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FOOT NOTES: On the Sensations of Tone
Organized by: Alastair Noble

On view:
January 15 – March 7, 2015

Opening reception:
Wednesday, January 14: 6-8 pm

Featuring work by:
Una Lee
Annea Lockwood
Chris H. Lynn
Robert Macfarlane
Ed Osborn
David Rothenberg
Chris Watson

Performances by:
George Quasha
David Rothenberg
Charles Stein

Contemporary musicians and sound artists are indebted to the 19th century German physicist Herman Helmholtz (1821-1894) who authored On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music (1862). In the book, Helmholtz explored the mathematical, physiological, and perception effects of sound: “We perceive that generally, a noise is accompanied by a rapid alternation of different kinds of sensations of sound. Think, for example, of the rattling of a carriage over granite paving stones, the splashing or seething of a waterfall or of the waves of the sea, the rustling of leaves in a wood.”

Artistic disciplines examining sound have emerged since Helmholtz’s research, “the waves of the sea” has turned into acoustic ecology that examines how sound is an integrative principle in human and natural environments. Field recordings have proliferated in recent years due to the availability and portability of high quality recording equipment, enticing composers and sound artists to take their studios to the edge of the wilds or down the street. The exhibition FOOT NOTES: On the Sensations of Tone and two public performance events draw together nine artists/composers whose works poetically map sound that reflect and emerge from their interaction with the natural environment.

For more information please contact Lorissa Rinehart at [email protected] or visit apexart.org/exhibitions/noble.php

Alastair Noble is an environmental/installation artist and printmaker from the UK, now based in New York City. His artistic practice is a response to architecture and the natural environment and reflects on particular sites in the context of poetry and literature. In May 2014 he was an artist-in-residence at the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park in Woodstock, Vermont. Alastair’s artistic career spans 30 years with exhibitions and residencies in the UK, Peru, Chile, Bulgaria, and Italy. He has taught and lectured at numerous colleges, universities, and public institutions, and has curated exhibitions and organized symposiums on art, poetry, and the environment. His essays, articles, and reviews on art and architecture have also appeared in national and international publications.

apexart’s exhibitions and public programs are supported in part by the Affirmation Arts Fund, Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Bloomberg Philanthropies, The Greenwich Collection Ltd., Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation, and with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts.