Open In, Open Up, Open Out

Co-presented with University of Washington’s DXArts SPAM New Media Festival, Open In, Open Up, Open Out is a sonic experience created by CHARI in dialogue with and reflection upon Raúl de Nieves: A window to the see, a spirit star chiming in the wind of wonder… currently on view at the Henry. Holding in mind de Nieves’s evocation of realms of the material, metaphysical, spiritual, and ancestral, Open In, Open Up, Open Out is both embodied experiment and installation that encourages deep listening, reflection, and observation from the audience. Using sound, field recordings, and vocal incantations, CHARI creates a sound world between worlds and performs within it, activating de Nieves’ exploration of how we transform as individuals who move between comfort and discomfort, known and unknown, and around again.

Composed in three movements, visitors are welcome to join the performance at any time during the program. If you would like to experience the entirety of the performance, we encourage you to arrive by 3 PM. During the last movement, visitors will be invited to participate in the sonic experience.

About CHARI
CHARI is a NY Emmy nominated composer, performer, scholar, and artist. With a dynamic, often experimental, and interdisciplinary approach, CHARI’s work becomes a captivating canvas for examining the dynamic interplay between the human experience and society. In their recent works, CHARI's artistry transcends conventional boundaries, delving into profound questions that examine themes of empathy, conflict, catharsis, history, systems, and memory. Each artistic expression serves as a thought-provoking exploration, inviting audiences to immerse themselves in the complexities of these diverse facets.

CHARI works fluidly between mediums and methods of creation, often bringing in various artistic elements into the works that they create, however, they have achieved the following categorical distinctions:

As a composer, CHARI is known for creating progressive experimental soundscapes and orchestral compositions. They have composed commissioned works for The Center of the Art of Performance at UCLA, Emmy Nominated Black Iris Project Ballet Company (NY, USA), New Music USA, the multi-award winning independent film Miss Alma Thomas: A Life in Color. As a sound designer, they have contributed to the creations of live dance productions, most notably as the sound designer and composer for Do the Hustle (NY) , a Broadway inspired production that debuted at the Guggenheim Museum in 2022. As a sound performer, CHARI embraces the tradition of improvisation, building soundscapes up over time utilizing voice, field recordings, and a collection of their favorite electronic and acoustic instruments. As a theatrical performer, CHARI stages experimental performance works that test the limits of audience performer dynamics and investigate social norms. As a mixed media artist, CHARI's work includes video, data and coding, archival footage and sound, maps, and machine learning systems. Their recent work, Scream Church, made its debut at Bumbershoot Festival as a part of the Out of Sight curatorial presentation. 

CHARI is a McNair Scholar, a Nevada Art Council Fellow, a UW Black Opportunity Fund Awardee, a New Music USA Creative Development Fund Awardee, a UW Howard P. Dallas Fellow and a Henry Arts Gallery Ritual Fellow. CHARI holds a B.S. in Health Ecology from the University of Nevada, Reno, an M.F.A. in Electronic Music and Recording Media from Mills College in Oakland, CA, and is currently in their third year of Ph.D. studies in Experimental Arts and Digital Media at the University of Washington.

About the SPAM New Media Festival
The SPAM New Media Festival is hosted by the department of digital arts and experimental media (DXArts) at the University of Washington. SPAM is a Seattle-based experimental arts festival which brings together practitioners working on the fringes and frontiers of new media art and knowledge production. Taking place at various venues across Seattle, the yearly festival consists of a program of exhibitions, performances, workshops, and discussions rooted in, or emerging from, technology driven art and digital culture. This includes, but is not limited to, the projects of artists and researchers working within the fields of AI, robotics, sound, experimental video, VR, wearable technology, photogrammetry, and radio.

We are calling upon the rebellious potential of the internet. We want to be a bug in the system, resisting the dominance of capital driven media culture through multiplicity and difference, through embodiment and critical practice. But SPAM is also about regrowth in the wake of ruin, reconstitution, and persistence through hard times. We are interested in ideas of collectivity, possibility, commonality, and queerness. As a collaboration of artists looking to address these ways of being, we hope to leave breadcrumbs, to create pathways of interconnectivity, and make traces for our future selves.