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Gallery

 

The sounds of architecture.

The life of a building consists of the vibration of the structure and the sounds of the people who inhabit it. This body of work focuses on the hidden acoustic identity of a structure providing a temporal window through which we can reinterpret environments that we thought we knew.

Aqua Alta, 2008


US Representative in OPEN XI
International Exhibition of Sculptures and Installations
Isola di San Servolo, Venice Italy
and AC [Direct], New York, NY

Aqua Alta is an immersive sound experience created using specialized audio equipment to capture the unique sounds of the waters of Venice via the gondolas that glide through them. 

This work was inspired by the effects global warming have on the environment, both above water and below. 
Aqua Alta

 

The Secret Arch, 2007

The Secret Arch is an interactive installation based on the secret arch, an architectural feature located at Grand Central Station, New York.

There, when you whisper into one corner of the arch you can be heard clearly on the opposite side.

Users of the Secret Arch are invited to interact with it by recording their passions, fears, phobias or secrets at the arch on site. 


The Calls, 2007

This is a sound piece that is an ode to the World Trade Center.

It is based on actual recordings of phone calls and dispatches made during and after the attacks and, air traffic controller recordings just prior to the impacts.

Dial tones form the overlying sound structure. The tones selected are derived from statistics about the World Trade Center

This piece underscores the failure of communication.

Photograph: Seth Horowitz, PhD.

Negative Ellipse, 2007

Mixed media

A sound installation which recreates a segment of the negative space of one of R. Serra’s Ellipses.

A sampled sound of the steel vibrating is heard in the inside of the speaker array and the ambient sounds of the museum on the outside.

Click here for audio.

"Skratch," 2006

7.1 Sound Installation

This recording of a pool game with friends was shown in a 7.1 format at the Acoustical Society of America’s annual conference.

The 7.1 speaker system was used as the placement of the speakers mimics the pocket placement on a pool table and also creates a very dynamic spatialization of the work. 

Team members: China Blue, Suzan Dionne, David Opdyke & Richard Humann

Click here for audio

Mikey vs. Fabio, 2004

Mixed media sound installation

This piece is based on a recording of a live ping pong game.

The installation is designed with the speakers on opposite ends of a room, thus mimicing the location of the players.

The sound track is panned so that the movement of the ball will pass from one side of the room to the other.  Each wall then becomes the location of a paddle.

The audience when standing in the middle of the room will hear the ball whizzing over head.

Review

What does sound look like? If some noises, water rushing, trains, rolling, birds chirping, bring predictable associations, the experiment of China Blue’s "Mikey vs. Fabio" adds a welcome geometric abstraction to the mix. In a room filled with the sounds of a ping pong game (played presumably by the Mikey and Fabio of the title), the viewer is surprised to see not a table tennis game in progress but rather a three-part painting diagramming the movement of the ball throughout the recorded match. The sounds take place in time while the painting freezes it, collapsing an audibly interminable set into one flat space. Which medium best captures the spirit of the game? If you can describe the sound of one hand clapping, I’ll tell you the answer.

Lori Waxman
Critic for ArtForum online, October 2005

Click here for audio

Dijon Chimes, 2004

Mixed Media with sound

Installation at L'Atheneum, Dijon France

Inside view

 

Architectural Therapy exhibition, 2003

“Laura’s Jabbering Jabberwocky”

Mixed media with movement sensor and microprocessor. 
Audio: the “Jabberwocky” by C.S. Lewis read in one minute or less

13w x 41h x 17d

 

Lance Fung Gallery, New York, NY

 

Architectural Therapy exhibition, 2003

 

“Plant it in the Love Zone”


Tree, speakers, electronic component


Audio text: He sings, She senses, He whispers, She weeps, He gasps, She shrieks, He croons, She is immune, He whistles, She bristles, He cajoles, She's droll He rants, She chants, He belts, She melts, He groans, She moans


8’h x 53”w x 69”d       

 

Lance Fung Gallery, New York, NY

Detail

"Josephine and Marion's Vent," 2001

Mixed media with movement sensor

Hopper House, Nyack, NY

Click here for audio

Architectural Therapy, 2003

Installation view

Lance Fung Gallery, New York, NY

Architectural Therapy, 2003

 

“Orbital Surge”


Mixed media with audio of wind chimes, heartbeat & sonar, and movement sensor

Dimensions Variable

 

Lance Fung Gallery, New York, NY

 

For more information or contact, email China Blue