Mana Contemporary
Chicago, IL
2023
overhearings is a sound story originally created in Chicago for the restroom recesses of the Mana Contemporary building. Two of the city’s institutions, Monira Foundation and Experimental Sound Studio, commissioned the piece in response to lineages of Peregrine Falcons who have lived on the building’s structure for over two decades. The Chicago Peregrine Program monitors the falcons to better understand their proximity to the human-built environment. Bracelet banding of the lower legs enables scientists to study each bird’s lifespan and dispersal. The banding occurs when chicks are around 24 days old. They have reached full size and do not yet have their feathers to fly.
Habitat loss as well as the effects of the insecticide DDT, have led to the Peregrine’s decline and our subsequent recovery efforts. Environmental regulations eventually restricted pesticides like DDT, and humans have bred thousands of falcons in captivity to keep them from their endangered status.
Guided by an imagined conversation between two Peregrines, my grandmother and the wind - overhearings, for me, is a rendering of human-centered compassion, projection, and what it is to protect what we ourselves endanger.
Ucross, Wyoming
2024
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