Plugging into home: Artist reflects her world through soundscapes

Autumn Chacon and her daughter spend time together in her Albuquerque home studio as they view the Mastodon social media platform on a computer on Monday, Nov. 13, 2023. Chacon’s daughter often travels with her mother for work.

ALX LEE / NEXTGENRADIO

Nestled inside the South Valley of Albuquerque sits a studio that is capturing distorted sounds of activism and culture. Complete with cables, zines, and the occasional stuffed animal, the workspace holds a sense of home for Diné and Chicano sound artist Autumn Chacon. 

“When you hear my sound art, sometimes it just sounds like a static-y radio,” Chacon said. “Maybe you can’t even tell it’s art, or sometimes maybe that sound really resonates with you and it brings back something that you understand.”

Her audio installations are not the familiar sounds the average listener would connect to music. 

The distorted heartbeat of her grandma put through a guitar pedal is a favorite among the sound pieces she’s produced. Flipping the expectation of a heartbeat and the person it belongs to was an emphasis Chacon wanted to showcase. Her work blends sounds that have been recorded by herself and distorted, processed and looped through various electronic devices.

Chacon found a new music scene through her work in radio and public broadcasting that allowed her to experiment with her background in stringing audio together, writing, and creative production. 

She describes the overall sound music scene as “white.” 

“Other cities that have this type of scene, it’s like, white guys who have a lot of gear and they kind of have enough gear to mess around,” she said. 

When she entered the practice of sound engineering, she endured the gatekeeping of older white men to her joining their ranks. Due to the resistance of her would-be peer group and her lack of formal training, she taught herself.

“I already have this piece of equipment open with all of its wires hanging out,” she said. “I can sort of do whatever I want. I know enough to keep it alive.”

Between finding another community and her own self-education, she was able to skirt those barriers.

“Albuquerque is unique in that it’s got a high number of women of color who are part of this scene,” Chacon said. “So I’m happy to be one of those women. And I think that came to be because artists on occasion collaborate with each other.”

Chacon’s studio is packed with equipment in various states of repair that she has accumulated over the years. She learned her craft, in large part, by repairing and using old gear as she acquired it. 

 “I had to sort of learn to make new tools, basically,” she said. 

A VHS television, a cassette player and a full shelf of worn sound processors also adorn the studio space, in addition to a boom box, speakers, albums and other gear. Stickers on the side of Chacon’s computer tower demonstrate her activism within the Indigenous community. 

A Standing Rock performative piece featured Chacon and three actors staging a meeting with the manager of a bank that would fund the construction of the pipeline. The piece concludes after the bank and street were closed down by police, rejecting their peaceful demonstration. 

These pieces reflect the upbringing that Chacon had while growing up in a Diné and Chicano household. Now, she’s raising her daughter with the same expectations of being a caretaker. 

With a mother who is Diné and a father who is Chicano, Chacon’s always been tied to the Albuquerque area.

“Either three hours to the west is where my mom’s from, or three hours to the north is where my dad’s from, so this is kind of right in the middle for me, and I consider anywhere within that six hour stretch my home,” she said. 

Whether it’s at the Navajo Nation Fair or around the Albuquerque area, Chacon says it’s not hard to find family and those important people in her life. 

“They say New Mexico, even though it’s a big state, it’s really like a small town,” she said.

Chacon’s 5-year-old daughter has already shown an inclination toward her own sense of social justice. 

“Her teachers tell me, ‘don’t mess with her friends,’ she’ll definitely let you know that’s not okay,” Chacon said. 

Albuquerque activist Maria Brock’s research in early childhood has shown that by age 3, children understand the concept of caring for others, Chacon said. For her daughter, that sense of taking care of those around her and understanding her effect on them is enough. 

Her daughter is with her at installations and Chacon finds advocacy within that part of her life. Often men are not confronted with the dilemma of arranging childcare while pursuing art full-time, she said. For her, that’s not the case. 

“I can’t install conceptual work with a 5-year-old or 4-year-old running around, hiding under tables.”

Having her daughter with her provides a sense of home while on the road and while she’s working. Chacon advocates using the teachings she learned from her loved ones. Like the records found in her studio, it’s a full circle with sound artist Chacon in how she delivers art and represents home while doing so.

Autumn Chacon reviews sound mixes on her computer in her Albuquerque studio on Monday, Nov. 13, 2023. Chacon is a self-taught electronic artist.

ALX LEE / NEXTGENRADIO