Author: Bethany Lacktorin and Nik Nerburn

Bethany Lacktorin is a performance artist, sound artist and musician who creates site-specific, immersive, interactive, multi-disciplinary installation experiences that foster new perspectives, heightened awareness, and deeper connections to the spaces, places, and communities in which we live. Her work is inspired by themes and concepts discussing and confronting issues surrounding land, its conservation and history. Her artistic practice involves learning, experimenting and building with materials like paper, wood, electronics and recyclables to yield interactive sound objects and musical “instruments” custom designed for specific compositions in performances. www.bethanylacktorin.org

Nik Nerburn is a documentary filmmaker and photographer who works primarily in rural and changing landscapes, enlarging the common life through intimate collaborations with his subjects. He works in a variety of forms, including free family picture days, storefront photo shows, live-narrated neighborhood home-movies, marathon polaroid portrait giveaways, and rural outdoor experimental cinema screenings. He works to document Bethany’s ongoing art practice and her exploration of place, primarily through video and sound recording. He was the principal cinematographer, sound recordist, and camera wrangler during Bethany’s performance of My Ocean, an outdoor, site-specific sound and performance installation that took place at Ordway Prairie Nature Preserve in Pope County, MN, in August 2016. www.neighborhoodnik.com