Florian Hecker, James Hoff, Roc Jiménez de Cisneros, Guerino Mazzola, Reza Negarestani, Curtis Roads — Organized by Eric Frye

Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis
Generous exhibition support provided by Meyer Sound

The series Exploring Compositional Epistemologies encompasses several performances and presentations, in addition to a single installation that runs for the duration of the series. These events collectively function as a platform for the synthesization of multiple fields of study, including sound, philosophy, mathematics, and linguistics. As the series unfolds, it aims to reveal new processes and trajectories by investigating the relationship between these disciplines, developing a web of exchanges between modes of reasoning and experimentation.

Exploring Compositional Epistemologies brings together essential figures of contemporary sound philosophy. Illusive and seemingly immaterial sonic forms become corporeal entities within the gallery through the intricate psychoacoustics of Florian Hecker’s 3-channel installation. Guerino Mazzola, whose work has been compared to Iannis Xenakis’, calls into question the correlation between gesture and topological sonic structures. Curtis Roads’ intuitive compositional narratives simultaneously dissolve and assemble sound within sound. In James Hoff’s audio and visual work, digital data is parasitically corrupted, revealing diverse and unpredictable patterns of behavior. Generic tropes of rave culture are devoured, deconstructed and regurgitated as mutated forms in Roc Jiménez de Cisneros’ playfully visceral performance. With his ‘philosophy on acid’ approach, Reza Negarestani examines the links between analytic pragmatism, artificial intelligence and artificial speech.

SELECTED PRESS

Contemporary Art Daily - installation images and audio excerpts

"[...] an erudite survey of the fusion of technology, composition and performance exploring the intersections of time, knowledge, self-hood and sonic space [...]"
- Mn Artists