Through the Sonic Self, local and international sound artists, musicians, video, multimedia, and performance artists exchange and develop pioneering ideas and innovative practices in the contemporary Sound Art discipline. This exhibition fosters open audio-visual dialog between video and sound artists in order to highlight the growing confluence of audio and visual experiences. Here, in the emerging ‘Sonic Culture,’ communication, sound and visual experience converge to form new patterns in the cultural sensibility. As sound merges with the surrounding persistent, random ‘audio architecture’ there is a kind of sonic explosion that can be seen as a breakthrough of the Sonic Itself.
At the intersection of audio and visual experiences, facilitated in large part by the internet and growing digital technology, the Sonic world (audible space) enjoys newfound prominence in the multimedia environment of contemporary culture. Exploring sound emergent spaces, time of audio resonance, sound design, audio-visual simulation, virtual dimension, linguistic utterances, musical performance, and random ‘noise’ leads to individual expression that potentially exceeds its form in relation to one’s internal self and sonic influences. As noted by Damian Catera, “Sound is no longer trapped within the mechanism of the ear; its multidisciplinary aspects are reflected in a blurring of sensory experiences. Sound is tactile, visual, spatial and spiritual. These elements have long been ingrained in the experience of sound since the dawn of humanity.”
In what has become an often quoted phrase, Jimmy Hendrix once said “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace,” which also serves as the underling inspiration for the Sonif Self. In this spirit, participating artists from around the world are collaborating on projects intended to bridge disparate audio-visual practices and emphasize their commonality — human sonic resonance… The Sonic Self – An exhibition exploring sound related art, curated by Jolanta Gora-Wita, Koshek Swaminathan, Anna Frants, Koan Jeff Baysa, Yaro, with guest curator Maciej Zygmunt Czarkowski, presents works by selected pioneering artists, who use sound as their medium, encompassing spoken word, field recordings, computer generated sound, video projection, interactive art, sound performance, avant-garde theater, live music and DJ sampling. The Sonic Self artists collectively examine forms in which we communicate with each other and with the world around us by way of articulate sounds, music, dialog, visuals and motion. By guiding the mind through an internal sound experience, these artists transform our perception of our surroundings. Subsequent to opening at Chelsea Art Museum, the curators of the Sonic Self will present this unique project in Chennai, India and St. Petersburg, Russia in 2009.Participating artists include:
Sound Art Installation by:
David Marcus Abir, Mikhail Acrest, Paul Amlehn/ Robert Fripp , Damian Catera, DJ Olive, Phil Dadson, Fiorentina De Biasi, Anna Frants/ CylandMedialab, Ivan Govorkov/ Elena Gubanova, Timur Kuyanov, Melissa Lockwood, Lisa Moren, Shelby Voice and Virgil Wong.
Video and Multimedia by:
Romeo Alaeff, Christian Austin, Natalie Bewernitz/ Marek Goldowski, Dmitri Bulnigin, Phil Dadson, Denny Daniel, Jarret Egan, Hasan Elahi, Anna Frants, Frankie Hutton, Steve Jones, Andrea Juan, Kit Krash, Anna Kolosova, Katka Konecna, Amy Cohen Banker/Amy Kool with Nigel Dickie, Olga M, Scotto Mycklebust, Alexandra Lerman, Natalia Lyakh, Eugene Rodriguez, Miroslaw Rogala, Dmitri Shubin, Maria Sharafutdinova, Kirill Shuvalov, Srinivasan, Pawel Wojtasik & Jarek Zajac.
Chelsea Art Museum May 4, 2012
