Gordon Monahan
Project Description: Two Pianos Talking to Each Other
Several long piano strings are connected to two pianos standing approximately 100 feet apart. Audio signals are fed into the long piano strings using vibrating coils attached to the wires. The piano string vibrations are amplified by contact to the piano soundboards. The sounds heard coming from the pianos, which originated as audio signals, are amplified entirely acoustically by the piano soundboards and strings, so that we are able to listen to audio recordings without using loudspeakers.
Artist Biography
Gordon Monahan’s works for piano, loudspeakers, video, kinetic sculpture, and computer-controlled sound environments span various genres from avant-garde concert music to multi-media installation and sound art. As a composer and sound artist, he juxtaposes the quantitative and qualitative aspects of natural acoustical phenomena with elements of media technology, environment, architecture, popular culture, and live performance.
Since 1978, Monahan has performed and exhibited at numerous performance spaces, galleries, and festivals. Recent activity includes: Bilbao International Film Festival ‘Zinebi 49′, Bilbao, Spain (performance with Txuspo Poyo, video)Western Front, Vancouver (installation)Royal Conservatory of Music and Open Space, Victoria, BC (installation and performance) Macdonald Stewart Art Gallery, Guelph (solo exhibition) Voxxx Galerie, Chemnitz (solo exhibition) Galerija Kapelica, Ljubliana, Slovenia (solo exhibition) Ars Electronica, Linz (performance) Taktlos Festival, Bern, Switzerland (performance), Klangraum Krems, Krems, Austria (performance)
