Echoes of Liberation (2020)
Echoes of Liberation is a commissioned sonic monument for Rutgers University Newark honoring members of the Black Organization of Students (BOS) who advocated for greater inclusivity in enrolling students and hiring professors during the late 1960’s. The piece is an audio Augmented Reality artwork, an iOS application available in the Apple App store, co-created with graduate students from Rutgers University Newark and NJIT.
The audio consists of interviews with BOS members who were active during this period conducted in the fall of 1991 by Gilbert Cohen including Joseph Brown, Vickie Donaldson, Richard Roper, and Vivian Sanks-King. ‘Echoes of Liberation’ is a collaborative project that thematically excerpts these interviews and spatially maps them to sections of the campus to allow visitors to hear the reflections of BOS members about the liberation of Conklin Hall, its planning and aftermath. The sustained actions of BOS members had a significant impact on the process of making Rutgers University Newark one of the most diverse campuses in the United States.
The audio plays automatically based on your location in Norman Samuels Plaza. There are four sections of audio that are thematically grouped and placed in different sites in the plaza. The pathway between Hill Hall and Paul Robeson Campus Center from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. into the plaza is the ‘infinitive verb alley’ consisting of the infinitive verbs that were used by BOS members to describe their actions and process. On the plaza side of Paul Robeson Campus Center (the name change of which was instigated by BOS members) is the ‘audio walk of fame’ section where BOS members recite the names of the members who took part in the liberation of Conklin Hall. The northeast section of Paul Robeson Campus Center with overhanging roof and outdoor seating is the ‘cantilever questions’ section. In this area, questions that BOS members asked themselves and each other are heard. Finally, in the fourth section of the plaza, ‘foundations and forking paths’, the listener hears BOS members discuss the books, authors, activists and philosophers who had an impact on their thinking. The interview excerpts were played into the architecture of the campus with radios and re-recorded so the listener hears the voices of BOS members echoing off the walls where they are standing.
Production of the Audio AR app, ‘Echoes of Liberation’, began during sound artist Andrew Demirjian’s spatial sound seminar for Newark Rhythms in the spring semester of 2019. The RU-N and NJIT students who participated in the selection and production of the piece include Chathurthi De Silva, Julia Marotta, Reynier Matias, Lauren O’Brien, Walter Rice, Marco Alioni and Courtney Rone. Other students who attended the seminar sessions were Conor Coll, Hilda Dzietror, Christina Furlow, Laura Gould, Taffy Lashley, Ebony Payne, Sam Robers, Tia Ryans and Nick Vitone. Prof. Kate Doyle also participated in the seminar and production of the work. Directed by Prof. Eva Giloi and curator Ian Cofre, Newark Rhythms is a public history project featuring sound art, visual art, spatial research and commemoration at RU-N to explore how a space becomes a “place” imbued with social meaning. The project is supported by a Chancellor’s Seed Grant, Express Newark Third Space Grant, and the RU-N Federated History Department.