Jovino Santos Neto – Plex.us acknowledgements
I am very grateful to everyone who has made this project a
reality. First and foremost, my artistic partner in Plex.us, Michelle de la Vega. It has been a joy
collaborating with her throughout the whole process. We were in total synchrony
of ideas, from the initial concepts to the final stages of fabrication and
installation. I wish every artistic partnership would be this easy.
Irene Gomez, Miguel
Guillén and the whole team at La
Sala for initiating the idea that connected me to Michelle and for
coordinating the complex logistics of the grants that allowed us to do this.
Many thanks to my wife Luzia
Grob dos Santos, who was involved in documenting each stage of the project
and in providing essential aesthetic advice.
Very special thanks to Kyong
Soh from Marra Farm, for introducing me to so many people from the South
Park community who let me record their voices. Kyong was always very open and
receptive, and because of her, the human sounds of South Park, along with other
environmental sonorities (water, wind, airplanes, cars) became the core of the
whole musical component of Plex.us.
Thanks to James
Rasmussen from the Duwamish River Cleanup Coalition for his inspiring talk
to the community at Marra Farm back in June, from which I extracted many
samples of sounds for my music tracks.
Also, special thanks go to Ruby Fontillea, Education & Leadership Coordinator at Concord International School. It was a
pleasure to work with their young students and to share musical ideas with
them. I was touched by their celebration of Brazilian culture in my honor.
Special thanks to Cornish students Thomas Reyna, who played some beautiful flute sounds, and to Will Smith, who designed the hardware
and software foundation for the music setup in the CoCA Gallery space.
Thanks to Nichole
DeMent and all the staff at CoCA
for giving Plex.us a home where it will live for several weeks.
What I tried to do here was to translate the multicultural
landscape of South Park into music. I was inspired by the many languages spoken
in this neighborhood, and also by the sounds of the Duwamish River, the
airplanes flying overhead, the industries. I added piano, keyboards, flutes,
and lots of sound textures to create the music that is embedded inside Michelle’s delicate and powerful sculptures. I hope that
this installation will inspire everyone to listen more closely to his or her
surroundings and to be more aware of the environment we live in.