This free, multimedia lecture and solo performance by acclaimed Berlin-based artist and composer Arnold Dreyblatt, an early student of the Steina and Woody Vasulka, will explore his participatory archive and memory projects, perform his innovative and ecstatic music, and speak to the Vasulka legacy.
PART 1 – PERFORMATIVE LECTURE (7:00 PM)
Dreyblatt will present excerpts from media artworks from across his decades long career and speak about his artistic and compositional practice arising out of his studies in the 1970s at UB Media Study and the Music Dept and to studying media art with Steina and Woody Vasulka and music with Pauline Oliveros, La Monte Young, and Alvin Lucier. Dreyblatt’s work includes media installations, public art works and interactive artistic research projects, and often explores themes of memory and history, using archival materials as both a source and a subject.
PART 2 – SOLO CONCERT (8:30 PM)
Dreyblatt will perform his compositions Transmission (2021), Auditoria (2025) and Nodal Excitation (1979+).
In Transmission and Auditoria, an amplified modified bass body is prepared with music wire and mechanical transducer with sine waves tuned in the “Dreyblatt tuning system,” allowing for real-time audio processing and software control. Voice recordings by Sam Ashley.
Nodal Excitation, in development since 1979, is performed with an amplified upright electric bass body prepared with unwound music wire. Multiphonic resonances are produced with a percussive rhythmic technique for exciting chords of overtones above the fundamental pitch.
Introduction by curator Chris Hill.
For more info and to reserve a spot, please visit: https://buffalo-film-2025.eventive.org/schedule/67f452a6440471bcb6a2c4f1
Presented in partnership with Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center and Buffalo Int’l Film Festival.
This lecture and performance coincide with Buffalo AKG Art Museum’s Steina: Playback exhibition, on view Friday, March 14–Monday, June 30, 2025.