Divining for Lost Sound

the air breathed around me
Sound-score for Ceperley House, © 1999
by Peter Courtemanche and Lori Weidenhammer

There are two threads to this piece: a story describing a seance, and the imagined daily life of Grace Ceperley.

The story describes the seance in terms of sounds. It is written in the style of such texts from the 1920's and 30's. The setting, props, and reactions are based on reasearch into the Spiritualist movement - most notably, the T.G. Hamilton Collection at the University of Manitoba, and various documents on the subject from the 20's to the 60's.

T.G. Hamilton was a researcher who photographed seances in a laboratory setting during the 30's. One of the most interesting things about his collection are his hand written notes which accompany the photographs. These notes recognize the often staged look of the photographs while at the same time providing an explanation for these apparent tricks. Strings that run from the medium to noise making devices are said to be pulled by the spirit that moves through the medium. Ectoplasm is said to condense into forms that resembles cheese cloth and silk.

Interwoven with the story of the seance are sounds from the imagined daily life of Grace Ceperley - who is said to haunt the building to this day. This includes the sounds of musical gatherings, teas, servants running down stairs, etc.

The trappings of spiritualism are evoked through mention of spirit cabinets, bells, rapping devices, and unearthly contact with the spirit world.

Divining for Lost Sound

EXHIBTIONS

Ceperley House, Burnaby, 1999

Kunst in Der Stadt 2, Bregenz,
Austria, 1998

SNAC, St. Norbert Manitoba, 1997