María Bulla is a music maker interested in the creation of flexible performance situations that allow individuals to experience art in a personal way. From the construction of miniature objects to oversized scores, instrumental pieces and field recordings, she attempts to create experiences in which music becomes part of everyday situations. María holds a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Bogotá D.C., Colombia), and a MFA in Composition and Experimental Sound Practices from the California Institute of the Arts. Currently, she is a student in the DMA program in composition at Cornell University.
Artist Location: Ithaca, NY
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PARTICIPATION
have you heard the sound of moving clouds?
have you heard the sound of moving clouds? is an installation that combines fixed media (audio) with an interactive sonic component from the audience.
The fixed media component is a series of field recordings of rain combined with sections of silence. For the interactive component, the visitors participate in the production of sound through the interaction with a “sound box” that they will receive at the installation site. These boxes, hand made with recycled acetate sheets, are filled with little fragments of the same material, and when they move, they resemble the sound of rain, especially when a few boxes are moving at the same time. The boxes also have a handwritten text that says: “have you heard the sound of moving clouds? / can you imagine all the lives that they carry? / [celebration]”. Since the boxes are given as gifts to the audience, they can take the boxes with them, as a reminder to listen to the inaudible sounds of life: the subtle sounds that live with us to remind us that we are alive, and that we are surrounded by life.
Given the alternating periods of rain sounds and silence from the fixed media, the installation can become an interaction between the rain sounds that come from the field recordings and the rain sounds produced by the boxes.
soundpedro 2021 participation: N/A
Proposed work as accepted for soundpedro 2021:
Music in boxes
Music in boxes is a project of small objects. These are meant to be in your house, in a corner of your desktop, a bookshelf, or any place you think is appropriate for them. Some of these make sounds, others are -intentionally- very quiet; but through their physicality and the texts written in them, explosions of sound will happen inside of you, in those moments in which you want to listen to what they are saying. These are objects to help you notice, dwell and listen to the world, loving life as it is.
So far, this ongoing project (that began on December 2019, and hopefully will have many years to come) has taken the form of eight different collections of objects, that I have been building -by hand- mainly using recycled and repurposed materials, and giving them to friends, so they can have their own experiences, at their own time and place.
My proposal for Soundpedro 2021 is to create (at least) 40 of these objects, in order to be handed to the people attending the festival throughout the day. Giving these objects as “presents” is an invitation for people to experience these objects in a personal way, at their own time, whether this means playing with them in the living room of their houses or while taking a walk in the city. Giving these objects to the people attending the festival, will allow me to expand the audience that has access to them.