Resonance is a 5.1 sound installation and film soundtrack composed entirely of field recordings I gathered inside the boundaries of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah. I travelled there after Raquel Salvatella de Prada and Merrill Shatzman had chosen the Monument as the subject for an installation and film project. In seeking to evoke a sense of place in such nuanced and quiet space, I attuned my listening to subtle shifts in wind direction, to the reverberance of deeply articulated canyons and open expanses alike. I noted the distant passing of airplanes overhead, and the buzzing activity of a solitary bee or bird. In Escalante, I listened for how stone gives way to sand, as the earth shifts form on a timescale beyond the reach of human avarice. What some might perceive as empty land is in fact rich with life: the drama of a universe plays out within each ecosystem perched upon the rim of a gulch or nestled into the reeds alongside a flowing creek. The voice of Escalante speaks in a whisper, demanding stillness and close attention to hear its gentle hush.

Resonance was originally designed as an installation using 5.1 sound, then was converted into a film with both 5.1 and 2-channel versions. Below is the stereo version.

Credits:

Field Recordings, Editing, Mixing, and Mastering by Jonathan Henderson

Video and Animation by Raquel Salvatella de Prada

Prints by Merrill Shatzman

EXHIBITS/FILM SCREENINGS

• New Work group exhibition, Fredric Jameson Gallery, Duke University, Durham, NC.
• Hidden Universes: IFF Melbourne, Australia, December 2024 (Best Experimental Film)
• Cleveland Arthouse Film Awards, June 2024 (Semifinalist)
• Elastic Mind, South Campus Art Gallery, Broward College, Weston, Florida. April 20 – September 29, 2023. 
• The West Virginia Mountaineer Short Film Festival, Morgantown, West Virginia, April 2023
• Oxford Film Festival, Oxford, Mississippi, March 2023
• Oaxaca Film Festival, Oaxaca, Mexico, December, 2022
• Screen/Society Cinematic Arts Faculty Filmmaker Showcase. Film Theater, Rubenstein Arts Center, Duke University. October 14, 2022
• Aggregate Animated Shorts International Film Festival, Aggregate Space Gallery.
  Oakland, CA. July 22 – August22, 2022