23five Incorporated presents the fifteenth annual Activating The Medium festival
in collaboration with Art Practical, The Lab, and the San Francisco Art Institute

Since 1998, 23five Incorporated has produced the annual Activating The Medium festival -- an internationally recognized showcase for the most innovative and visionary practitioners of sound art. Now entering its fifteenth season, Activating The Medium addresses the theme of a 'dark ecology' -- a term which comes from the philosopher Timothy Morton, who argues that the idea of nature and the attitudes surrounding those ideas are the stumbling blocks to environmental thinking. A glance through the lens of dark ecology refuses to idealize nature as a Romanticized other; furthermore, it eschews the notion that mankind has disturbed and transgressed nature through our engineering and manipulation. A dark ecology frames reality that anything has the potential to disrupt everything, with global catastrophes inevitably occurring through such relationships. As such, Morton beseeches an aesthetic that does not forget the murk, the grime, and the filth that are the symptoms, causes, and glue of what might have once been described as 'nature.' It is from this vantage point that 23five is curating the 2012 Activating The Medium festival, seeking works that engage the specter of noise pollution, the melancholy of eco-acoustic blight, the horror of technological chimeras, and / or the altered states that may emerge from such meditations through sound-based composition and performance.

23five will be presenting sound works in San Francisco over several weekends in April of 2012 at The Lab and The San Francisco Art Institute, with ancillary lectures and two soundwalks around Lake Merritt in Oakland. Lake Merritt is 140 acres of tidal lagoon–not a lake actually, and it is the nation's oldest wildlife refuge. It is home to thousands of creatures including shrimps, fish, clams, sponges, geese, ducks, raptors, an occasional deer, a few turkey, and people. Once fulfilling a need for hunting and gathering, it now serves society's greater need as respite from itself. However, during heavy rains the storm drains bring runoff and trash from sidewalks and people's lawns into the large body of water. We will explore primarily with our ears the Lake Merritt area that has been extensively modified by people over the last 150 years with the intent to provide city dwellers with a harmonious balance between the wild and the cultivated, the natural and the industrial. The soundwalks will happen rain or shine–please dress appropriately. Please choose either Andrea Williams or Andrea Polli as your guide. Both walks will last a little over an hour. Afterwards, the two soundwalk groups will converge at 4:30pm for food and drinks at Los Cantaros for those who would like to linger for discussion.