Accessibility Mixes by Travis Johns

“At the end of 2020, at the height of one phase of Covid hysteria, I was commissioned by Antonieta Sibaja, then acting director of MADC, the Costa Rican national museum of art and design to create a series of sound design pieces for an upcoming exhibition. Entitled Horizonte Espinoso and curated by Gabriela Saenz Shelby and Sofia Vindas Solano, the show addressed work of uncertainty and vulnerability, as well as resistance and demonstrations of forceful ways of survival in the face of crisis – an apt topic considering the overarching narrative of the past two years. Accompanying these themes was a necessity for reflection on the role of Costa Rican contemporary art on a multilateral stage, bringing into light the role of art in crisis on both a national and international stage – especially as that particular stage is reinvented as an online platform, open to anyone with access to a web browser.

In the name of inclusivity and a desire to reach a diverse and differently-abled audience, select pieces in the exhibition were asked to be translated into sound pieces to allow low vision individuals to interpret and experience the exhibit in an online format. Tasked with interpreting two pieces, duration 2-20 minutes, I chose the works Vigilia En Pie de Muerte by Rafael Otton Solis and Serie Negra by Alverto Hernandez. For Vigilia, I used processed field recordings from Playa Montezuma, Puntarenas, Costa Rica and homebuilt analog electronic instruments. For Serie Negra, I also used processed field recordings, this time of the mechanical ambience of cross-county Amtrak trains as well as just-intoned digital synthesizers and homebuilt analog instruments. The exhibition itself took place from January 22 until April 30, 2021.”

– Travis Johns

Documentation of the exhibition itself can be found here: http://madc.cr/es/expo/horizonte-espinoso

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