Jeff Jacoby practices sound and radio art, sound design, directing, producing, and performing, and serves as Professor of Media Arts at San Francisco State University. Jeff founded Living Sound Productions in 1980, and has worked at Quinnipiac University, Real Art Ways, The Media Arts Center, and the National Radio Project. Jacoby has been recognized for his work with a wide variety of awards, including an Emmy. His work has been heard on PBS, NPR, and art festivals such as South by Southwest, Black Maria, Festival du Cinéma de Paris, ASIFA East.
Artist Location: San Francisco, CA
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PARTICIPATION
911
Proposed work as accepted for soundpedro 2021:
911
I was on my way to work at my studio at 8:30 in the morning. It’s not a long drive, but by the time I arrived just 15 minutes later, the world had utterly changed. It was September 11th, 2001.
I had been hired the week before to produce a syndicated radio series for colleges, and our opening episode was scheduled to be completed that day. The events of September 11th changed all that, too. As part of the original idea, we had handed out recorders to students to do individual reports from their campuses, and a student at New York University hit the record button as she was being evacuated after the first plane hit the World Trade Center.
The audio she captured that morning from the streets may be the only existing sound from that fateful moment. We used a bit of that in our hastily revised first show, but afterward it got put on the shelf for several years. In 2004, I dug up those recordings and used them in a sound composition that I created over the course of one, very long day. I called it 911.
Now, it is 2021, the 20th anniversary of the attack. I am revising and expanding the original composition and creating a four-channel, immersive, surround-sound version. The revised and expanded 911.21 is the show I hope to premiere at Soundpedro 2021. I will also create a stereo version suitable for online distribution, and promote the work on my website and new podcast.
Dark Ride, San Pedro
Sonic Space
Sound, not unlike water, seeks to fill empty space. It enters, swirling, progressing outward, reflecting off surfaces, until it displaces the air with living, sonic vibrations. Sound has unique qualities that make it a particularly fascinating medium to manipulate. Sound is not just heard, it is felt, often provoking visceral responses engendered from long forgotten experiences. By recontextualizing the sounds of natural and imagined worlds into compositions, performances, and installations, I seek to create, define, and illuminate sonic space.
About Dark Rides
Dark Rides are amusement park rides that bring passengers in a moving carriage through darkened spaces, such as the Tunnel of Love or the Haunted House. The 1964 New York World’s Fair fascinated me, and one exhibit was a walk-through Dark Ride, guiding me through a wide variety of changing environments. I visited often, and realized many years later that I can create something profound and moving sing only sound: sonic Dark Rides.
About the San Pedro Dark Ride
I propose to create an immersive sonic Dark Ride at the Angel’s Gate site. This can take the form of a four channel installation or a live performance, or both. The content of my work will be neo-narrative based on research and the collecting of sounds from the larger area. Although this is intended to be reflective of Angel’s Gate sonically and historically, it is also sourced from my imagination, thus the experience will expand the notion place, and will ultimately depend on each listener’s perspective and experience.