“We’re all used to consuming music, but a sound installation is distinct in some key ways,” says Alex Inglizian. He’s the technical director and chief engineer at Experimental Sound Studio, a Chicago nonprofit that calls itself a “hub for sonic experimentation.”

Since 2001, ESS has programmed sound installations for the Lincoln Park Conservatory’s Fern Room, and Inglizian describes them as a “long-form experiential thing that is built to enhance the feeling of an environment in the same way you might enhance an environment with lighting or paint color or objects. It’s a way to place sound in a space, almost architecturally.”

“Florasonic: Semblance of Fern,” created by Arkansas-based sound artist Sarah Belle Reid using electronic sounds generated by computers and synthesizers, is the Fern

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