32 ACRES - a soundwalk for the Los angeles State historic park (2021)

As we begin to leave our homes again and venture into public space after a year of isolation, immersive artist Marike Splint invites the audience to rediscover how we relate to the city we inhabit with the site-specific soundwalk 32 ACRES. The Los Angeles State Historic Park serves as the enigmatic canvas for a contemplative experience on the character of Los Angeles, its hidden histories and imagined futures, and the paradoxes of urban nature.

After downloading a custom-built app, and using your own mobile device and headphones, your location and movements in the park will conjure the sound and text you are hearing. Combining narrative, composition and sound recordings, audience members will be guided on a walk suggesting other ways of seeing and being in our immediate surroundings.

32 ACRES is the first in a tryptic of works titled the ACRES series - a series of geolocated soundwalks built in the video game engine UNITY, that cast the landscape and the natural environment as the main character and as a canvas for refection.

Presented by Center Theatre Group

In association with UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television

Created by Marike Splint in collaboration with

Jonathan Snipes - Original Music, Sound Design and Implementation

Stewart Blackwood - App Developer and Technical Sound Design 

Tatum Anderson - Additional Sound Design and Implementation         

Hana S. Kim - App User Interface and Visual Design    

Website by David Rothbaum            

With special thanks to the Los Angeles State Historic Park, Stephanie Campbell, James Newland, Luis Rincon, Amy Schuessler, Barbara Tejada, Sean Woods

With contributions by Madeline Barasch, Brianna Barrett, Cristina Bercovitz, Andrew R. Bjorklund, Bill Blush, Sylvia Cervantes Blush, Ray Busmann, Michelle Liu Carriger, Melanie Jane Carroll-Dolci, Valerie Chilcote, Leonardo Correa, Marcelo Michael Cruz, Mark Curtis, Congxiao Fei, Meryl Friedman, Gavin Gamboa, Henry Alexander Kelly, Bridget Kelly-Cruz, Sharon Chohi Kim, Briar Kirk, Margaret Koldinger, Bruce A Lemon Jr., Daisy Lin, Sara Lyons, Miwa Matreyek, Karisa Maw, Izzy Miller, Sjoerd Oostrik, Emily Platt, Miles Platt, Aidan Rajkowski, Daniel Rosenberg, Catherine Safley, Rachel Scandling, Joe Seely, Megan Shung, Cory Sklar, John W. Snyder, Barry Sutton, Robert Wilkinson  

Pictures by Craig Schwartz

PRESS on 32 ACRES

Review of 32 ACRES by Laura Hess on No Proscenium: 32 Acres – Marike Splint

“Layered with disarming metaphors, historical details, and personal musings (in addition to impeccable production design), [32 ACRES] is an individual perspective rooted in the universal and a meditation on emotional, physical, cultural, and geographical landscapes.”

Interview with Marike Splint, Jonathan Snipes and Stewart Blackwood by Isabella Durgin in the Daily Bruin: LA State Historic Park introduces new immersive experience with 32 Acres app 

“32 ACRES invites the audience to think about their own relationship to Los Angeles, and how they move through the city, how they inhabit the city, how they see the city and also how the city has affected their lives."

Interview with Marike Splint by Gil Kaan for Broadwayworld: Marike Splint Constantly Creating - 32 ACRES & Other Site-Specific Experiences.

“To me, the questions of how we encounter each other, how we see each other, and how we conceive of new notions of communality feel particularly urgent.”

Interview with Marike Splint for Center Theatre Group: REDISCOVERING LOS ANGELES WITH '32 ACRES' An Interview with Creator Marike Splint

“What I find compelling about L.A. is that you have to peel layers away to read the city—oftentimes the stories don’t appear at the surface. The city lives in a constant tension between this hidden past and its perpetual focus on the future. So, when you observe something for a longer time, you will begin to see things you do not see at first sight.”