Confluences by Teri Rueb and Laurids Sonne

Water, wind, stories of stars, bugling elk, a poem read aloud, bodies brushing the floor of the dance studio, birds of all kinds filling the air with song, notes on a flute, prairie dogs chirping, cattle lowing and sheep bleating. Stories of buffalo, battles, and betrayal and traces of ancient times when these high plains were covered by inland seas . . .

Ucross sits at the confluence of three creeks, yet it is also the confluence of so many times, people, and processes. Places are thick with resonance, yet elusive. The confluence of Piney Creek, Clear Creek and Coal Creek is a locus that connects and extends to the broader watershed, communities and ecotones of this vast region of the High Plains and Bighorn Mountains. It is a crossroads where people, plants, animals, elements, time and history come together and diverge–where openings and closures coexist in harmony and tension. This place holds so many resonances–vast open spaces filled with echoes of all kinds of labor, peace, struggle, loss, renewal, abundance and scarcity. The wind speaks of continuity with the past as well as rupture, brutal realities and reconciliations. It is all there to be felt, sensed, and carried with us as visitors to this place, or as longtime residents whose ancestors touched the earth here, too.

Confluences is an emplaced sound experience blending the stories, sounds and seasons of Ucross in a layered composition that covers the main campus and selected ranchland of the residency program. Sounds play in response to one's movement as they walk with a mobile device, running a free downloadable app, while wearing headphones. Voices of valley residents sit alongside artist residents, the regional community, and land stewards, all mingling with field recordings of the site taken in different seasons.

Artist Bios

Teri Rueb is an artist whose work combines sound and site using mobile media. She is known for having established the form of GPS-based interactive installations, sometimes referred to as "locative media", as early as 1997. Her works have received awards including a 2008 Prix Ars Electronica Award of Distinction in the Digital Musics category. She is the recipient of numerous grants and commissions from international institutions including the Ucross Foundation, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, La Panacee, the Arnold Arboretum, Edith Russ Site for New Media, The Banff Center for the Arts, the Boston ICA / Vita Brevis Temporary Art Program, Santa Fe Art Institute, Artslink, Turbulence.org, and various State Arts Councils. She has lectured and presented her work worldwide at venues including Ars Electronica, ISEA, SIGGRAPH, Transmediale, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, Kiasma Museum, and IRCAM. She has been nominated for numerous awards including the CalArts Alpert Award, Rockefeller New Media Fellowships, and the Boston ICA Foster Prize.

Laurids Sonne is a Danish documentary media artist, researcher and organizer who works with representational media, including moving and still images, installation work, sound, and writing. From 2004 to 2014, Laurids was a member of the four-person international art collective Parfyme, working with relational and social-based processes; developing new platforms for community, interaction, and exploration. Parfyme’s work has been shown internationally, among others at Manifesta 8, The Dakar Biennial, Sequences Real-Time Festival, Nikolaj Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, HEART - Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, Kunstmuseum Brandts and Seoul National University Museum of Art. Laurids’ moving image work has screened at festivals around the world, including San Francisco International Film Festival, Sharjah Film Platform, Montreal Underground Film Festival, ICDOCS, Florida Experimental Film/Video Festival, Antimatter, Process Film Festival, and Fracto Experimental Film Encounter.

Confluences was commissioned by the Ucross Foundation with additional support from Jesse Marion.  Additional funding was provided by the University of Colorado Boulder and the Center for Documentary and Ethnographic Media.

Sound Engineering and Additional Sound Design: Ernst Karel

Videography: Laurids Sonne

Chapbook Graphic Design: Rani Robison

Web Development: Ian Hatcher

App Graphic Design: Siena Scarff Design