68 Footsteps (x8)by Byron WestbrookSaturday, November 8
2 - 8PM
free
882 Third Avenue, between 32nd and 33rd Streets
BROOKLYN (Sunset Park)
10th floor
info: 718-499-5070
www.diapasongallery.org
N, D or R to 36th Street
Bus: 35, 37, 63, 70
Google Map
68 Footsteps (x8) is an installation consisting of eight mono location recordings broadcast simultaneously from separate speakers. In the creation of each recording, an acoustic guitar has been placed in a different environment with an ebow device on top of it, causing it to resonate automatically. Each recording begins 68 footsteps away from the guitar, which is the average distance from which the guitar's resonation is no longer audible. The recordist slowly approaches the guitar with a microphone at 8 seconds per step, then returns to the same distance away at 4 seconds per step. The combined sound of the recordist arriving at the guitar creates a massive chord that ultimately relates and unifies the separate recordings and space for a period of time within the duration of the work.
Byron Westbrook (b. 1977) is an artist working with the dynamic quality of physical space using multi-channel sound and images. His audio/video performances under the name CORRIDORS involve the distribution of processed instrumental and environmental recordings through a multi-channel environment with a focus on energy distilled from sound and light. He has shared performance bills with Tony Conrad, Sawako, Stefan Tcherepnin, Lichens, Alessandro Bosetti, Jason Kahn, James Blackshaw, Anette Krebs, and Soft Circle, among many others. He has presented at venues such as Tonic, Roulette, ParisLondonWestNile, Les Voûtes (FR), Issue Project Room, Institute of Intermedia (CZ), Experimental Intermedia, Exit Art Gallery. Westbrook has also collaborated with Paris-based composer and former Kitchen curator Rhys Chatham in the drone metal group Essentialist (Table of the Elements), as well as performed in the ensembles of Phill Niblock, Rhys Chatham, Glenn Branca, Duane Pitre and Jonathan Kane. In 2007, he was the recipient of the Jerome Foundation Emerging Artists Commission through Roulette Intermedium and is currently the technical coordinator at Experimental Intermedia Foundation, NYC. Releases are forthcoming for both Corridors and Essentialist. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
http://www.byronwestbrook.com/
http://www.myspace.com/corridors
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Diapason is a non-profit performance and exhibition space for sound and intermedia. As the sole project of its kind, Diapason provides a space for the public, artists and composers to engage with contemporary music and sound practices through two listening environments, a gallery and a lounge, with two advanced multi-channel sound systems. Established in 2001 by composer Michael J. Schumacher and choreographer Liz Gerring, Diapason continues the tradition of Studio Five Beekman, a sound gallery Schumacher founded in 1996, fostering experimentation and providing a forum for unique sound practices.
Diapason is supported by New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Meet the Composer, Experimental Television Center, Kirk Radke, and generous donations from individuals. Diapason is a registered 501(c)(3) organization.