THE LIVING ARCHIVE
THE LIVING ARCHIVE
Embedded Files
During a 12-week residency led by Hong Kong Exile, eight artists were called to respond to the contents of the New Westminster Museum & Archives with original performance-based work. I created two pieces for the project using audio recordings I found while exploring the archives. These were interviews conducted in 2001 with elderly New Westminster residents, who recounted their life experiences and time growing up in the city.
Inevitable
Inevitable
Dance Score / 5:30 mins
Choreographed & commissioned by Megan Friesen
2015
While listening through the archival recordings, one voice in particular stood out to me: an interview with a woman named Jean Dorgan (1910-2008), who had been a nurse in the army during WWII. Her way of describing certain experiences was just so poignant and haunting.
"They couldn't speak, but their eyes were very eloquent.
There were piles of bodies there, and some of them were breathing.
You'd forgotten you could have certain things."
Performance History:
Virtual Soundscapes (April 2016)
Electroacoustic works curated by Barry Truax
West Coast Composers' Symposium (February 2016)
Megan Friesen & Tin Gamboa, dance
The Living Archive (November 2015)
Megan Friesen & Tin Gamboa, dance
Five Stories All At Once
Five Stories All At Once
Electroacoustic / 7 mins
5-channel speakers
2015
Using the audio interviews I sourced from the archives, I wanted to find a way to make these memories tangible and interactive. I placed 5 speakers evenly spaced in a circular formation, with each speaker representing a different New Westminster resident: Harry Person, Frank McKinnon, Stan Conway, Caroll Nepstad, and Jean Dorgan. The listener could then move freely around the space and choose to listen to a specific speaker, or stand in the centre and hear the cacophony of stories. After a certain amount of time, the vocal din suddenly ceases and all 5 speakers play in unison. The 5 voices speak in sequence, weaving bits and pieces of their stories together, highlighting some of their most affecting moments — a patchwork of lives lived.
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