Transcript:

Hello. This is Nathan Hall. In trying to capture the sonic landscape of 2020, I had to look back through my calendar. I did a kind of archival dig of all the audio that I've experienced this past year, from live performances, and Zoom meetings, news clips, and YouTube clips, even sound effects that had made an impression on me. I laid those out by time, like a calendar. And in overlaying them and chopping them up, I realized I could collage them in interesting ways that maybe heightened contrast of emotions or brought out certain aspects of the year that seemed important to me.

The architecture of MCA Denver gave me some creative restraints to work with. Sound can travel around walls and up the stairs, so I wanted to guide visitors through the museum in a way that the year also progresses. You enter and hear sounds from January and February, and as you ascend the stairs, you hear the middle months of the year. As you exit on the rooftop, this is December and looking ahead. I wanted going outside to feel like a sonic breath of fresh air.

The funny thing about combing through an archive of one's sounds over the past year is that there's a lot of hope. There's a lot of moments of joy and small moments that I've taken for granted amidst a lot of grief and struggle. It's good to have gratitude for those moments that I think propel me into the future, and I wanted to create, as the piece goes along, a sense of that hope for our coming months and as we get out into the world again.