Ghost City is a soundscape created using sound recordings from a 2,220 acre tract of land in Henrico County, Virginia called Elko Tract. During WWII, it was used as a “decoy city” to evade Japanese and German bombers targeting Richmond. The structure of this piece of land closely resembles Richmond City, with false roads and landing strip identical to the nearby airport.
This work was created with atmospheric recordings of the Elko Tract, from above ground and in the sewers. Interwoven with the ambient recordings are short wave number stations, sourced from the Conet Project, as well as an excerpt from a 1945 presidential address from Harry S. Truman. This work attempts to bridge the past and present, and to explore Elko Tract in a way that accentuates the emptiness of a space that’s purpose is imbued with destruction and ruin.
A visual component to this soundscape is currently being worked on using found footage as well as current documentation of the landscape. It is a process of collecting material from the past and present, and how we convey information in moments that are seemingly on the verge of crisis.
This piece is best experienced with headphones.
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Izzy Pezzulo studies visual art and media practice and environmental studies at the University of Richmond. Izzy’s interests and work range from sound art, to video, to horticulture, to printmaking. When not immersing herself in the discourse of art, nature, and technology, Izzy volunteers at her university’s radio station and rides her bike nearly everywhere.
