Playing the Border

Photo Courtesy of Jennifer Funk-Weyent

As I scoured the internet looking for a border art related activity I could attend this weekend while I was in Phoenix, I stumbled across the SonicAnta project website. It took me a while to figure out exactly what Tucsonan Glenn Weyent's sound project entailed, but it didn't take me long to realize that the artist I was reading about, was actually my former journalism Features Writing professor. If I never believed how small of a world Tucson was, I definitely believed it now.

According to his website www.sonicanta.com, Mr. Weyent began his project in one form or another about twenty years ago. As best as I can describe it SonicAnta is a music undertaking in which Mr. Weyent plays the metal border wall separating Nogales, Mexico and the United States using modified chopsticks and a cello bow. Literally. He set up a stethoscope type microphone to capture the vibration sounds of the wall, in addition to playing the metal wires of the fence with his bow. The result, an electronic, guitar feedback, alien sounding compilation of audible vibrations and wavelengths that defies comparison. A soundtrack for Mars, if you will. But like Mr. Weyent says, "the instrument IS the message" so maybe the alien description is not so far off; eerie but effective.

Photo Courtesy of Jennifer Funk-Weyent
By definition Sonic means of or pertaining to sound and Anta is a sanskrit meaning border or end of known territory, according to the website. Mr. Weyent considers himself a “sound sculptor,” trying to capture the feel of the border in a way that no other type of artist has tried before. As an advantageous undertaking the SonicAnta project feels and sounds distant. Upon first listen or even second and third listen, the mind has a difficult time deciphering what it's being exposed to. But distance is a symbolic description considering what the border represents to populations on both sides. We, Mexicans and Americans, are so close in that we are only separated by a wall, and yet worlds upon worlds away in terms of culture, ideals, opportunities and acceptance.

It makes me wonder... what is a wall? I'll keep going with my definition repetition this time. According to www.dictionary.com (honestly one of my favorite websites) wall means an immaterial or intangible barrier, obstruction or any various permanent upright constructions having a length much greater than the thickness. If these simplistic definitions decide what we consider a wall to mean, than why have we built this "wall" up, so to speak? America is not the most accepting of countries and based on our history our track record backs up that assertion pretty accurately (ie: Civil Rights movement, the American Indians, and the Japanese internment camps).

However, definitions are subjective. So why not change the way we think and view "the wall?" John Watters thought of it as "just another brick in the wall" after all. In any case, I think this is what Mr. Weyent is getting at with his project. This is another attempt at figuring out what the border means and what it should become. We have quite a debate on our hands, but perhaps taking abstract glances at these defined and potential meanings of the border can break through some of the roundabout bureaucratic discussions that seem to be getting nowhere.

Mr. Weyent lives in Tucson, is a freelance journalist and an adjunct journalism professor at The University of Arizona. He can be contacted at glenn@sonicanta.com or checking out the website www.sonicanta.com.

Some important links:

SonicAnta’s feature on NPR’s “All Things Considered”

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5482919

Article in the Phoenix New Times

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2006-11-09/music/avant-garde-the-border/

SonicAnta’s MP3s:

America Waits

http://www.sonicanta.com/audio/GLENN_WEYANT-AMERICA_WAITS.mp3

Clear Light

http://www.sonicanta.com/audio/GLENN_WEYANT-CLEAR_LIGHT.mp3

Passage

http://www.sonicanta.com/audio/GLENN_WEYANT-PASSAGE.mp3