For Paul Kos, whose work is discussed by Tom Marioni in a roundtable discussion, sound could occupy a conceptual realm; in his Sound of Ice Melting (1970), viewers strained to hear the sound of ice melting in what could only have been a tangible silence.

Crossing to the other side of the room is more like swimming than walking. With every step I am more conscious of my body and the invisible particles brushing against and off of it, their paths tracing and re-tracing the surfaces of every other body and object within the room.

This expansive view of the musical experience meant that everything was both inspiration and material: using the mechanical pops and pings of electronic music, traditional musical sounds generated by instruments and the human voice

There’s an interesting distinction, though—San Francisco is expanding from being a sonic-arts center to being a sonic-arts-infrastructure center. Mills and CCRMA routinely produce graduates who carry elsewhere the cultural DNA of the Bay Area’s indigenous sound explorations.

From recorded albums to live performances, solo work to collaborations, and fine art to film soundtracks, Ethan Rose works with both sonic and visual art within a practice that is elastic, adaptable, and explorative. As evidenced in his diverse projects, Rose is keenly aware of the evocative power of sound used in conjunction with visual stimuli to create an integrated, evocative whole.