"Sonic Passage" (San Antonio River Walk)

”Sonic Passage” was created for the 2009 Museum Reach, which extended the River Walk northeast of downtown. The San Antonio River Foundation commissioned the sound artist Bill Fontana to create a unique installation at the Jones Avenue Underpass and Bridge. Fontana spent time recording the sounds of local wildlife in their natural habitats, including crickets, bullfrogs, insects, and birds, as well as moving water, to reflect the ecology of the river and surrounding areas. He also recorded the sounds of human interaction, such as the passage of riverboats, the sound of an old mill wheel turning, and cyclists traversing the River Walk. The result was "Sonic Passage," part ambient soundscape and part public art project, highlighting the convergence of nature and culture along the San Antonio River.

Since the early 1970s, composer and sound artist Bill Fontana has explored the recording of sound to create what he describes as 'sound sculptures.' By designing large-scale sound installations that audiences can move through and interact with, he hopes to transform people's perceptions about both the built and natural environments. He considers the natural world to be one of his primary sources of inspiration and has described nature as a "living source of musical information, with aesthetic and evocative qualities that can convey visual information." By highlighting sounds that occur naturally, such as the flow of water, birdsong, and other animal vocalizations, Fontana's work inspires people to reflect on the natural world, especially in urban environments and in other cultural contexts.

Fontana has created site-specific sound installations in cities around the world from San Francisco to Kyoto, Japan. His work has been featured in international exhibitions at venues such as the Vienna Art History Museum and Vienna Natural History Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Tate Modern and Tate Britain in London, the 48th Vienna Biennale, and many others. Most often, he has experimented with recording ambient sounds in one location and transferring them to another, such as bringing rural sounds into the city, although he also makes recordings in urban environments. For his "Sonic Passage" installation on the San Antonio River, loudspeakers under the Jones Bridge pipe out a continually changing soundscape based on the recordings that Fontana made along the San Antonio River, from its headwaters near the city all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico, where the river's estuary supports numerous bird species.

Fontana's vision for "Sonic Passage" was to create a "call of the wild" type of audio installation. His main subjects were the birds, crickets, bullfrogs, and buzzing insects that reside around the San Antonio River, comprising a complex ecosystem. In addition to recording the rush of water, Fontana also recorded the sounds of human activity, such as people bicycling on the River Walk, and the sound of an old mill wheel turning. The finished product is a unique sound collage that captures day to day life along the river. This work of public art was commissioned and funded by the San Antonio River Foundation. It one of several large-scale installations along the River Walk intended to raise awareness about local ecology, highlighting the significance of the river to the city of San Antonio and to the people, animals, and plants that depend upon it.

"Bill Fontana", Olive Ranch Foundation. Accessed March 28th, 2023. https://oliverranchfoundation.org/artists/bill-fontana/.

Lambert, Mel. "Inside The Sonic Passage: Creating A Custom Soundscape For San Antonio River Walk", PR Soundweb. June 10th, 2011. Accessed March 28th, 2023. https://www.prosoundweb.com/inside-the-sonic-passage-creating-a-custom-soundscape-for-san-antonio-river-walk/.

"Sonic Passage", City of San Antonio Dept. of Arts & Culture. Accessed March 23rd, 2023. https://events.getcreativesanantonio.com/public-art/sonic-passage/.

"Sonic Passage", San Antonio River Foundation. Accessed March 23rd, 2023. https://sariverfound.org/portfolio/sonic-passage-bill-fontana/.