tangents / Sound Art (Furlong, sonochemical, toys …)

Recent Items from the World of Sound Art: Interview with early sound-art figure William Furlong, founder with Michael Archer of the publication Audio Arts, by Ilari Valbonesi (at ecopolis.org): “The tape was also an economic form of production and distribution.” … Interview with Adam Nash, whose sound work has been exhibited within the online simulation zone Second Life, at transition.turbulence.org: “I really love music, but I think new environments like this reveal music as an outdated concept”; more on Nash and his partner, Mami Yamanaka, at yamanakanash.net. … Interview with Pipilotti Rist on how technology has become more portable … more “ladylike”: “When I started, the recorders and the cameras were so heavy”¦and we are, at least physically, weaker [laughs]. You know, it made a big difference” (at tokyoartbeat.com).

Images of Dan McPharlin‘s toylike renderings of fictional synthesizers at samadhisound.com (from which the above picture is borrowed); more info at danmcpharlin.com. … Images from a presentation by Rob Cruickshank (interaccess.org). … Video footage from a corridor of computer fans by Studio Roosegaarde at engadget.com (screenshot directly below); more on the organization at studioroosegaarde.net.

Lina Dzuverovic notes the current “love affair between the museum and the arts of sound” — and asks, “But will it last?” (axisweb.org). … Documentation, including video, of a subway “Ghost Station” installation by Kristen Roos in Toronto: ghoststation.blogspot.com; more on Roos at microradio.ca. … Details on the Microwave International New Media Arts Festival, which ran in Hong Kong last November, at microwavefest.net; participants included Interactive Sonic Systems (reactable.iua.upf.edu), Henry Chu (pillandpillow.com), FM3 (fm3buddhamachine.com) and others.

Examples from Ingeborg Marie Dehs Thomas‘s “encyclopedia of radio waves” at nearfield.org, including the one below:

Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand‘s installation Camera Lucida: Sonochemical Observatory, “an installation work [that] visualizes a sonic wave which should be invisible,” was honored at the 2007 Japan Media Arts Festival (plaza.bunka.go.jp). … DJ Olive is among the participants at the Whitney Biennial in Manhattan (nytimes.com); he’s hosting a “sleepover” at the museum; elsewhere in the sprawling exhibit, a piece by Bozidar Brazda includes “a microphone [that] picks up ambient sounds from visitors to the room.” … Submissions due for the Prix Ars Electronic 2008 by March 19, 2008; details at aec.at.

Reviews: Christian Marclay-curated Ensemble at ICA in Philadelphia (artcal.net); Brian Belott at the gallery Canada in Manhattan (artfagcity.com); Ivin Ballen at Winkelman in Manhattan (newsgrist.typepad.com); Chia-Ying Lee‘s Sonic Graffiti, along with work by Mike Fleming, Kang Chang, and Kyle Millns (we-make-money-not-art.com); Phil Kline‘s Unsilent Night in Baltimore (citypaper.com); Luis Gisbert at Mary Boone in Mahattan, with a score by Phoenicia (nytimes.com); Georg Gatsas at James Fuentes LLC, with a “recording of dark ambient rumblings and tribal drumming by the band I.U.D.” (nytimes.com).

Back in December, sound art made Liz Smith‘s column at nypost.com; the subjects included artist-brothers Shelby and Latham Gaines, who had an exhibit running at the gallery Think Tank 3 (thinktank3.com).