Bells are as old as time, marking its stately passage with roots in ancient Asia, Europe and Africa over 4000 years ago. Casting bells is often a ritual affair, whether in clay, crystal or bronze; even the act of playing a bell has ceremonial overtones, often reminding us to be present. Acoustically, bells are […]
Atrium Display: Hacked-Found-Repurposed
Atrium Display: Hacked-Found-Repurposed by Bryan Day Hacked-Found-Repurposed Vol. 1 is an exhibition of small-scale upcycled sound art pieces and invented instruments curated by instrument inventor Bryan Day. The pieces on display highlight an ad-hoc approach to instrument design, using found objects to create both utilitarian and conceptual sound-art objects. On display are works by John Collins McCormick, […]
Atrium Display: Musicians Make Garments
Atrium Display: Musicians Make Garments 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 so too often these gifts are considered tangential rather than being celebrated as the […]
Après Baschet by Marti Ruiz
François and Bernard Baschet, working in France in the second half of the 20th century, are best known for their Cristal Baschet, an extraordinarily refined and successful musical instrument of water, glass and steel. The Cristal is but one member of the extensive and varied instrumentarium the Baschets created while simultaneously developing a cohesive system of […]
Electrogenesis: Ivor Darreg & the First Keyboard Synth Drawings from 1936-38
Atrium Display: Electrogenesis, Ivor Darreg & the First Keyboard Synth Drawings from 1936-38 Ivor Darreg (1917-1994) Invented the keyboard synthesizer in 1936 as a 19 year old. It was the first instrument of its kind in the world. An iconoclastic genius, composer, tuning theorist and instrument inventor, he created the “Electric Keyboard Oboe,” “Drum Synth,” “Orgatron,” and […]
Don Buchla: Instruments for Electronic Expression
Don Buchla: Instruments for Electronic Expression Curated by Joel Davel “In my many years working for Don Buchla, I had the pleasure of witnessing his drive to create innovative musical controllers. While many Buchla fanatics hail his modular synthesis designs, Don interest in them was often more about how a creative interface might inspire new […]
Inventions from The Maze and The Machine
Inventions from The Maze and The Machine: Instruments by Daniel Schmidt for the Paul Dresher Ensemble Featuring inventions by Daniel Schmidt in collaboration with Paul Dresher Paul Dresher and Daniel Schmidt have collaborated on invented instruments since the mid-1970s. Their initial inventions were for American Gamelan and were often in dialogue with composer Lou Harrison and his partner […]
Brian Lucas: Gaze Emanations
Atrium Display: Brian Lucas, Gaze Emanations Artist Statement My paintings and drawings speculate on the visual similarities between micro- and macrocosmic worlds and the liminal spaces between their supposedly opposite extremes. The biomorphic growths, nodes, and nebulae on display reflect my interest in organic processes: they are at once cosmic and microbial, quantum and expansive. I […]
Liftoff, A Series of Songbirds by Nicholas Kanozik
Atrium Display: Liftoff, A Series of Songbirds by Nicholas Kanozik “It’s probable that in the artistic hierarchy, birds are the greatest musicians existing on our planet … Birds have extraordinary virtuosity no tenor or coloratura soprano could ever equal, for they possess a peculiar vocal organ, a “syrinx,” which allows them to perform rolls and very small intervals, […]
Visual Harmony: The Interval Rotors of Siemen Terpstra & Interval Diagrams by Yuri Landman
Atrium Display, Visual Harmony: The Interval Rotors of Siemen Terpstra & Interval Diagrams by Yuri Landman The Interval Rotors of Siemen Terpstra These rotors are tools used to simplify harmonic analysis of musical scores in unusual temperaments. They allow one to quickly calculate any pattern (type of harmony, set of intervals) to any pitch or function. Siemen […]