category : other

written by John Jesurun

performed by Anna Kohler

designed and produced by Ben Williams

Created during a previous epidemic, this text returns to us in a new medium to shine a light simultaneously backwards and forwards on a moment of rage, humor, and loss, with a sound design that keeps everything floating just on the edge of madness.

recorded at The Collapsable Hole, NYC. 2020

designed and performed by Tei Blow

Essays in Idleness is a collection of short writings by Yoshida Kenko, a poet and Buddhist priest living in the 14th century. Living in monastic isolation within the confines of Kyoto, he set himself to writing 243 short observations, which he pasted to the walls of his house. The writings were later compiled into a book after his death. Much credit is given to this book for its contribution to the Japanese aesthetic, as it focuses on the beauty of nature, social rules, Zen Buddhism, and the concept of impermanence.

Strap on your binos and lace up your boots, ‘cause you’re about to set out On The Trail with Dwayne & Courtney. Take a walk through time and encounter the sounds of the McKee Beshers Wildlife Management Area, refracted and magnified through multiple layers of consciousness. A friendly day of birdwatching entwines with a journey (or two?) of reflection. In this audio time capsule, natural and artificial worlds overlap and memories unfold in the space between your ears.

This episode was recorded live in Poolesville, MD on May 1, 2020, and in Kingston, NY on Aug 23, 2020, by Sarah Blush and John Gasper. Both are unscripted.

Created and produced by Sarah Blush and John Gasper

Engineered and edited by John Gasper, with additional music by John *Dwayne*.

Composition/Sound Design
Justin Hicks

Additional Music
Meshell Ndegeocello

Performance
Okwui Okpokwasili + Paul Pryce + Justin Hicks

Direction/Script/Co-producer
Charlotte Brathwaite

Inspired by and including texts by
Eric Roach, Frank B. Wilderson III + Martin Luther King Jr.

ONLY WHEN IT’S DARK ENOUGH CAN YOU SEE THE STARS was originally presented as part of the performance installation Empire State Works in Progress at the Whitney Museum of American Art as part of Calder: Hypermobility (2017) with sculptures by Abigail DeVille and Conceived and Directed by Charlotte Brathwaite.

other collaborators on the installation:

Director of Photography
Herman Jean-Noel

Artistic Facilitation
Mo Geiger

Video Editing
Inspiraacoes/Clara Soria and Hugo Resende

Assistant Camera/Field Audio Recorder
Alvin Dollow

Video Creative Collaborator
Felipe Morozini

designed and performed by Tei Blow

Essays in Idleness is a collection of short writings by Yoshida Kenko, a poet and Buddhist priest living in the 14th century. Living in monastic isolation within the confines of Kyoto, he set himself to writing 243 short observations, which he pasted to the walls of his house. The writings were later compiled into a book after his death. Much credit is given to this book for its contribution to the Japanese aesthetic, as it focuses on the beauty of nature, social rules, Zen Buddhism, and the concept of impermanence.

designed and performed by Tei Blow

Essays in Idleness is a collection of short writings by Yoshida Kenko, a poet and Buddhist priest living in the 14th century. Living in monastic isolation within the confines of Kyoto, he set himself to writing 243 short observations, which he pasted to the walls of his house. The writings were later compiled into a book after his death. Much credit is given to this book for its contribution to the Japanese aesthetic, as it focuses on the beauty of nature, social rules, Zen Buddhism, and the concept of impermanence.

Lightbulb - from Decoder Duo

G Lucas Crane and Jim Findlay

If you break a man open what spills out? blood, muck and viscera, or words?

G Lucas Crane and Jim Findlay high-jack each others bodies with DECODER DUO, reveling in the soup of mind and sound that exists when you stumble through the dense and viscous media jungle and find a looming cut-up machine, gleaming in a clearing, moonlight glinting off electrodes and stirrups. Strapping in, they escape inward through the hiss and spit of no-wave New York noise punk, curling out short explosion tracks whose lyrics arrive in a seance of junk media. Jim spits the ghost words and Lucas hacks the broken tapes.*

We're now singing the bladerunner omen year 2020 blues. Each year we pass is a patchwork mask of all the years that came before. How many animated gifs does it take to crush a lightbulb or explode a toilet? Strap in and find out.

excerpt from a live recording at The Collapsable Hole, NYC, Jan 11, 2020.

performed by G Lucas Crane and Jim Findlay

directed by Mallory Catlett

engineering and sound design by G Lucas Crane

video and systems programming: Keith Skretch

recorded and directed by Mallory Catlett

sound design by Ben Williams

performed by Black-Eyed Susan

This adaptation of the Joan of Arc story was written for Black-Eyed Susan by the legendary Ethyl Eichelberger in 1987. Some 30 years later, Black-Eyed Susan revisits this text in a hallucinatory new medium.

Music/Sound/Voice: Christina Campanella

Mixing/Dramaturgy: Jim Dawson

Song Lyrics: Stephanie Fleischmann

Lighthouse was funded by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature via NYSCA’s Independent Artist Commission in Film, Media, and New Technologies.

2015 New York Electronic Art Festival – Produced by Harvestworks, Curated by Carol Parkinson

2015 HERE Arts Center, Culturemart – Curated by Kim Whitener and Kristin Marting

photo credit: Benjamin Heller

Revolve For is a sonic meditation on spinning.

Spinning is a key feature of the cosmic movement. It is very present in global weather and water movements, but it is largely absent from the plant and animals kingdom. Humans have tapped into spinning to harness and redirect power.

This is the first part of a study - where it will lead I don't yet know. But this version mixes a range of revolving sounds that I find evocative of moving around an axis.

- JD

created and designed by Jim Dawson