poet : ceremonialist : professor
The Earth Archives
curated by Danielle Vogel
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Originally commissioned by The Rhode Island School of Design Museum for the summer of 2015, The Earth Archives has since been a touring installation that continues to grow as it travels. The installation brings together the voices of dozens of people, composing what I’ve come to call a living aural archive.
To begin this project, I invited artists, writers, psychics, musicians, scientists, friends and families from around the world to gather their memories and experiences of the elements—air, fire or ash, earth, and water—into a series of intimate recordings. The result is an ever-evolving occurrence in language. Memories from all over the world: Africa, Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Iceland, India, Greenland, New Zealand, and The United States are woven together bringing Earth to vibrant life through their voices.
Since its inaugural installation, I’ve opened the project to the public and have dedicated myself to collecting memory-specimens from anyone interested in archiving their memories through the elements.
Through this life-long archival project, one of my intentions is to compose a kind of choral altar space for Earth through the medium of language. Wherein caretaking memories and the lands and bodies who hold them becomes a kind of prayer for our planet and the beings, minerals, and elementals who live here.
Elements are often considered in their physical forms, rooted within a particular place and time. In The Earth Archives, they are invisible and set loose in the air as sound, but, perhaps, are no less tangible. Illustrating my interest in the art of archiving and the conductive power of language, this interactive engagement animates the elements through the act of listening, bringing perspectives, geographies, and times into and out of tactility as the voices travel and accumulate.
My hope is that by engaging with The Earth Archives, each listener and participant is initiated into a renewed intimacy with language and Earth at the same time. Not as two separate entities, but each as a symbiotic extension of the other meeting in the body. The human body, language’s, and Earth’s—together—composing a synergetic archive of entanglement: time, place and experience, all stored and activated through sounding.
To archive your memories, visit here.
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Voices of the aural archive so far:
Alice Markham-Cantor • Ally Finn • Amanda Ackerman • Amaranth Borsuk • Ambrose Bye • Amra Brooks • Amy Peterson • Ananya Shah • Andy Peterson • Ashley Toliver • Barbara Henning • Ben Crandall • Ben Miller • Betsy Fagin • Brent Armendinger • Carla Billitteri • Carlos Soto Román • Carolina Ebeid • Caroline Bergvall • Catherine Wulff • Celia Lubin • Christopher Kondrich • Claire Hero • Cole Swensen • Cynthia Verduin • Danielle Pafunda • Deborah Poe • Doug Branson • Divya Victor • Douglas Arthur Martin • Douglas Kearney • Diego Gerard • Duriel Harris • Ella Banken • Eleni Sikelianos • Elías Portela • Elizabeth Colen • Elizabeth Frankie Rollins • Emily Dix Thomas • Emily Ehlers • Emma FitzGerrell • Erik Anderson • Erin Daniels • Eva Sikelianos-Hunt • fahima ife • Fernanda Govea • Fred Moten • Georgia Wall • Genova Blake • Gwen Gladman • Haraldur Jónsson • Helen White • Holly Wren Spaulding • Jacob Molloy • J’Lyn Chapman • Jena Osman • Jennifer Pilch • Jessica Lanyadoo • Joanna Howard • Jude Rose • Julia Schwartz • K. Bradford • Kaitlin Young • Kameron Bashi • Katie Jean Shinkle • Keenan Murray • Kevin Varrone • Kristi Maxwell • Kristin Prevallet • Laird Hunt • Laura Elrick • Lilah Hegnauer • Lisa Cohen • Lisa O’Neill • Lisa Samuels • Liz Migliorelli • Lucía Hinojosa Gaxiola • Mairead Case • Marcella Durand • Matt Longabucco • Matteo Finch Trask • Mauricio Pauly • Maaza Mengiste • Melanie Borders • Merissa Gerson • Michelle Detorie • Mimi Grant • Monica Drake • Noam Bierstone • Peter Bussigel • Peter Markus • Poupeh Missaghi • Ren Ellis Neyra • Renee Gladman • Richard Froude • Ryan Doyle May • Samantha Maria Blancato • Samantha Shay • Sara Renee Marshall • Seth Tourjee • Shell Rose • Souvankham Thammavongsa • Stacey Tran • Stefani Barber • Summer & Vera Wall • Susana Gardner • Tallen Mae • TC Tolbert • V Manuscript • Vanessa Gladman • Willa Van Nostrand • Yanara Friedland
To archive your memories with
The Earth Archives, visit here.
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Are you interested in having me set up a memory altar
and/or temporarily install this archive at your institution,
please to write me at: