Some upcoming events that I’m involved with:
- July 29-31 (Thursday-Saturday) Odd Act presents Peter Pan at the Paul Robeson Center for the Arts, Princeton, NJ
- They’ve borrowed a bunch of my homemade instruments for this musical adaptation of Peter Pan. I’ll be there for the Thursday night show!
- September 19 (Sunday noon-6pm) Move About Myrtle Festival along Myrtle Avenue, Brooklyn, between Clermont Ave & Hall St.
- The Case of the Curious Pedestrian is a one-day exhibition of performance art and ephemeral installations as part of the Myrtle neighborhood festival. I’ll be hiding a bunch of little mechanical music machines along (above) the avenue- can you find them all?
- August 2010-June 2011 Wind through the Trees – an outdoor sculpture exhibition of sound & motion at Jenkins Arboretum, Devon, PA
- I’ve got two pieces in this show of environmental and kinetic sculpture – good old Trumpet Marine and a new one, Spiracles, that’ll twist its way all the way up into the treetops. The opening party will be the evening of Saturday October 2.
- September 23-26 Festival of Music for People and Thingamajigs, Oakland, CA.
- This year I’m helping to curate this festival of handmade instruments and alternate tunings, but I’ll probably have some sort of noisemaker in there too!
- January 20-30, 2011 Pulse Art and Technology Festival, Telfair Museum of Art,, Savannah, GA
- I’ll be conducting some instrument-building workshops, and possibly performing. Don’t know the exact dates yet.
- January 24-February 25, 2011 Artistic Mediums at the New Art Center, Newton, MA.
- My sound and micro-radio installation Songs from the Portugese will be part of this exhibit about mysterious phenomena and things that go bump in the night
…and maybe some other stuff.
I’m building a piano-tickling machine for Zachary James Watkins’ piece “Moveable,” which pianist Tiffany Lin will premiere in Seattle on April 2. More info within.
Moveable, long commutes between loved ones, music for motors and resonant strings
Friday April 2nd, 2010 8PM
Performance by pianist Tiffany Lin of a new evening length composition scored for retuned piano and a new mechanical extension called the Piano Monster built by NYC artist Ranjit Bhatnagar that uses 16 MIDI triggered voltage controlled motors with attached objects that resonate piano strings.
Wayward Music Series
The Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd Center
4649 Sunnyside Avenue N., 4th Floor, Seattle, Washington
Tickets: Suggested Scale $5-$15
Tickets will be available at the door on the evening of the performance.
Moveable, long commutes between loved ones, music for motors and resonant strings is the elusive yet evocative title for the new composition by bay area composer Zachary James Watkins. This new evening length work is scored for retuned piano and a new mechanical extension called the Piano Monster built by NYC artist Ranjit Bhatnagar that uses 16 MIDI triggered voltage controlled motors with attached objects that resonate piano strings. The April 2nd premiere performance by pianist Tiffany Lin is presented by Nonsequitur as part of the Wayward Music Series at Seattle’s Chapel Performance Space. The title can be read many ways. Literal interpretations evoke the daily reality of so many modern day workers who must travel long distances to reach the work place or the distances traveled when in love. This title also touches upon the collaborative process between three artists who reside on two coasts and separated by thousands of miles. Trust, vulnerability and the creation of rich new works drive collaborations along distances. In our every day lives, the harmonic series is the fundamental building block of all sounds in constant collision transformed creating language, noise, and the plethora of instrumental timbres, which shape our aural, cultural and sensual experience. Moveable, long commutes between loved ones, music for motors and resonant strings celebrates diverse sounds combining electrical current hum, pure intonation, equal temperament and percussive noises into a vibrant sonic tapestry creating new imaginative narratives.
more about homemade musical instruments
A performance with handmade instruments at Barbès in Brooklyn, Wednesday March 3, 2010 at 8pm.
Like last year, I’ll be joined by Jason and Chris of the Glass Bees!
Good old Flux Factory is having a show called Housebroken to inaugurate their new home in Long Island City. They invited artists to come in and mess with the space. I grabbed a few sacks of dishes and cookware from their kitchen, engraved them with various texts and images, and gave them back. They’ll be eating off this “installation” for years – or at least months, until it’s all broken.
Housebroken opens this Friday at 8pm – go!
Here’s some pictures of bits of my contribution. More at flickr.
Vegevision!
We owe that awesome headline to Brooklyn artist Ranjit Bhatnagar, who sometimes uses the term for his flatbed scanner images of Greenmarket produce, a project he’s been working on since 2000. His carrots graced the cover of Edible Brooklyn’s Spring 2007 issue, and selections from his scans–lovely little sprays of garlic chives, slices of okra that look like stars, and of course, bacon–are being shown through the month of December at the Baby Grand (world’s smallest) karaoke bar in a show called Greenmarket Scanography. For those who’ve been to this tiny Soho spot on Lafayette St., you know the key component of that name is Baby: This is but a sliver of a space, and thus Bhatnagar’s work, like others previewed at the bar, is being shown in slide format. Literally–the slides, shown below, are displayed on the wall, lit from behind, and viewed using the provided magnifying glass. Oh yeah, should you miss the show, you can see some of his recent work on Flickr, too.
more about greenmarket produce scans
Preparing for a mini-show of tiny veggie photos at the micro gallery at r bean’s baby grand bar in soho, nyc! The show will be up Dec. 1-31.
I’ve been making these veggie pics for almost ten years now!
more about greenmarket produce scans
This month I’ll be the “artist in residence” on the Brooklyn Museum’s 1stfans Twitter Art Feed. Through Twitter, I’ll be conducting variations on the Surrealist game of Exquisite Corpse, in which participants make a collaborative work of art by alternating to add pieces to it. I’m reviving a game I first organized in 1992, back in the dark ages of the web!
You’ll have to join the 1stfans membership program to play the game, but it’s a worthy cause! And I’ll post the results of the game at the end of the month.
11pm Thursday April 2 at Galapagos in Brooklyn — I’m performing with some freshly-built electromechanical instruments, some of which are shown here. On Sunday they’re going to become part of a permanent sound installation at the Coney Island Museum.
* evil monkey is on loan from the Coney Island Museum. I’ve wired him for midi control.
Noise Party! On Saturday the 15th I’m doing a family junk-music workshop at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. Make silly instruments and silly noises! Stick around for other cool events! More info at avam.org.
Download poster
more about homemade musical instruments
