Sound Artist/Composer Federico Schumacher's 1197 Project

Chilean sound artist Federico Schumacher is undertaking what promises to be a profoundly moving composition, the 1197 Collaborative Project remembering those who were disappeared during Pinochet's military dictatorship in Chile (1973-1990). Schumacher is collecting the voices of people reading the names of the 1197 persons (one name per participant) for a composition to debut in 2007.

Below is a Google English translation (helped a little by me) of Schumacher's project description. If you read Spanish or French check out his site:

•• 1197 Project description from Federico Schumacher ••
1197 names of disappeared people, more likely assassinated, evoked by 1197 voices of people of different countries, cultures, sex, political religion, race, opinions, and/or ages. Gathered through the internet or invited by a friend, these 1197 voices will be presented in a musical work thanks to an aggregate of electronic mail, notices on discussion lists, in short, utilizing all methods that today offer us the possibility of communicating and sharing ideas the virtual world.

Perhaps it is a this good way to speak of globalization.

1197 names of people disappeared, named by other so many living ones. Perhaps it seems strange that so many people want to participate in something like this, possibly we have been deceived and human beings share more in common than we have been led to believe.

Evoking these 1197 names will not cause the reappearance of those who no longer are, but I believe that it is a way to keep the memory alive, to insist Never More. Neither in Chile, nor in any other country.

Ultimately, this will be a musical work. An electroacoustic work using eight channels. Realized with the above in mind, and with the greatest respect for the relatives of the people who we will evoke in her [the art work], moreover, the act of creation is always the first challenge of art, and it is in an artistic-musical language in which this challenge will be fulfilled.

The composition of this work, as well as its eventual release on compact disc, is being financed by the Fondo de la Música Nacional del Consejo de la Cultura del Gobierno de Chile/Fund of the National Music of the Council of the Culture of the Government of Chile.

"1197" will premier in October 2007 at VII Festival Internacional de Música
Electroacústica de Santiago de Chile "Ai-Maako" 2007/ Ai-Maako: The 7th Annual Festival of Electroacoustic Music of Santiago, Chile, simultaneous with the release of my disc [In] DISCIPLINE, on which the project "1197" will appear.

If you want to participate in this project, send an email to Federico Schumacher:
1193@federicoschumacher.cl