Broken up into two movements and a coda, the film Diegetic Dioramas follows artist and composer Sarah Davachi as she guides the viewer through the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City, Los Angeles. Sarah discusses the light boundary between truth and fiction that the museum’s collections exhibit, and how the juxtaposition of these sensations creates an environment that demands pause and reflection, of which Sarah consistently performs in her own work. As a composer of the subtle and overlooked undertones, Sarah compares the dioramas and details of items displayed at the MoJT to her explorations of depth, environments, and dimensionality with the use of her instruments, such as the organ. The film jumps back and forth between her composition and performance within the FCCLA, and its origin of recording at the MoJT. Sarah discusses new ways of working with other recording artists, and the novelty of moving sound from other spaces into languages that other artists can perform.

The Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles, California is an educational institution dedicated to the advancement of knowledge and the public appreciation of what is denotes as “the Lower Jurassic” – a relevance to the museum's collections being left uncertain and unexplained. The museum takes influence of the origin of a natural history museum that was first introduced in the 17th century by Charles Willson Peale, with collections that act as a large-scale cabinet of curiosities. The Museum provides the academic community with a unique assortment of relics and artifacts with an emphasis on the unusual and curious technological qualities. The Museum also holds an event space in its Tula Tea Room courtyard which has housed performances that include Kosmos: Russian Space Flights of the Imagination (2015), Duo Varsagog (2016), Carolina Eyck (2019), A Horological Discourse (2019), The Cory Beers Ensemble (2020), as well as Sarah Davachi (2019).

Sarah Davachi is a composer and performer whose work is concerned with the close intricacies of timbral and temporal space, utilizing extended durations and considered harmonic structures that emphasize gradual variations in texture, overtone complexity, psychoacoustic phenomena, and tuning and intonation. Her compositions span solo, chamber ensemble, and acousmatic formats, incorporating a wide range of acoustic and electronic instrumentation. Similarly informed by minimalist and longform tenets, early music concepts of form and harmony, as well as experimental production practices of the studio environment, in her sound is an intimate and patient experience that lessens perceptions of the familiar and the distant. Davachi is currently a doctoral candidate in musicology at UCLA, focusing on timbre, phenomenology, and critical organology, and is based in Los Angeles, California.

Featured horn players include: Mattie Barbier, Rose Doylemason, Todd Eames, and Lori Stuntz.

Crew Credits –
Production:
SCI-Arc Channel Creator and Executive Producer - Hernán Díaz Alonso
SCI-Arc Channel Executive Producer - Reza Monahan
SCI-Arc Channel Creative Director - William Virgil
Director - Reza Monahan
Director of Photography - Bailey Galvin-Scott
B Camera - Lucie McCormick
C Cameras – Evan Phillips/Walker Sayen
Sound Engineer - Chris Trueman

Post-Production:
Story Producer - Chandler Kilgore-Parshall
Editors - Walker Sayen/Reza Monahan

Additional Images Provided by Sarah Davachi

Special thanks to Caroline Post, David Wilson (MoJT Founder), Reneice Edwards and The Cathedral (First Congregational Church of Los Angeles)

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