Ven Voisey has created a site-specific composition that explores his relationship to the space within Audium. He is drawn to how space is occupied—and the sounds that inhabit, infiltrate, and swell.
About his artmaking process, Voisey says:
“I spend a lot of time listening to my surroundings. It’s an intentional effort, something I try to make room for; a way of bringing myself to the present. I often end up humming along to the sounds, or mimicing what I hear — a tool for understanding my presence within space… I follow hints of what’s there already and build upon that, layer upon, mutate it, obscure it, build choirs out of it, then bring attention back.”
Through a methodology of listening, Voisey works with field recordings from Audium’s building and surrounding neighborhood as a starting place. Audiences will hear creaking chairs, the hum of a breaker box, the phasing pulse of equipment cooling fans, door hinges, water pipes, and the wave-like, sub-audible sounds of traffic passing outside.
In the lobby, an ensemble of 9-foot wooden towers topped with rotating horn speakers welcome audiences. Voisey’s creations intermittently sing out with disembodied voices, in resonant harmony to some aspect of their surroundings. The resulting songs are at times alluring and transcendent, at others, discordant and haunting.
Ven Voisey is an Oakland-based interdisciplinary artist, sound designer, and public art facilitator.
Born in Richmond and raised in the East Bay, Voisey received a BA from San Francisco State University in a self-designed major combining Humanities, Electronic Music, Film, and Conceptual Art. From 2003-2014 Voisey lived in North Adams, MA where he worked with arts organizations including MASS MoCA, MCLA Gallery 51, Clark Art Institute, Images Cinema, and more to develop large-scale sculptural and sound installations in unoccupied spaces.
Find more about Ven on his website.
Ven Voisey has created a site-specific composition that explores his relationship to the space within Audium. He is drawn to how space is occupied—and the sounds that inhabit, infiltrate, and swell.
About his artmaking process, Voisey says:
“I spend a lot of time listening to my surroundings. It’s an intentional effort, something I try to make room for; a way of bringing myself to the present. I often end up humming along to the sounds, or mimicing what I hear — a tool for understanding my presence within space… I follow hints of what’s there already and build upon that, layer upon, mutate it, obscure it, build choirs out of it, then bring attention back.”
Through a methodology of listening, Voisey works with field recordings from Audium’s building and surrounding neighborhood as a starting place. Audiences will hear creaking chairs, the hum of a breaker box, the phasing pulse of equipment cooling fans, door hinges, water pipes, and the wave-like, sub-audible sounds of traffic passing outside.
In the lobby, an ensemble of 9-foot wooden towers topped with rotating horn speakers welcome audiences. Voisey’s creations intermittently sing out with disembodied voices, in resonant harmony to some aspect of their surroundings. The resulting songs are at times alluring and transcendent, at others, discordant and haunting.
Ven Voisey is an Oakland-based interdisciplinary artist, sound designer, and public art facilitator.
Born in Richmond and raised in the East Bay, Voisey received a BA from San Francisco State University in a self-designed major combining Humanities, Electronic Music, Film, and Conceptual Art. From 2003-2014 Voisey lived in North Adams, MA where he worked with arts organizations including MASS MoCA, MCLA Gallery 51, Clark Art Institute, Images Cinema, and more to develop large-scale sculptural and sound installations in unoccupied spaces.
Find more about Ven on his website.