trumpet marine at figment festival

I made a little sound sculpture – a sort of wind-powered banjo – for this weekend’s Figment Festival on Governors Island. Here it is installed on the island’s waterfront by Castle Williams, with a spectacular view of downtown Manhattan. (If you’re in the New York area, come to the festival this weekend – it’s free, and there’s eight million things to see.)

Trumpet Marine at Figment Festival
If the wind really picks up, the flowers will spin.

And here’s a video from when I was testing it on my deck.

Update: here’s video from the festival itself.

three noisy things coming soon

'Sonnets', Flux Factory, rotten stick electric bass
I’ve got three noisy things happening or starting soon:

  • Friday afternoon (April 4): instrument workshop/jam session at The Tank, NYC
  • Opening Friday (April 4): Everything Must Go — the last ever show at Flux Factory’s current space in Queens, soon to be flattened by the MTA.
  • Opening Saturday (April 5): Artistic Mediums: Revelations of the Invisible — at the Museum of New Art, Pontiac, MI

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29 noisy noises: celebrate homemade instruments tomorrow!

noise party in NYC Sat. March 1!

Gonna have a party on Saturday March 1st to celebrate surviving the building of 29 instruments in 29 days! It’ll be 3-6pm (or so) in Long Island City, Queens, NYC – contact me for more info. There’ll be beer and snax and making noises. Bring your own noisemakers and/or ideas for noisemakers.

I’m going to continue with the instrument-building, making one every week forever. Or until I get tired of it. They’ll all be posted here.

Mister Resistor in Concert

My Parsons students are playing a concert on Sunday the 16th – it’s also their final exam. Please come out and support them!

It’ll be 4pm, Dec. 16th at The Openhouse at 201 Mulberry Street in SoHo, Manhattan – just south of Spring Street.

Here’s a preview of what some of the students are working on.


Mister Resistor Preview 1 from ranjit on Vimeo.

Create Digital Music, Etsy Labs and Make Magazine present
A Very Special Handmade Music Night
featuring Mister Resistor live in concert
Sunday December 16th, 2-5pm
at The Openhouse, 201 Mulberry St near Spring St in SoHo
$FREE
more info at misterresistor.com or createdigitalmusic.com

Bring your hand-carved ocarinas, homebrew synthesizers, circuit bent toys and tin can banjos to show and tell and jam.

At 4pm, enjoy the handmade sonic stylings of Mister Resistor- these Parsons students have spent the semester building and playing musical instruments made from cassette tape, microchips, oatmeal boxes, and much more.

To help newcomers learn how to make their own creations, Create Digital Music’s Peter Kirn will lead off with a workshop on musical electronics, with free kits from PAiA Corporation that uses pencil markings to produce circuits. (No soldering required, so total beginners can give it a try. Kits for the project are free, on a first-come, first-served basis.) Throughout the afternoon, New York’s top musical makers will meet and display their creations.

thingamajigs this weekend

I was involved in a few events at the Festival of Music for People and Thingamajigs in Oakland, California:

  • Saturday 12-2: Circuit-bending* party at The Crucible to make instruments for Sunday. Bring an electronic musical toy to sacrifice!
  • Saturday 5:30-6:30: Artists’ talk at Rock Paper Scissors Gallery along with Stewart Port and Edward Schocker.
  • Sunday 1-2: Noise parade at Lake Merritt using the instruments we made on Saturday! Starting neat the sign at the entrance to Children’s Fairyland (Also check out Betsey’s installation which was at the same spot from 4-6).

video: misericordiam on governor's island

Misericordiam visited the Figment Festival on Governor’s Island, New York City, this July. For the first time, I suspended the piece from a tree in the open air rather than from an indoor framework. It was a beautiful day to hang accordions in trees. Here’s some video from the festival.


Accordions in trees!.

There’s some photos of Misericordiam al fresco over at flickr.

Nov. 9-12: misericordiam at artbots nyc

fluxbox accordion Wheeze “Misericordiam” (new name! “Cordy” for short.), the hovering accordion from the Fluxbox project, will be groaning and heaving at the Artbots 2006 NYC show. As the ArtBots page says:

ArtBots is very happy to announce a regional NYC show as part of the science+art festival 2006 this fall. The show will feature works old and new by eight New York artists who have appeared in previous ArtBots shows.

When:
Thursday-Sunday November 9-12, 2006, Noon-6pm
Opening reception Thursday November 9th, 6-8pm

Where:
Location One
26 Greene Street (between Canal and Grand)
New York City!

How much:
$$$FREE$$$

Come see wheeze and a bunch of other marvelous art machines!