Florasonic 25th Anniversary: Jenn Grossman, Ótal, & Regina Martinez with Mario V. Martinez
Description
ESS celebrates the 25th anniversary of Florasonic, its quadraphonic sound installation series in the Lincoln Park Conservatory Fern Room, with three newly commissioned works by Jenn Grossman, Oskar Thor Arngrimsson (Ótal), and Regina Martinez (selective listening) with Mario V. Martinez. Scroll down for work descriptions and artist bios.
Opening Reception: Aug. 23, 1–4pm
On view: Aug. 23 – Oct. 11
Wednesday-Sunday (subject to Conservatory calendar), works play on the following schedule:
10am, 12pm, 2pm – Jenn Grossman, LUCID
10:30am, 12:30pm, 2:30pm – Ótal, Byrkningar – Pteridophyte
11am, 1pm, 3pm – Regina Martinez with Mario V. Martinez, To preserve the sound of you
Lincoln Park Conservatory Fern Room
2391 N. Stockton Dr., Chicago
FREE and open to the public
Jenn Grossman
LUCID
LUCID, one of the meanings being “infused with light”, is a quadraphonic sound installation that considers the power of states of clarity, alertness, and transparency both in concept and form amidst a time of delusion, post-truth, and confusion. The soundscape will evoke the visceral experience of Lucid Dreaming, where one is sleeping, but is aware of the fact that they are dreaming. Through sounds that move us between conscious states and shift our orientation of the “real”, through a clearing out or a washing over: shimmering textures, watery washes, chimes, swirling synth-beds, low frequency swells and other-worldy ambiences inspired by the Fern Room, the composition brings us in and out of the misty haze into the state of a wakeful dream, into worlds between mind and space, a heightened, embodied sensory experience of the present moment.
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Jenn Grossman is an experimental composer, sound sculptor, and audiovisual artist based in Brooklyn, NY. She is concerned with the expansive psycho-spatial potentials of sensory media within a culture of commodification. Through transforming simple materials, media, and ephemera into affective, emotive, transportive vessels with through sound objects, multichannel installation, music composition, video or sound collage, it is important that the listener is taken into account, as she makes work that considers space, orientation and modes of listening. She’s held residencies/fellowships at I-Park Foundation, Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center, Reforesters Lab, presented audio works, compositions, papers and art installations at local and international venues and festivals such as the Black Mountain College Museum, the New York Transit Museum, the Museum of the Moving Image, the Megapolis Audio Festival, Cistern Dreams at the Deep Listening Institute, amongst many NYC venues and galleries like Roulette’s MATA festival in Brooklyn, Areté Gallery, MISE-EN_PLACE, Flux Factory, Lictundfire Gallery, SARC’s Sonic Lab, the Light Matter Film Festival, and the Re-embodied Sound Symposium at EMPAC amongst many others. She’s recently written compositions for live ensembles HYPERCUBE and ensemble l’itineraire and curates regularly for her group WISE: Women Innovating Sound Experience that features women/non-binary/queer artists working in experimental sound and new media technologies.
Ótal
Byrkningar – Pteridophyte
Using primarily a Buchla 200 system and field recordings, Ótal creates orbiting, slowly evolving textures and sustained harmonies for the ferns living in the Lincoln Park Conservatory. He considers the living ferns as both a special audience and a collaborator, as they bring their texture and humidity to the space. The piece is an exploration of listening, attention, and the possibility of experiencing plant life on a new frequency, as a consciousness next to you.
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Ótal is an Icelandic electronic musician currently based in Akron, Ohio. Using synthesizers and field recordings, he creates slow, textural works rooted in drone and minimalism. His music focuses on space, transformation, and deep listening, often drawing from both natural and industrial environments.
Regina Martinez with Mario V. Martinez
To preserve the sound of you
Regina, aka selective listening, thinks a lot about the sounds that have marked her existence. Semi-trucks along Interstate-44, interlaced with her father’s sleeping breath – memories reassembled and played back in unpredictable combinations. In commemoration of Florasonic’s 25th year, the artist envisioned a story guided by sounds that mark the Fern Room itself. The feeling of water. Varying footsteps. Soft air rubbing through leaves. Overhearing a mother say to her children: when everything burns, ferns are first to grow back.
To preserve the sound of you is an interior reflection of the textures and voices who come together within the Lincoln Park Conservatory. The many sensations we may encounter on a journey to the glasshouse, arranged and superimposed back into the room. It is a collaborative work with the artist’s brother Mario Martinez – multi-instrumentalist and member of archival record label Paradise Is a Frequency. Mario specializes in a soundworld that keeps us company while we wait—on hold, in elevators, over department store audio systems and behind video game menu screens. Music at the confluence of material and immaterial, accompanying our in-between moments, as present as breath.
Gratitude to: Experimental Sound Studio, Lincoln Park Conservatory staff Matthew Barrett, Sebastian Ritte, and especially Adriana Gonzalez and the Visitor Services team. Special thank you to the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Katherine Simóne Reynolds, Alejandro Ayala, Lori Mendoza, sophie lipman, Carlie Trosclair, Jared Brown, Lauren Williams, Kikù Hibino, isra rene, Maddie Le Cesne, joelle mercedes, A.J. McClenon, lareisa, Anth, mom, dad, Aly Camacho, & always elijah
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Regina Martinez experiences sound as records of our connections and departures. Her experiments draw from an archive of infinitely personal recordings she relates to as soundmarks: her family’s hands cleaning dried beans, the flap of our clothes outside on the line, the creak of the front gate to home. Each moment becomes its own instrument, its own layer of composition, and a washing and wringing out of memory meant to be overheard like a poem again and again. Often under the alias selective listening, her work evolves through vinyl dj sets, live performance and sound design for film and movement. She currently produces the show alluvia’s fluid for Chicago Public Media Institute’s Lumpen Radio.
About Florasonic
Florasonic was developed by Experimental Sound Studio and has commissioned 47 original works since 2001, making it one of the longest running ongoing sound installation programs in the U.S. For artists, Florasonic offers a valuable public platform to explore new compositional ideas, with financial backing and technical support from expert engineering staff. For the public, ESS and the Chicago Park District provide a unique opportunity to experience some of the most ambitious sound work being created today.
The 2026 Florasonic series is supported by the Paul M. Angell Foundation
ABOUT LINCOLN PARK CONSERVATORY
Designed both to showcase exotic plants and grow the thousands of plants needed for use in the parks, the Lincoln Park Conservatory offers visitors a tropical experience within its four display houses: Palm House, Fern Room, Orchid House and Show House, which is home to the annual flower shows. This historic facility continues to provide an escape to nature to the millions that live in and visit Chicago.