Knotted Gate Chant Cycle is a generative sound, light and sculpture installation by MSHR. Incandescent light bulbs, lasers and CMOS based synthesizers are ceremonially arranged into a feedback system spatialized through a quadrophonic speaker array. These elements form a macro-scale sculptural circuit that acts as both score and environment. The installation is presented in tandem with a synthesizer building workshop taught by MSHR at Pioneer Works.
Dates and Times: Meet the Artists Friday October 14 2016 @ 6 – 8 pm
Open to the public: Saturday, October 15 and Sunday, October 16 2016, noon – 6pm
FREE
Location:
SITE 57 – 57 Orchard Street @ Grand Street, LES
For information call: Phone: 212-431-1130
Knotted Gate Chant Cycle is a generative sound, light and sculpture installation by MSHR. Incandescent light bulbs, lasers and CMOS based synthesizers are ceremonially arranged into a feedback system played though a multi channel speaker array.
The installation takes the form of a macro-scale sculptural circuit that acts as the score for a non-repeating, yet cyclical transmission of sound and light. The output of each element acts as input for the other, cross-modulating via ornamental pathways of electronic cables embedded into the architecture of the room. The system produces a temporal shrine inhabited by undulating four dimensional sculptures.
The synthesizers are constructed using binary logic gates, but are run as analog systems with a focus on playing the internal architecture of the chips themselves and controlling the parameters of synthesis optically using the fluttery quality produced by the filaments of incandescent light bulbs. This technique reveals a sound that is both geometric and organic.
The sonic forms produced in this electronic chant are also in a conceptual feedback system with MSHR’s visual language- the sound events and sculptural elements are meant to reflect one another abstractly and directly, as part of the same aesthetic language.
Visitors to the installation act as a source of instability in this circuit, observing and subtly altering the system with their presence, their bodies becoming a part of the mouth of the room, shaping the the sound as as it sings an unending cybernetic incantation of itself. www.mshr.info
The installation is presented in tandem with a synthesizer building workshop taught by MSHR at Pioneer Works, open to all skill levels. Registration is available here: http://pioneerworks.org/education/building-improvising-analog-circuitry/
• BIOS
MSHR is the art collective of Birch Cooper and Brenna Murphy. The duo builds and explores systems to reveal pathways toward ecstatic sensory experience. They work at the intersection of digital sculpture, analog circuitry and ceremonial performance. Their physical projects have largely revolved around analog light-audio feedback systems built from macro-arrangements of their sculptural synthesizers. On the virtual side, they weave computer generated portraits of inter-dimensional entities and psychedelic realms. These physical and virtual pursuits inform each other deeply, unfolding a hyper-shape that houses both.
MSHR emerged from the 5 person art collective Oregon Painting Society in 2011 and has since toured frequently with exhibitions and performances at a wide array of venues including Upfor, Portland; Tribal Haus, Baltimore; Coaxial, LA; Kunsthaus Langenthal; Postmasters Gallery, NYC; Musee des Artes Creteil; Cell Projects, London; Transmediale, Berlin; TBA, Portland; Yerba Buena Center, San Francisco; The Peckham Pavilion, 53rd Venice Biennale; Kunstverein Dusseldorf; Three Walls, Chicago; Western Front, Vancouver; American Medium, NYC; Appendix Project Space, Portland; Le Dictateur, Milan.
Artist residencies include Eyebeam, 2014; Pioneer Works, currently 2016; Signal Culture, upcoming 2016.
video~ “MSHR ~ Resonant Hyper Scape Modulator – Scape 1” : https://vimeo.com/121494798
“The entire thing has a trippy, techno-organic feel. The tables contain digital prints of mysterious, runelike forms that alternately bring to mind coral reefs, ivory carvings, or Mayan statues. They also look like bar codes, which is essentially what they are: when you move a sensor across the images, you actually modulate the sound. Touch certain images and the pulsations get faster or slower; others raise or lower the pitch. The real magic happens when people play the tables together: there are six sensors in all, so groups can create their own impromptu symphonies.”
– Claudine Isé, Chicago Reader
“MSHR’s stage is one giant musical instrument, a sculpture made of mirrors and fluorescent plastic. It’s laser-cut into latices of glyphs connected by wires, with plates curving into square, kaleidoscope shapes and lasers cutting through the fog.”
– Marina Galperina, Animal New York
“At the heart of MSHR is an array of sculptural instruments designed and built by the artists. Light sensors inside 3D printed translucent cases control oscillators that in turn control the lights to create feedback, resulting in a synaesthetic experience that is kinetic and ritualistic in a way that contemporary noise artists seldom achieve. MSHR performances stimulate an audiovisual overload, using time, space, light, and bodies in motion as raw materials to occasion a very distinctive sort of transcendence.”
– Emily Pothast, Decoder
http://pioneerworks.org/education/building-improvising-analog-circuitry/
http://www.redefinemag.com/2014/mshr-artist-collective-interview-pathways/
http://www.altescplatform.com/#/mshr/
http://animalnewyork.com/2014/mshr-interview-eyebeam/
SITE 57 is a platform for the presentation of contemporary art in all media, with a focus on video and film-based work. SITE 57 presents solo and group exhibitions and hosts special projects in partnership with nonprofit organizations and galleries.