S t u d i o F i v e B e e k m a n

sound and intermedia gallery

Alvin Lucier

The Queen of the South

a realization with water and reflected light, by

Ben Manley

Saturdays

2 - 9 PM

July 11 - 25, 1998

In a new realization of Alvin Lucier's The Queen of the South, Studio 5 Beekman presents a sound and light installation by Ben Manley that features slow-sweep sine tones and the reflected light of vibrational waves in water. With loudspeakers driving shallow pools of water, light is directed onto complex wave patterns to create shifting visual images on the walls of the darkened gallery. Following Lucier's open-ended score that calls for "making visible the effects of sound," a natural, ever-changing correspondence between sound, water, and light is observed.

Alvin Lucier has pioneered in many areas of music composition and performance, including the notation of performers' physical gestures, the use of brain waves in live performance, the generation of visual imagery by vibrating media, and the evocation of room acoustics for musical purposes. His recent works include a series of sound installations and works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, and orchestra in which, by means of close tuning with pure tones, sound waves are caused to spin through space.

Born in Nashua, New Hampshire in 1931, he studied at Yale and Brandeis and spent two years in Rome on a Fulbright scholarship. He has performed and lectured extensively in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Several of his works are available on Cramps (Italy), Source, Mainstream, CBS Odyssey, Nonesuch, and Lovely Music Records. Since 1970 he has taught at Wesleyan University where he is John Spencer Camp Professor of Music.

Ben Manley presents installations and performances that explore interests in musical context, listener expectation, and perception versus imagination of sound and light energy. With real-time electroacoustic interactions between diverse ready-made devices, his installations highlight the natural variability of vibrating objects, electrostatic energy, radio interference, and acoustical phenomena.

Since 1991, Manley has presented installations and solo performances in New York City at venues including the Stephen Gang Gallery, Studio Five Beekman, Pierogi 2000, The Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, The Kitchen, the Jack Tilton Gallery, the Knitting Factory, Experimental Intermedia, Roulette, Greenwich House Music School, Lotus, Generator, La Mama La Galleria, Context, the Victory Theater, New York University, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, and others. He has also performed in St. Louis, Munich, Kšln, Dortmund, MŸnster, and at STEIM in Amsterdam. Manley has curated several festivals of electroacoustic music at Greenwich House Music School and elsewhere including Stormy Mondays, LUCIER @ 65, Electro-Whammy, and say YES! to experimental music. This July 15-19, Manley will participate in a presentation of David Tudor's Rainforest IV at the Lincoln Center Festival 98.

funded in part by Meet the Composer

"...Artist Ben Manley presents a new installation of Lucier's open-ended piece The Queen of the South, with speakers stuck in shallow ponds of water sending out lengthy modulating tones and slowly changing projected visuals shown on the wall and bouncing off the water. Like everything at this funky little space, it's a necessary showing of neglected art...."

Mike McGonigal, NY Press

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