Regina Martinez
sonogram for a ghost
HD video, color, stereo
8 minutes 36 seconds
2021
“Want to hear a song I made?” My mom called to share a tune in her head for days. She seemed pleased with her ears’ ability to find the notes on a small keyboard my brother had gifted her. Something to do during the pandemic. A perfectionist to her core, I have never known my mother to enjoy herself creatively. And in these simple notes, I hear her laugh and longing, her curiosity and pride. Sometimes we lose sight of each other. We do not always understand each other. May be sound is the feeling below the words.
–– Regina Martinez
Regina Martinez, also remembered as selective listening, experiences sound as records of our connections and departures. Her current experiments draw from an archive of infinitely personal recordings she relates to as soundmarks: her father's hands cleaning dried beans, drumline rehearsal after school, the flap of our clothes outside on the line, the creak of a gate to home. Each captured moment becomes its own instrument, its own layer of composition, and a washing and wringing out of memory meant to be overheard like a poem again and again. Her practice evolves through commissioned installations, dj sets, live performance and sound design for experimental film. Regina grew up in Saint Louis, Missouri where she was artistic director of the Pink House neighborhood art space for creative exchange with children and their families. She is co-creator of “the clothesline” monthly one-night audio-visual installation in St. Louis. More recently she was program manager for Threewalls in Chicago, and received an MA in Sound Arts & Industries from Northwestern University.
For more infomation and work, please visit selectivelistening.site.