art smarts

Chapter 2. Artist Profiles

sylvi macCormac

"I am a woman with (dis)ability and an artist with audio-abilities. Audio-art is a rarefied field and has been associated with new or experimental music where the audience is small compared to mainstream music. Our work can be listened to via speakers or headphones, in concert, in dance, theatre, film, in public (art) installations and over radio air waves. Electroacoustic/soundscape composition and audio-art tend to be on the outer fringes of the mainstream musical and art world. I have received both favourable reviews and comments of bewilderment. Electroacoustic is an acquired taste for which there is little mainstream support.”

sylvi, who has multiple sclerosis, has worked in various media throughout her life – painting, mask-making, theatre, folk music and now audio-art. She has been commissioned by a range of groups to create soundscapes. For S4DAC, sylvi created an audio portrait of artists with disabilities, does this Sound like me?, working with voices and the sounds of art-making. For the Witness Project, Round Journey, sylvi included sounds of the Elaho (a spectacular valley in BC that is threatened by clearcut logging), Squamish drumming and singing, and people’s voices speaking about the wilderness. She has also created audio-portraits of the Vancouver Folk Music Festival and Co-op Radio. sylvi received Honorable Mention at the 26e Concours International de Musique Electroacoustique in Bourges, France, in 1999 and was honoured in ceremony for her work on the Witness Project. sylvi considers it an honour to work with others’ voices to create audio-art.

"With or without (dis)ability, creating art is a long journey with both gains and losses, joy and pain. Perseverence furthers, and if your passion is to create art then nothing can stop you."

Gord Payner