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Date/Time
Date(s) - December 6, 2021 - January 21, 2022
9:00 am - 4:00 pm

Location
Directions Gallery, Visual Arts

Categories


The Department of Art and Art History presents the exhibition the Aylesworth Project by CSU Alums, Grant and Brent Helzer, both graduates from the English program at CSU and experimental sound artists. The exhibition, curated by Del Harrow, will be on display from December 6 – January 21, in the Directions Gallery, Visual Arts Building, CSU Campus.

The Aylesworth Project is organized around an experimental sound/video piece Grant and Brent Helzer created with recordings before and during the demolition of the old Aylesworth building. Read More

Background History

Aylesworth Hall was a student dormitory at Colorado State University from 1958 to 2019. Built-in response to an influx of students in the years following World War Two, the building operated as a dormitory for several years before gradually being converted to other functions, housing many different departments, offices, and classes during its lifetime before being torn down in 2019. The Aylesworth Project revives the dormitory through pieces created from the sounds of Aylesworth Hall, pieces that reflect sonic states of the building during the last two years of its life- states of disuse, emptiness, and demolition.

Recording Aylesworth Hall

Because parts of the interior remained almost untouched, not only did Aylesworth Hall look the same as it did in the late 50s, it also sounded the same. Spaces were chosen to be recorded based on how intact they were, as well as their general emptiness. The process of clearing out Aylesworth picked up significantly in 2017, leaving large portions of the building almost completely empty, and this emptiness inspired The Aylesworth Project. The empty rooms presented ideal conditions for recording the space. With little to diffuse them, the spaces were free to sound truly themselves. And with nearly perfectly preserved original materials, it was possible to record Aylesworth Hall with a rare transparency.