2019 Faculty Biennial Exhibition

Still from Brush Mind: Second Hand

The University of Alabama’s Department of Art and Art History’s 2019 Faculty Biennial Exhibition opens today. I’m showing three works:

  • Brush Mind: Second Hand – a collaboration with Jane Cassidy and Hank Lazer (a still from the piece is above)
  • Pink Noise – a new piece of sound art
  • A Work of Art for Every Entry in Index—Subjects—Library of Congress – a new piece of generative computer art

Two other new faculty are exhibiting work:  Jonathan Cumberland and Wade MacDonald. Featured artists also include William DooleyAllison GrantJason GuynesChris JordanSarah MarshallGiang PhamPete SchulteSky ShinemanBryce Speed, and Craig Wedderspoon.

The exhibit runs through October 11, 2019. Hours are Monday through Friday 9:00am – 4:30pm. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, September 5 from 5-7pm.

Sonifying the Unlikely

I’m participating in a panel discussion on unusual sound sources at Southern Sonic today. The panel is moderated by Dan Sharp and includes Andrew Raffo Dewar, Tim Feeney, Taylor Lee Shepherd and Rick Snow.

Saturday 5/12 2pm
Sonifying the Unlikely as a Practice in Contemporary Music and Sound Art
Southern Sonic
Contemporary Arts Center
New Orleans LA

Looking forward to a lively discussion!

These Days

These days I’ve been helping sound artist Micah Silver with his upcoming installation, The End of Safari, at MassMoCA. It’s part of an exhibit called These Days that opens on Saturday 4/4.

Micah asked me to build a way to aim a Holosonics Audio Spotlight speaker on a pan/tilt head using MIDI messages. I worked with a MidiTron he already owned, a handful of relays and the usual baling wire, duct tape and chewing gum. The setup provides an uncanny sense of localization–much more ghostly than panning a sound around an array of speakers.

Here’s a shot of the altogether messy electronics.

MidiTron pan/tilt controller

Max Neuhaus: Sound Art Pioneer

Just heard through the webvine that sound artist Max Neuhaus has died. Neuhaus was a pioneer of sound installation work and will definitely be missed.

I remember being pleased to hear that his quasi-official Times Square installation had finally been granted permanent status. It’s invisible, sometimes inaudible, but still the best reason to visit Times Square.

Read an obit from the Houston Chronicle.

Sound Art in Geometer

Geometer Magazine has published an essay by James Wyness: Sound Art – the Politics of Representation, Truth and Listening. Wyness provides a good overview of the many art practices that fall under the Sound Art rubric with special attention given to Environmental Sound Art. A nice read–let’s hope Geometer and Wyness add links to sound files soon.

Note: sound files are here.