Countdown of Biennial Highlights...Nina Waisman

Nina Waisman, Between Bodies / Tijuana, 2008-2010;
First showing 2008; new site-specific iteration for OCMA (with new sound), 2010;
Site-specific mixed media, computer, software, electronics, audio equipment;
With Pure Data programming by Maruis Schebella, runs continuously, interaction times vary;
Dimensions variable; Photograph of guests within the installation courtesy of ColinYoung-Wolff.com

"I spent 10 minutes walking back and forth, waving my hands and orchestrating, addicted."
—Dave Barton, OC Weekly

Biennial Artist: Nina Waisman

Nina Waisman is a new-media artist based in San Diego. Often situated in transitional public spaces, her site-specific, interactive installations explore the relationship between the body and physical space and place. Her installation Between Bodies/Tijuana, as Waisman explains, “uses technology to connect visitors’ gestures to everyday work and play sound-gestures, recorded throughout Tijuana, focusing on aspects of richly layered lives that are not being portrayed by mass media.” The piece has a similar sonic structure as a theremin—the position of the visitor’s body within the museum interacts and shifts the pitch, speed, and volume of the emanating city sounds of Tijuana, establishing a gestural and sonic dialog between the two locations.

Sounds from the streets of Tijuana include:

Border gates (pedestrian entrance into Tijuana)

Taxi drivers calling for fares on Revolución

Wind chimes for sale near Revolución

Filing devalued coins into pricier tourist mementos on Revolución

Bike-horn used to advertise sweet ices to passers-by on Revolución

Street musicians playing Fara-Fara for market-goers near Revolución

Making tortillas in a corner restaurant on the way to 5 Y 10

Die-cutting cardboard for packaging in Colonia Chilpancingo

Typing online reports of toxic manufacturing practices in Chilpancingo-based factories (these factories produce consumer items for the US market)

Pushcart salesman calling for ice cream sales in residential streets of Colonia Chilpancingo

Raking up street rubble to prevent it being thrown by cars at pedestrians in Los Laureles

Hammering repairs on improvisational housing in Los Laureles

Jump-roping girls on the street of Los Laureles

Boys and men digging a ditch along the street in Los Laureles

Children riding tricycles and bikes in circles outside their homes in Los Laureles

Norteño music played in a street market in ejido Maclovio Rojas

Car-mounted advertising playing through the streets of Maclovio Rojas

Telecommunicating via dial-up (volunteers in community-run government offices in Maclovio Rojas seeking basic services and constitutionally-granted title to community land, in the face of global corporations’ attempts to privately acquire this land)

Ice cream truck heard throughout the streets of Maclovio Rojas

Children working in the market in Maclovio Rojas

Bike bells advertising push-cart sales

Roosters raised for cockfights

Military helicopters

Police sirens

Footsteps

Wind

Birds