Help Experimental Musician Annea Lockwood Listen to the Land at PS21

May 16–17, noon–3pm | Chatham, NY | Free

Annea Lockwood, a storied figures in American experimental music, comes to PS21 in Chatham on May 16 and 17 to launch "Home Ground," a year-long site-specific work she's created for the property. The opening workshop is free, requires no musical experience, and is open to anyone willing to spend an afternoon outside paying close attention.

The project has identified ten or more distinct environments on the PS21 grounds, and community participants will spend the next year visiting and acoustically mapping them, especially at dawn and dusk across the seasons. Mapping can take the form of audio and video recording, written description, drawing, or whatever other graphic language feels right. They've even got an app to organize it all.

The initial workshop, led by Lockwood this weekend, introduces the practice and helps participants develop their own listening vocabulary before they go out and choose a site to follow over time. After the workshop, each participant commits to four self-determined return sessions through the year.

"By listening closely to a small place over time, you learn not just the sounds but the ecology, and eventually something like a relationship forms, She says, describing it as an exercise in expanding your personal neighborhood, one layer at a time.

Lockwood, born in New Zealand in 1939, has spent decades making work from natural acoustic environments. Her sound maps of the Hudson, the Danube, and the Housatonic have been presented across Europe, the UK, and the US. A permanent installation co-created with Bob Bielecki is at the Caramoor Center in Katonah. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in recent years has received two feature articles in the New York Times and a documentary film by Sam Green. This commission is among her most locally rooted projects.

PS21, 2980 Route 66, Chatham, NY. Sign up at ps21chatham.org.