'Oscillations' gallery exhibit offers an aural adventure

A unique gallery installation at ASU’s West campus opens on Feb. 19 and continues through March 8. “Oscillations” features a new work by internationally renowned artist and ASU faculty member Garth Paine.

Six Tibetan singing bowl robots, each carrying two singing bowls that produce pure sustained tones, will fill the room with an omnipresent series of harmonics. In contrast, oscillating cymbals produce an earthy, gritty and urgent intervention, marking out the sound field in a dynamic manner.

“This aural adventure will truly allow visitors to ArtSpace West to ‘experience the new,’ which is the theme of the cultural events series for ASU’s West campus,” said Jeff Kennedy, campus artistic director.

Paine’s specialties are digital music and sound and interactive performance. He is particularly fascinated with sound as an object that can be exhibited where the listener can spend time with the sonic artifact so that they feel truly present. This passion has led to several interactive responsive environments where the visitor generates the sonic landscape through their presence and behavior, to fixed media compositions and to several music scores for dance works, generated through real-time video tracking and or bio-sensing of the dancers. His work has been shown throughout Australia, Europe, Japan, the United States, Hong Kong, Korea and New Zealand.

Paine currently is the interim director of the School of Arts, Media + Engineering in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at ASU’s Tempe campus.

The opening night celebration of this new work is at 6 p.m., Feb. 19, in ArtSpace West (room 228 of the University Center Building), the Interdisciplinary Arts and Performance gallery space. The installation will then be available for viewing Mondays through Fridays from noon to 5 p.m. through March 8.

ArtSpace West admission is free. Visitor parking on the West campus, at 4701 W. Thunderbird Road, is $2 per hour. For information, call 602-543-2787, go to http://campus.asu.edu/west/events or visit Facebook at “ASU West Events.”