Requiem: A White Wanderer

Luftwerk in collaboration with Katherine Young

January 31–February 2, 11am–6pm

Millennium Park, Jay Pritzker Pavilion * Free Admission

Requiem: A White Wanderer is an ongoing art and sound project by Chicago-based collaborative Luftwerk to inspire a robust public dialogue about climate change here in Chicago and beyond. Inspired by Larsen-C, a 120-mile long crack that ran along the Antarctic ice shelf and broke into a trillion-ton iceberg named A 68 in 2017, Requiem: A White Wanderer translates seismic data from this ailing iceberg into an emotional experience, connecting the public to the urgency of climate change. The source data is based on the seismic recordings made by Douglas MacAyeal, a world-renowned glaciologist based out of the University of Chicago. MacAyeal has recorded seismic data over a multi-year time period, observing the movement of iceberg B15 from its first cracking to its disintegration across the globe. Seismic data is a low frequency sonic signal, inaudible to the human ear, but it can be perceived and felt throughout the ocean system, traveling through trenches and the SOFAR channel from the Antarctic to Haiti and beyond.

Amplified from the latticed sound system of the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, the sound system will bring audiences into the way that aquatic animals might experience a calving iceberg, with the sounds of its disintegration reverberating throughout the ocean. Several Sound Walk tours will be presented throughout the weekend to give more guidance to the intricacies of the installation.

The installation is accompanied by two special concerts at 5pm and 7pm on Saturday, February 1. Over the course of 2019 as part of their Outer Ear Residency at Experimental Sound Studio, Luftwerk has been working in collaboration with composer Katherine Young to create a musical composition for orchestra and voice based on these sonic signals. This composition will premiere in two special concerts at 5pm and 7pm on Saturday, February 1. Illuminated sculptural objects will fill the stage's space with shadows and reflections creating a visual topography as if in a glacial landscape. Free registration for the concerts is recommended since seating is limited.

Requiem: White Wanderer is developed in partnership with Experimental Sound Studio and Natural Resource Defense Council and is presented by the Millennium Park Foundation in collaboration with the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events as part of the Year of Chicago Music.

PROGRAM SCHEDULE

FRIDAY, JANUARY 31

11am–6pm

Sound Installation
An immersive sound installation amplified from the latticed Jay Pritzker Pavilion sound system will bring audiences into the way that aquatic animals might experience a calving iceberg, with the sounds of its disintegration reverberating throughout the ocean.

12:15pm

Sound Walk with Giovanni Aloi - Art Historian and Professor, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

In a 20-30 minute guided listening experience around the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Experimental Sound Studio will offer sonic guidance for listening closely to the intricacies of the installation.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1

11am–6pm

Sound Installation

An immersive sound installation amplified from the latticed Jay Pritzker Pavilion sound system will bring audiences into the way that aquatic animals might experience a calving iceberg, with the sounds of its disintegration reverberating throughout the ocean.

4pm

Family-Oriented Sound Walk with Johanna Brock - violinist, improviser, and composer

In a 20-30 minute guided listening experience around the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Johanna Brock will offer sonic guidance for listening closely to the intricacies of the installation. Johanna Brock is a Chicago based violinist, improviser, and composer. Her work fuses orchestral training with a love for synthesizers, house music, and ragtime. "Blending elements of pop, electronic, jazz and classical music with rhythms and melodies that seem other worldly, Brock has established herself as a truly dynamic force capable of realizing nearly any sonic vision” (Midwest Action).

5pm

Family-Oriented Concert on the Jay Pritzker Stage.

Registration recommended at http://bit.ly/whitewanderer

A family-oriented musical performance; preceded by a soundwalk at 4pm around the Jay Pritzker Pavilion lawn.

7pm

Concert on the Jay Pritzker Stage.

Registration recommended at http://bit.ly/whitewanderer

An all-ages musical performance and panel discussion with the artists and collaborators moderated by Kari Lydersen, Chicago-based reporter, author, and lecturer in the journalism graduate program at Northwestern University; program followed by a soundwalk at 8pm around the Jay Pritzker Pavilion lawn.

Both the 5pm and 7pm performances feature the following musicians: MYRA HINRICHS (violin); MIN PARK (violin); ALEXANDER ELLSWORTH (cello); LIA KOHL (cello) ; ANTON HATWICH (bass); JENNA LYLE (vocals); RYAN PACKARD (percussion).

8pm

Sound Walk with Douglas MacAyeal - Glaciology Expert and Professor, University of Chicago

In a 20-30 minute guided listening experience around the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Experimental Sound Studio will offer sonic guidance for listening closely to the intricacies of the installation.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 2

11am–6pm

Sound Installation
An immersive sound installation amplified from the latticed Jay Pritzker Pavilion sound system will bring audiences into the way that aquatic animals might experience a calving iceberg, with the sounds of its disintegration reverberating throughout the ocean.

Noon

Sound Walk with Sonal Aggarwal - Artist , Comedian, and Performer
In a 20-30 minute guided listening experience around the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, Experimental Sound Studio will offer sonic guidance for listening closely to the intricacies of the installation.

ABOUT LUFTWERK

Luftwerk, the artistic collaboration of Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero, explores light, color, and sound in immersive, experience-based installations. Focused on the context of a site, Luftwerk applies their own interpretive layer, integrating the physical structure, historical context, and embedded information into each piece. Using various modalities—projecting videos, casting shadows, creating custom sculpture—they integrate light into every project to explore its ephemeral and shifting nature. Since its founding in 2007, Luftwerk has amassed a significant body of work ranging from site-specific interventions at places like AT&T Plaza in Millennium Park, Garfield Park Conservatory, to iconic architecture by architects including Renzo Piano, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, to experimental projects that interpret data sourced from Antarctica, like White Wanderer. 

www.luftwerk.net

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