Parrish Art Museum Hosts Eight-Hour Virtual Performance

The Parrish Art Museum, OptoSonic Tea, and NowNet Arts will present OptoSonic [UnLock] (BYOTea), a live audio-visual improvisation event with some 50 artists from around the world and spanning several time zones, coming together in a community collaboration on Sunday, April 26 from 3–11 p.m.

Throughout the event, which will be held on Zoom, smaller groups of the participating video/film and music/sound artists will perform simultaneously. “The event is an exploration that will be new to many of the artists and musicians,” said organizers and curators Katherine Liberovskaya and Ursula Scherrer of OptoSonic Tea, and Sarah Weaver of NowNet Arts in a statement. “It is less about the individual artist or musicians than about everybody performing together, something that musicians are much more used to than live visual artists.”

Corinne Erni, Parrish Senior Curator of Special Projects and Arts Reach, added, “This communal online event is a wonderful way to bring together artists from around the world and to continue our partnership with OptoSonic Tea that began last September with an exquisite, site-specific sound and projection performance exploring the Museum’s physical space.”

The digital environment of the Zoom event will feature visual artists a variety of materials and techniques such as celluloid film and slides, lights, video software, puppet-like interventions with objects, and movement. Sound artist performers will use audio synthesizers, laptop programs, electronic devices, acoustic instruments, and vocal approaches. A partial list of participants includes visual artists Luke DuBois, Bradley Eros, Kit J. Fitzgerald, Katherine Liberovskaya, Geoff Matters, Ursula Scherrer, and Sofy Yuditskaya. Sound performers are Barbara Held, Shelley Hirsch, John King, Daniel Neuman, Phill Niblock, Keiko Uenishi, Sarah Weaver, and Anna Wellmer, among others.

Register at nownetarts.org/series.