BOUNDARYMIND is an evening-length electroacoustic sound piece and aggregating installation that explores and transgresses the geographical, cultural, psychological, and musical boundaries that impact how we share our past, present, and future selves with others.

Developed collaboratively over the course of eight years by Linda Jankowska and Katherine Young, the project will also present video art by Kera Mackenzie and a performative sculpture by Molly Roth Scranton. Boundarymind’s production partners are Experimental Sound Studio, 6018 North, RomanSusan and P.O.Box Collective.

The complete work premieres on June 3rd, 2022 at 6018 North, with a repeat performance on June 5th. Two public performances will include original, collaboratively composed music presented within a multimedia environment. Throughout the performance space we will install objects and materials - ceramic pots, plastic toys, wooden spoons, pine straw, sugar packets, and other things - chosen for their personal significance and power to evoke memories of places from our childhoods. For Linda, the space is a cottage in rural Poland where she spent formative years. For Katie, it is her early childhood home in Mississippi. On a series of visits in 2015, we gathered objects and sound recordings from these places.

The public will also be invited to contribute objects and sounds to this project. We will host community recording events at 6018 North, as well as at RomanSusan and P.O.Box Collective. We will incorporate the recordings we make of the objects people share into a second version of the installation, which we will present at ESS in 2022.

Working on this project, we have become acutely aware of how sharing the history and the personal significance of the objects we are performing with deepens our connection, allowing us to build the trust we need to make music together. Our collaborative process and boundarymind’s unique soundworld became charged with emotional significance and shared meaning. Thus, in this project the unexpectedly musical sounds of household objects allow us to investigate the formation of bonds forged by individuals from different backgrounds. Taking our collaborative musical relationship as a starting point, we will invite listeners and other makers to contribute to the work, sharing memories and sounds from their pasts, as well as their aspirations for our collective future.

This project was supported, in part, by Chicago’s DCASE, Arts Midwest, CeReNeM, Roman Susan, PO Box Collective, 6018|North, Emory Arts, and Experimental Sound Studio.

LISTEN / WATCH >>> The Formalist quartet performs bow breath crow for string trio, which developed in tandem with boundarmind and in collaboration with Linda Jankowska.