Event #1: Sarah Brady Solo Show

Event 1: 

April 4
Design Media Arts graduate solo show Sarah Brady
Broad Arts, EDA
5:00-- 7:00pm 

For my first event, I decided to attend Sarah Brady’s solo show at UCLA’s Broad Arts Center. To be honest, when I first got there, I was by myself and was really confused with was I was seeing. I walked around the empty room and I could see weird lights and hear very strange noises, this made me feel even more confused. Then, I heard people talking and laughing, so I approached them and surprisingly ,it was the artist herself, Sarah Brady. I got lucky to have had the opportunity to meet her because she explained every one of her art pieces in depth, and told me where her inspiration had came from. 

(Left to Right) Mackenzie Cullens, Sarah Brady, Paulina Bremer

Sarah had four pieces which all represented how matter changes form due to technology and industrial processes by humanity. Her first piece were the monoliths. These were two metal bars covered in graphite that had speakers with 360 surround sound. I stepped in the middle of the two bars and could hear binaural sounds of rocks and field recordings of mining. This represented matter being destroyed and changed by society. 

Holly B listening to the 360 surround field recordings of mining

Her next piece was on the ground and was a base with rocks on top of it. These rocks moved and made a very similar sound to the one from the monoliths. The difference is that the monolith produced recording sounds while the rock piece produced acoustic live sounds. 

Moving rock piece which produced live acoustic sounds

The third piece was a rebuild, a 3D replication of a rare earth mine. It was a static 3D sculpture that suggested movement. It is created of real matter which represented this change in matter through mining and human technology. 

3D Static replication of a rare earth mine 

3D Static replication of a rare earth mine

Finally, in the pit we could see four walls being lit by strange colors and sounds. This piece was created with an algorithm in real time, Sarah said that “the choices of data color and sounds are generated by the computer.” 

Pit lit by algorithm on a computer

All in all, Sarah Brady told me this manifesto is what inspired it all: http://additivism.org/manifesto. I would highly recommend attending one of her solo shows because it shows pieces which relate to our world of today. She finds the relationship between art and technology, the relationship that creates sound through industrial processes, and most importantly, the ability for humans to rebuild and change matter.