Recycled Soundscapes is an in-progress sound installation by composer/musician Joshua Marquez that explores the sonic possibilities of discarded materials and the sites that contain them.  Using recordings taken from “found sounds” at RAIR, Marquez uses these source materials to compose soundscapes, melodies, textures, and harmonies.   From the ambient noises of machinery to the sounds of broken instruments, all of the sounds in the work  exclusively use recordings taken while in-residence at RAIR.  Additionally, the recordings were captured on reel-to-reel and cassette tapes found at RAIR and used microphones, effects pedal/devices, and speakers salvaged from the waste stream in the composition process.  The audience will experience/hear the sound installation through on site dumpsters and other objects that have been transformed into loudspeakers.  The project aims to evaluate our relationship to sound, noise, music, and the boundaries that define these designations while attempting to find music in everyday sounds, giving new life to material waste and transforming RAIR’s “tipping floor” into an immersive sound environment. 

Engaging with RAIR’s “tipping floor,” this performance utilizes this unique, alternative space in ways that will encourage listeners to evaluate their relationship to sound in the most unlikely of places with unusual sounds.  The event will conclude with a performance of Marquez’s “Recycled Soundscapes” which will use a dumpster and other objects from RAIR’s landfill as loudspeakers.

Photo credits: Adonis Morgan

Video credits: Billy Dufala and Dana O’Malley