A generative, six-speaker sound installation. Three doorways with two-way mirrors display three rooms filled with saturated color and sound. Each room contains a set of rich tones joined by subtle field recordings of wind, ice and birds. Chords rhythmically pulse and shift in ever-changing patterns, while the effects of unfiltered color play with the eyes. As listeners open and close doors, moving through the spaces, different elements of the layered composition are revealed.
With 7,000 individual LED bulbs and 8.2 channel audio, Unknown Atmospheres is a room-sized immersive light and sound installation. A fully-mirrored wall reflects everything in reverse, while flickering, flashing and pulsing shapes play in precise synchrony to an electronic surround-sound composition. Within a 5-minute loop, six different scenes follow each other in a series of cinematic hard-cuts, each scene a new landscape of sound and form. Visitors are invited to experience from the outside or to enter the piece and wander among the matrix.
Created in collaboration with Parallel Studio, light programming by Jesse Mejia.
A 16-channel generative, site-specific composition, this collaboration with sculptor Philip Krohn was installed on the banks of the Willamette River for six weeks during the summer of 2022. Visitors traveled through a 300-meter long boardwalk of undulating wooden forms, woven from salvaged strips and lashed with recycled inner tubes. Beyond the boardwalk, a path led to a grassy point perched on the river, where a 50-foot diameter wooden bench sat among blackberries and wildflowers. Emerging from the bench itself, pings, chirps, tones and waves arced across the air. In ever-changing combinations, these electronic calls, whistles and roars mimicked and played with already-occurring elements of the densely-populated site, such as highway traffic, train rumble, birds, crickets, and the shouts of dragonboat crews.
The installation technology was completely unseen, with vibrations sent directly into the bench by 16 equally-spaced transducers. Audio panning behaviors ranged from slow pulses to random scatterings and audio-rate circling. From the center of the circle, the complex acoustics of each uniquely resonant soundboard created a virtual sonic theater, held among and within the existing soundscape. Lower frequencies and vibrations could be experienced through the body when seated, revealing a new sensorial layer. The generative composition wafted and waned, new voices and combinations emerging gradually. The site also served as a space for musical performances, and several musicians chose to improvise with the sounds of the installation.
My surround sound composition for a sculptural environment was created from detuned piano, modular and software synths, field recordings, and found objects. Created over a period of 5 days preceding the exhibition, the pieces were largely improvised and layered in long takes. A remixed stereo version of the work was released as Cyclical Traces.
This large wooden form was created by the artist from reclaimed lumber scraps, discarded clothing and recycled inner tubes. The work occupied the new Portland art space, Building5, for a week in June, 2021. A 6.1 speaker system surrounded the woven shape, and listeners could rest inside or wander through the space. Several artists were invited to contribute multichannel sound, each for a limited duration.
I accompanied Bill Will’s exhibition of kinetic sculptures Fun House with a four-channel generative sound installation. An extensive library of individual sound events were randomly triggered and dynamically spatialized throughout the gallery in ever-changing combinations. Sound events ranged in length from a few seconds to several minutes and were all derived from the sound of a single snare drum hit – from quiet buzzing and drones to rumbles and pops. Sudden bursts of sound emerged from silences. As visitors activated the noisy sculptures, the installation provided a parallel sonic environment.
Ronna & Eric Hoffman Gallery of Contemporary Art at Lewis & Clark, Portland OR
This 4-channel video installation was created to accompany a performance by Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre NW at The White Box Gallery, University of Oregon. I shot footage on the day leading up to and including the group’s site-specific performance in a burned-out and graffitied building. The rain came and went, creating puddles that reflected the textures of concrete and spraypaint. Colors darkened into night against the architecture with dancers in yellow and silver raincoats. Within the gallery, four screens surrounded the viewers on all sides for a 10-minute screening.
This collaboration with choreographer and dancer Linda Austin used the camera to extract and reconfigure a solo from her larger project Circus Me Around. By filming three different renditions of the dance from three different heights (at foot, torso and head level), the body was fragmented into separate parts and projected throughout the space. The solo becomes “a round” as the three performances (with their rustling, footfalls and bits of speech and song) move in and out of sync. Props, set elements and lights created a tableau in the space, suggesting and reflecting various moments from the dance.
Three video projections, 4-channel sound, objects
Light & Sound Gallery at the Portland Art Center Sept. 2006
Seth Nehil 