Crowd-sourced voice recordings

To receive your quote for recording, click here to request via email.

You are invited to contribute your voice to a new artwork about social and environmental justice in the Santa Ana River Watershed. When we listen to the watershed is a textile and sound installation by Bay Area Artist Linda Gass commissioned by the Langson Institute and Museum of California Art (Langson IMCA) at UC Irvine for the upcoming exhibition Dissolve curated by Professor Bridget R. Cooks in the Department of African American Studies and Department of Art History, School of Humanities. Inspired by the research of UCI Anthropology Professor Valerie Olson, When we listen to the watershed examines how the Santa Ana River Watershed has changed over time. Olson was a principal investigator and author for the November 2019 report, Santa Ana River Watershed Community Water Experiences: An Ethnographic Strengths and Needs Assessment. Her ethnographic study and resulting report used a bottom-up approach of listening to people in underserved communities and highlights both their needs and strengths. The report contains a rich collection of quotes from people in these underserved communities. We need the voices of people who have a connection to the Santa Ana River Watershed to bring these quotations to life in the art exhibition. You are invited to record your voice to contribute to a looping soundtrack of quotes from the report that will accompany the visual artwork. To participate, please send an email to express your interest. You will be sent a quote to read and record using a voice recording app such as Voice Memos on Apple iPhones or any free voice recording app on Android phones or your favorite desktop recording app. Your identity will be made anonymous. You may listen to sample voice recordings here. Please record yourself reading the quote as naturally as possible, as though you were speaking it yourself. All recordings must be received by May 27, 2022 at the latest. Thank you for your interest and participation in this project. Dissolve will be on view from September 24 through December 10, 2022 at the University Art Gallery on the UCI campus.