V&A: Design and Disability

After many months of keeping a lid on it, I am wildly excited to announce

that some of my sonic cucumber musical instruments will be in the

Design and Disability exhibition at The V&A Dundee, opening June 5th.

 

These instruments were born from a collaboration with Dangerous Signs, a deaf performance company of prior and current students of The National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID), one of the colleges at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), where I was artist in residence at The School for American Craft in 2013. The opportunity to work with NTID students was one of the main reasons I applied; sound and vibration are core to my practice even as a stonecarver long ago in NYC. I thought it might expand how the glass instruments were interacted with, and develop new ones with a community who would approach their soundscape with new insights. Working with these performers who co-designed many of the glass instruments taught me so much from them about what resonates on so many levels. Co-developing with Dangerous Signs and this residency overall was one of the most formative experiences of my career. Thanks to all the Dangerous Signs performers, Co-founder Luane Haggerty, and Professor Emeritus, Rochester Institute of Technology, and now dear friend, Michael Rogers, who gave me this fantastic opportunity at RIT, still reverberating in my practice today.

Photo above: film still Le Sirenuse, photo Rob Page, who takes full responsibility for the instrument names.

Photo below: Annette Dragon

Dangerous Signs performance 2013. Performers tossed ballons to the audience to hold so they could feel every vibration of the performance. Glass instruments on the table under red balloon, above the player, who also co-wrote a poem about them.