While the coronavirus might make someone lose their ability to taste and smell, the San Jose Museum of Art partnered up with The Come Up and SJ Made, to preserve the pleasures of sight and sound.
On Thursday, the San Jose Museum of Art hosted The Come Up and SJMade, two organizations that focus on highlighting local creatives, remotely hosted their sixth annual event “Soundscaping” through the streaming platform Twitch.
Guests who attended Soundscaping in previous years were able to hear live musicians while exploring the museum’s captivating
art exhibits.
This event came to San Jose in 2016 and was originally intended to be a museum pop-up under the guidance of Paulina Vu, manager of museum experience for the San Jose Museum of Art.
“We wanted to enhance the exhibitions,” Vu said. “A good way that we could do this would be to bring music into the galleries, to accompany the art.”
Coronavirus restrictions did not allow for the event to be held in person this year, so organizers adapted by hosting the event online.
The livestreamed event was previously recorded to ensure the quality of the videos played for the event was acceptable for guests who wanted to show their support and promote COVID-19 safety.
“For us, it made way more sense to have the stream be pre-recorded for that main reason [of safety]” said The Come Up co-founder
Isaiah Wilson.
Everyone working on the project was required to submit negative test results for COVID-19 before coming to the museum. Social distancing was enforced and performers were only permitted to remove their masks while recording.
Performers were also brought in at different time slots and were unable to roam the museum outside of their designated areas.
“I was kind of sad I couldn’t see the rest of the displays,” Joy Hackett, a performer for the event, said.
The musicians featured in this year’s event were Hackett, Julia Bozzo, also known as Planttvibes, and William Corduroy.
This was The Come Up’s first event since March 2020 when Gov. Gavin Newsom introduced stay-at-home orders to help slow the spread of COVID-19.
The artists were placed in front of two major art exhibitions: “Barring Freedom,” which showcased art from 20 different creators regarding their perception of the nation’s prison industrial complex; and “South East North West,” which presented new artworks added to the museum’s permanent collection.
Choosing a space for the performers to occupy was a detailed effort when aspects like lighting and power had to be considered.
“We had to think about practical things, like, can we actually film in this space?” Vu said. “The other thing too is visually, the works that were selected to compliment the musicians, how that would be as the backdrop?”
According to Wilson, the event reached up to 70 viewers and had some guests stay after the event ended to listen to music played on the
Twitch channel.
“I’m really happy about the numbers,” Wilson said. “If we were to do this continuously the numbers go up, but I do kind of dig the fact that we put this out and people still decided to stick around and watch it.”
The Come Up is planning to release a video series showcasing performer interviews accompanied by the recorded version of the event for people to continue enjoying.
