The Array Bill’s focus has always been on creating new ideas. Realizing the limitations of the 12 tone (Halberstradt) keyboard, Bill wanted to access more octaves and other intervals (4ths, 5ths, 3rd,s, etc.) more ergonomically and came upon adapting the mbira (African finger piano) to play several octaves stacked up to be played with […]
Lexicographies by Cheryl Leonard
Cheryl E. Leonard on Lexicographies Since 2018 I have been developing asemic calligraphy based on patterns and shapes in wild landscapes for use in graphic music scores. Lexicographies displays works derived from the glacially-sculpted topography of Hardangerfjord in Norway, and coastal live oak trees in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Included are “dictionary” pieces that […]
Magnolia Symphony by Mauro ffortissimo
Mauro Ffortissimo created several pieces for the Window Gallery: a collection of inventions, a nocturne, and the ten-foot diptych Magnolia Symphony. Watch his discussion and demonstration with Jon Raskin, streamed live on December 17, 2020. […]
Prototypes II by Fred Frith & Sudhu Tewari
Curator Bart Hopkin spoke with Fred and Sudhu about their new works. Watch the stream of their discussion and a series of demonstrations from December 2, 2020. About Prototypes II In preparing this exhibition we were continuously confronted with basic questions: Why build a new instrument? What is it supposed to do? How will it […]
Shelter-in-Place Programming
As a result of San Francisco’s shelter in place order, The Window Gallery is not currently holding physical exhibitions at our landmark space in the Center for New Music at the heart of San Francisco’s tenderloin. Please join us for our virtual events celebrating the local and international instrument inventing community including conversations with our […]
Atrium Display; Musicians Make: Food
Curator Statement Polymaths are often musicians and the talents and proclivities that make for great musicians quite often make for brilliant artists, engineers, mathematicians, activists, chefs, philosophers, poets, painters, cosmologists and gardeners. Society seeks to flatten these geniuses and too often these gifts are considered tangential rather than being celebrated as the facets on a […]
Loe-Fi-Delity by Aisha Loe
Curator Statement At first glance, Aisha Loe’s guitar pedals might not even look like guitar pedals. From period transistor radios to Atari controllers, the electronic organisms of Loe Sounds are often whimsically camouflaged in salvaged gear. Like hermit crabs, Loe’s handmade audio circuitry are given new homes within carefully selected, unorthodox enclosures. As duplicates are […]
Composing [De]Composition by J no.e Parker
In lieu of a closing reception for Composing [De]Composition, we’re taking you on a virtual tour of our window gallery with artist J. no.e Parker and C4NM Project Manager D. Riley Nicholson. This online event also includes an artist interview with no.e and curator Bart Hopkin. https://youtu.be/DcK2Rm8hBSA Artist Statement Composing [De]Composition is a […]
Hacked Found Repurposed V3
Artist Statement Hacked-Found-Repurposed Vol. 3 is an exhibition of small-scale upcycled sound art pieces and invented instruments curated by instrument inventors Bryan Day and Kirk Pearson. The pieces on display highlight an ad-hoc approach to instrument design, using found objects to create both utilitarian and conceptual sound-art objects. Artist Bios Bryan Day started designing and […]
Atrium Display: Kaiser Electrical Instrument Co.
Artist Bio Tim Kaiser is well known in the atmospheric experimental music scene for his blending of acousto-electric contraptions and Frankenstein electronics to create ethereal, layered drones. His sonic landscapes have been called “experiments in adventurous art” and “eclectic genius” by the likes of Make Magazine, Wired, the New Art Examiner, and the Associated Press. […]