Erin Gee.

Artist in Residence at Shillim

Medium: Musical Composition

Year: 2016​

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Erin’s residency at Shillim marked a profound reorientation of her compositional practice towards collaborating with the soundscape of the more than human. From her residence at Shillim, she observed how birds structured their sonic environments—how pauses, silences, and auditory niches shaped communication and how they often lock into shared rhythms and engage in interspecies listening.

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This deep listening provided the inspiration for a new series of ‘mouth pieces’, as she calls many of her compositions. Importantly, the birds were not treated as sound sources to be imitated or quoted, but as agents of influence that reshaped her understanding of sound and presence. In this way, landscape was not directly illustrated—rather it supported a transformation of perception.

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Out of this transformation arose a system of imaginary species: 29 distinct bird entities, each defined by specific sonic boundaries and behaviors. These species became the foundation for a new compositional ecology. Each sound carried a kind of biodynamic energy, interacting with others as if within a living habitat. Composition became less about linear development and more about sustaining a dynamic, interdependent environment.

Central to this shift was a practice of corporeal empathy and decentering the human. Erin explored what it might mean to “become” the bird—not through mimicry, but through accessing unfamiliar vocal registers and abandoning conventional emotional coding. Influenced by philosophies that dissolve the primacy of the ego, she approached performance as a form of vesselhood rather than expression. Narrative, character, and persona receded, replaced by a fluid identity that blurred the boundary between human and non-human. The voice became a site of metamorphosis, probing the paradox of inhabiting both personhood and its absence.

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Erin created three  compositions from her time at Shillim. She has performed them internationally, including at the Pompidou Center in Paris, Boston University, and UC Davis.​