LACUSTRINE DREAMS, 2025
Summary:
Lacustrine Dreams was originally created as a soma-sonic journey through the geologic time-scale of Lake Tahoe, CA/NV. One of only 20 lakes older than 1 million years old, Lake Tahoe is over 2 million years old and owes its longevity, depth and size to glacial, and ongoing tectonic and seismic activity. Simply put, it keep getting deeper due to active faults webbing across the region.
After working with geologists from the University of Nevada, Reno, Professors William “Drew” Andrews and Richard Koehler, data was embedded in the installation, visually, sonically and vibrationally allowing the audience to see hear and feel the geologic processes that formed the region.
Background:
In August 2025 I was an artist in residence at Montello, in the Nevada desert. Isolated for 10 days I picked up a book by geologist and author Marcia Bjornerud, Timefulness. I was struck by her thesis that “thinking like a geologist can help us save the world”, and subsequently became inspired by a deeper sense of our time which includes the distant past, this present and the future, so we conserve our resources, make more mindful decisions to become better ancestors.
The Installation:
After consulting with geologists from the University of Nevada, Reno, conducting field work, recordings on the land in water, the formal work began to take shape and includes a specimen table with rocks ranging from 15 thousand to 180-200 million years old, all foraged by myself in the area. The rocks are connected to capacitive sensors, that feed data into a laptop, triggering audio and video when the electrical field is disrupted around the rock. Essentially the specimens act like a keyboard and visitors may remix sound and video to explore image and sound inspired by geologic processes that created Lake Tahoe. Videos consists of live action footage processed through VJ software and the sound includes field recordings and electro acoustic instruments which are played through 2 standard speakers, a sub, and four 50 watt bass shakers that are attached to a circular, vibro-acoustic bed. The shakers allow reclined guests to feel frequencies outside our normal range, as well as hear melodic, poetic soundscapes related to glacial, tectonic and seismic activity responsible for the formation of the Lake Tahoe Basin.
On one wall, three small sound domes are suspended, playing a 3 channel soundtrack consisting of interviews with geologists familiar with the region and its formation. The voices play together with the deep bass sounds emanating from the speakers around and inside the vibro-acoustic bed.
