About Sara

Baltimore City

Sara Dittrich is an interdisciplinary sculpture artist who builds introspective experiences that shift perspective from passive seeing to active looking, from passive hearing to active listening. Using musical thinking, Dittrich illuminates the dynamic and unconscious rhythms of the body and environments. The work is simultaneously gestural and architectonic: gestural in that it evokes the body’s expression in physical movement; architectonic, in that it occurs in a built… more

Trio for Solo Contrabass

Trio for Solo Contrabass is a life-sized video projection that depicts two musicians and the artist working together to play a single pitch on the contrabass indefinitely using a two-meter long bow. The extended bow unifies the bodies into one being. In this video, multiple points of tension (hair of the bow, strings of the contrabass, muscles of the performers) precisely come together to create a meditative sound experience.

The continuous motion of the performers and unending sound creates a space to "just be" and feel present in the space. The work creates a moment for reflection on the communication and collaboration of the three bodies.

Projected life-size HD video (approx. 8’ x 15’ ft.) with 2-channel sound
Duration: loops indefinitely
  • Trio for Solo Contrabass (Excerpt)
    Projected life-size HD video (approx. 8’x16’ft) with surround sound / seamlessly loops indefinitely / 2013.

Score for Room

Score for Room is an experimental music notation installation that transforms the gallery into a participatory performance and composition studio. The entire floor, patterned to look like enlarged sheet music, accumulates the wears and tears of everyday rhythms. As visitors walk through the gallery, the sound of their footsteps are picked up by hidden floor sensors (contact mics) and emitted from an amplifier, producing a sonic architectural landscape. Over time, visitors’ footprints will mark and soil the paper, leaving a written record. Near the end of the installation, a musician is invited to translate the score underfoot into an audible composition as a live improvised performance.

This multimedia work recalls a range of historical precedents, from Allan Kaprow’s happenings and Alvin Lucier’s sound works, to the notational experiments of such Czech artists as Jan Sagl and Vladimir Havlik. Drawing on these contexts, Score for Room further investigates communal aspects of music creation, and aims to give a renewed awareness of the body to the viewer.
  • Installation view at beginning of exhibition
    Installation view at beginning of exhibition
    White and black construction paper, contact mics, wire, amplifier, the accumulation of dust, dirt and movements over a 5 week period while installed in an office/gallery space / 41’ x 34’ ft. / 2017.
  • Installation View
    Installation View
    White and black construction paper, contact mics, wire, amplifier, the accumulation of dust, dirt and movements over a 5 week period while installed in an office/gallery space / 41’ x 34’ ft. / 2017.
  • Installation View
    Installation View
    White and black construction paper, contact mics, wire, amplifier, the accumulation of dust, dirt and movements over a 5 week period while installed in an office/gallery space / 41’ x 34’ ft. / 2017.
  • View into the gallery
    View into the gallery
    White and black construction paper, contact mics, wire, amplifier, the accumulation of dust, dirt and movements over a 5 week period while installed in an office/gallery space / 41’ x 34’ ft. / 2017.
  • Musician Benjamin Buchanan performing at closing reception
    Musician Benjamin Buchanan performing at closing reception
    White and black construction paper, contact mics, wire, amplifier, the accumulation of dust, dirt and movements over a 5 week period while installed in an office/gallery space / 41’ x 34’ ft. / 2017.
  • Room Schematic
    Room Schematic
    White and black construction paper, contact mics, wire, amplifier, the accumulation of dust, dirt and movements over a 5 week period while installed in an office/gallery space / 41’ x 34’ ft. / 2017.

Physical Arrangement for String Quartet

In Physical Arrangement for String Quartet, musicians perform a new composition created by Benjamin Buchanan while placed in strenuous/precarious positions throughout the designated space. Using custom fabricated furniture, a cellist plays from a 9 ft. tall chair, a violist lays on their back on a bench, and two violinists lay against the floor.

The music composition employs contemporary and experimental genres, as well as cinematic qualities. Buchanan also enacts a plethora of extended techniques, which are unconventional or non-traditional methods of playing musical instruments used to obtain unusual sounds or timbres.

The composition and choreography amplifies each musician’s body in space and in relation to one another while providing a playful and meditative atmosphere where the norms of musical traditions are defied in an absurd fashion. Over time, the musicians learn to adapt and collaborate from their new postures.

Physical Arrangement of String Quartet was performed as part of the collaborative exhibition Symphony of Gestures, created by Dittrich and Buchanan at the Urban Institute of Contemporary Art within the context of ArtPrize, an international art competition based in Grand Rapids, MI that attracts over 500,000 visitors in a three week period. Symphony of Gestures was an ArtPrize Seven Public Vote Top 5 Finalist in the Time-based category.

Full duration: approx. 10 min.

*Special thanks to Zachary Graft, violin; Jenna Michael, violin; Elizabeth Boyce, viola; Willis Koa, cello; and the Urban Institute For Contemporary Arts
**Footage courtesy of the More Art Upstairs documentary film and director Jody Hassett Sanchez
  • Physical Arrangement for String Quartet (Excerpts)
    A performance choreographed by the artist using 2 violinists, 1 violist, 1 cellist, custom furniture fabricated by artist, and a custom composition by composer Benjamin Buchanan / Full duration 10min. / 2015.
  • Physical Arrangement For String Quartet (Full Version)
    A recorded performance from the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art in Grand Rapids, Michigan from 2015. The custom furniture was fabricated by the artist Sara Dittrich.
  • Physical Arrangement for String Quartet
    Physical Arrangement for String Quartet
    A performance choreographed by the artist using 2 violinists, 1 violist, 1 cellist, custom furniture fabricated by artist, and a custom composition by composer Benjamin Buchanan / Full duration 10min. / 2015.
  • Willis
    Willis
    A performance choreographed by the artist using 2 violinists, 1 violist, 1 cellist, custom furniture fabricated by artist, and a custom composition by composer Benjamin Buchanan / Full duration 10min. / 2015.
  • Zach
    Zach
    A performance choreographed by the artist using 2 violinists, 1 violist, 1 cellist, custom furniture fabricated by artist, and a custom composition by composer Benjamin Buchanan / Full duration 10min. / 2015.
  • Elizabeth
    Elizabeth
    A performance choreographed by the artist using 2 violinists, 1 violist, 1 cellist, custom furniture fabricated by artist, and a custom composition by composer Benjamin Buchanan / Full duration 10min. / 2015.
  • Jenna
    Jenna
    A performance choreographed by the artist using 2 violinists, 1 violist, 1 cellist, custom furniture fabricated by artist, and a custom composition by composer Benjamin Buchanan / Full duration 10min. / 2015.