Wonder what San Francisco’s avant-garde sounded like in 1975? Beginning July 11, Audium Theater celebrates its 50th anniversary with a rare revival of Audium VI- a groundbreaking tape piece by co-founder Stan Shaff, newly reimagined by his son David Shaff for the venue’s 176-speaker immersive sound system.
The work is a living time capsule; field recordings and electronic textures transport audiences onto a rumbling freight train, into a fog horn-filled bay, and alongside children’s voices that chase each other around the room. Audium VI was originally composed on tape and premiered at the then-brand-new Bush Street location in 1975, marking the debut of a radical new form of spatial sound performance. One can only imagine what audiences at that time must have thought.
Fast forward 50 years and the tape machine has been traded for a computer, but Audium’s original, artful aesthetic remains intact. Thanks to its ongoing archival program and countless volunteer hours, the original Audium VI tapes were digitized in-house. The performance has been reimagined by David Shaff, who now takes the role of performer and sound sculptor, just as his father did decades ago.
To mark Audium VI’s revival, artists and Audium archivists Blanca Bercial and Emma Scully have created an interactive lobby experience with objects from the theater’s historic archive. Audience members can explore tactile relics, rummage through a desk full of archival materials, and answer a rotary phone with voices from the past. For tech-minded visitors, the all-in-the-dark machinery from behind the scenes- the original Audium control board- will be on display.
Cost: $20-30