Judy Dunaway will perform solo free improvisations on amplified latex balloons.
Location:House Fest in Nolan Park
Date: Saturday August 17, 2024
Start Time: 4:30 pm Duration: 30 minutes
As part of the closing event for her sound installation “Aeronaut,” Judy Dunaway will perform solo free improvisations on amplified latex “tenor” and “twister” balloons. These balloons function like an instrument string. Imagine a violin string spread out into an orb. The balloon orb has an overtone series like a string. The balloon can be stimulated with the hands in the same “stick and slip” fashion as a bow on a violin. The latex, however, is so sensitive and bouncy that when the note sounds, it breaks into a mutating harmonic series. The latex stretches and contracts many times within the milliseconds it takes to make the simple squeak, thus the harmonic series is always changing. When this sound is slowed through time-stretching one can hear how a pitch in the harmonic series can waiver as much as a whole step before it goes to the next harmonic. The balloon is amplified with a small microphone attached to the surface. Dunaway has given hundreds of performances on these balloons throughout North America and Europe, as well as releasing recordings of them on numerous labels.
The manipulated sound waves are transmitted through transducer speakers to a layer of water within the Moon Halo sculpture. This process creates cymatics—visual representations of sound vibrations in the water. These patterns are in constant flux, reacting to the nuances of TiWen’s performance and the manipulated soundscapes produced by Max/MSP.
As these patterns shift and change, they generate a lively, rainbow-colored reflection projected onto the surrounding walls. The interaction between sound and water results in an ever-evolving display of light and color, reminiscent of a moonbow or lunar rainbow. This phenomenon, a rare and beautiful occurrence in nature, is emulated within the installation space, creating a mesmerizing visual experience for visitors.
Artist Bios
Judy Dunaway is internationally known for her numerous works for latex balloons as sound producers, including sculptural sonic performances, sound installations, interactive pieces and acousmatic works. She has presented these works at many important venues, festivals, museums and galleries including the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, Alternative Museum (NYC), Audio Art Festival 2016 (Krakow), Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA), Cafe Oto (London), Bang on a Can Festival (NYC), Everson Art Museum (Syracuse), Expo’74 at Mass MoCA, Frau Musica Nova (Germany), the Guelph Jazz Festival (Canada), Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors (NYC), the New Museum of Contemporary Art (NYC), Performance Space 122 (NYC), Podewil (Berlin), Roulette (NYC), the Roy and Edna Disney Center (Los Angeles), Seltsame Musik Festival (Austria) and STEIM (Netherlands). Her awards/grants/residencies include Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant, iii Instrument Inventors Initiative (Netherlands), Elektronmusikstudion Stockholm, New York State Music Fund, the Aaron Copland Fund Recording Grant, the American Composers Forum’s Composers Commissioning Fund, Zentrum fuer Kunst und Medientechnologie and the National Endowment for the Arts performance fund. Additionally, she received a Harvestworks Artist-in-Residence in 1997 and a Harvestworks Workspace Residency in 2017. She has a Ph.D. from Stony Brook University and an M.A. from Wesleyan University (where she studied with Alvin Lucier). She has been teaching at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston since 2005.
http://www.judydunaway.com/
PRESS QUOTES
Although it is a household object that is associated with childhood and celebrations, Dunaway’s works for balloon rarely expounds on such quotidian functions. Her practice challenges these assumptions, compelling audiences to wonder how such a mundane object can engender such complex sounds and meanings….Instead of presenting a narrative, many of Dunaway’s works strive to create a sense of space…In a context that features ambient rather than rhetorical material, these micro-components of sound become of primary interest to the listener. Thus, in addition to transferring listening capacities to other areas of the body, this physical approach to music-making slightly shifts the focus on what audiences should listen for. – Tonia Ko, “Acts of Envelopment: Implications of Touch in Judy Dunaway’s Works for Balloons” from “A Portfolio of Two Essays” by Tonia Chi Wing Ko, Doctoral Dissertation, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY: 2017. https://ecommons.cornell.edu/items/be59d7b8-223e-4a99-b42e-d54495e38651
The embodied relationship that Dunaway has developed with the balloon over the past decades resulted in an artistic practice extremely tuned to the sonic proprieties of every inch of the latex balloon. – Carlo Patrão, Sounding Out!, April 22, 2019.
Dunaway is utterly fearless in her approach to her craft, and unflinching in the face of inevitable backlash from both her classical and avant-garde contemporaries. – Meredith Yayanos, Coilhouse Magazine, October 2007 (Review of “Mother of Balloon Music” CD on Innova Records)
PAST INTERVIEWS AND PRESS COVERAGE
Cross Pollination S02 E02 Podcast: Judy & Rafaele – New Instruments, Dead Zones & Decomposition (2022) Interview with “iii – instrument inventors initiative” resident artists Judy Dunaway and Rafaele Andrade by Chetana Pai.
RADIO WEB MACBA (Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art) posted 1/29/2018 Interview with Judy Dunaway by Anna Ramos from July 2017.
https://rwm.macba.cat/en/sonia/sonia-252-judy-dunaway