Manresa Birdsong
As part of an Environmental Art course taught by professor Courtney Fullilove and visiting professor Ari Benjamin Meyers (Wesleyan University Fall 2025), I composed a site-specific piece at the abandoned Manresa power plant in Norwalk, Connecticut. Manresa Birdsong reflects on the liminal stage of the power plant as it is being converted into a recreational park.
Manresa Birdsong
(8:10; 2025)
Malen Cheung
Now decommissioned, the sonic soul of Manresa is one of eerie silence, which conjures the “noise” of its industrial past and the polluted ecosystems and wildlife that remain in its toxic wake. Manresa Birdsong brings cello to a sonic exploration of the turbine hall to share stories and observations of geese, herons, gulls, and ospreys attempting to survive among the heavy metals and metallic mountain that dominate life at Manresa. Manresa Birdsong imagines the birds calling throughout the power plant and the surrounding environments, conveying their despair and symbolizing the shared fate of all life at Manresa.
