between systems and grounds is an ongoing collaboration between composer Paula Matthusen and visual artist Olivia Valentine, drawing on a mutually developed practice combining textile construction and electronics in real-time.
The project began in 2016, with a live performance in Budapest. The system has since evolved through a series of residencies and collaborative work sessions where the durational aspects of the system were developed, as well as its embrace of site-specificity. The project grows with each iteration and performance, integrating field recordings, radio signals, feedback, and a system of cues that all contribute to the slowly-growing textile.
The textile lives and grows in handmade foamcore furniture, that acts as a work surface, sculpture, and music box that slowly plays back accumulated recordings triggered by the textile. As the project continues, all of the systems will continue to grow and change in response.
Starting in 2019, an AVL Compudobby weaving loom was brought into the mix, and with the pandemic, audio streaming platforms and remote shared work. This new iteration of the project continued throughout the pandemic, resulting in tracks for a second album release between systems and grounds: the overshot sessions, available through carrier records in June 2023.
