlapping soundscapes to navigate our way through contemporary life; our rural soundscape is punctuated by nearby highways and overhead cross-continental flights. John Cage’s 1952 work, 4'33'', famously sought to provoke listening on the part of the audience by making audible the real noisiness of silence.

Visual artists, like musicians, have used sound as a medium to shape and construct, and in so doing have sought to transform a viewer-listener’s experience. Sound travels through the air and our public spaces, and resonates in our bodies. It carries across neighborhoods and through fences - even at a distance it communicates our longings for each other and our desires for change. Sound can evoke memory, communicate across barriers, claim a space, or transform a city. ACOUSTIC RESONANCE foregrounds the power of sound to connect and transform us.

ACOUSTIC RESONANCE highlights the vital art and music intersections at Maine College of Art & Design, in particular the Bob Crewe Program in Art and Music at MECA&D. The exhibition will be accompanied by numerous public talks and sound art events.

Exhibiting artists include:

• Ryan Adams
• Raven Chacon
• John Fireman MFA '14
• Matt Joynt & Josh Rios & Anthony Romero
• Angel Nevarez & Valerie Tevere
• Andrea Ray
• Julianne Swartz
• Audra Wolowiec

ACOUSTIC RESONANCE is organized by Julie Poitras Santos, Director of Exhibitions, ICA at MECA&D, in collaboration with Steve Drown, Coordinator of the Bob Crewe Program in Art & Music, and supported in part by grants from the Crewe Foundation and the Onion Foundation.