Repetitive snow crunches and crackling frigid concrete beneath my feet. Captivated by melting ice and snow, water falls in the gutter pipes. Droplets striking cold metal put a contrasting organic and rigid tension in the air. My lungs are stiff, bones hurt, and innards quiver. It was a day too cold to find water, but I found it, and its sound transported me home.

Soundwalk, Walk to Find Water

After hours of isolation while working in the darkroom, the environment’s wet sounds and safe-light conditions undergo an unconscious transformation. Intense fumes from photographic chemistry fill the small space. The red-lit room’s black walls, dripping faucets, and humming ventilation begin to whisper. My sense of time and place slip away, and imagined harmless entities emerge in the studio. This phenomenon creates tension within me, as the space of comfort and creation bubbles up into feelings of disorientation and uncanniness. This soundscape captures the mental space I enter and exit while making images born of chemistry and light.

Naw.studioart