[Ohio-Talk] FW: Saturday June 18 audio exhibit tour at Urban Arts Space

[carolinekarbo at gmail.com]

Hi all,

Elizabeth Sammons is organizing this event in downtown Columbus, and wanted
to spread the word. I will be there!

***

Greetings, all!

Whoever heard of a nearly purely audio exhibition at a visual arts space?
Well, now we have one!  The new exhibition called "Religious Soundscapes" is
running now through July at Urban Arts Space, 50 West Town Street, east side
of the alley dividing east from west side of Lazarus Building downtown. I've
pasted in below an article detailing the content.  

At the opening, when I complimented the curators, they asked if I might have
interest in inviting other blind/VI community members for a more private
sound tour. Naturally I said yes. We've organized a dedicated tour for
Saturday 3:00 P.M. June 18.  Please email me 

IAmAntigone at att.net <mailto:IAmAntigone at att.net> 

If you have interest in this free opportunity. 

Please note, while this tour will be oriented to the blindness community,
anyone is welcome.

If you're ordering Mainstream, it's safe to book a 5:00 P.M. return trip. If
taking the bus, get off at State and High, head south one block to Town,
turn west, (right) and go to the alley going north (right,) follow the wall
and the door of Urban Arts will occur after about 100 feet. Or if you
call/text me 614.668.6705 or Urban Arts, 614.292.8861, someone can meet you
at the east or west State and High or Broad and High bus stop or the
northwest Town Street corner if needed. 

 

Best wishes, article below

Elizabeth

*** 

 

 
<https://click.t.osu.edu/?qs=bf4b68c50dc8c74913b21febb0e2a84077b5c9b65072355
6dbda5ec97d4f7669c86c52bdb2a455dc52931b3eb394ad9a491bf78a4d58efa610eb8870df2
89ce9> Eight-year study on the sound of religion culminates in interactive
auditory exhibit at Urban Arts Space

Religion and sound are tied together in evocative ways.

Church bells. Public proselytizing. Calls to prayer. Tantric chanting. What
does religion sound like, and how can we learn new truths about the
diversity of religion in the United States when we listen?

Isaac Weiner, associate professor in the
<https://comparativestudies.osu.edu/> Department of Comparative Studies at
Ohio State, has been probing these questions with the
<https://religioussounds.osu.edu/> American Religious Sounds Project (ARSP).
Through hundreds of field recordings nationwide that capture the sounds of
religion at places such as homes, churches, temples, public protests and
community events, the ARSP constructs a tangible sonic record that maps and
contextualizes religion in profound and innovative ways.

 

"Religion sounds different depending on the space where it's practiced,"
said Weiner, who co-founded and co-directs the ARSP with
<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/religiousstudies.msu.edu/faculty/amy-der
ogatis/__;!!KGKeukY!1XVTWAUoNjuKZjtYz4aQNXv5-RvbdAtPYrO2Z8SARs26-fkXajEtIKOX
NaPtdEcNLErGQPuYs4pGdXOIeJUtpCo$> Amy DeRogatis, chair and professor of
religion and American culture in the Department of Religious Studies at
Michigan State University. "Institutional spaces like churches, synagogues
and mosques might feature formal worship and formal liturgy. Homes and
domestic spaces are much more intimate and family-based. So, we organized
the exhibit not by discrete, bounded religious traditions, but by
commonalities across traditions based on the different spaces in which
religion is practiced. It's a wonderful insight into thinking about what
religion sounds like."

Co-curators Alison Furlong, ARSP project coordinator, and Lauren Pond, ARSP
content producer, as well as Vicki Brennan of the University of Vermont and
Ely Lyonblum of the University of Toronto, listened to hours of field
recordings and identified the importance of place as a central theme around
which to curate the exhibit.

"Religion Out Loud," a collage of institutional religious sounds as heard
outdoors, produced for the Religious Soundscapes exhibit by Alison Furlong
and Paul Kotheimer. 

The project includes over 100 recordings from central Ohio - from worship
music inside a Methodist church and a singing bowl circle at Whetstone Park
to ritualistic Buddhist chanting at a home in Worthington and a ceremonial
Druid invocation at ComFest in Goodale Park. Religious Soundscapes captures
the spatial, cultural and linguistic diversity of religion elucidated by the
ARSP and presents it to a broad audience. The exhibit also invites the
communities recorded, students who produced recordings, and colleagues and
scholars who collaborated on the project.

"When you pay attention to sound, it allows one to think about religious
practices in ways that get beyond texts and institutions," DeRogatis said.
"Tuning into this different sensation allows us to explore questions as big
and simple as 'What is religion and religious practice?' . It's a question
that really engages the public because people like to think about the sounds
of their own traditions, and they like to talk about how hearing sounds that
are not from their religious traditions affects them."

The ARSP team is also partnering with the Smithsonian Institution to create
a traveling exhibit that uses interactive posters to give users a visual and
auditory experience of religious life. Each poster includes a QR code, and
when scanned with a smartphone or tablet, viewers can listen to field
recordings associated with each poster. Community centers, libraries and
schools will be able to request printed copies of the posters from the
Smithsonian for free. Weiner said it is the first time the Smithsonian has
created a traveling poster exhibit that features a sound component.

 "The work Isaac and I have done has built bridges and has been an example
for these two institutions about how sharing resources and collaboration can
be done to the benefit of everyone," DeRogatis said.

For Weiner and DeRogatis, the Religious Soundscapes exhibition marks the end
of a long, fruitful journey that has redefined their approaches to
scholarship. Starting as a classroom exercise, the ARSP evolved into a
large-scale collaborative initiative that inspired spinoff research
projects, engaged community partners and informed new pedagogical
methodologies for religious studies.

"I look back and just express tremendous pride in all we've accomplished,"
Weiner said. "The actual products we've created, as well as the networks of
collaboration among faculty, students and community we fostered, this is a
moment to celebrate that work."