Open Call for Sound Works
Harvard Radcliffe Institute invites Harvard students and Harvard staff members to submit proposed sound works to accompany the sculptural installation HOLD, currently on view in the Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Garden in Radcliffe Yard. Selected sound works will be exhibited on a rotating basis and programmed to play daily at dusk from speakers installed at the sculpture’s perimeter.
About HOLD
Created by Curry J. Hackett MAUD ’24 and Gabriel Jean-Paul Soomar MArch II ’24, MDes ’24 for the Harvard Radcliffe Institute Public Art Competition, HOLD acknowledges the complex relationship Black communities have had with enclosure. The installation both serves as a symbol of restrictions placed on Black mobility (including redlining, incarceration, and slavery) and highlights embracing spaces created by Black communities (such as the Black church, the front porch, and the hair salon). The artwork’s title references the cargo hold of a slave ship and the ways that many Black folks hold each other together in moments of celebration, solidarity, fear, and grief.
In its form, HOLD resonates with and responds to existing Harvard architecture and the horseshoe-shaped motifs found throughout Radcliffe Yard, as well as a vessel’s hull and sail. HOLD creates a new outdoor site for reflection, welcoming all visitors and inviting them to engage with the work and to contemplate communities that may historically—or currently—be overlooked.
A soundscape adds layered resonance. In addition to rotating sound works that play daily at dusk, a chime sounds each Sunday at 11 AM ET, the start time of many Black church services, and at noon on other select days.
Submission guidelines and review process
Proposed sound works should be no longer than 15 minutes in length and uploaded as ready-to-play .mp3 files through the online submission portal. Sound work submissions should be accompanied by a short artist statement about the piece, not to exceed 200 words (an example is provided below). Works that relate thematically to the sculpture HOLD are of strong interest.
The call is open to all undergraduate and graduate students currently enrolled in a Harvard degree program, as well as Harvard staff. Individuals may apply on their own or as members of a submission team.
Sound works will be reviewed on a rolling basis, though submission by Friday, October 4 is recommended to be considered for the greatest number of exhibition opportunities. Sound works will be reviewed by Radcliffe curatorial staff and by HOLD artists Curry J. Hackett and Gabriel Jean-Paul Soomar.
Please note: Only .mp3 files will be considered; the installation is complete and no additional file format, technology, electronics, or other equipment will be added to support new sound works.
Information about the selected sound work will be posted on the Harvard Radcliffe Institute website and made available at the installation. To experience the current sound work, please visit HOLD daily at dusk or listen online at any time.
Honorarium
An honorarium of $150 per sound work will be awarded to currently matriculated Harvard students and Harvard staff members whose submissions are chosen for exhibition. In the case of team-created sound works, this honorarium will be split among team members.
Example artist statement
“Part soundscape, part oral history, A Baptism Story is a haunting account between me and my mother that traces her recollection of her baptism in a creek in rural southern Virginia. Her story braids narratives of Black kinship, relations with land, and religiosity. Most of her dialogue is barely legible, as if distant and underwater, but becomes clear in certain moments—like the submerging and resurfacing of a baptism. Channeling Edouard Glissant’s writings on the “right to opacity,” this obfuscation protects the contents of an intimate conversation between mother and son while respecting the relationship between my mother and her spirituality.
Sounds include my own field recordings from Boston (bell-like rings from a pile-driving machine on a construction site, water splashing in the Charles River, and walking through brush on the Charles’s riverbank), and processed loops from the conversation itself (my mom’s singing of hymns, and dial tones).”
—Curry J. Hackett