Last Whispers

October 5 - October 6, 2024 | 11:00am TO 6:00pm

Installation

Off-Site

Herrick Chapel on Occidental Campus.

Last Whispers is an experiential, immersive work dedicated to the extinction of languages - an extinction of linguistic and cultural diversity that occurs through silence. It sounds what has gone silent through layering recordings of speech, recitatives, incantations, songs and ritual chants from languages that are extinct and endangered, with sounds from nature and outer space frequencies (made audible), and abstracted visuals. While we drown in the noise of our own voices—uttered within dominant cultures and languages—we are surrounded by a vast ocean of silence. MAC Professor Amanda Tasse collaborated with Director Lena Herzog to build the visual world of Last Whispers, and animated it.

A front view of the immersive, looping 28-minute projection will be screened in the Chapel with surround sound. Drop in Saturday or Sunday from 11am - 6pm to experience the installation. You can visit OXY ARTS at 4757 York Blvd before or after to view the Invisibility: Powers & Perils exhibition.

Special Panel Discussion and Q&A
Saturday, October 5 | 5 PM
Oxy MAC Professor and project Art Director Amanda Tasse will join VR/Technical Director Jonathan Yomayuza, Oxy Linguistics Professor Mariška Bolyanatz Brown, and Oxy Cognitive Scientist Sasha Sherman for a panel discussion and Q&A. Attendees are encouraged to arrive at Herrick Chapel by 4:30pm to experience the entire work before the panel discussion.

Director/Producer: Lena Herzog
Art Director, Animator: MAC Professor, Amanda Tasse
VR/Technical Director: Jonathan Yomayuza
Sound Composers: Mark Mangini, Marco Capalbo

Abstract black and white illustration of water with letters from different languages floating.

About the Artists

Lena Herzog

portrait of the artist, closeup with left half of face overexposed

Amanda Tasse

full color close up of the artist looking toward camera left

Jonathan Yomayuza

The work of the multidisciplinary conceptual artist Lena Herzog is centered around themes of ritual and gesture, loss and dislocation. In order to convey them, she has explored the intersection of art and science both as a subject and as a process, by utilizing early photographic, contemporary and alternative experimental techniques in her printing work, as well as cutting-edge sound, immersive installation and virtual reality technologies for other projects. Herzog is the author of seven monographs published by SKIRA, TASCHEN and Rizzoli. Her work has been widely reviewed and exhibited in major museums and venues around the world. She lives and works in Los Angeles.

www.lenaherzog.com

Amanda Tasse designs 3D experiences that allow us to feel our way through existential problems of decay and regeneration, climate despair, and spatial well-being. As an art director, she co-creates visionary worlds that use cinematic visual storytelling and emerging media to resonate with information in new ways. She aims to craft a flow between interfaces (the physical and digital, informational and expressive) that is tangible, intuitive, insightful, and meaningful. She has applied her real-time art, animation, and live-action storytelling to immersive projection, VR, AR, games, and short films. She is an Assistant Professor of Emerging Media and Animation at Occidental College.

www.amandatasse.com

Jonathan Yomayuza (VR director and engineer) is a VR Technical Director. He’s delivered multiple VR projects for the Vive, three of which have been screened at Sundance as well as and another which was presented to the United States Congress. Through over ten years of experience in the video game industry, his mastery of programs such as Maya, Unity, Unreal, Z-brush have allowed him to continually push the boundaries of VR. Jonathan is also an expert and pioneer in photogrammetry - a revolutionary technique that is paving the way for the VR of the future.

About the Artists

Gallery