In 2022, with grant funding from California State Parks’ Proposition 68 Recreational Infrastructure Revenue Enhancement Grant Program (RIRE), the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) started a pilot program called Project Restroom. The goal of this multi-year program is to enhance, build, and renovate park restroom facilities, with a focus on areas that have been designated as historically underserved and high-need. The initiative provides safe, convenient, and accessible restroom facilities for people living in poverty, thereby increasing health outcomes, and creating safer, more welcoming places for people to engage in healthy activities in the County’s parks. The RIRE grant funds will be utilized by DPR for the installation of the two prefab self-cleaning restrooms in Athens Park and Atlantic Avenue Park. The new restrooms will be open for park visitors when the parks’ pool buildings are closed.

The County’s Civic Art Division (Civic Art) was allocated 1% for the arts funding to commission an artwork for each of the two locations. Through its prequalified art consultant list, Civic Art selected art consultant team Label Curatorial to commission two sound artists to design and create a sound piece for each of the restrooms.

Sound art, a genre that focuses on using sound as its primary medium to create immersive and thought-provoking experiences, will be showcased through these installations. Unlike traditional musical compositions, sound art manipulates and sculpts sounds to challenge our perceptions of space and art itself. It transcends traditional music by sculpting ambient noises and environmental acoustics into immersive experiences, compelling the listener to engage in deep listening and shifting how we perceive both the source of sound and its context.

Label Curatorial is the Los Angeles-based curatorial team of Laura Whitcomb and Narin Dickerson, known for projects focusing on the convergence of the philosophical and theoretical connective tissue between varying artistic media, notably music, dance, and performance. They joined forces with Maryam Hosseinzadeh, who specializes in public programming, cultural strategy, and community engagement in Los Angeles.

In the fall of 2023, the project’s art consultant Label Curatorial conducted extensive public outreach in the Athens Park and Atlantic Avenue Park communities. They attended park and community meetings, visited local schools, libraries, and churches. They also attended events in both communities, such as the Athens Park Harvest Festival and Holiday in the Park. At these events, they handed out surveys to gather input from the communities. Some of the questions they asked included:

• What sounds do you associate with the park?
• How/why do you come to the park?
• What is your favorite musical instrument?
• What is your favorite or least favorite sound that is not considered music?

A sample of survey responses includes:

• Athens Park: relajado, birds, Latin, trees/smooth/wind/water, jazz, the people playing, calm, squirrels, children's laughter, R&B, hip hop, kids playing, laughing, joy, football, Mariah Carey, Samara Joy, Herbie Hancock, Sam Smith, Kendrick Lamar, jazz on all levels, reggaeton, video game soundtracks, and R&B (with no cursing)
• Atlantic Ave Park: water sounds, water splashing, waves in the pond, wind hitting the trees, drums, birds singing, church bells, ducks, chirping birds, cars honking, the trumpet, people talking, los niños jugando, history, beautiful, pool, the paleta man, quiet but way too quiet, quiet, diversity, Arabic, Asian, Axel F by Crazy Frog, and traffic

Label Curatorial later facilitated an artist selection process whereby a panel comprised of community members and project stakeholders selected Christopher Garcia and Melaka Session to create original sound artworks for the two project sites. Both musicians incorporated responses from the park community surveys into their compositions.