Doug Hollis: An Interview

Douglas Hollis (b.1948) was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan and continued to live there throughout the years of his college education at the University of Michigan. From an early age he had a deep interest in Native American culture. His experiences traveling in Oklahoma to live with Indian families has strongly influenced his life and his art ever since. Hollis began working with natural phenomena and responsive environment structures in the later part of the 1960's. At that time he completed several projects with musicians, dancers, film makers, engineers, and physicists. In the early seventies, he began searching for the forces which affected the landscape. In 1977, he built Sound Site, a number of wind activated sound structures along the Niagara River. He has continued to work in sound structures and landscape throughout his career, working on-site and establishing a rapport with the dynamics of the site and with the visiting audiences.

"I started working with inflatable forms," Hollis notes in this interview.  "Making spaces and altering thise spaces...the speed was fast enough that it didn't impede the ideas."

A historical interview originally recorded in 1978.