this audio recording was taken walking around the circle shown in the picture above. the audio is unchanging, however, the changes you hear are based on your acoustical place along the circle.
In rhetoric, an asyndeton is an oratory device whereby one purposefully
eliminates conjunctions in a series of related sentence fragments or clauses.
Philosopher and sociologist Michel de Certeau mobilizes this term in relation
to space to illustrate the erasure of the journey from memory when one
conceptualizes their travel between two points. The suppression of this
connective tissue in the perception of one's spatial movement creates islands,
arrivals, almost a collage of spatial memory. Reflection, consideration,
and return can cause the movement-between to take on the identity of arrival.
Points whose status was once on the order of the 'on-the-way,' become filled in;
these points resolve into a continuum of familiarity as more and more spatial
geography comes into aural-focus. In this work, I am trying to draw attention to
the shift in perceptual attention and resolution. Points once marked as arrivals
(content-full) become points of departure as exploration and experience reveals a
topography in sound that maps the void as geography. The movement-between becomes
content; the points now act as junctures, pixels, or way-posts to mark the borders.
doleros (audio-tourism at ringing rocks)
2008
found objects, carbon steel, speaker cones, bailer twine, lampwire, light bulbs, sound
dimensions variable solo exhibition, diapason gallery, new york, ny
doleros (audio-tourism at ringing rocks) is an installation that explores my experience
of audio tourism at the Ringing Rocks State Park, a boulder field in rural Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
Featuring the largest diabase (dolerite) deposit in North America, Ringing Rocks Park offers visitors
the opportunity to explore the sonic qualities of geologic detritus that produce different ringing
qualities when struck. Visitors wander among these boulders and igneous rocks with hammers as they
seek out the best-sounding specimens and compare and share their discoveries. The audio installation
at Diapason echoed the experience at Ringing Rocks Park; the surround sound consists of layered
field recordings that reconstruct the actual physical space, and small metal constructions dispersed
throughout the room represent and acknowledge the uniqueness of the rocks' sounds by resonating
independently through individually wired speakers.
rumour
2007
maple cubes, oil paint, photographs, push-pins, speaker cones, speaker wire, sound
17" x 5" x 4" fresh picked, the arts center for the capital region, troy, ny
this piece is part of a series of works exploring the iconography in ovid's myth of rumour:
"at the world's center, triple boundary
of land and sky and sea. From here all things,
no matter what, are visible; every word
comes to these hollow ears. Here Rumor dwells...
...there is no quiet, no silence anywhere,
no uproar either, only the subdued
murmur of little voices, like the murmur
of sea-waves heard far-off, or the last rumble
of thunder dying in the cloud."
studies of surfaces, ice: above/below
2007
rosewood and cherry blocks, oil paint, speaker cones, photographs, speaker wire, sound, light
60" x 8" x 8"
denniston hill foundation, woodridge, ny solo exhibition, diapason gallery, new york, ny fresh picked, the arts center for the capital region, troy, ny
studies of surface - ice: above/below is part of a series of works
exploring the sound of walking. by presenting in detail
a viewing and a listening as though from the perspective of the feet, theseexamine
not only the subtlety of our senses of hearing and seeing but also that of
touch - how, when one steps onto something out-of-place, our feet stop before
our minds are able to consciously recognize what has happened. In the installed
version, the macro-photographs of ice, buried in the block of wood, draw the viewer
into a place close enough for the audio to emerge and the surface of the paint to
take on a tangibility that is less present from a distance.
karesansui
2007
antique pine boards, white wash, speaker cones, 1mil glass beads, sound, light
19" x 10" x 11" fresh picked, the arts center for the capital region, troy, ny
Based on the juncture between perception and philosophy inherent in the
construction of Japanese zen gardens, karesansui presents two speakers
resting horizontally in a box constructed of 200-year-old white-washed
boards. The speakers, installed in knots in the wood, seem to be a part
of the box-construction. The installation makes no audible sound. The
speakers, however, vibrate at a speed related to the rate at which neural
impulses are sent when a person is entering what is called alpha-wave
meditation. The small reflective beads in the large speaker pulse,
like grains of sand, while the beads in the small speaker spin in
constant motion. To look at both simultaneously is very difficult,
but oddly relaxing. Ideally, one becomes aware of the oscillation
of attention and perception as different perceptual modes come into
focus with one another.
cloud-to-air
2003/2008
steel tray(s), water, video projection, sound, subwoofer, multi-channel audio
dimensions variable
exhibition: kill your timid notion, dundee contemporary arts, dundee, scotland, uk solo exhibition, diapason gallery, new york, ny
Field recordings of an entire summer's lightning storms with thin, quiet tones are treated
and spatialized through a multi-channel audio system. A video installation of heavy rain on
shallow water is projected onto shallow water shaken by thunder. The gallery is almost completely
dark save a bright rectangular pool about an inch deep. The light coming from the pool is a 40-minute
video loop of a puddle during a rainstorm. An algorithmically generated thunderstorm plays through a
24-channel audio system. Parts of over forty rainstorms as well as recordings of heat lightning/thunder
enter the space in waves following the audio model of the storm recorded at the same time as the video.
cloud-to-air
mediations
2003
steel tray, water, video projection, subwoofer, sound
48" x 48" x 5" s/light, albany center galleries, albany, ny
A shallow stream in the Millers River near Amherst MA, the surface of which was blown by wind.
The sound of the wind overloading the microphone is played through two subwoofers underneath a tray of water
onto which the video is projected. The vibration of the tray creates a pattern in the waters surface similar to the light reflection on the water of the original video.
meditations
all that's liquid melts onto glass
2002
single channel video, television
dimensions variable solo exhibition, deadtech gallery, chicago, il
A single channel video, three channel sound installation consisting of a single unmoving shot taken though the window of my home during the winter
onto the snowy field outside. The video appears white while the sound of an old cast-iron tea kettle begins to boil. As the tea kettle heats and the
water boils, steam builds on the glass of the window. As the steam builds and builds, drips begin. The drips are slowly replaced by fog, and then more drips.
Slowly and patiently the tea-kettle runs out of water and begins to crackle incesantly from the heat, the heat dries the window and the piece ends.
masked verticalities:common fate
2001
speakers, electrical disconnect boxes, sound
dimensions variable resynthesis, betty rymer gallery, the school of the art institute of chicago
masked verticalites
A four-story stairwell adjacent to the gallery serves as a transitory path
between studios and classrooms, gallery space and museum, offices and restrooms.
I made recordings of individuals' everyday interactions with the stairwell: opening
and closing doors, walking upstairs and downstairs, talking. I made fifteen recordings
of examples of each of these actions from various locations in the stairwell, and by
analyzing the recordings discovered the acoustic changes that these actions initiated in
the space. Electrical-disconnect boxes intended to blend into the utility of the space
contained a system that played sound files of sine-tones, tuned such that their introduction
to the space (during one of these recorded actions) would cause a masking or covering of the
ambient sounds. The result was that regular users of the stair often paused in a space that
had always been transient and architecturally invisible, noting a phenomenal change; they
wondered if the lights were part of it, if they were seeing things, if the tones
were 'really there' or part of the existing resonance of the space. In short, they began to play.
psycho-physical response time 4'54"
2000
4 channel video, quadrophonic sound, television monitors, video projection
dimensions variable book/ends arts festival, state university of new york at albany, albany, ny
a video of tuned television static with a soundtrack of manipulated television white noise taken
from the video source is projected on two facing walls of a white room, two televisions face each other on the walls opposite.
the volume of the noise and the stroboscopic effect of the video stops short of the psycho-physical response time of the brain to
instense stimulus, which if left to continue would cause nausea or loss of consciousness. Instead, the result of stopping the audio and video is a sense of peace and calm.
precedence affect
2000
speaker cones, microscope slide glass, concave mirrors, light, sound
dimensions variable autumn uprising, the institute of contemporary art, boston, ma
Five sound sources are placed through the public spaces of the museum. Each plays recordings
containing either tones synthesized from measurements made of the acoustic properties of the space or
audio recorded at exact location of the loudspeaker. Each speaker also plays back sound from microphones placed
in the lobby at a distance from visual component. As such, both the sounds of the audients/onlookers, as well as the sound of
the space (standing waves, airconditioner hum, water pipes, electrical hum, lighting hum) are played through speakers back into
the space, disconnected from their source. Mirrors atop the speaker cones collected ambient light from the space and redirect the light
onto the walls. This redirected light is then modulated by the vibrations of
sound from the speaker.
