Close to me, a self portrait

Year: 2013
Medium: Digital sound
Duration: 2:58

Close to me, a self-portrait addresses misconceptions and constructed images of what I am to resemble as an individual who is both Inupiaq and white. I created a two-channel sound installation that is composed of multiple tracks of my breathing during different parts of a day. The visuals are not provided in this intimate portrait in response to stereotypes and preconceived ideas of what I am to look like.

I was inspired to create this piece by Pierre Schaeffer’s idea of the “acousmatic.” Schaeffer was a French composer, acoustician, and an electronic engineer. Schaeffer defined the acousmatic as: “Acousmatic, adjective: referring to a sound that one hears without seeing the causes behind it.