In July 2022, Jack Straw and Arts and Visually Impaired Audiences (AVIA) presented “A Day at the Forts,” an accessible art workshop at Jack Straw in conjunction with Perri Lynch Howard‘s On Our Watch, a sound and video installation about the decaying fortifications of the Harbor Defenses of Puget Sound.

Participants experienced Perri’s work in the New Media Gallery with an audio description by Jesse Minkert of Arts and Visually Impaired Audiences. After exploring Perri’s installation and hearing her talk about her process and inspiration, participants learned about the world of foley recording in the Jack Straw studios with Perri and Jack Straw engineer Daniel Guenther. Participants explored the sounds of various objects and listened to the results of recordings they had made with both microphones and hydrophones. Next, they recorded short vocal phrases inspired by On Our Watch. In the final step, students’ foley and voice recordings were blended together to create an original soundscape.

Listen: On Our Watch Gallery Workshop soundscape

 

 

This program was made possible with support from the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, 4Culture/King County Lodging Tax, Washington State Arts Commission, National Endowment for the Arts, Washington State Department of Services for the Blind, and individual contributors.

This program was provided in part under a contract with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Artists