Amit Gilutz
Israel
Music/Sound
Artist in Residence, 2017
↗ www.amitgilutz.com
Artist Statement
My work questions the boundaries between notated and improvised musics, between music and noise, and between competing and collaborating, often foregrounding social and political issues I am interested in. Whether as composer and sound-artist, educator, or activist, I am particularly interested in the question of music’s ability to participate in the practice of social justice.
While at Headlands
While in residence I will lay the groundwork for “Climate Futures”: an evening-long mixed media piece for ensemble of improvising musicians, that will hold space for reflection—through sonic and theatrical experience—on the significance of climate change. The sonic basis for the work are soundscapes from around the world, of natural and urban areas that will likely be transformed or completely destroyed by climate change. I will make a series of such recordings at the natural area surrounding Headlands and in San Francisco. The final score will be a combination of fully notated parts combined with carefully structured improvisations complementing and interpreting—so to speak—the recorded soundscapes. This blurring of distinctions between “real” and “imagined” asks to draw attention to the fact that, in a world where fabrication is sold as reality on TV, climate change, although mostly a futuristic event, is a scientific fact that requires our immediate attention.