Just before finals last semester, Matt Roberts and I lead a group of advanced Digital Arts majors to Miami during Art Basel where we performed together as Mobile Performance Group, our student-faculty new media collective and laptop ensemble.  We presented all new material inspired by our surroundings in the bustling Wynwood arts district. You can learn all about the experience from our online documentation or get a taste of things from the video below. Special thanks to Juraj Kojs for the invite.

• online documentation @ mobileperformancegroup.com

MPG Miami 12.01.11 – 5 min, 14 sec

Recording of this weekend’s performance is now available.  Thanks again to Juraj Kojs for the invite to perform in Miami.  I enjoyed hanging out with him, Paula Matthusen, Scott Miller, Michael McCurdy and the others before during and after the show on Sunday.

• desire for in MP3 – 9 min, 21 sec

The graffiti sign greets visitors

Combined setup before the show on Sunday

This weekend, I will be performing as part of this three day event that ends the 2009 12 Nights concert series. It coincides with Art Basel Miami, one of the biggest art festivals in North America. The series of concerts was curated by Juraj Kojs, who selected my piece desire for to open up the silence-themed Sunday concert.

A very fitting theme for this quiet piece inspired by distant alphorns my family and I heard one afternoon wafting through the window of our Swiss hotel. It was only after everyone had settled down from the dayʼs activities and committed themselves to silence that the music could be heard and enjoyed. It persisted for such a long time (literally hours) that it was a challenge of remain quiet. Thus the alphorns became a kind of replacement for complete silence the way that a room tone typically functions, but there was something far more pleasing and peaceful about them. Lulls in the conversation would last longer as we would extend our pauses to accommodate the distant, dreamy song. I found myself wishing that all silences could be filled with such beautiful and haunting drones.