This electro-acoustic sound piece is based on my field recording inside the church at the Guell Colony in Barcelona Spain designed by Antoni Gaudi. Back in my Barcelona apartment room, I enhanced the recording in ProTools adding some loops and my Iso Cube

Barcelona Room 1.0 Mix 101813

Combining two field recordings of a specific stretch of the walkway along the Port of Barcelona, one going south to north, the second going north to south. I manipulated these in Protools, adjusting the EQ and adding highlights and effects. I then added loops from my Iso Cube and flavors from past field recordings to give the overall experience more dimension.

Port Barcelona 1.0 Mix 102013

An homage to Misora Hibari by sound artist Alan Nakagawa for the Little Tokyo Utility Box Project 2015

Lil Tokyo Utility Box1

While having the honor of spending the summer of 2015 at the MacDowell Art Colony in Peterborough New Hampshire, I couldn't help but do a short piece regarding the Peterborough Basket Company http://www.peterborobasket.com . They create the basket, in this turn of the century type of way that uses machinery and techniques from the past, by hand, everyday. Such baskets are used daily at MacDowell. Each lunch time, lunch baskets filled with delicious meals are delivered to each artist studio. It's incredible. The sound you hear in this piece are all from the making of such baskets.

Peterborough Basket Company 1

A five part work to celebrate the end of another season of successful gallery exhibitions at the Visitor Welcome Center in Koreatown Los Angeles CA

Frequency Response VWC 080417.WAV

This is a conversation between artist Prima Jalichandra-Sakuntabhai and myself, Alan Nakagawa that took place February 22, 2018. From January 20 through February 24 2018, I had a solo exhibition in L.A.'s Visitor Welcome Center, a gallery in Koreatown. The exhibition included three parts; a new installation titled "dreamers; Cornell said birdhouses are dreamcatchers/ for Shizue Yamashiro", a survey of work from eight artist residencies I participated in within the last 3.5 years and lastly a series of workshops averaging three a week during the duration of the exhibition. Special thanks to Prima for her time and insight and David Bell for inviting me to exhibit in his amazing space. more info at www.alannakagawa.com/solo-exhibitio…elcome-center/

Prima y Alan at VWC

LITTLE SAIGON; SIX FIELD TRIPS GENERATING
Interview of artist Ann Phone

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OCMA/ 2019

Ann Phong Interview

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This is the second podcast for UNFINISHED PROOF NINOMIYA	, my exhibition at CalState University Dominguez Hills. My name is Alan Nakagawa.

In 1942, at the thrust of WWII, the Ninomiya Family were relocated to Poston AZ, to the Poston Internment Camp. Like 120,000 other Japanese Americans, they were up rooted from the West Coast and sent to prison-like camps solely because they were of Japanese decent and regardless of the fact that they were US citizens.

At the opening of the UNFINISHED PROOF NINOMIYA exhibition, I was introduced to Mitzi Naohara, who was one of the 120,000. She and her family were sent to Poston, just like the Ninomiya’s.

I thought it would be good to include her voice in the exhibition, to put some context and first hand experience of this integral history in the art show.

Luckily, Mitzi Naohara was receptive. On May 21, 2019 at Sakura Gardens, a senior living facility in Boyle Heights, I sat down with Ms. Naohara and recorded a two-hour conversation. The following are excerpts from this recording. I’ll be donating the entire recording to the Gerth Archive at CalState Dominguez Hills.

Mitzi Naohara Podcast

On June 20, 2013, I had the honor of interviewing the artist-extraordinaire, former Director of the Watts Towers Art Center and mentor to so many in the Los Angeles art community, John Outterbridge. I was in the midst of an assignment, to document the oral histories of all the artists who had received a public art commission with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Metro Art since 1988. Of the 300 or so artists I got to meet, this is the interview I always go back to because 1) it's an amazing and honest oral recording but mostly I am such a fan. Mr. Outterbridge passed away December of 2020 and we will miss his resonance for a very long time.

John Outterbridge 062013.WAV

Alan Nakagawa is a sound artist and hyper-collagist based in Los Angeles. He combines sonic and subsonic frequencies inspired by scientist Royal Rife with noise music and video montage. His video imagery incorporates 8mm app imagery, drawings and found imagery that often are recreations or responses of/to his dream states. Nakagawa developed his main instrument, the Iso Cube, to isolate micro percussion and found objects. He plays objects in the Iso Cube and processes the sound through modulators, distortion effects and sound loops. He is currently developing vibratory music using Rife's frequency studies with interest in sub-sonic tones. He has presented his work at the Redcat (Disney Hall), Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Getty Center, Japanese American National Museum, Eternal Telethon, the wulf., Oogimachi Museum Square (Osaka), and La Panaderia (Mexico City). He curates the weekly experimental music webcast Ear Meal and co-founded the multi media arts collective Collage Ensemble Inc.. Nakagawa is a 2012 recipient of the California Community Foundation Mid-Career Artist Fellowship and the Monbusho Scholarship. He received his BFA from Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design and his MFA from UC Irvine and researched stage design at Japan University School of Fine Arts in Tokyo.In addition to his solo work, he is currently working with Ear Diorama Ear (Kaoru Mansour), Joseph Tepperman and the Southern California Soundscape Ensemble.

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