In the context of the Ephemeral Organ series, Steffani Jemison revisits a recent performance work combining sculpture, movement, and narration to create a new iteration for video.
Main Image: Steffani Jemison, In Succession (Means), 2024. Performed by Nimia Gracious, Loren Tschannen, and Steffani Jemison at Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, June 7–8, 2024. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Zoé Aubry.
Composer and artist Raven Chacon are in residence in EMPAC Studio 2 with San Francisco-based experimental music duo The Living Earth Show to begin preliminary recording for a new work to premiere in fall 2025.
Visual, sound, and performance artists Katherine Simóne Reynolds and A.J. McClenon return to further develop their video collaboration, Gestures Investigating the Good and Not So Good In Relationships – As Shown to Us by Blondell Cummings (2022), from its previous online format into a three-dimensional, multi-channel installation with live performance interventions.
Main Image: A.J. McClenon and Katherine Simóne Reynolds, Gestures Investigating the Good and Not So Good In Relationships – As Shown to Us by Blondell Cummings, 2022. Video still. Courtesy the artists.
A.J. McClenon and Katherine Simóne Reynolds, Gestures Investigating the Good and Not So Good In Relationships – As Shown to Us by Blondell Cummings, 2022. Video still.
A.J. McClenon and Katherine Simóne Reynolds, Gestures Investigating the Good and Not So Good In Relationships – As Shown to Us by Blondell Cummings, 2022. Video still.
As part of the Ephemeral Organ series, SHAWNÉ MICHAELAIN HOLLOWAY’s residency investigates the mutual possibilities of technology and body to track, mediate, and generate a theatrical experience through trigger mechanisms and machine learning.
Main Image: SHAWNÉ MICHAELAIN HOLLOWAY, digital artwork, 2023. Courtesy the artist.
Bassem Saad and Sanja Grozdanić develop a new version of their performance Permanent Trespass while in residence. They draw on projection, sound, and stage possibilities of Studio 1—Goodman to expand the work—originally script-based—into a kind of cinepoem. After premiering the commissioned new performance, the artists remain in residence to edit the film version of the project, which debuts at NW Aalst as part of Bassem Saad’s exhibition Century Bingo.
Main Image: Bassem Saad and Sanja Grozdanić, Permanent Trespass (Beirut of the Balkans and the American Century), performance documentation, 2021. Courtesy the artists.
Sharlene Bamboat is in residence with collaborator Kaija Sirala to develop Bamboat’s one-channel, feature-length Both, Instrument & Sound into a multi-channel installation. Working in Studio 1—Goodman, the pair test out the project across multiple screens and draw on the immersive audio capabilities of the venue to edit the installation’s sound score.
Main Image: Sharlene Bamboat, Both, Instrument & Sound, film still, 2024. Courtesy of the artist.
The [Switch~ Ensemble] continues with a second residency with composers Julie Herndon, Igor Santos, Christopher Chandler, and Jason Thorpe Buchanan. Utilizing the video and spatial audio capabilities specific to Studio 1—Goodman, the ensemble and composers continue to develop their pieces for premiere at EMPAC in September 2025.
Composers and technologists Jason Thorpe Buchanan and Christopher Chandler are in residence in Studio 1—Goodman to develop and workshop their new interactive spatial sound, video, and light environment for an upcoming commissioned project with contemporary music ensemble [Switch~ Ensemble]. During this residency period, they also experiment with new VR interfacing technology developed by EMPAC audio engineers which utilizes gaming technology to deploy spatial audio in the venue.
Main Image: [Switch~ Ensemble], 2022. Pictured (l-r): Christopher Chandler, Jason Thorpe Buchanan. Courtesy the Artist. Photo: Jason Thorpe Buchanan.
Composer Sarah Davachi’s residency takes place in the EMPAC Concert Hall to begin preliminary recording for a new work to be premiered in fall 2025.
Main Image: Sarah Davachi. Courtesy the artist.
Composer-performers Charmaine Lee and Conrad Tao are in residence in EMPAC Studio 1—Goodman to record new music drawn from the sonic language of their eight-year-long duo collaboration.
Belgian sound and visual artist Maika Garnica is in residence in Studio 2 and the Concert Hall to document her sound sculptures. Her work examines and questions the relationships between object, body, sound, and space.
Main Image: Maika Garnica, From Bow to Ear, 2020. Courtesy the Artist. Photo: Pieter Kers.