Leigh Davis in Saint Paul the Apostle, New York

everything that ought to have remained

11 March 2011 - 11 April 2011

"In cooperation with the Church of St. Paul the Apostle and the Openings program, everything that ought to have remained, is a temporary installation built in a vacant altar space in the Church. An assemblage of framed images and objects, the installation is based on my project The Brothers, a series of photographs documenting the recent expulsion of the aged members of a Roman Catholic religious order from their home on the grounds of a former military hospital in New Mexico.

The images in The Brothers series explore the men’s relationship to their physical surroundings, the rituals they adhere to, and the spiritual community they foster both among themselves and in tenuous connection with the outside world. In everything that ought to have remained, I will employ the location—the Church—and the time of year—Lent—to invite the public to reflect on the Brother’s experience of faith while pondering questions of their own. How do our physical surroundings structure our practice of faith? Is material well-being compatible with religious life? Do sacrifice and loss bring us closer to God?

Church of St. Paul the Apostle
Corner of Columbus Ave + West 60th Street
New York, NY 10019

http://www.stpaultheapostle.org/
http://openingsny.com/?page_id=704

Blake Carrington - Visual/Acoustic Installation and Performance of Gothic Cathedral Scans

Cathedral Scan translates the architectural plans of Gothic cathedrals into open-ended musical scores. Through a custom Max/MSP/Jitter patch, laptop and MIDI controllers, the plans are sonified in a real-time performance of image and sound. Rich organ-like harmonics and unique rhythmic signatures emerge from each graphic icon in a live scanning process.

Groups of scanners filling the sonic spectrum may act in synch, forming a single harmonically-dense rhythm, or they may scan the plans at different speeds, resulting in complex polyrhythms. Each plan is treated as a modular score, with a distinct rhythm and timbre of its own. Also, by varying the speed and intensity of each scanning group, drone-like sounds may emerge based on the “resonant frequency” of the black and white plan.

Visually, the scanning reveals the graphic structure. Smoke-like wisps appear and fade away as the scanners make each pass, suggesting a metaphor between architecture and ghost-like palimpsest. An empty white field surrounds each plan, placing them in a minimal landscape that is both flat and expansive.
Performances 2009-2011:
CATHEDRAL SCAN CD RELEASE CONCERT, Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, NYC
ELEKTRA INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL ARTS FESTIVAL, Usine C, Montreal Québec
BEYOND/IN WESTERN NY BIANNUAL, Hallwall’s Contemporary Art Center, Buffalo NY
RENCONTRE, Rustines Lab, Montreal Québec
CATHEDRAL SCAN v.2, Hendricks Chapel, Syracuse NY