“Endling," a college scholar thesis project by Adowyn Ernste '26, is a multichannel sound and video piece screening in the Flexible Theatre at the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts from April 23rd to April 24th. The piece will screen every 30 minutes from 10am to 10pm, with an opening reception on Wednesday April 22nd at 7:30pm. Refreshments and desserts will be served!
Recordings capture fragments of time—serving as both reminders of a moment passed and also a connection between past and present. But do these recordings really capture the past, or are they illusions?
The Kauaʻi ʻōʻō was once renowned for the bell-like call of its song, including varied duetting calls between the male and female birds. A series of recordings from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology captures these duets, along with a recording of what is thought to be the last bird of the species. This recording is permeated with both the noise of the recording device and haunting silences as the bird calls out for a partner who no longer exists. When the field recordist, Jim Jacobi, played back the audio in the field, the last Kauaʻi ʻōʻō sang a duet with the recording device, believing himself to be reunited with another bird, when in fact he sang with his own recorded echo.
“Endling” reflects on the story behind this recording, exploring its noise and silences, its presence and absence, in order to answer—or at least echo—an unanswerable call.
