Greg Pond & Jesse Cahn Thompson: Flat Earth Folded

Exhibition Dates: March 6 - April 18, 2015 Opening Reception: March 6, 2015, 7-10 PM Amplify Austin Preview Reception: March 6, 2015, 4-6 PM Address: 916 Springdale Rd, Bldg 2, # 101 Gallery hours: Tue-Sat, 12-6pm Flat Earth Folded is a sculptural installation that uses transducers to activate various materials as speakers. The exhibition is both site and sense-specific. Thompson and Pond are interested in how the perception of the physical size and movement of sound defines the space around us. The arrangement of objects and sound in the work creates a reframing and re-describing of our temporal and spatial experience. A sonic transducer transforms the material to which it is attached into the device that conveys pulses of energy into audible sound. This transformation of energy to sound to spatial/sculptural arrangement defines the structure for each of their projects. In Mark Rothko’s “Works On Paper or Unpublished Notebook” he states: "The scale conception involves the relationship of objects to their surroundings-- the emphasis of things or space...It definitely involves a space emotion. A child may limit space arbitrarily and then heroify his objects. Or he may infinitize space, dwarfing the importance of objects. causing them to merge and become part of the space of the world." In an age that produces an ever-increasing amount of recorded artifacts, sound is increasingly experienced as compressed, filtered and glossy data through an abundant variety of mediums, rendering the source nearly meaningless at times. Flat Earth Folded is a response to this subjugation of sound. It explores the conceived relationship between space and object by utilizing sound as witness and the primary agent of inquiry of physical space. This approach is both ancient and modern. Electronic media and computer music programming are combined with an experience of sound that is defined by the material and spatial arrangement of the landscape constructed within the gallery. Prior to the introduction of electronic and recorded music, the experience of sound was contingent upon a broader range of environmental factors defined by space, time, and materials. “Music is liquid architecture; Architecture is frozen music.” – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Jesse Cahn Thompson is a musician, composer and sound artist whose work experiments with pattern, vertical sonority, consonance and dissonance, and textural perception. The majority of his work sets digital technology as the primary medium used to investigate the unseen world and the role sound plays in shaping perceived reality. He currently lives in Los Angeles, CA where he is working on a global piece initiative with David Lynch. As a musician, Jesse has worked and collaborated with a variety of labels and media outlets ranging from Paw Tracks Records to Vogue Paris. He has toured extensively throughout North America and Europe, performing at numerous festivals (e.g. All Tomorrow’s Parties, Sasquatch!, Midi Festival) and venues (e.g. J. Paul Getty Museum, Bowery Ballroom NYC). His sound work has been hosted by spaces such as the Knoxville Museum of Art, Queens Museum Biennial, and The Hunter Museum. jessecahnthompson.com Greg Pond is a professor at the University of the South and was a founding member of Fugitive Projects in Nashville. In 2012 he completed a feature-length documentary about the architectural and political history of Trench Town in Kingston, Jamaica. He was a recipient of the Tennessee Individual Artist grant, a Kennedy Fellowship at the University of the South, and has been an artist in residence at the F+F School of Art in Zurich and the Burren College of Art in Ireland. In 2011, 2012, and 2013 he received grants from the MakeWork Foundation in Chattanooga. Pond also works as an independent writer, curator, and lecturer with projects hosted by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture; Fivemyles Gallery in Brooklyn; Delta Axis in Memphis; the Frist and Cheekwood Museums of Art in Nashville; and the Hunter Museum of Art. His work has been exhibited in places such as Galway and Dublin, Ireland; Basel, Switzerland; Cairo, Egypt; Kingston, Jamaica; Charlestown, St. Kitts and Nevis; Frankfurt, Germany; Portland, Oregon; Austin, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; New York; New Orleans; Memphis, Chattanooga, and Nashville, Tennessee. gregpond.net Flat Earth Folded is the fifth collaborative installation for Thompson and Pond.