Installations/
Performance:
AIFF files

"Growth Factor"


 1997- Growth Factor - Carolyn Healy and I created, in an empty store -front, a sculpture/sound environment concerned with energy and forms of emotional and physical matter coming into coherence. Using industrial debris, modified and re-contextualized, Carolyn produced an evocative visual drama of objects seeming to force their way up and out of the floor, while hovering above are huge loops of aircraft cable, heavy yet light. I created a complex, real-time sound environment to complement the visual dynamics using six speakers which react to each other's activity and volume level by following various computer algorithms implemented in MAX. It was shown in conjunction with the Philadelphia Fringe Festival.




"PipSqueak(479)"


 1997- PipSqueak(479) - A two-hour live performance in Arco Park, University of the Arts. I recorded hours' worth of the sounds of the neighborhood before making a bank of over 100 samples which I then played using my Buchla Lightning. With four large speakers placed in the four corners of the park, I used the Lightning to chose the samples, pan the sound and control the filter and modulation parameters. Some of the sounds were extensively modified, some untouched. I either accompanied the live sounds of the park and street or provided some aural counterpoint!




"Working Cupboard"


 1997- Working Cupboard is a sound "object" I created for a show of artist-made furniture. My idea that a piece of furniture could be a sound-only experience had its roots in Eric Satie's Musique d'ameublement. The title of this piece of "furnishing music" (written in 1920 for piano, 3 clarinets and trombone) has fascinated for me for years - what sorts of auditory clues might evoke a piece of furniture? To create "Working Cupboard," I recorded the sounds of a large cupboard (painted white with brass knobs for you visual-types!) as friends, Heath and Walker Allen, went about their business in the kitchen. It was recorded binaurally using two small microphones, one placed adjacent to each ear, so that when one stands between the speakers a three dimensional sound image of the cupboard is produced. Car speakers mounted in salad bowls provide the sound.
- Exhibited at the Paley Design Center, Philadelphia College of Textile and Science, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.




"E.G.A.C."


 1995- The E.G.A.C (Experimental Genetic Algorithm Cart) uses a computer to produce music created by random number generators. These generators tell a synthesizer (located on the E.G.A.C.) which notes to play. Each series of random numbers produced can be filtered by rules such as "only use the numbers that can be divided by 3", or "change the synthesizer sound whenever the number 126 appears." By pressing the MUTATION button you are telling the computer program to select another group of filters. I have used several basic "if-then" rules derived from genetic and evolutionary science to guide the selection process when the button is pressed. The speed, duration and rhythm of the notes will be varied as well as the kinds of sounds heard. This "evolution-mutation" of the music is implemented in the computer program MAX.
- Exhibited at the Museum of American Art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.



"Overtones"


1995- "Overtones" is an excerpt from an on-site recording of a recent sound work, part of an installation, with sculpture and lighting by Carolyn Healy, in a vacant, historically valuable prison (Eastern State Penitentiary). We used an entire cell block - 28 individual cells in a reverberant corridor 250 feet long. In 20 of those cells I created a soundchip-speaker system. Because of the damp and dirty conditions at the site, I used an analog chip (the kind used in those singing birthday cards!) with a playback length of 72 seconds. I recorded, then digitally modified, sounds of imprisonment. Included are: chains dragging, stones tumbling, coughing, moaning, mumbling, the birds outside, punching, a clock ticking. Each continuously looping chip had one or two of these sounds. By varying the length of each chip's loop by several seconds, the soundscape slowly changed as the visitor walked down the cell block. As with all site-specific art, this excerpt only "sounds right" in place and certainly needs the visual component.



"Ether/Aura: An Electromagnetic Event"




1991- The sculpture acted as an antenna for 8 receivers (low frequency to cosmic rays) the outputs of which were processed, the mix computer-controlled, and heard quadraphonically through speakers placed in the sculpture. Carolyn Healy did all the visuals and the lighting design. All the lights within the installation were programmed and sequenced to pulse and fade. The installation was the site of two performances with dancer Alice Forner and nuclear physicist Dr. Donald Neville.
- Exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.



"Shallow Breathing"




1989- This installation was sited in a long darkened room with a high ceiling. Carolyn Healy did the sculpture and lighting. The lights changed slowly using a digital sequencer /lighting controller. The sound portion was a 23 minute tape loop which played continuously through eight speakers throughout the installation.
- Exhibited at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania, USA.



"Molly Bloom"




1987- The sculpture and lighting served as the setting for a performance piece in which actress Joanna Peled delivered the entire Penelope episode of James Joyce's Ulysses over a four hour period. Carolyn Healy did the set and lighting. There were 8 short (3-4 minutes) sound compositions played between the "sentences" as well as a 26 minute sound tape that played as an overture to the performance.
- Performed at Symphony Space and La Mama, New York, New York; Temple Gallery Stage Three, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.