Daniel Neumann “Channels”

Fridman Gallery

This event has ended.

Fridman Gallery presents CHANNELS, Daniel Neumann’s second exhibition with the gallery. Neumann arranges audio technology artifacts – a giant 56-channel mixing board suspended vertically in mid-air and a unique custom-built vintage speaker – into a durational installation performing itself. Shifting the gallery hours into the evening, Neumann frames the work somewhere between an exhibition, a screening and a concert.

The sonic materials of the installation consist of 56 purely electronic sounds – lines – that underwent various types of processional feedback on site. The abstract sounds are channeled into the physical space of the gallery to produce an immanent concrete sound field.

Thus, there are actually three sculptural objects in the show: the giant mixing board, the vintage speaker, and a 3D sound field. The single speaker, with its subjective unique voice, stands in contrast to the ubiquitous environment of the sound field. The suspended mixing board functions as a performative medium.

The mixing board and speaker are given visual prominence, yet it is the sound field itself that remains foregrounded, underscoring the sound’s independent identity.

With special thanks to Jim Toth (Jupiter Sound) who provided technical support for the exhibition, and Vermona factories, an electro acoustic manufacturer in Germany, which provided Neumann with a residency leading to a new range of electronic sound generators for the exhibition.

Daniel Neumann is a Brooklyn-based sound artist, organizer and audio engineer. He holds a masters degree in media art from the Academy of Visual Art Leipzig and studied electronic music composition. Neumann’s practice engages hybrid installation-performance formats to explore how sound interacts with space and how spaces can be shaped by sound. He thinks of sound as an interdisciplinary field enabled by audio procedures. Neumann’s works have been presented at Pinacoteca Bellas Artes Universidad de Caldas, Loop Barcelona, MoMA PS1, Knockdown Center, Pratt Institute, Eyebeam, Sculpture Center and many other venues.

As a curator, Neumann runs CT::SWaM, an event series that engages in spatial sound works and focused listening. In September 2016 he co-curated “9 Evenings + 50” at Fridman Gallery. As a sound engineer, Neumann is the acoustic designer of The World Is Sound at the Rubin Museum and head engineer for Blank Forms, Alarm Will Sound, Diamanda Galás and David Guetta. In 2013-16, he was the head engineer for live events at MoMA PS1.