SCOTT SMALLWOOD
Scott Smallwood is a sound artist, composer, and performer who creates works inspired by discovered textures and forms, through a practice of listening, field recording, and improvisation. He designs experimental electronic instruments and software, as well as sound installations and site-specific performance scenarios. He performs as one-half of the laptop/electronic duo Evidence (with Stephan Moore) and has performed with Seth Cluett, Curtis Bahn, Mark Dresser, Cor Fuhler, John Butcher, Pauline Oliveros, and many others. He has written acoustic and electroacoustic works for a variety of ensembles, most recently for the Continuum Ensemble (Toronto), the New York Virtuoso Singers, the Nash Ensemble of London, and the Princeton Laptop Orchestra. Smallwood currently lives in Edmonton, Alberta, where he is associate professor of composition, improvisation, and electroacoustic music at the University of Alberta.
Artist’s Statement:
My work over the years has dealt with an intense consideration of my lived-in soundscape, and reflections of sense-of-place as it relates to environmental, political, and personal/emotional factors. The very nature of documenting my life and travels through sound has caused me to reflect intensely on the content of these sounds. So many are laced with high-density noise associated with the technologies of our lives. Hiss and hum are everywhere. I mostly live and work in cities, and travel to and from other cities. When possible I try to get out of them, to escape these sounds – and find the forest of my youth, where getting lost can happen. Where other voices and magic happens. These places are harder and harder to come by. I think all my life I’ve been looking for the forest where walking forward takes you always deeper.