I am a percussionist and sound artist making extensive use of field recordings in developing hybrid soundscapes based in "sensory ethnography," a concept describing the investigation of a site, situation, or cultural moment via direct observation and recounting of sight and sound, rather than scholarly explication. My art tends to be slow-moving, interested in the minutiae of detail in sound and image, and uses recordings taken within these loci of investigation to engage topics of memory and immediacy within our current times of climate and political change.

Over two harrowing weeks in January 2025, I made an archive of backyard field recordings during the fires in Los Angeles: the wind gusts approaching 100 miles per hour; a tree falling near my house and its subsequent rattling in the wind; the omnipresent rescue helicopters; and capturing a real-time event marking the inexorable future of climate change in my home. A second societal fire remains burning within our city.

I propose a 10-minute sound collage based on these recordings, using small percussion and natural objects as sound makers, and a bespoke playback system consisting of small speaker elements hidden within the acoustic sound objects.