Sonic Trace Finishes Construction of Portable Sound Booth “La Burbuja”
KCRW Storytelling Project Records Stories from Mexicans and Central Americans in Los Angeles
It’s official – La Burbuja is finished and Sonic Trace’s portable sound booth is ready to record stories!
“The Bubble” has made its first stop at Guelaguetza Restaurant in Koreatown and will be open Monday – Thursday from Noon – 6:00pm through December 6th.
The multi-platform storytelling experience, produced by Anayansi Diaz-Cortes and Eric Pearse Chavez, begins in the heart of Los Angeles and crosses into Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Part radio, part video, part mapping project, Sonic Trace asks ¿Por qué te vas? ¿Por qué te quedas? ¿Por qué regresas? Why do you go? Why do you stay? And, what makes you return?
La Burbuja made a sneak-peak recording debut at the restaurant in early August, to help celebrate Sonic Trace’s successful Kickstarter campaign which garnered enough backers to fund the building of the silvery orb. Part of KCRW’s Independent Producer Project, the project is co-produced with AIR, Inc. through the national Localore initiative, and sponsored by the Awesome Foundation.
The design, La Burbuja, was the brainchild of Hugo Martinez and Christin To, co-founders of MAT-TER Design + Build Studio who submitted their designs as part a competition sponsored by KCRW’s DnA. The call for entries challenged builders, architects, designers and creatives to submit proposals to design a portable sound booth to record stories for the Sonic Trace project – all for under $5,000.
Now, after weeks of hard work, La Burbuja has its final coat of chrome finish and is ready to record!
For inspiration, check out the latest five-part Sonic Trace radio series on the Sonic Trace blog. The stories trace Zapotecas in LA and show how a small part of Koreatown has become a hub for these indigenous Oaxacans.
For more information on Sonic Trace please visit their blog at www.kcrw.com/sonictrace or on their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/sonictrace
###
About KCRW
KCRW 89.9FM, licensed to Santa Monica College, is an NPR affiliate based in Southern California. The Santa Monica-based nonprofit represents cutting edge radio at its best, presenting an eclectic mix of independent music, news, talk and arts programming. The terrestrial signal serves Los Angeles, Orange, and Ventura Counties, as well as parts of San Diego, San Bernardino, Kern, and Santa Barbara Counties and the greater Palm Springs area. KCRW’s programming is internationally renowned and available worldwide via KCRW.com, including three streaming channels, 27 podcasts and archives of our locally-produced programs and live band performances. Hear KCRW music online, all the time, on the ALL music stream Eclectic24.
About SONIC TRACE
Sonic Trace is part of Localore, a national initiative of AIR–Association for Independents in Radio — with principal funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It is produced in partnership with AIR and Zeega. The broadcast home of Sonic Trace is KCRW’s Independent Producer Project. A very special thanks to the Awesome Foundation for helping us fund La Burbuja.
About Localore/Association of Independents in Radio (AIR)
Sonic Trace is part of a national initiative of AIR, the Association of Independents in Radio, Inc. designed to bring new journalistic and technical ingenuity to extending public media service to more Americans. From Chinese restaurants in Boston, to shuttered factories in Dayton, to the oilfields of North Dakota, to Bay Area startups, the ten Localore production teams are working with their public station incubators to uncover ground-up stories of America in transition. AIR is a creative brain trust made up of more than 860 media makers from across the US and 20 countries worldwide who are re-imagining and reinventing public media and journalism for the 21st century. Its programs are designed to identify, cultivate, and deploy gifted talent for the benefit of citizens across the U.S. Learn more, and follow the work underway in the field at AIRmediaworks.org
About Guelaguetza Restaurant
Guelaguetza Restaurants is dedicated to the advocacy of Oaxaca’s culture in Los Angeles through its art, music and most importantly, food and drinks. Please visit our two locations to experience all Oaxaca. Our eldest location is in Koreatown and our most recently addition inside Plaza Mexico in the city of Lynwood.
3014 W Olympic Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90006