Sonic Blanket was a community-based, multimedia art project addressing the themes of isolation, connection, history, and place. The central component was a sound collage designed for radio by Brattleboro artists Jonathan Gitelson, Weston Olencki, and Diana Whitney. The finished piece was broadcast each night at midnight on WVEW 107.7fm (Brattleboro Community Radio) between December 18, 2021, and December 11, 2022, as well as on select Sundays at 2:30 p.m.

The idea for Sonic Blanket was born during the early days of the pandemic lockdown, while Gitelson was walking through his neighborhood in Brattleboro. The glow of lights inside all the houses felt at once comforting and melancholy, knowing that everyone inside those homes was feeling the same fear and isolation. Seeking to create a way to offer comfort and protection to everyone in these homes, radio waves seemed to be an apt metaphor: both an invisible forcefield hovering above us, and a comforting blanket that we sleep below.

The invisible blanket of sound waves emitting from the tower of WVEW extends roughly 10 miles in every direction. This “sonic blanket” (or listening area) was the literal and metaphorical framework for the collaboration. All of the participants live beneath this sonic blanket. The sound recordings were made here, the poem was written here, and the voices in the piece are those of community members who call Brattleboro home.

Sonic Blanket also consisted of a series of visual public artworks and events. During the summer of 2022, we partnered with local non-profit organizations Artful Streets, the Downtown Brattleboro Alliance, and Putney-based artist Amber Paris to develop a series of interactive art-making events and public installations for each of Brattleboro’s Gallery Walks (monthly, May-December). We presented a poetry workshop inspired by the Sonic Blanket poem, an outdoor fabric installation created with the community poems, a DIY artist book scavenger hunt, and a screenprint your own t-shirt event.

We also partnered with the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center and the Brattleboro Retreat Farm for a series of public listening parties where community members were invited to sit together beneath the radio waves during a live radio broadcast.

Additional public artworks included full-page color posters printed in two of the local newspapers, a series of outdoor signs hung in tucked-away places and beside hiking trails throughout the broadcast area which read “You are beneath the cover of the Sonic Blanket,” and a 3’ x 25’ banner that was installed above Main Street for one week in early September, 2022.

Two-channel audio, 15 minutes.

Processed archive of ambient environmental recordings made within local broadcast radius; hydro phonic recordings of Whetstone Brook, Connecticut River, Green River; locally sourced slate roofing tiles; Brattleboro First Baptist pipe organ and spire bell; radio static; traditional Abenaki rattles, rainsticks, and drums; digital resonators; spoken text. All field recordings, samples, and audio materials were made and recorded by Weston Olencki.

Press

  • Seven Days Vermont

    December 15, 2021

    “At its core, "Sonic Blanket" is public art that reflects the resilience and interconnectedness of the Brattleboro community during a time of isolation and trauma due to the pandemic.”

    Full Story Here

  • The Commons

    December 15, 2021

    “Sonic Blanket can be applauded not only for tapping into the rich and varied local arts scene, but also for calling on community involvement in such an essential way.”

    Full Story Here

  • Brattleboro Reformer

    December 30, 2021

    ”Voices of different pitches and accents layer and echo. Some lines start undiscernible, then rise to the forefront, until we make out the words, ‘Even in darkness / there’s the light of memory’”

    Full Story Here

  • Keene Sentinel

    September 9, 2022

    “The project has since expanded beyond the airwaves over the town with public art installations and art-making workshops. Starting Sunday, a banner will hang over Main Street until the following Sunday.”

    Full Story Here

  • Brattleboro Reformer

    September 8, 2022

    “Local artist Jonathan Gitelson hopes people won’t be freaked out when a banner hanging over Main Street soon reads, “You are beneath the cover of the Sonic Blanket.”

    Full Story Here

Contributors

  • Jonathan Gitelson

    Jonathan Gitelson is a Professor of Art & Design at Keene State College in NH. He works in a variety of mediums including photography, book arts, video, installation, and public art and has exhibited internationally at institutions that include: MASS MoCA, the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Milwaukee Art Museum. His artwork is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Photography, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and the Fidelity Investment Collection, and more.

    www.jonathangitelson.com

  • Diana Whitney

    Diana Whitney is a writer and poet based in Brattleboro, VT. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Kenyon Review, and many more. She is the recipient of a Creation Grant from the Vermont Arts Council and was the longtime poetry critic for the San Francisco Chronicle. Diana’s poetry debut, Wanting It, won the Rubery Book Award, and her anthology You Don’t Have to Be Everything: Poems for Girls Becoming Themselves, was released by Workman Publishing to critical acclaim and became a YA bestseller.

    www.diana-whitney.com

  • Weston Olencki

    Weston Olencki is a musician, composer, and sound artist. They have presented work internationally at venues including the Borealis Festival, the Ghent Jazz Festival, and the American Academy in Rome. Weston has released recordings with various labels, including HatHut, Sound American, and Carrier Records, and their release SOLO WORKS was featured on Bandcamp Daily’s Best Experimental Music of 2020. Weston is a member of RAGE THORMBONES, Ensemble Pamplemousse, the Wet Ink Large Ensemble, and performs regularly as a soloist.

    www.westonolencki.com

  • Amber Paris

    Amber Paris is a visual artist based in Putney Vermont. She works across diverse mediums that include fiber, bookmaking, photography, placemaking art and painting. Amber’s work has been shown widely and is included in private and public collections including the Bainbridge Island Art Museum Artist’s Book Collection. She was the 2019 grant recipient of the Crosby-Gannet and Dunham-Mason funds in partnership with the Westminster West Library. She has served as an artist in residence at numerous public institutions across her region.

    www.amberparis.net

Special Acknowledgements

  • Special acknowledgment and gratitude to Denise and Paul Pouliot, Tribal Leaders of the Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook-Abenaki People in New Hampshire, who graciously welcomed us into their home and shared with us their collection of traditional Abenaki instruments and traditions. The recordings that we made at their home are featured prominently throughout the soundtrack of Sonic Blanket.

  • The voices that are featured on the recording of Sonic Blanket were generously provided by community members who volunteered their time to assist with this project:

    Zara Bode, William Forchion, Olive Gitelson, Cassandra Holloway, Robin Morgan, Daniel Quipp, Paula Smoot Sistare, Brandie Starr, Amanda Witman, and Diana Whitney.

Partners