Open House for Artists-in-Residence Caroline Partamian and Ethan Primason
Saturday February 29, 2020 2-5pm @ BoxoPROJECTS

As two artists with backgrounds in Music and Anthropology, Caroline Partamian and Ethan Primason work to explore the dimensionality of audio through the relationship between sound and space. Specifically, they are curious about the psychoacoustic properties and placeness of sound. Through their work, the artists explore concepts of architecture, transmission, acoustics, and ethnography through a creative and technological approach to audio.

Ethan and Caroline’s installation as part of their BoxoPROJECTS open studio is the culmination of a month long analysis of three sonic moments recorded in three different abandoned mines in Joshua Tree National Park. On a particularly windy day in February, the artists recorded the wind as it filled, passed through and revealed the architecture of three long abandoned man made caverns. One short audio recording from each mine was then meticulously analyzed, and reconstructed into a multi-channel immersive audio environment to reveal the complexities, relationships and layered acoustic properties that make up a brief sonic moment. Through their multisensory analysis of these moments, they built a series of speakers, fans, resonating metallic sheets, and visual representations of the physical waveforms. This is a work created through the process of constant reinterpretation – an attempt to intentionally witness, reflect, breakdown and rebuild the sonic character of place.

Caroline Partamian is a sound and visual artist influenced by her training in dance. She works closely with the concept of abreaction – the extraction of dormant memory stored within a muscle, resurfaced through physical movement, of which an individual was previously unaware; these memories span the spectrum and can take many forms – traumatic, erotic, comforting, etc. By focusing on the process rather than anticipated result, her work encourages what can be revealed when one becomes conscious of their kinetic movement in the process of creation. She has shown work at Marfa Open, Wassaic Project, Otion Front, Flux Factory, Anthology Film Archives, Babycastles, Compound Yucca Valley, and more.
Artist Website: www.carolinepartamian.com

Ethan Primason is a sound artist, recording engineer, and musician. His works and practices explore the multisensory context and placeness of audio. His works have been shown at Pioneer Works, Sargent’s Daughters, Marinaro Gallery, Zaha Hadid 520 W 28th street, Outpost Artist Resources, Wassaic Project, Clocktower Radio, Marfa Open, and WGXC Wavefarm.
Artist website: www.sonictransmissionarchive.com