category : other: Recent Episodes
category : other
a podcast and website for experimental audio, delivering a diverse collection of design-driven works for headphones, created by a talented array of designers, performers, and multimedia artists. curated by performer and sound designer Ben Williams
Personhood
Chapter 10
Glancing Backward
written by Thalia Field
this episode is performed by Shannon Tyo
designed and produced by Ben Williams
Personhood moves radically through genres and conventions, taking the listener on a design-driven experience into the psychic spaces and logical conundrums that we have created around our non-human relatives.
published by New Directions
recorded at The Collapsable Hole, NYC in 2021
Copyright © 2008, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 by Thalia Field
Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
(image by Joan Wong)
Personhood
Chapter 9
Irrational / Situation
written by Thalia Field
this episode is performed by Ben Williams and Shannon Tyo
designed and produced by Ben Williams
Personhood moves radically through genres and conventions, taking the listener on a design-driven experience into the psychic spaces and logical conundrums that we have created around our non-human relatives.
published by New Directions
recorded at The Collapsable Hole, NYC in 2021
Copyright © 2008, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 by Thalia Field
Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
(image by Joan Wong)
Personhood
Chapter 8
Patients
written by Thalia Field
this episode is performed by April Matthis
designed and produced by Ben Williams
Personhood moves radically through genres and conventions, taking the listener on a design-driven experience into the psychic spaces and logical conundrums that we have created around our non-human relatives.
published by New Directions
recorded at The Collapsable Hole, NYC in 2021
Copyright © 2008, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 by Thalia Field
Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
(image by Joan Wong)
Chapter 7
The Health of My Stream or The (Most) Pathetic Fallacy
written by Thalia Field
this episode is performed by Shannon Tyo
designed and produced by Ben Williams
Personhood moves radically through genres and conventions, taking the listener on a design-driven experience into the psychic spaces and logical conundrums that we have created around our non-human relatives.
published by New Directions
Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
recorded at The Collapsable Hole, NYC in 2021
(image by Joan Wong)
Personhood
Chapter 6
Liberty / Trees
written by Thalia Field
this episode is performed by April Matthis
designed and produced by Ben Williams
Personhood moves radically through genres and conventions, taking the listener on a design-driven experience into the psychic spaces and logical conundrums that we have created around our non-human relatives.
published by New Directions
Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
recorded at The Collapsable Hole, NYC in 2021
Unseen
written by Thalia Field
this episode is performed by Ben Williams
designed and produced by Ben Williams
Personhood moves radically through genres and conventions, taking the listener on a design-driven experience into the psychic spaces and logical conundrums that we have created around our non-human relatives.
published by New Directions
Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
recorded at The Collapsable Hole, NYC in 2021
Personhood
Chapter 4
True Crime / Nature Fakers
written by Thalia Field
this episode is performed by Shannon Tyo and Ben Williams, with April Matthis
designed and produced by Ben Williams
Personhood moves radically through genres and conventions, taking the listener on a design-driven experience into the psychic spaces and logical conundrums that we have created around our non-human relatives.
published by New Directions
Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
recorded at The Collapsable Hole, NYC in 2021
sampled audio includes themes from Scene of the Crime, The Racket, Conspiracy, Eyes in the Night, Jigsaw, Murder at Glen Athol, Philo Vance: The Benson Murder Case, Shadow of the Law, The Mystery Man, Force of Evil, The Killers, World for Ransom, and a few others….
Turns Before the Curtain
written by Thalia Field
this episode is performed by Shannon Tyo, with April Matthis and Ben Williams
designed and produced by Ben Williams
Personhood moves radically through genres and conventions, taking the listener on a design-driven experience into the psychic spaces and logical conundrums that we have created around our non-human relatives.
published by New Directions
Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
recorded at The Collapsable Hole, NYC in 2021
sampled audio includes:
Runenae Papa (I Want a Lot of Love) by Zutty and his Band
Personhood
Chapter 2
Happy / That You Have the Body (The Mirror Test)
written by Thalia Field
this episode is performed by April Matthis, with Shannon Tyo and Ben Williams
designed and produced by Ben Williams
Personhood moves radically through genres and conventions, taking the listener on a design-driven experience into the psychic spaces and logical conundrums that we have created around our non-human relatives.
published by New Directions
Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
recorded at The Collapsable Hole, NYC in 2021
Hi Adam!
written by Thalia Field
this episode is performed by Shannon Tyo, with April Matthis and Ben Williams
designed and produced by Ben Williams
Personhood moves radically through genres and conventions, taking the listener on a design-driven experience into the psychic spaces and logical conundrums that we have created around our non-human relatives.
published by New Directions
Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.
recorded at The Collapsable Hole, NYC in 2021
Written and performed by Michael Wiener
Produced and designed by Ben Williams
special appearance by the ghost of Tom Murrin*
recorded at The Collapsable Hole NYC 2020
*recorded by Ben Williams at Alias on October 14, 2010.
a preview of new work by Rafael Sánchez and Ben Williams
based on the sound texts of Kathleen White
designed and produced by Ben Williams
featuring “Preachin Blues” by Mendi + Keith Obadike from the UNITY-GAIN project
featuring “Preachin Blues” by Mendi + Keith Obadike from the UNITY-GAIN project
written by John Jesurun
performed by Anna Kohler
designed and produced by Ben Williams
Created during a previous epidemic, this text returns to us in a new medium to shine a light simultaneously backwards and forwards on a moment of rage, humor, and loss, with a sound design that keeps everything floating just on the edge of madness.
recorded at The Collapsable Hole, NYC. 2020
designed and performed by Tei Blow
Essays in Idleness is a collection of short writings by Yoshida Kenko, a poet and Buddhist priest living in the 14th century. Living in monastic isolation within the confines of Kyoto, he set himself to writing 243 short observations, which he pasted to the walls of his house. The writings were later compiled into a book after his death. Much credit is given to this book for its contribution to the Japanese aesthetic, as it focuses on the beauty of nature, social rules, Zen Buddhism, and the concept of impermanence.
Strap on your binos and lace up your boots, ‘cause you’re about to set out On The Trail with Dwayne & Courtney. Take a walk through time and encounter the sounds of the McKee Beshers Wildlife Management Area, refracted and magnified through multiple layers of consciousness. A friendly day of birdwatching entwines with a journey (or two?) of reflection. In this audio time capsule, natural and artificial worlds overlap and memories unfold in the space between your ears.
This episode was recorded live in Poolesville, MD on May 1, 2020, and in Kingston, NY on Aug 23, 2020, by Sarah Blush and John Gasper. Both are unscripted.
Created and produced by Sarah Blush and John Gasper
Engineered and edited by John Gasper, with additional music by John Dwayne.
Composition/Sound Design
Justin Hicks
Additional Music
Meshell Ndegeocello
Performance
Okwui Okpokwasili + Paul Pryce + Justin Hicks
Direction/Script/Co-producer
Charlotte Brathwaite
Inspired by and including texts by
Eric Roach, Frank B. Wilderson III + Martin Luther King Jr.
ONLY WHEN IT’S DARK ENOUGH CAN YOU SEE THE STARS was originally presented as part of the performance installation Empire State Works in Progress at the Whitney Museum of American Art as part of Calder: Hypermobility (2017) with sculptures by Abigail DeVille and Conceived and Directed by Charlotte Brathwaite.
other collaborators on the installation:
Director of Photography
Herman Jean-Noel
Artistic Facilitation
Mo Geiger
Video Editing
Inspiraacoes/Clara Soria and Hugo Resende
Assistant Camera/Field Audio Recorder
Alvin Dollow
Video Creative Collaborator
Felipe Morozini
designed and performed by Tei Blow
Essays in Idleness is a collection of short writings by Yoshida Kenko, a poet and Buddhist priest living in the 14th century. Living in monastic isolation within the confines of Kyoto, he set himself to writing 243 short observations, which he pasted to the walls of his house. The writings were later compiled into a book after his death. Much credit is given to this book for its contribution to the Japanese aesthetic, as it focuses on the beauty of nature, social rules, Zen Buddhism, and the concept of impermanence.
designed and performed by Tei Blow
Essays in Idleness is a collection of short writings by Yoshida Kenko, a poet and Buddhist priest living in the 14th century. Living in monastic isolation within the confines of Kyoto, he set himself to writing 243 short observations, which he pasted to the walls of his house. The writings were later compiled into a book after his death. Much credit is given to this book for its contribution to the Japanese aesthetic, as it focuses on the beauty of nature, social rules, Zen Buddhism, and the concept of impermanence.
Lightbulb - from Decoder Duo
G Lucas Crane and Jim Findlay
If you break a man open what spills out? blood, muck and viscera, or words?
G Lucas Crane and Jim Findlay high-jack each others bodies with DECODER DUO, reveling in the soup of mind and sound that exists when you stumble through the dense and viscous media jungle and find a looming cut-up machine, gleaming in a clearing, moonlight glinting off electrodes and stirrups. Strapping in, they escape inward through the hiss and spit of no-wave New York noise punk, curling out short explosion tracks whose lyrics arrive in a seance of junk media. Jim spits the ghost words and Lucas hacks the broken tapes.*
We're now singing the bladerunner omen year 2020 blues. Each year we pass is a patchwork mask of all the years that came before. How many animated gifs does it take to crush a lightbulb or explode a toilet? Strap in and find out.
excerpt from a live recording at The Collapsable Hole, NYC, Jan 11, 2020.
performed by G Lucas Crane and Jim Findlay
directed by Mallory Catlett
engineering and sound design by G Lucas Crane
video and systems programming: Keith Skretch
recorded and directed by Mallory Catlett
sound design by Ben Williams
performed by Black-Eyed Susan
This adaptation of the Joan of Arc story was written for Black-Eyed Susan by the legendary Ethyl Eichelberger in 1987. Some 30 years later, Black-Eyed Susan revisits this text in a hallucinatory new medium.
Music/Sound/Voice: Christina Campanella
Mixing/Dramaturgy: Jim Dawson
Song Lyrics: Stephanie Fleischmann
Lighthouse was funded by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature via NYSCA’s Independent Artist Commission in Film, Media, and New Technologies.
2015 New York Electronic Art Festival – Produced by Harvestworks, Curated by Carol Parkinson
2015 HERE Arts Center, Culturemart – Curated by Kim Whitener and Kristin Marting
photo credit: Benjamin Heller
Revolve For is a sonic meditation on spinning.
Spinning is a key feature of the cosmic movement. It is very present in global weather and water movements, but it is largely absent from the plant and animals kingdom. Humans have tapped into spinning to harness and redirect power.
This is the first part of a study - where it will lead I don't yet know. But this version mixes a range of revolving sounds that I find evocative of moving around an axis.
- JD
created and designed by Jim Dawson
“Special thanks to the Songs Brain and Body Trust who’ve helped me think about this work at its various stages: Mei Ann Teo, Susan Heyward, Jess Applebaum, Dominique Rider, Tuce Yasak, Kris Sidberry, Brandon Webster, Stephanie Weeks, and Sara Stern.”
-JW
Songs of Speculation (excerpt) is a lecture that explodes into multi-form performance, calling on the body, time, and the power of music to reclaim histories forgotten or lost. It is performed with a black feminist instrument known as a looper pedal. This pedal allows for the recording, layering and amplification of live vocal composition channeled through spirit of ancestor and muse.
This instrument (much like the black feminist), is meant to be taken seriously and handled with great care.
Songs happens in:
~A lecture space
~Ancestral spaces
~A ripple through dimension beyond the playing space
Songs of Speculation has been embodied in various physical forms at Dixon Place, The Bushwick Starr, JACK (world premiere), Judson Memorial Church, Park Avenue Armory and is now here on the inter-webs forever (?).
written and performed by Jillian Walker
designed and engineered by Ben Williams
recorded at The Collapsable Hole NYC 2019
from the novel Queer and Alone, by James Strahs
adapted and performed by Greg Mehrten
directed by David Schweizer
sound design and engineering by Ben Williams
recorded at The Collapsable Hole, NYC 2019
Alva and the Magnetic Resonance was published in Michigan Quarterly Review
Meet Alva, the protagonist of writer L.S. McKee’s series of poems exploring a woman’s experience across various landscapes, including the contemporary American South. Made in collaboration with sound designer Ben Williams, McKee takes us through a series of psychic spaces – dreams, doctor’s offices, online dating platforms – finding beauty and horror along the way.
recorded September 2019 at The Collapsable Hole.
Biopsy Beast appears for the first time in category : other
Meet Alva, the protagonist of writer L.S. McKee’s series of poems exploring a woman’s experience across various landscapes, including the contemporary American South. Made in collaboration with sound designer Ben Williams, McKee takes us through a series of psychic spaces – dreams, doctor’s offices, online dating platforms – finding beauty and horror along the way.
recorded September 2019 at The Collapsable Hole.
Alva and the Magnetic Resonance was published in Michigan Quarterly Review
Meet Alva, the protagonist of writer L.S. McKee’s series of poems exploring a woman’s experience across various landscapes, including the contemporary American South. Made in collaboration with sound designer Ben Williams, McKee takes us through a series of psychic spaces – dreams, doctor’s offices, online dating platforms – finding beauty and horror along the way.
recorded September 2019 at The Collapsable Hole.
Biopsy Beast appears for the first time in category : other
Meet Alva, the protagonist of writer L.S. McKee’s series of poems exploring a woman’s experience across various landscapes, including the contemporary American South. Made in collaboration with sound designer Ben Williams, McKee takes us through a series of psychic spaces – dreams, doctor’s offices, online dating platforms – finding beauty and horror along the way.
recorded September 2019 at The Collapsable Hole.
Alva and the Magnetic Resonance was published in Michigan Quarterly Review
Meet Alva, the protagonist of writer L.S. McKee’s series of poems exploring a woman’s experience across various landscapes, including the contemporary American South. Made in collaboration with sound designer Ben Williams, McKee takes us through a series of psychic spaces – dreams, doctor’s offices, online dating platforms – finding beauty and horror along the way.
recorded September 2019 at The Collapsable Hole.
Lonesome Beast first appeared in Fusion Magazine
Meet Alva, the protagonist of writer L.S. McKee’s series of poems exploring a woman’s experience across various landscapes, including the contemporary American South. Made in collaboration with sound designer Ben Williams, McKee takes us through a series of psychic spaces – dreams, doctor’s offices, online dating platforms – finding beauty and horror along the way.
recorded September 2019 at The Collapsable Hole.
Alva and the Online Fishermen was first published in New Madrid
Meet Alva, the protagonist of writer L.S. McKee’s series of poems exploring a woman’s experience across various landscapes, including the contemporary American South. Made in collaboration with sound designer Ben Williams, McKee takes us through a series of psychic spaces – dreams, doctor’s offices, online dating platforms – finding beauty and horror along the way.
recorded September 2019 at The Collapsable Hole.
Alva on Getting Dumped in the Desert was first published in New Madrid
Meet Alva, the protagonist of writer L.S. McKee’s series of poems exploring a woman’s experience across various landscapes, including the contemporary American South. Made in collaboration with sound designer Ben Williams, McKee takes us through a series of psychic spaces – dreams, doctor’s offices, online dating platforms – finding beauty and horror along the way.
recorded September 2019 at The Collapsable Hole.
Alva and the Mockingbird was first published in: Birmingham Poetry Review
Meet Alva, the protagonist of writer L.S. McKee’s series of poems exploring a woman’s experience across various landscapes, including the contemporary American South. Made in collaboration with sound designer Ben Williams, McKee takes us through a series of psychic spaces – dreams, doctor’s offices, online dating platforms – finding beauty and horror along the way.
recorded September 2019 at The Collapsable Hole.
Alva and the Mockingbird was first published in: Birmingham Poetry Review
Meet Alva, the protagonist of writer L.S. McKee’s series of poems exploring a woman’s experience across various landscapes, including the contemporary American South. Made in collaboration with sound designer Ben Williams, McKee takes us through a series of psychic spaces – dreams, doctor’s offices, online dating platforms – finding beauty and horror along the way.
recorded September 2019 at The Collapsable Hole.