Florasonic: Sarah Belle Reid

Description

Our long-time partnership with the Chicago Park District and Lincoln Park Conservatory continues with a new sight-specific sound installation by performer-composer, Sarah Belle Reid. Fresh off her Patchbent Sessions workshop, the evocative installation brings the artist’s unique vision to the public in a beautiful and contemplative setting.

Semblance of Fern
Oct 5-Nov 23: This program is free and open to the public.

Opening Reception:
Oct 5, 3pm – 5pm

Exhibition Hours:
Open daily
9am – 5pm

Semblance of Fern is an up-close exploration of the formal connections between mathematical models and nature. The artist began their journey of creating the work by studying Barnsley’s Fern, an algorithm first described by Dr. Michael Barnsley in 1988. The algorithm’s fern-like logic was then compared to the rich diversity of natural ferns: intricate spore patterns, fuzzy fiddleheads, tangled root systems. From these explorations, Reid imagined a series of “mutant ferns” by altering various aspects of Barnsley’s original fractal algorithm to generate fern-like images. The images suggest unfamiliar ecosystems and conditions, blurring the line between natural and invented growth.

To realize this piece, Reid collaborated with musician and electronic instrument designer Ryan Gaston. This instrument translates the Barnsley Fern and eight mutant variants into interwoven streams controlled with a digital modular synthesizer system of Gaston’s design. The device produces fern-inspired voltages that animate and spatialize the sounds you hear, moving them through the quadraphonic field—like organisms spreading and intertwining.


In realizing the piece, multiple simultaneous, self-sustaining virtual ferns interact with one another, altering rates of growth and state of mutation. Likewise, the composition also incorporates environmental data collected from two places: the Lincoln Park Conservatory itself, and the artist’s childhood home in Ontario, where ferns grow across the ancient rock of the Canadian Shield.

BIO

Sarah Belle Reid is a performer-composer who plays trumpet, modular synthesizer, and an ever-growing collection of handcrafted electronic instruments. Her unique musical voice explores the intersections between contemporary classical music, experimental and interactive electronics, visual arts, noise music, and improvisation. Often praised for her ability to transport audience members through vivid sonic adventures, Reid’s sonic palette has been described as ranging from “graceful” and “danceable” all the way to “silk-falling-through-space,” and “pit-full-of-centipedes” (San Francisco Classical Voice).

Reid holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from California Institute of the Arts, with a research focus on the development of new electronic instruments and musical notation systems as interfaces for exploring temporal perception and co-creation. Her debut album for trumpet and interactive electronics, “Underneath and Sonder,” was released on pfMENTUM in October, 2019. In March 2021, she released an electroacoustic EP titled “MASS”, featuring trumpet, voice, electronics, and amplified objects.

In addition to her performance and compositional work, Reid runs an online music education company dedicated to teaching sound synthesis and electroacoustic composition to professional and hobbyist musicians. She has mentored thousands of musicians from around the world in her online programs, and is a frequent guest lecturer at notable institutions in the US and Canada including Princeton University, Stanford University, University of Victoria, California Institute of the Arts, New York University (NYU), among others.