David Galbraith: lgOpre installation at Diapason

Diapason gallery for sound and intermedia presents

David Galbraith

lgOpre, an audiovisual installation


Saturdays in April: 4/5, 4/12, 4/19, 4/26

2 - 8 PM

Opening Reception: April 5, 6 - 8 PM

Free

882 Third Avenue (between 32nd and 33rd Street)

Brooklyn, NY 11232

Subways: D, N, R to 36th Street/4th Avenue

Phone 718.499.5070 | Email [email protected]



About the Installation

lgOpre (luh - GOP - ruh) is an audiovisual installation of multichannel sound and projected digital animation created with real-time software that links vintage grid pattern algorithms with vinyl record lock-groove samples. The software behind lgOpre, written by the artist, uses customized abstract image generation routines (c.1970), appropriated color schemes, and self-similar number patterns to create an animation that is also a visual controller for a modular digital sound studio. Each of the 34 grid pattern building blocks used for lgOpre is mapped to its own set of processed and unmodified lock-groove samples. The color of the underlying grid is used to select which sound will play as the basic grids from each animation frame are visually highlighted in turn for a determinate duration before advancing to the next frame. Aleatoric color scheme variants introduce a degree of chance to the sound-image mapping.

Compositionally, lgOpre first introduces each visual building block as a full-screen matrix using black and white, grayscale or a few saturated colors to create monochromes or relatively simple patterns accompanied by solo sound samples. The screen splits in half horizontally, then vertically, producing four quadrants with increasing pattern complexity. New color schemes and faster sequencing within a single animation frame trigger the look of blocky color video games or visualized computer core dumps and densely layered multichannel sound.

Locked grooves and the title of Galbraith's 2002 video Open Research which juxtaposed animated black and white ‘big bit’ grids with human-sized inflatable sculpture from the late-1960s helped give lgOpre its name: ocked roove en search.


About the Artist

David Galbraith is a composer, performer and media artist who lives and works in New York. Galbraith explores the couplings between art, music, technology and the body through his sound installations, video works, custom software and performances using self-built analog electronics. In 2005 Galbraith’s Composition 2005 No. 1: Two Straight Lines Displaced, Nudged and Gently Spun was shown at Diapason and will be included in a forthcoming DVD archive of works exhibited at Diapason.

In 2006 Galbraith received a Finishing Funds grant from the Experimental Television Center/NYSCA for lgOpre, his custom software for sound and image. Galbraith enhanced lgOpre in 2007 to support analog synthesizers at STEIM (Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music) in Amsterdam. His compositions and performances have been presented at The New Museum of Contemporary Art, Tonic, The Stone, Art in General, and free103point9, among other New York venues. Selected solo and group international performances include Erase & Reset: International Night Of Experimental & Electronic Music at Staatsbank Berlin; Garage Festival, Stralsund, Germany; and Musica Pro Nova, Bremen, Germany. Galbraith also performs with the analog synthesis collective Analogos at Diapason.

Galbraith’s visual work has been included in museum exhibitions at P.S.1/MoMA (New York), The New Museum of Contemporary Art (New York), and KW Institute of Contemporary Art (Berlin).

Galbraith holds an M.F.A. from California Institute of the Arts (1996) and a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1988). Galbraith also participated in the studio program of the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in 1996-97.

http://www.soundsokay.com/djg.html



About Diapason

Diapason gallery for sound and intermedia was founded by composer Michael J. Schumacher in 2001 and its program builds on the efforts of Schumacher’s previous sound space, Studio Five Beekman, founded in 1996. Diapason is the sole venue in New York City and one of few internationally dedicated to the presentation of multichannel sound installation where composers and sound artists can realize their work for an interested public. By providing an optimum listening environment, two high quality multi-channel sound systems, a regular audience, and a place for experimentation, Diapason seeks to engage composers and the public in dialogue about the place of contemporary music and sound practice in a broader cultural context. Diapason is supported by NYSCA, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Phaedrus Foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, The Trust for Mutual Understanding, Kirk Radke, and by generous individuals. Diapason is a 501©3 organization.

http://www.diapasongallery.org