Walking Dead - in memoriam, R.A. Harris
Walking Dead metaphorically places an audience inside a gas chamber just prior to an execution. The five minute prelude samples and mixes local media opinions of the impending 1992 execution of R.A. Harris at San Quentin Prison; California's first execution in over 25 years. A series of slides are projected of the protest and media frenzy at the prison. The prelude ends with a prison door slamming, and the body of the work begins. Sampled clock ticking and heart beating exponentially speed up and slow down respectively through two main front speakers. Live breathing is amplified and played through two speakers in the rear of the hall, placing the audience within a sonic body. Using software synthesis, a series of sine waves move up in pitch and intensity, interrupted abruptly by white noise which closes the piece. The only constant time reference is marked by ten silent performers who encircle the audience: their candles are lit one every minute. As the white noise is filtered to a pure sine wave, the ten performers gather together at the front of the space, and extinguish their candles at once.
Walled City Trilogy c 1992 Donna Marie McCabe