Betsey Biggs

For Max/MSP, laptop and stereo speakers.

In January 2011, I visited Laos to start research on a new project: to embark upon an exploration of sounds and silences of the Ho Chi Minh trail. As a child, the Vietnam War was all around me: on television, in horrific photo spreads in LIFE magazine, in the lyrics to songs on the radio. It was a completely mediated experience — just as cartoons, ads for breakfast cereals, and pop music were.

I went to Laos to explore the boundaries of memory and perception; to honor the memories that haunt these sites, but also to inhabit the place as it exists now, engage with the people who live there, live in the sounds and sites of this contested area. Remember, Wake Up is an exploration of the sounds and silences I encountered throughout Laos, from silent alms processions to noisy radio speakers to the incredibly array of birds, insects, and cowbells heard outside the cities.

PERFORMANCES

2013: “Non-Event,” Goethe Institut, Boston, MA, USA.

2013: "Works by Betsey Biggs," Western Michigan University Department of Music, Kalamazoo, MI, USA.

2012: “Screen Compositions - Solo Practices,” Experimental Intermedia, New York, NY, USA. 2011: Studio Soto, Boston, MA, USA.

2011: Sound Off, ((((audience)))), New York, NY, USA.

2011: Faculty Triennial, David Winton Bell Gallery, List Art Center, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.