Project>Soundwave Proposal

For the 2010 Project>Soundwave Green Sound Festival, Shores would like to plan a performance that raises environmental consciousness both through the form of their music and the concept of aural and experiential interaction with nature. Our intention is to make the subconscious conscious, to foster awareness of the unique nexus natural settings create between consciousness and experience, especially when these are heightened and attuned through art, performance, and music.

In the first part of this project, the members of Shores and their artist collaborators make an excursion to two Bay Area shorelines, one which has been protected from environmental impact, versus another that has affected by pollution (e.g. the Suisun Bay Naval Boneyard, where decomposing naval vessels are threatening the local ecosystem). Shores and their artistic collaborators will film a short documentary about their experience of these environments, and the effects of pollution vs preservation upon the experience of the two. The purpose is not just to document the environments, but also to discuss how raising awareness can contribute to future prevention and preservation. For Shores, learning how to listen to nature is key to this awareness, and our intention is to use this experience to help hear each other and environmental music better, so that we can foster the same ability “To Listen” (the film’s title) in our music and for our audience.

In the second part of our project, we want to organize a performance on a shoreline in San Francisco that will begin with a screening of “To Listen”. After the audience has viewed the documentary short, Shores will perform a score which it is writing to film footage of shores at Sequoia Kings Canyon National park. This footage will be projected upon the band during the performance. The entire score will run around 25 minutes. Its three movements are titled “Reflection” (shot looking down on the water, reflecting the light above; note: these link to the videos, not the musical compositions, which are still being developed), “Refraction” (the same view, but shot inside the water refracted in the light), and “Coda” (shot looking over the water towards the shore). Shores conceives these three movements—experience, consciousness, and extension---as fundamental to the process of learning how to listen to Nature, how to open our electric selves and consciousness to the organic experience of an environment.

Shores believe that audience participation is essential to raising environmental consciousness. As an integrative, third element of our performance, one of our members will serve as a “conductor” for the audience during performance. The set will begin with the band performing alone, and then as it proceeds, the conductor will slowly distribute percussion and instruments to members of the audience, some of whom will have rehearsed the score with the band beforehand. The conductor will hand these out in waves, and guide each new member into the score, so that they become part of the sound, a “Shores Orchestra” as we call it. By the center of the set, our intention is to reach out to the entire audience and draw them into the performance, to make them participate in the act of listening to ourselves, nature, and the music. The band, in turn, will experience its sound and performance influenced by and in communication with the audience. As the set enters its coda, the conductor will re-gather the instruments he has passed out, so that the band can experience how its own sound has come to reflect the consciousness of the audience.

To power the show in an environmentally conscious way, and in keeping with the environmental responsibility inherent to a band directly inspired by, and attempting to reflect, the natural environment, our performance will be powered by batteries from cars and other vehicles left standing still on the day of the performance in order to share their electrical power. The batteries will then be recharged by our 1400w solar array before being returned. The automobile owners will be given the chance to experience a car-free day or two, and a direct positive return on the 'sacrifice' of not driving - in the form of our performance.