Peter Stuyvesant's Ghost
November 15-19, 2006, New York City

"A civic art project inspired by the rapid cultural and physical changes during the Dutch colonial period in what is now New York City... a rich, many-layered experience of the footprint of Peter Stuyvesant's 17th-century farm, known today as 4th Avenue to the East River, and East 4th to 23rd Streets... Events include guided walks, referencing specifically created maps and soundscapes, a daily internet radio broadcast, and a panel discussion. Peter Stuyvesant's Ghost aims to uncover the buried topography of the farm, moving audiences through the contemporary streets, rousing historical and environmental perceptions, and breathing a flicker of life into alternative realities."

For the radio braodcast, I created a sound montage overlaying contemporary field recordings of the area in question with audio of sounds likely heard at the time of Stuyvesant's farm (pigs, roosters, ocean surf, night insects). The roosters and pigs can also be heard as a couple of the sounds for the telephone tour.

PSG home page

PSG web archive

Unsilently
Group show at The Contemporary Artists Center, North Adams, MA
September 10th - Rocktober 29th, 2005
Reception: Sept 24 7-10pm
Unsilently: "Several artists presenting audio works that are composed of sounds derived from 'silent' spaces... presented together throughout the galleries... Sound isolation between the pieces is not the intent of the show; instead, bleed between the sounds is; encouraging a conversation amongst the different elements as one walks through the space." more info

Incidental Amplifications
sequenced and dispersed late nights as part of Liquid Architecture 6, Valley Fiesta and the Queensland Music Festival 2005

"As a society we have increasingly sought to augment and indeed control the environments around us. All manner of tools have been utilised in this ongoing war against the unfamiliar, the unexpected and the 'undesirable'. Along with a variety of visuals cues, sound is progressively used to colour our surroundings with aural hues... But what of the remaining sounds? The incidental sounds that Muzak tries (and often fails) to mask: a dropped plate in the kitchen; a leaky tap; the creaking sounds of heated aluminium roofing and the ever-present air conditioner... Incidental Amplifications reclaims the consumer soundscape by dispersing pieces made from incidental sounds into a variety of public spaces including the Fortitude Valley and Chinatown mall multi-speaker sound-systems in Brisbane, Australia."

(featured my field recordings of sprinklers, blinds in breeze and the interior of an airplane at 30,000 feet)

No_Name [ Frequency + Repetition ], gallery view

Sound Design Commission:
Monika Bravo
No_Name [ Frequency + Repetition ]
at Centro De Arte Caja De Burgos in Burgos, Spain, June 23- August 31st 2005

No_Name: [Frequency+Repetition] (2004-2005) is composed of still images housed in colorful light encasements, as well as an interactive installation. Brooklyn-based artist Monika Bravo offers the viewer a space for quietness and contemplation on these themes. In addition to the still images, she has designed an interactive program representing abstractions from the I Ching (The Book of Changes). These are coupled with ambient sounds, sonic experiments utilizing field recordings, which Bravo commissioned from sound engineer Mike Hallenbeck. Random hexagrams and a soundtrack load, and fade up and down in sunrises and sunsets of glowing color on the screen opposite a sole viewer.

A version of this installation commissioned by Longwood Arts Project, the visual art program of the Bronx Council on the Arts which will be available on the web shortly.

No_Name [ Frequency + Repetition ] can be seen at Centro De Arte Caja De Burgos in Burgos, Spain, from June 23 Ð August 31 2005. It also includes BravoÕs previous interactive projects: A_Maze & Dozenfields.

Belly of the Whale
An ongoing project from Jim Nollman's interspecies.com, "Belly of the Whale" brings composers around the world together to create music from the sounds of marine life. My contribution, "Dolphinator", is derived entirely from sounds generated by (you guessed it) dolphins. The project is also integrating video, so I'll be putting together a "Dolphinator" video soon as well.

"Belly of the Whale" has been presented in installation and/ or concert form at the Japan Expo, the Berlin Liquidrom, the American Cetacean Society, the Whale Museum, and the Denver Science Museum.

Belly of the Whale home page

The Matzo Files
The Archive cd release Immersion : Water Works is featured as part of The Matzo Files-- a new, artist-run, non-profit collaborative project on the lower east side of Manhattan. Streit's, the oldest family-owned matzo bakery in New York, has agreed to dsiplay work by 180 artists; each artist has a folder 20" x 16" devoted exclusively to his or her work and held in a flat file drawer.

Hours of operation are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 3 to 7 p.m."Immersion: Water Works" will be filed under the name "Mike Hallenbeck". more info

Thanks to Sara Eichner and Tom Krueger for involving me in this project.

Tactile: Various Objects and Materials in Direct Contact with a Stereo Microphone
Headphone installation by mike hallenbeck
Part of the "Minneapolis 55408" exhibition at Intermedia Arts, Minneapolis
July 10 - August 29th, 2004

[ Rock's Role: After Ryoanji, gallery setup ]

Mike Hallenbeck, contributing artist:
Rock's Role: After Ryoanji
Group sound art exhibition
Art In General, New York City
may 15 - july 3, 2004

A sound art exhibition conceived as a "garden", where works overlap and interpenetrate. The exhibition title recalls a series of works by John Cage collectively entitled "Ryoanji", in which a separation of continuous and discrete aspects of sound is enacted. These works are musical transliterations of the renowned Zen rock garden of the same name located in Kyoto, Japan. Rock's Role followed this Cagian approach: continuous sound works were mixed and overlapped; discrete sound works will be played in succession; and during the course of the exhibition, these works were played along with other, chance-determined arrangements. Curated by ron kuivila and featuring sound works by: DJ B, Gabriel Burian-Mohr, Damian Catera, Rilo Chmielorz, Bernhard Gal, David Galbraith, Mike Hallenbeck, Barbara Held, John Hudak, Brenda Hutchinson, David Matorin, Andrew Neuman, Maggi Payne, Michael Schumacher, Masahiko Sunami, Ed Tomney, Stephen Vitiello, and Lauren Weinger. This exhibition is part of the Buddhism Project consortium.

Mike Hallenbeck, contributing artist:
One
Outdoor sound installation by the Experimental Music Collective (emc)
University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Tuesday April 20, 2004, 11:00 am - 12:30 pm

An event in honor of the Dalai Lama's visit to Vancouver

"The aim is to fashion a sonic manifestation of His Holiness's messages of peace, non-violence, inter-religious understanding, compassion, and universal responsibility. In particular, the project mirrors the topic of his keynote address: 'Tibet in the Contemporary World.' Using both traditional and modern instruments-- Tibetan singing bowls and electronics-- sound artists will attempt to impart the relevance of His Holiness's spiritual teachings in our modern world. The music will feature long transformations of meditative tones, yielding a continuous, gradually evolving stream of tranquillity. The slow-moving nature of the music will create an ideal environment for meditation. Listeners will leave the environment peaceful, focussed and energized."

Brown Line at Damen
Headphone installation by Mike Hallenbeck
Part of the "Minneapolis 55408" exhibition at Intermedia Arts, Minneapolis
June 29th - August 23, 2003

Brown Line at Damen: 2 cd tracks accessible via headphones.

Track 1: A 30-second binaural recording of the Damen Brown Line el station in Chicago. Audible are a tinny bell signalling an arriving train, a beep as the vending machine dispenses a ticket, a ticket whirring through the turnstile slot, a car going by, and the footsteps of patrons as they pass through the turnstile's clanking arms.

Track 2: The exact same audio slowed down to 1/16 of its original speed and pitch. The bell becomes a gong, the beep a foghorn, the footsteps of humans become the stomping of elephants. The passing car becomes a windstorm, and the tinkling and clanking are transformed into ominous scrapes and gurgles as the audio's ambience stretches into the cavernous reverberation of a cathedral.

An alien world concealed within everyday experience.

Mike Hallenbeck, contributing artist:
Williams [re]mix[...stallation]
Saturday March 22, 2003
Engine 27 Gallery, New York City

50th anniversary celebration of the premiere performance of john cage's williams mix (1951-53), for eight monaural magnetic tapes, the first octophonic tape music composition in the world created and performed with eight speakers surrounding the audience.