Mt. Wilson Observatory Presents Within Sound: The Acoustic Sculptures of Michael Brewster, Part of Its New "Arts @ the Observatory" Program

Mount Wilson Observatory-the place where humankind discovered its place in the universe-will present a special exhibition of Acoustic Sculptures created by the late Michael Brewster, to take place on Saturday and Sunday, August 13-14, 2022. Within Sound: The Acoustic Sculptures of Michael Brewster, will be presented in the historic Dome of the 100-inch telescope at Mt. Wilson Observatory. A lecture about the installation will take place on Saturday and Sunday afternoon by former Brewster student Homer Charles Arnold, who is a specialist in post-1960s new media art and also Archive Manager for the Michael Brewster Trust. These talks will take place in the Astronomical Museum Auditorium on the Mt. Wilson Observatory campus.

Within Sound launches the new Arts @ the Observatory program of fine art at Mount Wilson. There will be two presentations of the sound works on the afternoons of Saturday, August 13th and Sunday, August 14th, at 3:00pm and at 6:00pm each day, with a 50-minute lecture (complimentary) about Michael Brewster in the Observatory's Auditorium at 4:15pm, between the two performances. A reception with the curators including light fare and refreshments will be offered after the lecture.

Tickets are $50.00 each and are available for purchase online in advance (highly recommended) or at the door. For more information on this event, please visit https://www.mtwilson.edu/arts-the-observatory/brewster. For more on the arts program, please visit https://www.mtwilson.edu/arts-the-observatory.

The performance consists of six pieces, with a brief live introduction for each. The works are prerecorded, and are customized to the Dome to create sonic patterns that guests move through to experience various ways sound interacts with our bodies and minds. In order to allow guests to move around freely among the soundwaves, audiences will be limited to 60 people per performance.

Sound Artist Michael Brewster.

Within Sound: The Acoustic Sculptures of Michael Brewster immerses visitors in the sonic environments of the pioneering sound artist who introduced his concept of Acoustic Sculpture in 1974. Six representative pieces capture Brewster's artistic evolution over four decades.

The works demonstrate the evolving acoustic complexities Brewster constructed as he developed his works from a single sound wave to multi-soundwave installations. Visitors will physically engage with these works as they move throughout the 100-inch Dome and learn about Brewster's pragmatic approach to art, encompassing sound, engineering, and architecture.

Each performance is a site-specific installation that has been tuned to the 100-inch Dome's dimensions. Once activated, Brewster's art and the Dome become one, compelling visitors to experience their particular location within the acoustic space. To quote Brewster, "To see an Acoustic Sculpture, we must shift from the 'stand and look' behavior of a passive spectator to the exploratory 'move and listen' approach of an active participant; slowly walking our ears, instead of moving our eyes, through the environment."

THE PIECES:

Standing Wave  1971 "F Space" Santa Ana, CA
Synchromesh  1977 La Jolla, CA
Concrete Two Tone 1978 Groningen, Netherlands
Whistlers 2 (Adapted) 1994 Los Angeles, CA
No Name   1999 Los Angeles, CA
Falls From Sky  1994 Varese, Italy
Each work will be preceded by a brief explication of the artist's evolving approach to acoustic art over his career.

Examples of Michael Brewster's Acoustic Sculptures are found on his website. http://www.michaelbrewsterart.com/acoustic-sculpture.html

In addition to the Acoustic Sculpture presentations, there will be a lecture by Homer Charles Arnold held in the MWO Auditorium, on August 13 and 14, at 4:15 pm

This talk will cover the career of sound artist Michael Brewster and the development of Acoustic Sculpture. These sound art pieces create immersive sonic fields that we explore with our bodies and ears as we physically move through them. Creating this art form after a long process of research and investigation into sound, engineering, and phenomenology, Brewster's discoveries were as much those of a scientist as an artist.

A participant in the "Light and Space" art movement of the 1970s in Southern California, Brewster realized early on he could transform the natural phenomena of sound into art. This talk moves through his artistic journey narrating how he invented various technologies and architectural spaces to create his works. Brewster attended to the entire environment in his process, revealing how art places us deep within itself and makes us aware of our place within it.

A reception with the Curators will be held outside the Dome Gallery after the lecture and between the afternoon performances, after the lecture. Artifacts of Brewster's experiments with sound, mechanical drawings for his works, and his art will be on display in the Gallery. Light fare and refreshments will be served. Attendees of both performances are invited.

Michael L. Brewster (1946-2016) was a sound artist whose career spanned four decades of experimentation with new art forms, primarily in Southern California. He coined the term "acoustic sculpture" to describe his immersive sonic environments that were key in the evolution of contemporary sound installation. His works are in the permanent collections of MOCA Los Angeles, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Orange County Museum of Art, the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, the Giuseppe Panza Collection, and private collections. Three of his sound installations are on permanent display in the Panza/FAI Villa in Varese, Italy.

Brewster also co-built and, for over forty years, was a professor in the Arts Department at Claremont Graduate University. Born in Oregon and raised in Brazil, he created his art in a Sound Studio in Venice, California.

Homer Charles Arnold studies modern and contemporary art history, specializing in post-1960s new media practices. He was a student of Michael Brewster's at Claremont Graduate University and is the Archive Manager for the Michael Brewster Trust. Arnold teaches art history in the Riverside College district, writes art criticism, and has curated several shows of Brewster's work. He is currently preparing a book-length manuscript on the artist. Originally from Austin, Texas, he now lives in Culver City.

Alex Schetter is an immersive artist, sound engineer, and musician who specializes in sound art and installation. He is a Los Angeles native who studied music and audio production at Loyola University New Orleans and the Art Institute of California. His sound work has appeared internationally, and he has contributed to factory sound design for major synthesizer manufacturers since 2012. As Archival Technician for the Michael Brewster Trust, his restoration and understanding of audio and acoustics has been key to adapting Brewster's works in the Mount Wilson 100-inch Dome.

The 100-inch telescope is the instrument with which astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered our place in an expanding universe and expanded our comprehension. The dome for the telescope - designed by Chicago architect D.H. Burnham - is a 20th-century temple to science whose acoustics rival the great cathedrals of Europe and provides a unique setting for this ambitious series.

LOCATION

Mount Wilson Observatory

Mount Wilson Circle Road & Mount Wilson Toll Road

Mount Wilson, CA 91023

On MWO's website, the "Map" page shows the various SoCal freeways connecting to the 210 and the 2 and the start of Angeles Crest Highway, which goes to Mount, Wilson Red Box Road which in turn ends at Mount Wilson Circle Road.

Complete information on all the scientific, educational and cultural activities at Mt. Wilson Observatory can be found on its website.

George Ellery Hale, founder of Mount Wilson Observatory and co-founder of Caltech, wrote "No great creative work, whether in engineering or in art, in literature or in science, has ever been the work of a person devoid of the imaginative faculty."

This program of fine art at this premiere place of science aims to foster and disseminate that spirit.

Please be advised that access to the dome performances is via a 53-step staircase. The Observatory, build before 1917, is not ADA compliant.

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