The Soundbox collection has been animated and remediated in a number of exciting ways. These remediations take the form of podcasts, oral histories, performances, and exhibitions in order to mobilize this unique collection through dialogue, collaboration, curation, and connection.
Latest
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“It really was an elaborate trip”: Earle Birney on work, writing, and the BC Southern Interior
By Karis Shearer & Paige Hohmann In the following exchange, UBC (Okanagan) SpokenWeb affiliates Karis Shearer and Paige Hohmann turn their attention to a clip from the SoundBox Collection and consider its connection to the B.C. Interior and the B.C. Regional Digitized History archive. This is part one of a series called “Archival Bonds” where…
| SoundBox Signals Podcast
SoundBox Signals is a podcast that brings literary archival recordings to life through a combination of curated close listening and conversation.
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S2, Episode 1: Sharon Thesen’s reading at the Bowerings’
University of Exeter undergraduates Sofie Drew and Emily Chircop carry out a close listening of a 1980 recording of Sharon Thesen reading from her first book Artemis Hates Romance at George and Angela Bowerings’ house. Drew and Chircop’s conversation focuses on the intimacy, sociality, and ambiguity of the recording, and how this shapes interpretation. The…
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S1, Episode 4: Is Robin Here?
“Is Robin here?” On this episode, we ask what we can “know” about the dynamics of a space through listening. We listen to the “Charles Olson Memorial” recording and talk about mourning, spontaneity, relationships, authority, and poetry recitation.
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S1, Episode 3: Only the Imagination Carries Forward
Host Karis Shearer is joined by curator Amy Thiessen and special guest-poets Nancy Holmes and Sharon Thesen. Together they talk about a November 14, 1986 recording featuring Sharon Thesen’s visit to Warren Tallman’s English 205 class at UBC’s Vancouver campus.
| Oral Histories
Oral Histories provide important scaffolding supporting the Soundbox Collection by contextualizing the materials, reflecting critically on the past, and uplifting the voices heard on these tapes.
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On Sharon Thesen’s Reading at the Bowerings’
Karis Shearer talks with George Bowering with contributions from Jean Baird about the Sharon Thesen’s reading and launch of Artemis Hates Romance at George and Angela Bowerings’ house in the early 1980s. Their conversation touches on other readings and literary events at the Bowerings’, a social hub for writers living in and visiting Vancouver.
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Jean Baird tells “The Story of the Baseball.”
Collector and bibliographer Jean Baird tells Karis Shearer the story of the baseball that she donated to the Baird-Bowering fonds at UBC Okanagan Special Collections and Archives.
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Out of Bounds: An Oral History.
Karis Shearer talks with poet-professor Jodey Castricano about “Out of Bounds,” their creative work that recalls their experience in Oakalla and Maple Ridge prisons where they were serving for civil disobedience for blocking logging roads in Sulphur Pass in 1989.
| Events
The Soundbox Collection has come to life through co-presence with poets, culture, audience, and local community.
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Hearing the Interior
The opening of “Hearing the Interior with Fred Wah and Pauline Butling” exhibition featured readings by Daphne Marlatt, Sharon Thesen, Erin Scott, Deanna Fong, and Klara du Plessis.
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Leaf Leaf/sounds))
Leaf Leaf/sounds)) is a multi-track sound piece remixing a digitized 1969 reel-to-reel recording of Daphne Marlatt reading from her book, Leaf Leaf/s. Marlatt’s voice is re-sounded alongside ambient guitar drones and field recordings captured by the artist Xiaoxuan Huang between 2021-2022.
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“A Celebration of the Works of George Bowering”
Citation: “A Celebration of the Works of George Bowering.” 22 September, 2022. UBC Okanagan, Special Collections. https://soundbox.ok.ubc.ca/remediations/performances/
| Exhibitions
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“It really was an elaborate trip”: Earle Birney on work, writing, and the BC Southern Interior
By Karis Shearer & Paige Hohmann In the following exchange, UBC (Okanagan) SpokenWeb affiliates Karis Shearer and Paige Hohmann turn their attention to a clip from the SoundBox Collection and consider its connection to the B.C. Interior and the B.C. Regional Digitized History archive. This is part one of a series called “Archival Bonds” where…
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“World word alive”: Fred Wah at Malaspina
By Klara du Plessis On 3 February 1972 at 8pm, Fred Wah was recorded on ¼ inch magnetic tape reading at Malaspina College (now Vancouver Island University) in Nanaimo, B.C. The event was sponsored by the Canada Council for the Arts and formed part of a two-month series that included other poets such as Stan Persky and Robert Kroetsch. The reel-to-reel is part of the Fred Wah fonds in the SoundBox Collection at the University…