A selection of exhibitions and other projects from 2007 onwards
- O-O-O-O-O Installation at the Brückenmusik festival, Cologne.
- Soundwaves, Kinetika Museum, group exhibition, London.
- Visuelle Music, sound art exhibition and concert, Philharmonie, Luxembourg.
- Klangräume Sibiu, Installation at the Art Laboratory Sibiu, Romania.
- Wolfgang von Kempelen group exhibition at the Palace of Art / Műcsarnok, Budapest and ZKM Karlsruhe.
- Wien Modern exhibition with Roland Pfrengle's SprachMusik (2006/08) with Natalia Psenitsnikova, alto flute & voice, Talking Machine and computer, in Vienna and also in Spannungsfelder, Darmstadt 2008.
- Musica ex Machina, one man show with additional historical documents, at the Komaba Museum of the University of Tokyo. It broke the attendance record for the museum: over 10,000 visitors in two months.
2008
- Installation in Open Space, ICC / NTT, Tokyo, 12 months to March 2009.
- Guest speaker at the seminar Aesthetik der Geistlosigkeit, Leipzig.
- Novembermusik Roland Pfrengle's SprachMusik (2006/08) with Lesley Olson, alto flute & voice, Talking Machine and computer, Essen.
- Honourable mention from Prix Ars Electronica for the Thinking Machine in collaboration with the composer Masahiro Miwa.
- Prize for the design of urban spaces around the Katherinenkirche in Hamburg in collaboration with Büro Regina Poly, landscape architects.
2009
- Museumsnacht: 2 concerts with Aleks Kolkowski's Automatic Ensemble at the Leonhardskirche in Basel; and another concert at the Museum für Musikautomaten in Seewen, near Basel.
- Klangmaschinen ... a radio programme produced by Nina Polschegg for SWR2, 12.2.09
- Automatenliebe ... a radio programme produced by Björn Gottstein for Bayern2, 15.2.09
- MaerzMusik: Reduction, Structure, Deconstruction. The 24 Piece Percussion Installation with Eight Pieces by Tom Johnson. Berliner Festspiele
- Klangburg, Burg Eisenhardt, Belzig, Mark Brandenburg
- Apparatus, Lydgalleriet, Bergen, Norway
- All Change a flute duet by Schaun Tozer with Natalia Psenitsnikova and the Flute Playing Machine to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the Berlinische Galerie in its own building.
- Thinking Machine at the Komaba Museum, University of Tokyo
- building a CNC milling machine
2010
- Arte Sonoro, Casa Encendida. I went to Madrid to set up the Thinking Machine. My fight was cancelled due to the Eyjafjallajökull eruption so I was frerried non-stop by two drivers from Berlin to Madrid, pausing only to pick up another artist in Paris.
- My Manna Machine model was featured in the TV programme
The Evidence / Chlorella as Modern Manna / The History Channel (USA).
I designed and built the model based on a flow-chart in the book The Manna Machine (1976), by George Sassoon and Rodney Dale, for which I also designed and drew the illustrations. - Ogaki Media Festival / IAMAS, Japan, Thinking Machine
- Motoren, oqbo galerie, Berlin, O-O-O-O-O
- Singing Machine prototype with Yu Matsumoto & Yuichi Takahashi at IAMAS, Japan.
2011
- SoundART exhibition, Cologne, German Sound Art prize nominees.
- built a second version of the Singing Machine and started on the third version.
2012
- SuperBodies Hasselt, Belgium, Walking Machines with video
- SoundSeeing Kloster Gravenhorst, Ein Ton and the Talking Machine
- Elektroakustische Musik Hoeren a talk, with videos and recordings,
at the the Technical University Berlin, with Roland Pfrengle. - building StringThing
- Verspielte Musik: Concert with Automatic Instruments at the Deutsches Museum, Munich.
including StringThing with works by Roland Pfrengle and Makiko Nishikaze.
Organised by Münchner Gesellschaft für Neue Musik
2013
- Internet & Society, 34th Kirchentag of the German Evangelical Church
at the CHH Congress Centre, Hamburg.
The Singing Machine sang the hymn Ut Queant Laxis, followed by a demonstration of acoustic speech synthesis techniques.
- The Inauthenticity and Uncanniness of Speaking, a radio programme produced by Ingo Kottkamp and Inke Arns for DeutschlandRadio Kultur. Artists' perspectives on the human voice. I demonstrated the Talking Machine and the Singing Machine.
- A two-day installation: StringThing with the duet Things for Things by Makiko Nishikaze at the Galeria Naprzeciw in Poznań. The two instruments were sited in two adjacent but separate spaces overlooking a courtyard next to a park at the Arts University so that the music blended with ambient sounds, bird song, etc. We were fortunate to have perfect weather and both Makiko's music and my installation were very well received. The exhibition was organised and set up by Mikolaj Polinski.
The two StringThing instruments looking out at the courtyard in Poznań.
The Thinking Machine in Gifu, Japan, with two of Masahiro's Matarisama Dolls.
- 10th - 14th October
The Thinking Machine was shown as the central feature of the exhibiton about Masahiro Miwa's Reverse Simulation Music at the Gifu Prefectural Museum of Art, Japan
- 20th October
Interview on motherboard with Nadja Sayej, a Berlin-based journalist who writes for The New York Times and other media.
- 26th October
Hybrid Music Now! Festival Philharmonie Essen ... also 2014 in Japan.
The 24 Piece Percussion Installation, Flute Playing Machine, Singing Machine,
Talking Machine, StringThing, etc. with the Chamber Ensemble for New Music (KNM, soloists and conductor Titus Engel with computers, live electronics,
and video projection.
Works by Roland Pfrengle,Tom Johnson, Schaun Tozer, Dirk Reith, Günter Steinke,
Thomas Neuhaus and Masahiro Miwa.
A good audience ... they loved it!
Now we are getting ready for two concerts in Japan early next year.
2014
- 4th February
While preparing for the concerts I set up and demonstrated some of the machines in the foyer of the Aichi Arts Center and also gave a lecture about my work - sponsored by the Ministry of Culture :-). - 9th February
Hybrid Music in Japan
at the Aichi Arts Center, Nagoya, sold out. - 11th February
Hybrid Music Asahi Hall, Tokyo, sold out.
The Flamme d'Or on the roof of
Philipp Starck's Asahi Hall Tokyo
Both concerts in Japan sold out, jam-packed full -
here is an online report.- 15th March
I got a nice email from Linz to tell me that I had been nominated for the Golden Nica for Visionary Pioneers of Media Art, a new award at Prix Ars Electronica. Very flattering, but to put things in perspective, emails also went out to 150 other nominees.
Later: Roy Ascott (UK) got it! - a "pioneer of telematic art and a visionary thinker"
- 8th November
Suntory Foundation for the Arts TRANSMUSIC 2014
featuring Masahiro Miwa as the theme composer.
Izumi Hall, Osaka
My Singing Machine and Ein Ton sound installation again performed the work
hitonokiesari (people vanish), - the recital of a poem by Sadakazu Fujii with the Izumi Sinfonietta Osaka Ensemble.
The programme also included Im Januar am Nil (1984) by Clarence Barlow (#6) whom I last met in 2007.
Photo: a drink-up after the concert with composers, soloists and friends. - 8th - 12th December
Prof. Andreas Oldörp invited me to give a talk and a workshop in his department for Sound Art at the Hochschule für Bildende Kunst (HBKsaar) in Saarbrücken. A most enjoyable visit!
2015
- 6th May
The Automatic Viola had its first outing at the salon of Alexander Ochs in Berlin accompanying Jon Rose (violin): Hollis Taylor (violin): Shasta Ellenborgen (viola): Nora Krahl (cello): Meinrad Kneer (double bass).
Photo of a prototype bowing mechanism. It has similarities to my StringThing but has improved electronics designed and built by Sukandar Kartadinata to provide a softer movement of the fingers and a more sensitive pressure on the bow-wheels. - May 2015
I am now starting on Four Singing Voices in the range tenor to bass. Based on experience gained with my Singing Machine ... but there are some other ideas I want to try, like quieter blowers. - Also, (in between times and just for fun) a long wheel-base recumbent bicycle with underseat steering
This is generally considered an outmoded configuration because of its large turning circle, but I like the laid-back look. Not something I want to ride in heavy traffic.
More about this project when it is finished.
2016
- 11th to 13th May
- 16th September to 8th January 2017
- 4th to 12th November 2016
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I took part in The Art of Voice Synthesis conference and a concert at Het Orgelpark organised by the University of Amsterdam.
Vocalist Ute Wassermann performed her work pneuma with my Talking Machine and the Singing Machine performed the last three (solo) verses of hitonokiesari. The accompanying drone was supplied by one of the several Orgelpark organs. The concert was attended by an enthusiastic audience; a mix of members of the public and experts from the conference. In the interval the audience came onto the stage and I gave close-up demonstrations of my instruments, including MotorMouth,(left), on loan from the Berlinische Galerie. |
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Stadtgalerie - the municipal gallery in Saarbrücken, Germany. The gallery has a 25-year history of presenting Sound Art and this is the second time I have shown there. This time I was invited to take part at the suggestion of Prof. Andreas Oldörp. I spent long periods at the gallery programming a new work and demonstrating other works to visitors. They responded by telling their friends - a popular and successful exhibition. I shared it with my friend and colleague Max Eastley who showed three sound installations. We are now preparing a joint bi-lingual catalogue to be published in July by Kerber Verlag. Collectively, our exhibitions were entitled Two Measures of Time. |
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StringThing was shown at Daniel Löwenbrück's Rumpsti Pumpsti gallery, Berlin. It played things for things by Makiko Nishikaze |
2017
- 24th June 2017
- 29th September to 1st November
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My Singing Machine was featured in a concert by the Ensemble KNM Berlin and friends Die Welt nach Tiepolo: ASIEN (The World According to Tiepolo: ASIA) at Radialsystem Berlin. Masahiro Miwa: hitonokiesari Introduction and Recital of a poem by Sadakazu Fujii for Singing Machine, Ein Ton and nine players. |
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I demonstrated my Four Voices and Singing Machine in KONTAKTE, Biennial for Electroacoustic Music & Sound Art at the Akademie der Künste, Berlin The Four Voices sang a chant specially composed for them by Masahiro Miwa; this was their first performance in public. "Tongues and tuners running up and down; lips opening and closing; vibrating vocal chords - an amazing analogue of human song: all accomplished without loudspeakers and without any form of recording." |
2018
- 15th - 18th March
- 20th - 22nd April
- 29th June
- May - June
- 7th July - 5th August
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Archipel 2018, Genève, Suisse festival des musiques d'aujourd'hui 15. 03 to 18. 03.18 Salle de l'Alhambra: demonstration of Four Voices 18.03.18 Salle de l'Alhambra: Masahiro Miwa: hitonokiesari Introduction and Recital of a poem by Sadakazu Fujii for Singing Machine, Ein Ton and nine members of the Kammerensemble Neue Musik, Berlin (KNM) |
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UmbruchThese / Upheaval Freehome - Artist to Artist - Berlin Vadim Zakharow / fontaine b. Artists: Lucio Fontana, Hermann Nitsch, Maya Attoum, Serge Stephan, Lindy Annis, Jacopo Rinaldi, Mariana Vassileva, Emmett Williams and Ann Noël, Arnold Dreyblatt, Elana Katz, Malcolm Green and Natalia Cerutti. I showed a clock. |
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My contribution to the Hearable Hackathon: a hearable made of a wire coat hanger, two sheets of card and some tape. It works great, costs almost nothing and does not require batteries. Frauenhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT Project manager: Peggy Sylopp hack4ears website (German) |
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I had the pleasure of advising Tatiana López and Carlos Gutiérrez on their splendid Whistling Jars installation ...
Ch'ipas |
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Saarland Clock Museum I showed 8 clocks, drawings and other related material. Also my Singing Machine. The museum is run by an association of clock makers, collectors and precision engineers. This was their first show of its kind (to mark the 25th anniversary of their museum) and was thought to have been highly successful so they now plan to present similar exhibitions in the future. More about the exhibition Museum website |
2019
- 8th February - 23rd March
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Knock on Wood - a percussion installation Tom Johnson & Martin Riches Control system: Manfred Fox Circuit, centre d'art contemporain, Lausanne The first presentation of the installation; in a large, white and splendidly resonant space. More about Knock on Wood |
- 19th April - 30th June
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Post-Opera TENT, Witte de Withstraat 50, Rotterdam 19th April - 30th June Open: Tue - Sun: 11:00 - 18:00 In collaboration with the annual Rotterdam Operadagen The exhibition was curated by Kris Dittel and Jelena Novak |
- 13th May
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KONTRAKLANG New Music Arkaoda / Berlin with Ute Wassermann Pneuma for voice and Talking Machine (2016) and Tomomi Adachi How to learn to talk 2U for Talking Machine, voice and gesture (2013) Arkaoda is a recently opened Berlin night club, (named after a well known night club in Istanbul.) |
- 18th and 19th May
 Looking down an Ein Ton pipe |
18th May: Post Opera TENT Art Centre, Rotterdam Symposium: Installing the Voice / Operadagen Rotterdam including a preview of a film about my work by Dr.Hannah Bosma (University of Amsterdam), Sergio Gridelli (camera), Armeno Alberts (sound) 19th May: Singing Machine, explanation and demonstration |
- 15th - 31st August
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Knock on Wood - a percussion installation Tom Johnson & Martin Riches. The control system is by Manfred Fox Tabakalera International centre for contemporary culture Donostia / San Sebastian 1st floor Hall More about Knock on Wood |
- 13th -29th September
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Structure and Sound Curator: Yukari Fujimoto Kyoto Seika University Gallery Fleur with Minoru Sato, Atsushi Nishijima and Akitsugu Maebayashi I showed the Singing Machine, the Thinking Machine and a clock (left). Sponsors: Komaba Museum (Thinking Machine) The Kao Foundation for Arts and Sciences Japan Arts Council Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation Kyoto City Tourism Association. Open: 11:00-18:00 |
- 16th September
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SOTO Gallery, Kyoto. I gave a demonstration of the Singing Machine and vowel pipes from the Talking Machine. Simultaneous translation by Yumiko Urae. |
- 19th October - 21st December
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At the suggestion of Prof. Suguru Goto I was invited as Guest Professor at Geidai / Tokyo University of the Arts, Department of Music, Senju Campus to work on the Singing Machine A detailed description here! |
- 14th and 16th December
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I showed the results during a production and research exhibition: Senju Art Path 2019 at Geidai Senju Campus. I also showed the Thinking Machine on loan from the collection of Komaba Museum, Todai / Tokyo University - my thanks to Orimo-san and to Prof. Hermann Gottschewski ! The exhibition was attended by students, by members of the public, and by many friends, both old and new. - residency, as above - exhibition and photos |
2020
- 10th - 27th September
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Interactive Field (1999) at Acud Kunst Haus Veteranenstr 21, 10119 Berlin-Mitte ... and, at the same time, a short walk away ... |
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Knock on Wood (2019) with music by Tom Johnson at Meinblau Projektraum, Pfefferberg Haus 5, Christinenstr 18-19, 10119 Berlin-Mitte Both exhibitions were organised by singuhr projekte |
2021
- 6th July
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An Orrery to conduct musicians A project with composer Annesley Black and percussionist / instrument maker Thomas Meixner. Orrery Singer Kunst Kultur Kirche Allerheiligen Thüringer Str. 35 Frankfurt am Maine Delphine Roche, flute Robin Hoffmann, guitar Annesley Black & Jeró Caballero orrery  Musikfonds  Federal Commissioner for Culture & Media |
- 23rd September
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Orrery Singer by Annesley Black This time at the Ultima Festival in Oslo with the Ensemble asamisimasa |
- 6th - 21st November
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Sound Sculpture Exhibition 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo organised by the Creative Arts Executive. featuring the Thinking Machine on loan from the Komaba Museum, University of Tokyo There were 2572 visitors.and favorable reviews Curator: Aki Hirokawa |
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- 18th November - 18th December 2021
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The Singing Machine (2013) in a group exhibition about the voice: Le Voile du Palais Hôtel Pasteur - a new cultural venue 2 Place Pasteur, 35000 Rennes The voice as a technology of the body Recording as a technology of the voice Curator: Damien Simon Le Bon Accueil, Reverb Lieu d'arts sonores. Rennes |
2022
- 19th January - 5th February
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NOHE NOSHE Eleni Poulou & Petr Step Kišur A recording "Where Are You?" based on a phrase by the Singing Machine at the Collective Alienation - CTM 2022 Exhibition Kunstquartier Bethanien, Berlin |
- 9th May
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La voce artificiale ISBN: 979-12-5976-278-8 In 2020 I had a long exchange of emails with Domenico Napolitano on the subject of artificial voice during his research for his doctoral thesis. His thesis has now been published as a book and I am honoured and delighted to see the initial sketch of my MotorMouth project on the cover. |
- 31 July - 24th August
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Field Kitchen Academy Theme: Voice as Object, Object (h)as Voice For a couple of days I served as a member of the academy I gave a talk about the history of speech synthesis starting from the 18th century. My Four Voices performed a couple of demonstrations and a chant written for them by Masahiro Miwa. Curator: Ece Pazabaşı | |
Gutshaus Wüsten Buchholz Perleberg, Mark Brandenburg |
2023
- In planning
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Contemporánea, Granada Installation Knock on Wood with composer Tom Johnson |
grants, awards, residencies
| 1982 -89 -93 | grants from the Senator for Cultural Affairs, Berlin |
| 1986 | Realisation of the project Machine Dance for the |
| Production Technology Centre (PTZ) of the Technical University / | |
| Frauenhofer Gesellschaft, Berlin | |
| 1989 | Residency at the New York Hall of Science with the project |
| Pattern and Chaos. | |
| 1999 | Interactive Art prize winner, InterCommunication Center (ICC/NTT) Tokyo |
| 2000 | Realisation of the project Hello, can you hear me? for a school for visually |
| handicapped children in Berlin. | |
| 2001 | Residency at the Hochschule für Media in Cologne awarded by the |
| German Sound Art Prize competition. | |
| 2006 | Guest at La Courbière, Estervayer-le-Lac, Switzerland. |
| Residency with Roland Pfrengle and the Talking Machine at Tesla, Berlin. | |
| 2009 | Residency at Burg Eisenhardt, Belzig, Mark Brandenburg. |
| 2010 | Residency at IAMAS, Institute for Advanced Media Arts & Sciences, |
| Ogaki, Japan. | |
| 2011-14 | Grant for Hybrid Music for Humans and Machines from the |
| German Federal Cultural Foundation - Kulturstiftung des Bundes | |
| 2016 | I was a guest at the Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken during the exhibition |
| Two Measures of Time ... | |
| 2018 | and again during the exhibition at the Saarland Clock Museum |
| 2019 | Residency at Tokyo University of the Arts, Department of Music. |
| 2021 | Grant from the Giesecke + Devrient Foundation. |
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