TRANSMISSION ART ARCHIVE

Trailhead

2007
John Roach and James Rouvelle

Roach and Rouvelle write: "In Trailhead, developed for their residency at the Free103.9 Wavefarm, John and James planted markers and painted words throughout the wooded Wavefarm grounds and made crude maps of their locations. They invited the poet Matthew Rohrer to find these clues and assemble them into a poem in one afternoon. The recorded results of his journey (which featured a mid forest improvisation with John and James using instruments constructed on the spot) were broadcast at night through a device that floated and flickered on one of the Wavefarm ponds. The floating device responded to the changing frequencies and amplitudes of the sound it received with flickering patterns of light and participants played hand made instruments and tossed pulsating, illuminated orbs into the pond. In Urban Trailhead they lead a procession up 6th Avenue through a cold December night from the theater district in Manhattan to the pond in Central Park. Once at their destination the participants launched a series of internally lit objects, including a large sound-sensitive floating pod, and worked as a group to improvise together and make a tremendous amount of noise to light it up.

Rather than simply do what the other one did, John and James continue to find methods that inspire each other to hybridize their respective skills through an ongoing series of collaborations."