Along the railroad line connecting Chicago with Bloomington-Normal is a marshy wetland at the confluence of the Calumet and Little Calumet Rivers, surrounding the South Deering neighborhood on Chicago's southeast side.
It's an area now known for serene bike paths and some of the state's best bird watching. But for more than a century, it was used as a dump site filled with slag from the steel industry, poisoning wildlife and residents—primarily people of color.
Multimedia artist Norman W. Long started listening in Big Marsh about a decade ago. He was raised in the area and still lives close. Calumet in Dub, on view through the weekend at University Galleries, is both a visual and sonic journey, combining photographs, video and music created from field recordings. It’s a sort of homecoming; Long attended Illinois State University in the 1990s as a fine art major (and worked as a student host on WGLT’s jazz and afropop programs).
“What Big Marsh, the Park District and other ecologists wanted to do was to rehabilitate the land,” said Long, noting it is land once populated by the Miami, Potowatomi and Illinois nations.
“Obviously they can’t take it back to pre-Columbian times,” Long said, “but they can mitigate the damage.”
Over a decade of listening, Long has noticed the effort. What was once primarily man-made sounds (trains, the far-off buzz of the interstate) and a couple of bugs singing, is now richer.
“There was not a lot of diversity,” Long said. “You could tell it was still an industrial area. But as they started doing more controlled burns, introducing native plants back into the area, you heard and saw a difference. More birds, frogs, turtles and smaller rodents that aren’t pests.”
Last year, Long led a guided sound walk at the Big Marsh and came across a group of scientists studying biodiversity.
“They said they see an incremental change,” said Long.
Each track of Calumet in Dub, which Long has also released as an album, is not purely scientific or journalistic.
“I start with the history and a site analysis,” Long said. “I first start listening and researching. Just listening.”
Then comes the field recordings, which Long bends and manipulates to create a particular feeling. He adds nascent synthesizer sounds and samples to pull in evocate layers.
“Putting those things together has a lot to do with the history of electroacoustic music that is still very cultural,” he said.
Egyptian composer Halim El-Dabh was a pioneering voice with ties to the Midwest who similarly used field recordings as the raw material for electronic music as early as the 1930s.
“In the ‘70s, you had producers and DJs particularly from Jamaica who remixed reggae and R&B and termed it ‘dub,’” said Long. “So, it’s still part of that trajectory.”
Calumet in Dub by Norman W. Long runs through Monday at University Galleries, 11 Uptown Circle, Normal. Admission is free.
