Online Archive

misc Installation images (to be annotated)

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:40:55 -0400

Writing on Music for Sound-Joined Rooms

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:36:31 -0400

Installations of "MUSIC FOR SOUND-JOINED ROOMS" (1980-2002 ) include works
created for the Serralves Museum, Casa de Serralves, Porto, Portugal; Cornerhouse
Gallery Manchester, Eng; Galerie Nachst St. Stephan, Vienna, Austria; the Kunsthalle,
Basel, Switzerland; Oggi Music Festival, Lugano, Switzerland; Cultural Commune di
Roma, Italy; Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis; Kunstmuseum, Bern; DAAD Gallery,
Berlin; Capp Street Project, San Francisco; 2lst Century Cultural Information Museum,
Tokushima, Japan; Kunsthalle-Krems, Austria; Taktlos Festival, Bern; Dance Theater
Building, Avery Center for the Arts, Bard College, Annandale-on Hudson.

In "MUSIC FOR SOUND JOINED ROOMS" and "MINI-SOUND SERIES" I use the
architectural features of a building to customize sound, visual, and spatial elements,
creating intense and dramatic sound experiences. I produce these works in location-
based installations that are built from "structure borne" sound (sound traveling through
walls, floors, rooms, corridors) which acousticians distinguish from the "airborne" sound
experienced with conventional loudspeaker placements. An entire building or series of
rooms provides a stage for the sonic and visual sets of my installations. Immersive aural
architectures are constructed, linking the main audience space sonically with adjoining
rooms through specially designed multiple loudspeaker configurations, creating the
effect that sounds originate from specific locations and heights rather than from the
loudspeakers. The idea is to create an atmosphere similar to the drama of entering a
cinematic closeup, a form of "sonic theater" in which architecture magnifies the
expressive dimensions of the work.

The audience enters the set and walks into the "world" of the story, exploring multi-
perceptual viewpoints. As they move through new scenes being created by the "Sound
Characters," they discover clues to the story distributed throughout the rooms. Places of
"thematic focus" are selected to create the scenes - rooms, corridors, walls, doorways,
balconies, stairways. In some episodes sound sweeps through the rooms; in others,
chords, and tonalities are intricately joined between the rooms; in still others a particular
sound shape is emphasized to animate sonic imaging in a distant room. Together with
the architectural staging of projected visual environments, I am able to construct multi-
dimensional environment-oriented experiences, anticipating virtual immersion
environments. Rooms, walls, and corridors that sing. Architecture especially articulates
sonic imaging in "structure borne" sound, magnifying color and spatial presence as the
sound shapes interact with the structural characteristics of the rooms before reaching the
listener. The rooms themselves become speakers, producing sound which is felt
throughout the body as well as heard.

"Music For Sound Joined Rooms" was produced in two especially remarkable
architectures, having unique acoustical characteristics: the Kunsthalle-Krems in Austria
(1995;) and the 21st Century Cultural Information Museum in Tokushima Japan (1992.) I
created distinct sonic worlds that could only be articulated through architecture. The
Kunsthalle-Krems Minioritenkirche is a large expansive space that was originally part of
a monastery that was built in the 11th century. I produced my work, "A Step Into It,
Imagining 1001 Years" in the six areas of the Kunsthalle: the main hall; the altar spaces
(one at a high elevation approached by a tall stairway;) the two antechambers adjoining
the high altar; and the crypt. A space of expanded seeing and hearing enfolded
throughout the Church, linking sonic interactions and visual imaging in six thematic
locations. Aural events appeared larger than life; as though many miles away; inside the
listener. For "Synaptic Island" which I produced at the 21st Century Cultural
Information Museum in Tokushima, I created very discrete placements of sound,
emphasizing distinct characteristics in four adjoining rooms. Special layering of sonic
imaging was developed; areas of intense sonic pressure; others very ethereal. Staged at
specific locations and heights, these sonic areas became tactile in presence, existing as
"things in themselves." (See attached: floor plans illustrating the architectural
distribution of sound for these works.)

To produce the location-based installations for my major works, intensive acoustic and
auditory research in the space is required. Usually a residency of one month is needed
for my investigations, depending on the size of the space and the number of rooms.
During this period I discover special acoustic features of each room, exploring how they
interact sonically with each other, and develop the aural imaging and spatial
characteristics of the installation. Creating the detailed sound design is very much like
scripting a sonic choreography

Sound house: a mini sound series // Capp Street Project Poster

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:33:19 -0400

Composing perceptual biographies for new media (’99)

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:32:42 -0400

EARLy portrait

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:12:59 -0400

Biography

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:25:44 -0400

What follows is the professional biographical resume that Maryanne Amacher made for herself, updated 2008:

Composer and sound installation artist. Early educational background included piano study at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music; musical studies in Salzburg Austria, and Dartington Devon, England as an Institute for International Education Fellow; and composition studies with Karlheinz Stockhausen. Undergraduate and graduate studies in music and computer science at the University of Pennsylvania - awarded the Hugh Clark Fine Arts Prize, and the Laisse Fine Arts Award; and the University of Illinois, Urbana – studies in acoustics, first electro-acoustic works created.

Appointed a Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 1997 for sound installation works. Awarded the PRIXARS Electronica Golden Nica, the 1st prize in Digital Music 2005; and the PrixArs Electronica Distinction in 1997 from the Ars Electronica International Competition for Cyber Arts, Linz Austria.. Fellow at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1972-76;) a Bunting Institute Fellow at Radcliffe College, Harvard University (1978-79;) a resident artist at the Capp Street Project in San Francisco (10/85-12/85;) a guest artist at the Deutscher Akademischer Austaauschdienst (DAAD) in Berlin, the recipient of a one year fellowship (Jan86-Apr87;) and a resident Fellow (Sept-Oct 2006). Visiting Artist at the Banff Center for the Arts, Banff Alberta (Sept91-Jan92). Appointed the first Rosekrans Artist-in-Residence-in Music at Mills College in 1993. Faculty, MFA Graduate School of the Arts, Bard College (2000- )

During the years 1973-1984 created works with John Cage and Merce Cunningham. In 1975 commissioned by John Cage to compose the storm environment for his multimedia composition "Lecture On The Weather," and in 1978 to create the sonic environment, "Close Up" to accompany his 10 hour solo voice composition,"Empty Words." Presented these works together in performances in Canada, Germany, and the United States (1976-84.) In 1976 commissioned by the Cunningham Dance Foundation to compose the repetoire sound work for Merce Cunningham's "Torse." Participated in the first performances of "Torse" with the Cunningham Dance Company and was invited to present other evening length sound works with the Cunningham Dance Company for the "Events" series in NYC (1974-1980.)

My work is best represented in the three series of multimedia installations which have been produced in the United States, Europe and Japan: the sonic telepresence series, "CITY-LINKS" #1-22 (1967- ;) the architecturally staged "MUSIC FOR SOUND-JOINED ROOMS" (1980- ) and the "MINI-SOUND SERIES" (1985- ) a new multimedia form which I create, that is unique in its use of architecture and serialized narrative. In these major works I adopt the mini series television format in order to develop a more involving narrative context, a serialized narrative to be continued in consecutive episodes, as distinguished from an ongoing installation. The evolving Scenarios of the"Mini-Sound Series" build one upon the other over a period of several days or weeks. The six part "SOUND HOUSE" my first "Mini-Sound Series" was produced during a three month residency at the Capp Street Project in San Francisco (Novl6-Dec22 1985.) "THE MUSIC ROOMS" was produced by the DAAD gallery in Berlin, and staged over a four week period (Feb19-Mar15 1987;) "STOLEN SOULS" commissioned by INKA Digital Arts in Amsterdam, was presented in De Beurs van Berlage Amsterdam (May20-24 1988;) "202l THE LIFE PEOPLE" commissioned by the Ars Electronic Festival, was presented in the Brucknerhaus, Linz Austria (Sept13-16 1989;) and "THE BIAURALS" commissioned by The Electrical Matter, an electronic arts festival was presented at the Samuel Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia, Pa. (Sept11-22 1990.)

In MUSIC FOR SOUND-JOINED ROOMS and MINI-SOUND SERIES I use the architectural features of a building to customize sound, visual, and spatial elements, creating multi-dimensional environment-oriented experiences, anticipating virtual immersion environments. In a departure from frontally staged concert productions, an entire building or series of rooms provides a stage for the sonic and visual sets of my installations. I produce these works in location-based installation/performances that are built from “structure borne” sound (sound propagated through wall, floors, rooms, corridors) which acousticians distinguish from the direct “airborne” sound projected by loudspeakers only. As audiences move through new scenes being created by the "Sound Characters" they navigate the expanded dimensions of a sonic world which is staged throughout the architectural site, an entire building or its rooms. Creating the detailed sound design is very much like scripting a sonic choreography. The idea is to create an atmosphere of being inside a cinematic closeup, a form of "sonic theater" in which architecture magnifies the expressive dimensions of the music and the sensorial presence of experience. Rooms, walls, and corridors that sing.

Installations of "MUSIC FOR SOUND-JOINED ROOMS" 1980-2006 include works created for the Singuhr Gallery, Berlin; Serralves Museum, Casa de Serralves, Porto, Portugal; Kunstmuseum Bern; Cornerhouse Gallery, Manchester, Eng; Galerie Nachst St. Stephan, Vienna, Austria; Kunsthalle, Basel, Switzerland; OggiMusic Festival, Lugano, Switzerland; Cultural Commune di Roma, Italy; Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis; Kunstmuseum, Bern; DAAD Gallery, Berlin; Capp Street Project, San Francisco; 2lst Century Cultural Information Museum, Tokushima, Japan; the Kunsthalle-Krems, Austria; Avery Center for the Arts, Bard College.

In my first sound works I developed the idea of sonic telepresence, introducing the use of telecommunication in sound installations. In the telelink installations "CITY-LINKS" #1-22 (1967- ) the sounds from one or more remote environment (in a city, or in several cities) are transmitted “live” to the exhibition space, as an ongoing sonic environment. I produce the "CITY-LINKS" installations using real-time telelinks to transmit the sound from microphones I place in the selected environments, spatializing these works with many different sonic environments: harbors, steel mills, stone towers, flour mills, factories, silos, airports, rivers, open fields, utility companies, and with musicians "on location." The adventure is in receiving live sonic spaces from more than one location at the same time - the tower, the ocean, the abandoned mill. Remote sound environments enter our local spaces and become part of our rooms. . Installations of "CITY-LINKS" include works created for solo and group shows at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1974); Walker Arts Center "Projected Images," Minneapolis (1974); Hayden Gallery MIT, "Interventions In Landscape," Cambridge, Mass (1975); Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Mass. (1975); Corps de Garde, Groningen, Holland (1978); the Kitchen Center, NYC (1979); Radio France Musique (1976); Mills College (1980 & 1994.)

Selected projects: sound & visual installations/performances: Festivals and Group shows: group show Whitney Biennial 2002, "Excerpts: Neurophonic Exercises 2001" sound installation (Mar-May02 ). Dissonance Festival, Rome 06; Install Brave New Music, Glasgow 06; Artefact Festival Beligum 06; Oasis Sonoro, Palacio de Bella Artes, Mexico City, 06; Carnegie Mellon Visting Artist 06; Ersatz Stadt Festival with Christian von Borries, Volksbuhne Theater, Berlin 05; Ars Electronica Festival, Linz Austria 05; Text zur Kunst Berlin 05; Powering Up Powering Down,& California Regents Lectureship, UCSD (Jan-Feb 04) Freunde guter Musik 20 Jahre Festival, Villa Elisabeth, Berlin (Nov 03); Sonic Light 2003 Festival, Paradiso, Amsterdam, Netherlands (Feb 03); Futuresonic Festival (Nov 02) Cornerhouse Gallery & Contact Theater, Manchester, Eng; Serralves Museum, Porto, Portugal (Oct 02) solo show MUSIC FOR SOUND-JOINED ROOMS "The Sounding of Casa de Serralves: Supreme Connections"; Symposium in Art and Technology: Immersive Environments" Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Lecturer & Panelist (May 01). David Tudor Residency, Mills College, (Oct 21-Nov 2 01); "Chiasma: Excerpts Pt 1" Avery Center for the Arts, Bard College (July 01); "Maastunnel Sound Characters," Lampo, Chicago (Oct 2000). "Volume: Bed of Sound" group exhibition P.S. 1 NY (July-Sept 2000); "The American Century, Art and Culture 1950-2000" Sound Art Group Show, Whitney Museum of American Art (Jan 2000). Major works include installations/performances produced for the Kunstmuseum Bern, "Taktalos" Festival (Mar-98); and for the three story Maastunnel in Rotterdam, Netherlands, for "Tunnel Vision" (Sept 98). Visiting Artist Bard College (July 98) and at The Art Institute of Chicago (Apr 99). The Two Part Multimedia Narrative, "A Step Into It, Imagining 1001 Years," commissioned by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Culture and Siemens Kultur Program was produced in the Kunsthalle-Krems, Austria (Feb-Mar 95). "The Reference Room" a telelink installation using the "CITY-LINKS" format was produced for the Rosekrans Residency at Mills College (1993). The Four Part Multimedia Narrative, "Synaptic Island" commissioned by the Japanese government was produced at the 21st Century Cultural Information Museum in Tokushima Japan. (Apr-May 92). Presented the John Spencer Camp Lecture at Wesleyan University. (Nov 7 95) Participation in Symposium, "Tuned Matters Into Sound," Krems-Vienna, the Museum of Modern Art, Palais Liechtenstein, Vienna (Feb20-Mar5 95). 3-D sonic architectures, commissioned by the Matshushita Electric Company were designed and produced for the 750 programmable loudspeakers in Panasonic Hall, Tokyo (1991).

CD recordings: "OHM: Early Gurus of Electronic Music" (Apr 2000) Ellipsis Arts; "SOUND CHARACTERS" (Making The Third Ear) (Feb 99) Tzadik; The Sombient Triology: "The Throne Of Drones" (May 95) "The Swarm Of Drones" (Oct 95) and "The Storm Of Drones" (Aug 96) Asphodel; "Imaginary Landscapes" (1990) Elektra Nonesuch). Publication of "Cage's Influence," a conference paper. Writings through John Cage's Music, Poetry + Art Ed. David Bernstein. University of Chicago Press (May 2001).

Recipient of grants and fellowships (1976-1998): John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation; Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts Inc; National Endownment for the Arts; DAAD, Berlin; New York State Council for the Arts; New York Foundation for the Arts; Beards Fund for the Arts; Tamark Foundation; Pew Memorial Trust; Pennsylvania Council for the Arts.