Works in Progress began as an impulse to explore how self-doubt, procrastination, and creative mania could be channeled into a curatorial approach that rejects the possibility of completion in a city of tangents and a world in flux.
NYC is an urban ecosystem that defies its own life expectancy, held up by a delicate scaffolding of human and more-than-human relationships. From a shrine for cockroaches to a woven tapestry of city e-waste, the works on show highlight artists who interrogate and deconstruct the city that makes us as we try to make it.
Curated by Izzy Groenewegen and Eliot Lambert <3
‘WORK IN PROGRESS’ will show at 3RDStory Gallery, 349 Suydam Street from 6-17th March. OPENING NIGHT FRIDAY 6TH MARCH 7-9PM
Imagine if starling murmurations could signal jam Starlink with the synchronized flapping of their thousands of wings, to disrupt the human itch for hyperconnectivity. It would sound static-y like radio frequency interference. Birds apparently signal jam each other's vocalizations to make opposing mates seem less attractive, which feels very Elon Musk coded...
Graphic score for what I would imagine a phone call between Elon Musk, founder of Starlink Avian Services, the world's first satellite service designed to optimize bird flocking coordination, migratory routes, and in flight dining services, and a disgruntled bird customer who would rather not pay a monthly subscription, to sound like.
My Parsons DT thesis project - ‘When Satellites Murmur’ is an ode to murmuration - the result of sonic experimentation between satellites, starlings, theremins, and (least importantly) humans.
Murmuration is the sound made by thousands of starlings flapping their wings in unison, but more widely defined as the utterance of a low and continuous sound. In this project, murmuration represents the ephemeral and at times incomprehensible channels of nonhuman vocalization. The work translates and modulates real-time and pre-recorded signals between satellites theremins, radio, and birds, positioning their antennas not as passive receivers but as active listeners and instruments.
I have made a website (link in bio) for the project, which is a culmination of my creative process and research. I hope you will find the time to read it (and on a desktop instead of a phone) because then you might understand wtf I’m on about…my granny read my thesis paper recently and said that she couldn’t understand a SINGLE word, so I’m hoping you will understand at least 5 words…
Enjoy - and let me know if you have any questions or thoughts <3 I see this project going in many directions and am very open to feedback/collaboration/questions…
I owe it all to the birds that sing like chainsaws, the satellites that swarm like starlings, the wings that flap like static, the signals that sound like the dawn chorus, the drone that mimics the sparrow, the starlings that trip the telephone wires, and so on and so forth…
Slide 1: segment from my experimental film
Slide 2: theremin radio
Slide 3: the installation setup
Slide 4: the website landing page
Slide 5: max msp patch (theremin-controlled frame sequencing)
Slide 6: theremin as midi controlling software defined radio
Slide 7: picking up NOAA 15 satellite signal on roof
Slide 8: @ thesis show
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Reflecting on this night of eclectic creativity that @cruzzzin and I put on last month
Thanks to everyone who came to our first exhibition despite the electric shocks and DIY bedsheet projector screens. Was truly joyful.
OPEN CALL! If anyone in NY has a burning desire to showcase some of their work on my rooftop next Monday evening then drop me or @cruzzzin a DM. We are mainly looking for new media art/film/live performance but open to anything cool! More details to come 🫡
