soundpedro 2021 participation: June 5th Audioscapes
911

Jeff Jacoby practices sound and radio art, sound design, directing, producing, and performing, and serves as Professor of Media Arts at San Francisco State University. Jeff founded Living Sound Productions in 1980, and has worked at Quinnipiac University, Real Art Ways, The Media Arts Center, and the National Radio Project. Jacoby has been recognized for his work with a wide variety of awards, including an Emmy. His work has been heard on PBS, NPR, and art festivals such as South by Southwest, Black Maria, Festival du Cinéma de Paris, ASIFA East. For more information about Jeff visit www.jeffjacoby.net.

Artist Location: San Francisco, CA
Social Media: Artist Website

Proposed work as accepted for soundpedro 2021:
911
I was on my way to work at my studio at 8:30 in the morning. It’s not a long drive, but by the time I arrived just 15 minutes later, the world had utterly changed. It was September 11th, 2001.

I had been hired the week before to produce a syndicated radio series for colleges, and our opening episode was scheduled to be completed that day. The events of September 11th changed all that, too. As part of the original idea, we had handed out recorders to students to do individual reports from their campuses, and a student at New York University hit the record button as she was being evacuated after the first plane hit the World Trade Center.

The audio she captured that morning from the streets may be the only existing sound from that fateful moment. We used a bit of that in our hastily revised first show, but afterward it got put on the shelf for several years. In 2004, I dug up those recordings and used them in a sound composition that I created over the course of one, very long day. I called it 911.

Now, it is 2021, the 20th anniversary of the attack. I am revising and expanding the original composition and creating a four-channel, immersive, surround-sound version. The revised and expanded 911.21 is the show I hope to premiere at Soundpedro 2021. I will also create a stereo version suitable for online distribution, and promote the work on my website and new podcast.