Stephen Vitiello Audio Environments

Art, Politic, Sound Art, ecology, interactive

credit photo: Paula Court

Played back on a 5.1 surround sound system, Steven Vitiello Night Chatter is multi-channel work composed of an analog synth track that rumbles under natural sounds recorded in the James River State Park and Cypress Bridge Forest, both in Virginia. The piece plays with the abstraction of night voices of animals as the artist states: “When I’m out in the field at night recording, there is a feeling of chatter, insect and animal voices that are communicating outside of my translation skills.”

“I try to make people think about their surroundings with my work, to slow them down”. And last month he staged - in the heart of London at Broadgate Arena - an environment of sound built on field recordings of bird and moth wings from locations including the Amazon, upstate New York and Virginia.

Stereo composite mix of Smallest of Wings (excerpt) as presented at Broadgate Arena, London, May 2007 (4.5 mb) and stereo mix of Night Chatter, installation at the Weatherspoon Museum, 2007 (9.1 mb)
at stephenvitiello.com

Vitiello is also interested in connecting sound experience to the concepts of surveillance and chatter, a term which, since 9-11, often refers to communications picked up by U.S. government surveillance to track potential terrorist threats.

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Ilari Valbonesi @ July 4, 2007