On Finding Joy in Sound, Space and Community: An Interview with Sonya M. Gonzales
Every year, bbatx curates a monthly residency highlighting the work of 10 to 15, Texas-based women and nonbinary visual and musical artists that create work and perform in our programs. As we move to take our programs online, we’ve partnered with Bumble to launch a digital version of The Residency. From now through November 1, 2020, you can tune in for weekly mixes, visuals and workshops from 16 women and nonbinary artists and DJs.
To kick us off, we’ve got an interview and custom mix from Austin-based sound artist Sonya M. Gonzales. In conversation with bbatx committee member Liz Whitington, Sonya discusses her musical origins, collaboration and her experience as an artist during COVID-19.
ABOUT SONYA M. GONZALES:
Sonya M. Gonzales is a writer and sound artist from Austin, Texas, who just finished up a Masters in Music at Goldsmiths University, specializing in Sonic Arts. She has undergraduate degrees in English and Music and a graduate degree in Media Arts. Fascinated with self-organization and assemblage, she uses sound to research interactions within generative systems, utilizing media and technology.
Sonya has been published in literary journals, was a music writer for her college newspaper, followed music events and wrote about them for various music blogs and continues to write (for herself, mainly) out of necessity (both academically and creatively).
For her work at Goldsmiths, her sound pieces centered around ideas on improvisation and collage through various forms of media (video, radio, projections), utilizing various technologies (software/hardware). Her most recent focus centered around sounds and self-organization/assemblage, analyzing their interactions within generative systems, using Max MSP, Ableton and sensors.
Sonya has worked on various projects for Austin art group, Dadageek, and was awarded as a presenting artist for 2019’s South By Southwest UNESCO Media Arts Exhibition that was showcased in March for the conference. Sonya will be a Managing Director for local non-profit, Church of the Friendly Ghost (Austin, Texas) for 2020, helping to facilitate avant-garde & experimental events throughout the city.
Can you tell us a little about your background and how you got into your practice?
I get the music gene from my dad. He's a musician but it was always just a hobby to him. I definitely connect with it like him, but I've always wanted it be more present and consistent in my life. So I did music journalism for a while (which I even knew at the time wouldn't last) and then progressed to teaching myself guitar and playing in bands. But from that time I realized I wasn't too into performing and became more curious about the functionality of my instruments and effects pedals. From there I wanted to know more about sound processing and signal flow. I took a really great class on sound synthesis at ACC with Meason Wiley, and he introduced me more to Sound Art and really inspired me to think more about the application of sound and material. He also introduced me to Goldsmiths University (UK) and when I took one look at their Sound Art masters program, I knew that's what I wanted for myself. That program was the next shift in me when it came to music. I was introduced to Maryanne Amacher, Alvin Lucier, Pauline Oliveras, Daphne Oram, Pierre Schaeffer, LaMonte Young—all the big sound artists/composers from the last 50 years and it really pushed me towards this idea of creating art outside of something I'd thought I had known. Jazz is probably my favorite genre of music and to me, this was jazz. So, naturally, I'm now chasing that in conjunction with technology—another aspect of the Goldsmiths program that really influenced me.
Who or what are some inspirations that serve as a muse to your work?
MaryAnne Amacher is a big one. Her obsessions with patterns in sounds really inspired me to think more about the simplistic layering of frequencies. She was really into the placement of sound in a space. Being so considerate about the idea that the space could be an instrument really pulled me in. I'm really fascinated with how sound moves. It's a very natural occurrence but these days we think about sound in this really 2-D way—a sine wave on a computer screen. So I'm really into the more spatial aspects of sound and how it naturally progresses through certain materials and how it manifests our senses/perceptions.
In your various careers, you work on teams and have recently collaborated with a group of artists for this last EAST. How does collaboration impact your work?
I find so much joy in collaboration. I think a big part of my work is understanding sound through ideas that aren't in my perception, so paying attention to how sound affects others is a really important evolution in what I do. Art can be for yourself, but I find things hidden all the time when I share it with other people.
How important is it for you to see and work with other womxn artists working in sound art?
I had a few female tutors at Goldsmiths who are phenomenal artists (Iris Garrefls, Patricia Alessandrini and Jess Aslan), so knowing they had these amazing abilities really inspired me to have the confidence to aim for whatever I was curious about. And I feel like that's the area where I lack—just to have the confidence to say "I want to do this and I can." It's a really difficult place to arrive to for some in certain industries/environments, so seeing them doing the work they were doing was really essential in me finding my voice and confidence.
How do you see your practice and medium evolving with technology changing so rapidly? Will this play any role in your practice?
Technology is a way for me to extend myself beyond in music, so it's always been a big part of what I do, but it's more of a tool rather than the focus. I still appreciate the organic nature of sound and materials and creating work that questions our senses, which can be done without technology. But I feel now, more than ever, technology has a way of elevating a work into something more dimensional which can be found within a proper balance of non-technological ideas.
How has COVID impacted your work?
It's strange because I've been experiencing more art/music currently than I have in a long time. There has been this outpouring of work that has been moving around quickly since we're all hyper-connected. The convenience of it has overwhelmed me and I want to listen/watch/read everything now that I'm isolated. However, on the other hand, that convenience has also left me feeling stifled with my own personal work. I'm so interested in what others are doing now that I've run out of time to work on my own projects. But there's been such an outpouring of support for the arts that it has me excited and people are connecting in ways that wasn't happening before. For me, that has been the silver lining—having the space and community to collaborate with friends, which is what I've been doing.
LISTEN TO SONYA’S BABES FEST RADIO MIX
ABOUT THIS MIX: "Power Up"
A wide mix of genres from distorted RnB to bluesy-folk to lo-fi pop and even musique concrète, Power Up reveals the range of contributions women have had in music throughout history. Whether through innovative beats or lavish vocals, flawless mixing or original guitar playing, this mix captures each musician pushing their art through themselves and into an understanding of sound that could inspire us all.
TRACKLIST
1. Beatriz Ferrerya - "Echos" from Echos+
2. Polytrue - "Eight_28" [unreleased/untitled album]
3. Ana Jikia: "SZSS" from freezing of the universe, splitting of the sun
4. Klein - "B2K" from Tommy
5. Lucrecia Dalt - "Esotro" from Lucrecia Dalt
6. Ann McMillan - "Syrinx" from Gateway Summer Sound: Abstracted Animal and Other Sounds
7. Anisa Boukhlif & Sonya Gonzales - "Protractor" [unreleased/untitled album]
8. Annabel (lee) - "Breathe Us" from If Music Presents: By The Sea... and Other Solitary Places
9. Maassai - "MIND URS" from C0N$TRUCT!0N 002: The Caution Tape
10. Jasmine Guffond - "Post Human" from Traced
11. Pan Daijing - "A Loving Tongue" from Lack 惊蛰
12. Inga Copeland - "Advice to young girls" from Because I'm Worth It
13. Lealani - "Floating" from Fantastic Planet
14. Muzzy Fossa - "Florida Man" [untitled/unreleased album]
15. Françoise Guimbert - "Tantine Zaza" from Ote Maloya
16. Elizabeth Cotton - "Wilson Rag" from Freight Train and Other North Carolina Folk Songs and Tunes