Requiem: In Memoriam Twelve Recently Extinct Species – A Sound Installation by Steve Norton
REQUIEM: In Memoriam Twelve Recently Extinct Species
A Sound Installation by Steve Norton
Thursday, April 22–Sunday April 25, 2021
Goethe-Institut Boston
170 Beacon Street
Boston, MA
Visitors will be admitted into the exhibition in small groups and are required to wear a mask and social distance at all times.
Opening hours:
Thursday (Earth Day), April 22, 3-5 pm & 5:30-7 pm - with the artist
Friday, April 23, 6-8 pm
Saturday, April 24, 3-5 pm - with the artist
Sunday, April 25, 12-2 pm
Steve Norton’s Requiem is a work of acoustic ecology composed using the sounds made by ten bird species and two frog species that are now extinct. Norton was able to use their sounds to create Requiem because these vanished birds and amphibians went extinct during the era of recorded sound.
In each case, humans were to blame for their extinction. Requiem reminds us that the soundscape — the natural noises and sounds that make up our environment — is irrevocably altered when species become extinct.
About the artist
Steve Norton is a sound artist and musician. His artistic research examines electroacoustic music, improvisation as a method, the environment, modernity and society.
Steve’s practice is currently focused on the gathering of field-recorded sound which he utilizes in electroacoustic composition as well as in performative, improvisational contexts. His interest is to increasingly bring the outside world into his work via field recording and topical decisions which engage issues of critical concern. This is exemplified by his recent work, Requiem, a four-channel sound composition on the topic of extinction, created using the voices of recently-extinct birds and frogs.
Steve has been exhibiting, composing, and performing around the United States and Canada for over 30 years, and has over 30 recorded releases to his credit. He holds an MFA in Intermedia from the University of Maine.
Presented by the Goethe-Institut in collaboration with Non-Event
