Created by
Janie Geiser, John Eagle, & Cassia Streb
with Hsuan-Kuang Hsieh
Performed by
Sound House Ensemble Cast
Mail Art by
about the art
This month we present Sound House, a sound film and visual art pairing inspired by the technicians who maintain immediate launch readiness of 400 Minuteman III missiles positioned throughout the Great Plains of the US.
In the sound film, Sound House (everyone is working), tasks such as checking guidance systems and repairing security systems are replaced by sonic tasks: brick laying, improvised live-feed video, manipulating two Bunraku-like puppets, and arranging eight modular sound walls. The puppets and performers fill their time memorizing instructions, practicing launch procedures, playing games, reading, and napping, which creates an effect of tending and focused activity. Meaning emerges through accumulation, concurrence, and patient observation.
The mail art was created by Miguel Ayala, a multimedia artist and puppeteer who also performed in two different versions of Sound House (everyone is working). Miguel’s painting, Clockwork weather report, is a collage of acrylic paint, house paint, gesso, color/pencil, pastel, embossing ink, and matte mod podge that mirrors the layers of activity in the sound film. While the film is naturally time-based and linear, Miguel’s piece captures the busy layers of Sound House in a single image.