Peter Dalmazzo on the Salmon River Estuary
Siletz Bay sea lion
Bald eagle over Cascade Head
squirrel on Cascade Head Trail
Sitka Center for Art & Ecology
Anna Glynn - Artist in Residence
Peter Dalmazzo - Biologist in Residence
Multimedia artist Anna Glynn and biologist Peter Dalmazzo teamed up in 2015 at the Sitka Center for Art & Ecology in Oregon, USA. In an interdisciplinary collaboration they explored the Sitka landscape – a place where land, estuary, sea and sky meet. Working together as well as individually they created material reflecting their respective disciplines – a marriage of science and art.
One of the focusses during their stay was the collection of sound field recordings throughout the landscape, above and below water in the variety of ecotypes present, aquatic and terrestrial, the estuary and the sea, forests and grasslands, in nature and human environments. Peter created an extensive database of sounds and Anna created a number of soundscape works. A work by Anna titled ‘Atmospheric River’ is based on: excerpts of recordings from the Oregon 24 hour weather information service, field recordings and original musical compositions.
Anna made new works continuing with her exploration of Chinese materials. She created the ‘Forest Perambulation Installation’ comprising large scale paper and ink works and soundscape. A place where birds became trees, trees became deer in a merging of nature's elements.
The Sitka Center for Art & Ecology was also a place for collaboration with other international artists and ecologists. Anna was invited by the American writer Kim Stafford to contribute her voice to his poetic video ‘Sonata for Stones & Water’.
In an interdisciplinary international collaboration between artist Anna Glynn, composer Ben Cosgrove and scientist Peter Dalmazzo the short film ‘Estuary’ was created. The film illustrates the complex and elegant natural rhythms and patterns of the site where the Salmon River meets the sea at the side of Cascade Head, a rugged headland on the Oregon coast. Filming took place over the course of eight hours on a moonlit night.