Cheryl L’Hirondelle nikamon ohci askiy (songs because of the land) :: until February 2009 :: Vancouver, B.C.

This project explores the relationship between sound, space and identity as experienced through a cree worldview. By creating a “performative audio map”, L’Hirondelle will negotiate a journey through new territory, developing a nomadic relationship with the land. Her actions/singing will be in direct response to her encounters within the territory – the physical environment she finds herself in and its inhabitants.

During the month of December, the artist will make daily journeys throughout Vancouver and “sing” the landscape she encounters. These encounters will be captured by mobile phone by the artist and whatever other technologies are made available by participating viewers/audience (video, photo, audio).

During the live performances, she will sing, record, upload and tag these audio clips to an online database. Each audio clip will be tagged to one or more of the 16 cree values. The clips will automatically be available to online audiences interactively through a rich online media experience available here.

This interactive experience intends to illuminate the relationship between the spirit or inspiration for the singing (the song, the audio) and the value it corresponds to within a cree worldview while engaging online audiences to interact with the content via a mashup/audio remix style interface.

Unscheduled live performances will begin November 24th and take place daily until December 31st with the interactive website premiering December 7, 2008. Additionally, selected scheduled performance locations during December will be listed on the grunt gallery website

Subscribe to project feed at Twitter.com to learn more about following/participating or tracking daily performances or visit the blog.

Participants are also invited to take part in the daily performances by submitting text, photos, videos or audio material to vancouversonglines@gmail.com for inclusion in the project blog. In addition to this, audiences may contribute sound clips to the remix interface by uploading audio to the website and can additionally link videos to the project’s youtube site.

Cheryl L’Hirondelle is a currently Vancouver-based multi and interdisciplinary mixed blood artist and musician originally from northern Alberta. Her artistic practice is an investigation of the junction of a cree worldview (nêhiyawin) in contemporary time and space.