In Motion, Like Sculpture
is a gallery soundwalk journal with projected images and sounds from the installation, and spoken words by Westerkamp, McCartney and others about soundwalking, nature and technology.

Moments of Laughter
by Hildegard Westerkamp
Moments of Laughter is dedicated to my daughter Sonja whose voice forms the basis for this piece. Her voice has accompanied mine for many years now and has brought me in touch with an openness of perception, uninhibited expressiveness and physical presence that I had long forgotten.

I have made recordings of her voice since she was born and from the age of four on, she has made her own recordings of stories and songs. Moments of Laughter utilizes these for the tape portion of the piece, tracing musically/acoustically the emergence of the infant's voice from the oceanic state of the womb: from the soundmakings of the baby to the song and language of the child. According to Julia Kristeva, moments of laughter are those moments in infancy and early childhood in which the baby recognizes the "other" as distinct from the "self". They are the first creative moments that speak of recognition of self and place. The child expresses these moments with laughter.

A live female voice interacts with the tape, performing live. It tries to find its own language and music on the one hand, and imitates, reacts to, and plays with the child's voice on tape on the other hand. It moves through a variety of characters in search of a confident, strong voice. Moments of Laughter explores the edge between the "wilderness" of the child's voice and the cultural formations of the female voice.

Hildegard Westerkamp

Coiled Chalk Circle
Andra McCartney

In the old stories, a wise judge calls for each of the parents who claim the child to take an arm and pull. When one lets go, the judge declares that this is the real parent, who would rather lose than see the child torn apart. The new stories are not so clear and wise. Counsellors' questions, court assessments, custody hearings, bring us back into the circle again and again. Parents who let go live with pain, loss, and often community condemnation. This piece expresses the struggle to find ways to love children at arms' length. It is dedicated with hope to Sian and Daniel.

Thanks to Barry Truax for the use of the real-time granular synthesis system at Simon Fraser University, and to Trish Armstrong for the assistance with choreography.

Deep Blue Sea
tape by Hildegard Westerkamp; reading by Norbert Ruebsaat; text by Brian Sheen.
The Deep Blue Sea is part of a longer ext on which Brian Shein was working when he died unexpectedly of cancer on May 30, 1988. The text is written for Brian's daughter, Ivana. It arrived in the mail at the time Hildi was working on the bells soundscape in which the text is here presented. When Hildi played me her composed tape to which I was planning a text for an upcoming performance, I immediately knew that Brian's text, and not one of my own, would be the right one for this piece. We tried a recording session, the text fit perfectly with the length of the composed tape, and so the collaboration was born. It is fitting that it should have come about this way" Brian was the key influence on my own early development as a writer, and a collaboration between the three of us in 1972 marked both Hildi's and my emergence as public working artists. This piece returns a gift Brian gave to us. --Norbert Ruebsaat.