This week, JustArts sat down with Victoria Cheah, a Ph.D candidate studying Music Composition, to talk about her project for the upcoming Festival of the Arts.

JustArts: Can you explain to me "Mirror, Mirror," your Festival of the Arts project?

Victoria Cheah: This installation consists of two designated places for communication-each one contains a parabolic dish that reflects sound to the other. In front of each "whisper dish" is a specially made instrument, which a visitor can make sounds with and communicate non-verbally with someone at the other dish.

JA: Where did you get the inspiration for the project?

VC: I've always been interested in indirect communication and weird monuments of mammoth scale-I was up late one night wasting time online and found a site about these gigantic concrete sound mirrors in Britain, which they built during the war in order to hear any enemy approaching. Something about these leftover devices struck me and I started thinking about how to use that kind of technology in a smaller-scale piece. As a musician who has terrible stage anxiety, the issue of performance, in public or in private, is also very interesting to me-I wanted to explore modes of performance that called to attention the line between private communications and public proclamation, both intentional and not.

JA: What do you hope the Brandeis community will take away from the artwork?

VC: I hope that those who choose to spend time with the work will have some kind of moment with it, whether a positive one connecting with a stranger or a friend or a negative one.

JA: Have you been part of the Festival of the Arts in previous years?

VC: Yes-last year I built a large white wooden corridor that involved sound outside the Rose Art Museum, taking a cue from the Ellsworth Kelly piece "Blue White." It was about a physical relationship with sound and form. I wanted to change an arbitrarily defined space into something different, a guided experience.

JA: How would you describe the purpose of the Brandeis' Festival of the Arts and its significance on campus?

VC: The Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts is an amazing thing. The Festival is when art of all kinds really takes over the campus and becomes part of campus life for a few days. It's so important to support emerging art-when I say art, I refer to all artistic disciplines-music, dance, visual arts, etc.-and to encourage people to interact with art, especially if they don't make it.

JA: As an artist, what kinds of works would you say represent your artistic style, either something you created or like?

VC: I'm not sure if I have a style yet, but I am drawn to works by artists like Ann Hamilton, Doris Salcedo, Yayoi Kusama, Richard Serra, Caravaggio, Olafur Eliasson and composers G?(c)rard Grisey and Salvatore Sciarrino.

JA: How have your studies at Brandeis influenced your project?

VC: I have been so lucky to have had the chance to take sculpture classes with Prof. Tory Fair (FA) and Prof. Deb Todd Wheeler (FA), and to learn from Prof. Jon Koppel (FA). When I was a kid I actually thought I would go into visual arts, not music, so it has been really gratifying to close the loop, so to speak. My studies in Music at Brandeis have been key to my development as an artist, especially since music is my primary medium. In my studies so far, I realized I want to develop different methods of communication and connection, which this project directly addresses.

JA: Do you have a favorite class or professor at Brandeis?

VC: All the professors I've worked with at Brandeis in the Music and Art departments have been fantastic. I've particularly enjoyed working as a TA for Prof. David Rakowski (MUS)-teaching is an integral part of my development as an artist and it's been great learning from Davy.

JA: What in your life has influenced you most as an artist?

VC: Everything! But especially a handful of special aesthetic moments with other work, and my relationships with specific people.

JA: How did you get started making art?

VC: I think I've always made things-I desperately wanted to be a fashion designer when I was in high school. I studied piano since I was little, and really decided to get into music through my high school choir. I think I've never been satisfied with one discipline or tradition and have been working on my skills in several disciplines in order to find some way between them. Interdisciplinary anything begins with a deep exploration of a discipline! I've decided to make music my home base, but I'm interested in learning much more. 

-Jessie Miller