William Bilwa Costa is a sound and visual artist. He has worked with movement artist Emily Sweeney as perpetual mvmt<>snd since 2006. Together, they have shown work in Philadelphia, New York, Berlin, Vienna, Turku (Finland), Rome, and London. In 2009, they participated in PRISMA Forum-Mexico, collaborating with many international trans-media artists as a part of the laboratory “Who’s Afraid of the In-Between?” Bilwa currently works internationally, generating research/ lab/ performance projects, actively cultivating opportunities for artists to work together on new interdisciplinary explorations. Collaboration with other musicians, dancers, and designers and use of improvisation are central to his practice. He is comfortable in both the performing and visual arts contexts, creating sound and design for performance and installations. His electronic music and sound art often involve the abstraction of live-feed source material such as dancers’ breath and body sounds, acoustic musicians, and audio frequency feedback—sonic relics through which he pulls elements of specific spaces, times, and interactions into his work. He is interested in sensory perception and subjectivity, and his work documents those acts of decipherment. He often uses multiple speakers placed throughout a space, generating a sensory environment rich in ambient, rhythmic, and spatial sound.
<residencies> 2010 STEIM
Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS www.steim.org
1-week residency with collaborator Emily Sweeney to develop recordings of movement and breath in the STEIM studios
SUMU new media art residency
Gallery Titanik/ Arte Association
Turku, FINLAND www.arte.fi/sumu/sumu_main.html
10-week residency with collaborator Emily Sweeney to develop and perform Breathscape, an inhabited installation that integrates body-sounds and videos with live performance; breath, muscle movement, and touch construct a space for meditating on the body’s changing communicative powers in the emerging virtual realm
2009 PAF (performing arts forum)
St. Erme, FRANCE www.pa-f.net
Sound/ video editing and experiments
Brick Lane Studio
London, UK
Recording sessions and project development with Werner Moebius (AT), Mariella Greil (AT) and J. Milo Taylor (UK)
STEIM
Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS www.steim.org
Study and exploration of the technical and artistic means available at STEIM for a potential future project.
PRISMA Forum
Oaxaca/Mexico City, MEXICO www.prisma-forum.info
2-week residency to participate in “Who’s afraid of the in-between?” a laboratory investigating intermedia processes, led by dance artist Mariella Greil (AT) + sound artist Werner Moebius (AT) w/ composer/bass clarinetist Gene Coleman (USA); video artists Synes Elischka (AT) + Christian Schroeder (AT); visual artist Nikolaus Gansterer (AT); actor Georg Hobmeier (AT); sound artists Miguel Mesa (MX), Markus Soukup (GE/UK), + J. Milo Taylor (UK); guitarist Jo Berger Myhre (NO); violinist Eivind Schou (NO); + dance artists Sonja Augart (GE) and Emily Sweeney (US)
Panelist: Art and science: form biology to software and return
Moderator: Georg Hobmeier (AT); Panelists: Phillipe Baudelot (FR), Carlos Lopez Charles (MX), Robin Meier (FR/CH), Victor Weinstock (MX/USA), J. Milo Taylor (UK)
Composer / Conductor / Musician Ensemble In-Between, featuring Gene Coleman, J. Milo Taylor, Werner Moebius, Jo Berger Myhre and Eivind Schou, in collaboration with Robert Steijn as part of PRISMA Forum’s official closing ceremony.
2008 New Edge Mix & New York Dance Exchange
Community Education Center, Philadelphia, PA (USA) www.cecarts.org
6-month residency for collaboration with dance artist Emily Sweeney to create and perform: untitled—solo performance installation with live performer, video, sound, and set design moved—performance installation with set and costume design, live sound, and movement drawn from research into the sculptures of Auguste Rodin
<curatorial/production/administration> 2006-present Perpetual Movement Sound www.perpetualmvmtsnd.org
Co-directs Perpetual Movement Sound, a collaboration that explores interdisciplinary processes to develop works for performance
2007-2009 paraphrase/NEXUS NEXUS/foundation for today’s art
Philadelphia, PA (USA) www.nexusphiladelphia.org/paraphrase.html
Special Programs Director/ Curator/ Producer: paraphrase/NEXUS performance series and NEXUSradio
paraphrase/NEXUS (04/2007 to 02/2009)
Curator/ Producer of a performance series in which artists of various disciplines and media create performances that elaborate upon exhibitions at NEXUS/Foundation for Today’s Art, including dance artists Mariella Greil (Austria), Eun-Jung Choi-Gonzalez (New York), Kathy Ochoa (Canada), Olive Prince, and Megan Bridge; composers Gene Coleman, Werner Moebius (Austria), Michael McDermott, John J. H. Phillips, Florian Tuerke (Germany), Christian Weiss (Germany), forschungsgruppe_f (Germany), and Peter Price www.nexusphiladelphia.org/paraphrase.html
NEXUSradio (12/11/2008 to 02/06/2009)
Curator/ Engineer—artists involved include: Soundfield/ Gene Coleman, Florian Tuerke/ forshungsgruppe_f, Christian Weiss/ bassbediener, Roderick Coover, Oxygen Music Collective, John J. H. Phillips, Audrey Chen, Alban Bailly, Noa Babayof
NEXUS/foundation for today’s art transformed its gallery space into a low powered radio station for two months, inviting artists, musicians, performers, djs, activists, poets, scholars, local community groups and other members of the public to use the radio broadcast during gallery hours, Wednesday through Sunday, 12 to 6 PM, as well as 13 evening programs curated by William Bilwa Costa. A celebration of radio’s legacy, the evolution of communication technology, and a reaction to the current state of commercial media, the exhibition explores highly intimate auditory experiences, the radio signal’s idiosyncratic nature, and radio’s own rich history. NEXUSradio is a platform for artists to investigate radio’s potential as a medium and art making space through live performance, transmission, and direct interaction with audience members. www.nexusphiladelphia.org/nexusradio.html
2006-2007 Mascher Space Cooperative
Philadelphia, PA (USA) mascherdance.com/
Was technical and facilities director for an artist-run cooperative that provides studio space and produces performances and other opportunities for Philadelphia’s experimental dance community
2006
Various venues, Philadelphia, PA (USA) <OPENSOURCE>; electronic music series
Co-producer/ designer
2005
Various venues, Philadelphia, PA (USA) THE FLOOR weekly music series
Co-producer/ designer
2002-2005 Silk City
Philadelphia, PA (USA)
VERSIONsound monthly dj/ live music series
Producer/ dj/ designer
<awards / grants> 2009 Meet the Composer MetLife Creative Connections grant
For a sound and video collaboration with John J. H. Phillips at NEXUS/foundation for today’s art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (US)
Argosy Foundation Contemporary Music Fund grant
For a sound and movement collaboration with sound artist Werner Moebius and movement artists Emily Sweeney and Mariella Greil at NEXUS/foundation for today’s art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and 15th Street Meeting House, New York, New York (US)
<workshops/ teaching> 2006-present Turku University of Applied Sciences
Turku, FINLAND www.taideakatemia.turkuamk.fi
<fidget> space
Philadelphia, PA (USA) www.thefidget.org
Lead workshops for groups of dancers, groups of musicians, or groups integrating artists from multiple disciplines (dancers, musicians, theatre artists, visual/media artists, writers, etc.). Teach exercises and scores exploring collaborative memory, reproduction, repetition, and subjectivity.
<performances and installations (selection)> 2010 VW (VeneKlasen/Werner) Gallery
Berlin, GERMANY www.vwberlin.com
expansions:contractions—performance as part of Spencer Sweeney’s exhibition Teatre Laboratorium with musicians Klaus Janek (IT/GE), Florian Tuercke (GE); dancers Daniela Lehmann (GE), Antje Velsinger (GE), Meredith Bove (US/GE), Sandra Lolax (GE), Cyrena Dunbar (GE), and Emily Sweeney (US); + artist Michael Mcjilton (US/GE)
In Electricity We Trust
LTC, Berlin, GERMANY http://in-electricity-we-trust.com Private Investigator’s Dream Machine—performed as part of a stereoscopic camera and video installation in collaboration with dancers Daniela Lehmann (GE) and Emily Sweeney (US), and sound artist Christian Schroeder (AT)
SUMU space, Gallery Titanik
Turku, FINLAND sumuair.wordpress.com Breathscape—sound, set, movement, video installation created in collaboration with dance artist Emily Sweeney (US) and costume designer Johanna Porola (FI)
Fluxee-Klubi @ Tehdas Teatteri Turku, FINLAND www.tehdasteatteri.com/tuotannot/tuotanto3/tuotanto3.htm Performance Installation: a performance installation w/ dance makers Mariella Greil (AT), Emily Sweeney (US), and sound artist Werner Moebius (AT)
B Galleria
Turku, FINLAND bgalleria.net/ Evening of improvised movement + sound w/ dancers Mariella Greil (AT), Maria Nurmela (FI), and Emily Sweeney (US) + sound artists Werner Moebius (AT), Kimmo Modig (FI)
Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art
Turku, FINLAND www.wam.fi
Improvised performance at the opening of The Big Picture w/ dance makers Mariella Greil (AT) and Emily Sweeney (US) and sound artist Werner Moebius (AT)
2009 Glasslands
Brooklyn, NY www.glasslands.com/
Improvised sextet w/ bass clarinetist Gene Coleman (US), cellist Marina Peterson (US), and dancers Martin Lanz Landazuri (MX), Emily Sweeney (US) and Emma Kim Hagdahl (SE)
InCounter Sound – Video – Text Campbell Works
London, UNITED KINGDOM www.campbellworks.org/ Guapo Esmeralda improvised quintet w/ dance makers Mariella Greil (AT) and Emily Sweeney (US) and sound artists Werner Moebius (AT), and J. Milo Taylor (UK)
FLUTEN @ Wasserturm Favoriten
Vienna, AUSTRIA www.fluten.tk drops will flood—performance installation created in collaboration with dance artist Emily Sweeney and presented in the empty tank of a defunct water tower during a 2-week site specific residency in a historic landmark with 12 international artists
Event Space@Temple Gallery
Old City/ Philadelphia, PA (USA) http://www.temple.edu/tyler/exhibitions/publicprogramspast.html Soundfield[at]Temple Gallery: An evening of improvised dance, music, + video
Concept/direction by Emily Sweeney
Rebecca Patek/ Emily Sweeney/ Jil Stifel/ Zornitsa Stoyanova/ movement
Gene Coleman/ bass clarinet; Alban Bailly/ guitar; Audrey Chen/ Helena Espvall/ cello + vocals
Bilwa/ Mikronesia/ mics + effects; John J. H. Phillips/ video
Group Motion’s Spiel Uhr Performance Series
Community Education Center
Philadelphia, PA (USA) www.groupmotion.org breathscape—duet created in collaboration with dance artist Emily Sweeney and performed by dancers Allison Lorenzen and Emily Sweeney
NEXUSradio NEXUS/foundation for today’s art
Philadelphia, PA (USA) www.nexusphiladelphia.org re:cast— audio and video performance created with John J. H. Phillips (http://terragizmo.net/) using transistor radio feedback loops and video/audio live-feedback loops
Inter Continental Collaborations parts 1 through 3— audio performances created in collaboration with sound artists Florian Tuerke (GE) and Christian Weiss/ basbediender (GE) and choreographer Allison Lorenzen (US)
NEXUS/foundation for today’s art
Philadelphia, (USA) www.nexusphiladelphia.org Philadelphia Bridge, Part I—performance installation created in collaboration with Mariella Greil (AT), Werner Moebius (AT), and Emily Sweeney (US); produced by Gene Coleman/Soundfield, funded by the Argosy Foundation
2008 Philly Fringe
NEXUS/foundation for today’s art Philadelphia, PA, (USA) www.phillyfringe.org assembling minutiae—performance installation with concept/ live performance by Emily Sweeney; music by Michael McDermott; live sound/set design by William Bilwa Costa; movement (in video) by Brigitta Herrmann, Rebecca Patek, and Jil Stifel; video by Blaine Siegel
Slought Foundation
Philadelphia, PA (USA) www.slought.org
Live solo electronic music improvisation during the exhibition 239 years (divided by 12 artists)
Philly Fringe
Mascher Space Cooperative
Philadelphia, PA (USA) www.phillyfringe.org gasp—movement quintet choreographed by Emily Sweeney with live-feed sound and video scores by William Bilwa Costa, Michael McDermott, and John Phillips and movement performed by: Rebecca Patek, Zornitsa Stoyanova, Daniele Strawmyre, Christina Zani
1998-2002
Various venues in Philadelphia and New York, including the Knitting Factory (USA) hooptyheaven— experimental electronic music duo w/ Alex Welsh
Composer/ producer/ designer
<lab/ research/ symposia> 2010 QuietImprovisations
Gallery Titanik
Turku, FINLAND www.arte.fi/sumu/sumu_main.html
A day of open improvisation for artists working in all media
2008 Philadelphia Bridge
Various locations, Pennsylvania (USA)
Ten days of site-specific exploration and research with sound artists William Bilwa Costa and Werner Moebius and dance artist Mariella Greil (both from Austria), funded by the Argosy Foundation
2006-2009 The Rashomon Effect Performance Project Mascher Space Cooperative
Philadelphia, PA (USA)
Develop, direct, and dance as part of an ongoing investigation of improvised scores based on the storytelling method employed in Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomôn. The term “Rashomon effect” refers to the effect of subjectivity on recollection, by which observers of an event are able to produce substantially different but equally plausible accounts of it.
<press items> Each of the six offerings at Mascher Space Cooperative delivered flavorful moments. Those with staying power bit off more substantial material and chewed it well. John Phillips’ video of dancers vanishing on revolving planes within infinite architectural spaces is skillfully integrated with live performance in gasp by Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd. The six dancers huddle and float; magenta pinprick lights descend; grainy close-ups catch their action.
—Lisa Kraus, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 9/10/07
Few people in Philadelphia are as dedicated to the performance installation as Perpetual Movement and Sound. That’d be theduo of dancer Emily Sweeney and physical and sonic landscape artist Bilwa. He is Philly’s topiary king of sight and music,without a doubt.
—A.D. Amorosi, Art Matters, 9/3/08
In April 2007, many of the dancers and musicians in residence at the Mascher Space Cooperative began making monthly treks a few blocks south to NEXUS Gallery, performing new works inspired by the gallery’s current exhibitions. The brainchild of Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd co-directors Emily Sweeney and Bilwa, who regularly explore the crossroads of different forms of expression, paraphrase/NEXUS has spawned a wide variety of three-dimensional responses to the works hanging on the walls.
—Shaun Brady, Philadelphia City Paper, 4/26/08
Best Experimental Dance Lab: Unpromising on its surface—a bank of windows along one long wall illuminating a hardwood floor, two posts jutting up through the center—the Mascher Space Cooperative has been transformed time and again by the movement of the dancers who’ve taken advantage of it. …The space has played host for dancer- choreographers like…Emily Sweeney and Bilwa’s music/dance collective Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd. The room’s unfinished feel has become more like a blank canvas on which an array of intriguing work has been splashed.
—Shaun Brady, Philadelphia City Paper, 10/31/07
CV—william/ bilwa/ costa
download CV—william/ bilwa/ costa
William Bilwa Costa is a sound and visual artist. He has worked with movement artist Emily Sweeney as perpetual mvmt<>snd since 2006. Together, they have shown work in Philadelphia, New York, Berlin, Vienna, Turku (Finland), Rome, and London. In 2009, they participated in PRISMA Forum-Mexico, collaborating with many international trans-media artists as a part of the laboratory “Who’s Afraid of the In-Between?” Bilwa currently works internationally, generating research/ lab/ performance projects, actively cultivating opportunities for artists to work together on new interdisciplinary explorations. Collaboration with other musicians, dancers, and designers and use of improvisation are central to his practice. He is comfortable in both the performing and visual arts contexts, creating sound and design for performance and installations. His electronic music and sound art often involve the abstraction of live-feed source material such as dancers’ breath and body sounds, acoustic musicians, and audio frequency feedback—sonic relics through which he pulls elements of specific spaces, times, and interactions into his work. He is interested in sensory perception and subjectivity, and his work documents those acts of decipherment. He often uses multiple speakers placed throughout a space, generating a sensory environment rich in ambient, rhythmic, and spatial sound.
<residencies>
2010
STEIM
Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
www.steim.org
1-week residency with collaborator Emily Sweeney to develop recordings of movement and breath in the STEIM studios
SUMU new media art residency
Gallery Titanik/ Arte Association
Turku, FINLAND www.arte.fi/sumu/sumu_main.html
10-week residency with collaborator Emily Sweeney to develop and perform Breathscape, an inhabited installation that integrates body-sounds and videos with live performance; breath, muscle movement, and touch construct a space for meditating on the body’s changing communicative powers in the emerging virtual realm
2009
PAF (performing arts forum)
St. Erme, FRANCE
www.pa-f.net
Sound/ video editing and experiments
Brick Lane Studio
London, UK
Recording sessions and project development with Werner Moebius (AT), Mariella Greil (AT) and J. Milo Taylor (UK)
STEIM
Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
www.steim.org
Study and exploration of the technical and artistic means available at STEIM for a potential future project.
PRISMA Forum
Oaxaca/Mexico City, MEXICO www.prisma-forum.info
2-week residency to participate in “Who’s afraid of the in-between?” a laboratory investigating intermedia processes, led by dance artist Mariella Greil (AT) + sound artist Werner Moebius (AT) w/ composer/bass clarinetist Gene Coleman (USA); video artists Synes Elischka (AT) + Christian Schroeder (AT); visual artist Nikolaus Gansterer (AT); actor Georg Hobmeier (AT); sound artists Miguel Mesa (MX), Markus Soukup (GE/UK), + J. Milo Taylor (UK); guitarist Jo Berger Myhre (NO); violinist Eivind Schou (NO); + dance artists Sonja Augart (GE) and Emily Sweeney (US)
Panelist: Art and science: form biology to software and return
Moderator: Georg Hobmeier (AT); Panelists: Phillipe Baudelot (FR), Carlos Lopez Charles (MX), Robin Meier (FR/CH), Victor Weinstock (MX/USA), J. Milo Taylor (UK)
Composer / Conductor / Musician
Ensemble In-Between, featuring Gene Coleman, J. Milo Taylor, Werner Moebius, Jo Berger Myhre and Eivind Schou, in collaboration with Robert Steijn as part of PRISMA Forum’s official closing ceremony.
2008
New Edge Mix & New York Dance Exchange
Community Education Center, Philadelphia, PA (USA)
www.cecarts.org
6-month residency for collaboration with dance artist Emily Sweeney to create and perform:
untitled—solo performance installation with live performer, video, sound, and set design
moved—performance installation with set and costume design, live sound, and movement drawn from research into the sculptures of Auguste Rodin
<curatorial/production/administration>
2006-present
Perpetual Movement Sound
www.perpetualmvmtsnd.org
Co-directs Perpetual Movement Sound, a collaboration that explores interdisciplinary processes to develop works for performance
2007-2009
paraphrase/NEXUS
NEXUS/foundation for today’s art
Philadelphia, PA (USA)
www.nexusphiladelphia.org/paraphrase.html
Special Programs Director/ Curator/ Producer: paraphrase/NEXUS performance series and NEXUSradio
paraphrase/NEXUS (04/2007 to 02/2009)
Curator/ Producer of a performance series in which artists of various disciplines and media create performances that elaborate upon exhibitions at NEXUS/Foundation for Today’s Art, including dance artists Mariella Greil (Austria), Eun-Jung Choi-Gonzalez (New York), Kathy Ochoa (Canada), Olive Prince, and Megan Bridge; composers Gene Coleman, Werner Moebius (Austria), Michael McDermott, John J. H. Phillips, Florian Tuerke (Germany), Christian Weiss (Germany), forschungsgruppe_f (Germany), and Peter Price www.nexusphiladelphia.org/paraphrase.html
NEXUSradio (12/11/2008 to 02/06/2009)
Curator/ Engineer—artists involved include: Soundfield/ Gene Coleman, Florian Tuerke/ forshungsgruppe_f, Christian Weiss/ bassbediener, Roderick Coover, Oxygen Music Collective, John J. H. Phillips, Audrey Chen, Alban Bailly, Noa Babayof
NEXUS/foundation for today’s art transformed its gallery space into a low powered radio station for two months, inviting artists, musicians, performers, djs, activists, poets, scholars, local community groups and other members of the public to use the radio broadcast during gallery hours, Wednesday through Sunday, 12 to 6 PM, as well as 13 evening programs curated by William Bilwa Costa. A celebration of radio’s legacy, the evolution of communication technology, and a reaction to the current state of commercial media, the exhibition explores highly intimate auditory experiences, the radio signal’s idiosyncratic nature, and radio’s own rich history. NEXUSradio is a platform for artists to investigate radio’s potential as a medium and art making space through live performance, transmission, and direct interaction with audience members. www.nexusphiladelphia.org/nexusradio.html
2006-2007
Mascher Space Cooperative
Philadelphia, PA (USA)
mascherdance.com/
Was technical and facilities director for an artist-run cooperative that provides studio space and produces performances and other opportunities for Philadelphia’s experimental dance community
2006
Various venues, Philadelphia, PA (USA)
<OPENSOURCE>; electronic music series
Co-producer/ designer
2005
Various venues, Philadelphia, PA (USA)
THE FLOOR weekly music series
Co-producer/ designer
2002-2005
Silk City
Philadelphia, PA (USA)
VERSIONsound monthly dj/ live music series
Producer/ dj/ designer
<awards / grants>
2009
Meet the Composer MetLife Creative Connections grant
For a sound and video collaboration with John J. H. Phillips at NEXUS/foundation for today’s art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (US)
Argosy Foundation Contemporary Music Fund grant
For a sound and movement collaboration with sound artist Werner Moebius and movement artists Emily Sweeney and Mariella Greil at NEXUS/foundation for today’s art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and 15th Street Meeting House, New York, New York (US)
<workshops/ teaching>
2006-present
Turku University of Applied Sciences
Turku, FINLAND
www.taideakatemia.turkuamk.fi
Kutomo
Turku, FINLAND
www.ehka.net
Mascher Space Cooperative
Philadelphia, PA (USA)
http://mascherdance.com/
<fidget> space
Philadelphia, PA (USA)
www.thefidget.org
Lead workshops for groups of dancers, groups of musicians, or groups integrating artists from multiple disciplines (dancers, musicians, theatre artists, visual/media artists, writers, etc.). Teach exercises and scores exploring collaborative memory, reproduction, repetition, and subjectivity.
<performances and installations (selection)>
2010
VW (VeneKlasen/Werner) Gallery
Berlin, GERMANY
www.vwberlin.com
expansions:contractions—performance as part of Spencer Sweeney’s exhibition Teatre Laboratorium with musicians Klaus Janek (IT/GE), Florian Tuercke (GE); dancers Daniela Lehmann (GE), Antje Velsinger (GE), Meredith Bove (US/GE), Sandra Lolax (GE), Cyrena Dunbar (GE), and Emily Sweeney (US); + artist Michael Mcjilton (US/GE)
In Electricity We Trust
LTC, Berlin, GERMANY
http://in-electricity-we-trust.com
Private Investigator’s Dream Machine—performed as part of a stereoscopic camera and video installation in collaboration with dancers Daniela Lehmann (GE) and Emily Sweeney (US), and sound artist Christian Schroeder (AT)
SUMU space, Gallery Titanik
Turku, FINLAND sumuair.wordpress.com
Breathscape—sound, set, movement, video installation created in collaboration with dance artist Emily Sweeney (US) and costume designer Johanna Porola (FI)
Fluxee-Klubi @ Tehdas Teatteri Turku, FINLAND www.tehdasteatteri.com/tuotannot/tuotanto3/tuotanto3.htm
Performance Installation: a performance installation w/ dance makers Mariella Greil (AT), Emily Sweeney (US), and sound artist Werner Moebius (AT)
B Galleria
Turku, FINLAND bgalleria.net/
Evening of improvised movement + sound w/ dancers Mariella Greil (AT), Maria Nurmela (FI), and Emily Sweeney (US) + sound artists Werner Moebius (AT), Kimmo Modig (FI)
Wäinö Aaltonen Museum of Art
Turku, FINLAND www.wam.fi
Improvised performance at the opening of The Big Picture w/ dance makers Mariella Greil (AT) and Emily Sweeney (US) and sound artist Werner Moebius (AT)
2009
Glasslands
Brooklyn, NY www.glasslands.com/
Improvised sextet w/ bass clarinetist Gene Coleman (US), cellist Marina Peterson (US), and dancers Martin Lanz Landazuri (MX), Emily Sweeney (US) and Emma Kim Hagdahl (SE)
InCounter Sound – Video – Text Campbell Works
London, UNITED KINGDOM www.campbellworks.org/
Guapo Esmeralda improvised quintet w/ dance makers Mariella Greil (AT) and Emily Sweeney (US) and sound artists Werner Moebius (AT), and J. Milo Taylor (UK)
FLUTEN @ Wasserturm Favoriten
Vienna, AUSTRIA www.fluten.tk
drops will flood—performance installation created in collaboration with dance artist Emily Sweeney and presented in the empty tank of a defunct water tower during a 2-week site specific residency in a historic landmark with 12 international artists
Event Space@Temple Gallery
Old City/ Philadelphia, PA (USA)
http://www.temple.edu/tyler/exhibitions/publicprogramspast.html
Soundfield[at]Temple Gallery: An evening of improvised dance, music, + video
Concept/direction by Emily Sweeney
Rebecca Patek/ Emily Sweeney/ Jil Stifel/ Zornitsa Stoyanova/ movement
Gene Coleman/ bass clarinet; Alban Bailly/ guitar; Audrey Chen/ Helena Espvall/ cello + vocals
Bilwa/ Mikronesia/ mics + effects; John J. H. Phillips/ video
Group Motion’s Spiel Uhr Performance Series
Community Education Center
Philadelphia, PA (USA) www.groupmotion.org
breathscape—duet created in collaboration with dance artist Emily Sweeney and performed by dancers Allison Lorenzen and Emily Sweeney
NEXUSradio
NEXUS/foundation for today’s art
Philadelphia, PA (USA) www.nexusphiladelphia.org
re:cast— audio and video performance created with John J. H. Phillips (http://terragizmo.net/) using transistor radio feedback loops and video/audio live-feedback loops
Inter Continental Collaborations parts 1 through 3— audio performances created in collaboration with sound artists Florian Tuerke (GE) and Christian Weiss/ basbediender (GE) and choreographer Allison Lorenzen (US)
15th Street Meeting House
New York, NY (USA) www.soundfield.org
NEXUS/foundation for today’s art
Philadelphia, (USA) www.nexusphiladelphia.org
Philadelphia Bridge, Part I—performance installation created in collaboration with Mariella Greil (AT), Werner Moebius (AT), and Emily Sweeney (US); produced by Gene Coleman/Soundfield, funded by the Argosy Foundation
2008
Philly Fringe
NEXUS/foundation for today’s art Philadelphia, PA, (USA) www.phillyfringe.org
assembling minutiae—performance installation with concept/ live performance by Emily Sweeney; music by Michael McDermott; live sound/set design by William Bilwa Costa; movement (in video) by Brigitta Herrmann, Rebecca Patek, and Jil Stifel; video by Blaine Siegel
Slought Foundation
Philadelphia, PA (USA) www.slought.org
Live solo electronic music improvisation during the exhibition 239 years (divided by 12 artists)
Philly Fringe
Mascher Space Cooperative
Philadelphia, PA (USA) www.phillyfringe.org
gasp—movement quintet choreographed by Emily Sweeney with live-feed sound and video scores by William Bilwa Costa, Michael McDermott, and John Phillips and movement performed by: Rebecca Patek, Zornitsa Stoyanova, Daniele Strawmyre, Christina Zani
1998-2002
Various venues in Philadelphia and New York, including the Knitting Factory (USA)
hooptyheaven— experimental electronic music duo w/ Alex Welsh
Composer/ producer/ designer
<lab/ research/ symposia>
2010
Quiet Improvisations
Gallery Titanik
Turku, FINLAND www.arte.fi/sumu/sumu_main.html
A day of open improvisation for artists working in all media
2008
Philadelphia Bridge
Various locations, Pennsylvania (USA)
Ten days of site-specific exploration and research with sound artists William Bilwa Costa and Werner Moebius and dance artist Mariella Greil (both from Austria), funded by the Argosy Foundation
2006-2009
The Rashomon Effect Performance Project
Mascher Space Cooperative
Philadelphia, PA (USA)
Develop, direct, and dance as part of an ongoing investigation of improvised scores based on the storytelling method employed in Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomôn. The term “Rashomon effect” refers to the effect of subjectivity on recollection, by which observers of an event are able to produce substantially different but equally plausible accounts of it.
<internet>
Documentation of work:
perpetualmvmtsnd.org
nexusphiladelphia.org/paraphrase.html
nexusphiladelphia.org/nexusradio.html
<press items>
Each of the six offerings at Mascher Space Cooperative delivered flavorful moments. Those with staying power bit off more substantial material and chewed it well. John Phillips’ video of dancers vanishing on revolving planes within infinite architectural spaces is skillfully integrated with live performance in gasp by Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd. The six dancers huddle and float; magenta pinprick lights descend; grainy close-ups catch their action.
—Lisa Kraus, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 9/10/07
Few people in Philadelphia are as dedicated to the performance installation as Perpetual Movement and Sound. That’d be the duo of dancer Emily Sweeney and physical and sonic landscape artist Bilwa. He is Philly’s topiary king of sight and music, without a doubt.
—A.D. Amorosi, Art Matters, 9/3/08
In April 2007, many of the dancers and musicians in residence at the Mascher Space Cooperative began making monthly treks a few blocks south to NEXUS Gallery, performing new works inspired by the gallery’s current exhibitions. The brainchild of Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd co-directors Emily Sweeney and Bilwa, who regularly explore the crossroads of different forms of expression, paraphrase/NEXUS has spawned a wide variety of three-dimensional responses to the works hanging on the walls.
—Shaun Brady, Philadelphia City Paper, 4/26/08
Best Experimental Dance Lab: Unpromising on its surface—a bank of windows along one long wall illuminating a hardwood floor, two posts jutting up through the center—the Mascher Space Cooperative has been transformed time and again by the movement of the dancers who’ve taken advantage of it. …The space has played host for dancer- choreographers like…Emily Sweeney and Bilwa’s music/dance collective Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd. The room’s unfinished feel has become more like a blank canvas on which an array of intriguing work has been splashed.
—Shaun Brady, Philadelphia City Paper, 10/31/07
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