As part of the Isle Arts Initiative, this was an installation in an old Civil War powder house on George's Island in Boston Harbor.  Through a series of ropes, shafts, and pulleys, a vertical axis windmill drives the barrel of an oversized music box.  The instrument plays at the changing speed of the wind giving the climate of the island a spooky voice inside the dark and virtually windowless interior of the building.

A Middle Kingdom Production.  Middle kingdom is an ongoing collaborative project with Alex DeMaria.  Also owe a special thanks to Steve Mooney, Josh Falk, Jason Pierce, Kenji Nakayama, Caitlin Duennebier, Pat Falco...

Press:

The Artery - Greg Cook

Interview on All Things Considered, NPR - Lisa Mullins

By a series of ropes and pulleys driven by a single motor, 5 Records spin simultaneously and are all output through a single speaker.  A paper cone periodically passes in front of the speaker to acoustically amplify the sound for just a second.  

A little Press and a little video:

http://www.satakunnankansa.fi/Kulttuuri/1194844953744/artikkeli/katso+video+pesukonemoottori-gramofonit+ja+vesiluuttu+soivat+raumalla.html

Middle Kingdom Presents: Pacific Pandemonium. An installation and performance event in Rauma Finland as part of the RaumArs residency. This structure was host to a three day music and art performance event. The structure is built around an existing Fur tree that was intended to filter the audiences view of the performers, as well as the performers' view of the audience. Performers were encouraged to engage creatively with the unique space.

Middle Kingdom is an ongoing collaboration between Jamie Horgan and Alexander Demaria.

This record player only spins if the room is perfectly still.  A motion sensor picks up any motion in the room, triggering the player to stop.  There is also a light box with figurines of nuns playing music which is illuminated in unison with the record player turning. 

Built in collaboration with Alex DeMaria, Middle Kingdom.

table made of salvaged barn board, hand carved lettering, six foot long pencils, electric pencil sharpener, string, weights/books (not visible in video).  

A network of belts and pulleys driven by an electric motor mimics the classic rubber pencil trick.

Two salvaged southern yellow pine timbers dressed and joined end to end with a traditional dadoed and rabbetted scarf end-joint, titled was engraved up one side of beam by hand by the artist

As part of 24HR Glossolalia, a presentation of White Walls Boston, 2012, a roaming performance art and installation event that took place in various locations throughout Boston, MA.  

Tin Can Confessions invited visitors to sit in a chair with their heads in a box that contained two homemade speakers positioned to either side of their head.  Each speaker was at the end of a 300'-400' long speaker wire with a microphone at the opposite end.  The artists sat in the distance with the microphones telling the sitters their secrets, stories, and confessions.  

Middle Kingdom, Mutant Kalimba, 2015.

This miniature bridge was constructed over Prospect Ave., the border between Hartford and West Hartford, CT. It is suspended betwen two trees and is intended to be used by squirrels as a safer passage from Hartford to West Hartford, or vise versa.

This installation consisted of three teepees that were all linked together by sound and live video projections, and were all, in one way or another, filtered versions of eachother. One teepee had a discman playing a Middle Kingdom recording with speakers in one of the other teepees. Another consisted of said speakers and a bright red light mimicking the pressence of a fire. The final teepee had a 6 foot deep hole in the center of it. At the bottom of the hole was a projector pointing up. The hole was capped with a sanded, spherical, plexi glass sky lite to catch the projected image. The projector was linked to a camcorder that we moved around throughout the weekend of the festival to point at a variety of things (i.e. the moon, horses grazing, people, fire, the projector itself). Organized, built and performed in with Alexander DeMaria as Middle Kingdom.

Middle kingdom is an ongoing collaborative project.

6 home made horns - each only capable of playing one note - being played from various positions around Syvaraumanlahti (Deep Rauma Bay). The listeners gathered at the location (pictured) while the players were distributed around the bay, calling to each other across the water.

You can listen to a recording of the horns here.

This was a Middle Kingdom Production.  Middle kingdom is an ongoing collaborative project with Alex DeMaria. 

An oversize bow built from wood, twine and fishing line playing a homemade string instrument. The bow, being too unwieldy to use individually must be passed back and forth between two players. 

This was a Middle Kingdom Production.  Middle kingdom is an ongoing collaborative project with Alex DeMaria. 

A mass of speakers, amplifiers, instruments, and electronics were stacked in the center of the room. All instruments were plugged in and guests were encouraged to engage with them. On all sides of the tower, guests played a variety of instruments filtered through distorting effects, creating an orchestra of fuzz, buzz, and din, all the while oblivious to who or what was on the other side making the other sounds.

A trophy figurine spins too fast for our eyes to recognize what it is.  Our eyes create a new version of the object in motion.  2014

Tepee constructed with forest debris and scrap wood. A bicycle wheel mounted to the face of the structure spun and independently played the drums.

Frequency Deconstruction was a one night installation/event. Several sound performances took place inside of the Tepee over the course of the evening. Organized, built and performed in with Alexander DeMaria as Middle Kingdom.

These cast paper works were installed at various galleries as architectural interventions that accompanied other unrelated exhibitions.  These ghostly projections of mundane architectural elements ask those who are observant enough to see them to question how well they understand their environment, and the ways in which we choose to simply arrange the space we occupy.  

"In another time, it would have been men like you with whom I would have purchased a plot of land to build a town upon." 

The tent was constructed then used on a one week bicycle adventure through New England. The film is a collage of collected footage captured by myself and Lucas Horgan while on said bicycle trip.