Zach Poff

Documenta 14

Pond Station Transmitting Again

Just returned from Wave Farm where I installed spiffy new solar panels on Pond Station, and added an “interval signal” to replace the static at night when the transmitter turns off. Take a listen!

Update: April 16 2017: After some more issues the hydrophones are sounding normal again.

New Workshop at UnionDocs

I’ll be teaching a recording workshop at UnionDocs in Brooklyn on April 22 as part of Creative Field Recording for Expanded Sound Design. The weekend will explore field recording tools and techniques and how to creatively use recordings for film, radio, installation and other forms of sound design. Maile Colbert will lead the festivities and other guests include Andrea Williams, Bonnie Jones, Kevin T. Allen, Monteith McCollum and Raquel Castro.

In my workshop we will establish techniques for capturing compelling sounds with microphones, contact mics, hydrophones, and electromagnetic sensors. Sign up!

Cooper Union Staff Show

I’m excited to share a new piece for the Staff Exhibition at Cooper Union Art School. It’s the first of (hopefully) many algorithmic remixes of popular movies and TV. This one is called “The Sound of The Sound of Music.” Stop by to see it in person!

Opening Tuesday December 13th 6-8pm at 41 Cooper Gallery, located in 41 Cooper Square, on Third Avenue between 6th and 7th Streets.

On view Dec 13 – Dec 17, 2016, Tuesday – Saturday, 11am – 7pm

Other participants include:

Wayne Adams, Aisha Bell, Ian Burnley, David Derish, Pablo Diaz, Gearoid Dolan, Brenda Ferebee, Amanda Friedman, Melanie Gonzalez, Marina Gutierrez, Stephanie Hightower, Mauricio Higuera, Anna Hostvedt, Haisi Hu, Anna Hutchings, Einat Imber, Frank Kurtzke, Joyce Lee, Marget Long, Simone Meltesen, Lawrence Mesich, Emmy Mikelson, Laura Mircik-Sellers, Eric Monasterio, Dale Perreault, Dan Porvin, Joe Riley, Garrett Rosenblum, Mark Rossi, Emmanuela Soria Ruiz, Vanessa Gully Santiago, Maggie Sullivan, Tessa Sutton, Nicole Thomas, Ryan Toth, Annasophia Vukovich, Andy Wilhelm, Jennifer Williams, Bryan Zimmerman

Sound Ethnographies Workshop @ UnionDocs

I’ll be teaching an afternoon session as part of Jen Heuson’s Sound Ethnographies workshop at UnionDocs in Williamsburg, Brooklyn Friday Sept 9th to Sunday Sept 11th, 10am-5pm.

I’ll focus on expanded recording techniques, listening and creating works in spaces (using physical locations for installation). Then I’ll share some DIY techniques for microphone construction and lead a field recording practicum.

More info and registration here:

Sound Ethnographies: Theory and Practice for Non-Fiction Media

From the website:

This three-day intensive will immerse participants in using sound to understand and document the world. Through critical listening exercises, practical demonstrations, guest presentations, readings and discussions, students will explore what sound is and what it does, learning to critically and ethically integrate sound recording and sound research into their artistic and scholarly practices. Over the course of the workshop, students will develop a range of sound recording techniques and will learn to craft stories, arguments and artworks from recorded sounds.

Sound scholar and filmmaker Jen Heuson will introduce the practical methods and theoretical debates of sound ethnography to nonfiction media makers, artists and scholars in this intensive. Participants will have the unique opportunity to develop skills and workshop current projects with guests working in a range of fields, including sound art, radio, music, film, anthropology and media studies.

Workshop topics will include: understanding sound basics; sound walking and mapping; field recording techniques; DIY microphone construction; sound editing; working with sound and image; developing stories and arguments with sound; engaging audiences in critical listening; noise and silence politics; soundscape study and sound heritage; and the ethics of sound recording. The workshop is designed to introduce participants to a range of approaches that include sound ethnography, acoustic ecology, archaeoacoustics, ethnomusicology, and aural heritage. Scholars and audiophiles of all types are encouraged to attend.

Pond Station on Australian Radio

The Australian national broadcaster ABC recently profiled Wave Farm for their Soundproof program. They took a detailed listen to the installations on the property, including clips from my Pond Station installation.

Listen here.

Sensing Electromagnetics Compilation

My track “Turning Over Rocks” has been selected for the LOM Records compilation album Sensing Electromagnetics.

“Turning Over Rocks” is a short piece made entirely of the electromagnetic emanations of two laptop computers, recorded with DIY inductive pickups. Very little processing was done besides EQ. i wanted to stay focused on the diversity of sounds available right below my fingertips.

Balance-Unbalance Conference: Live Streaming Panel

I’ve been invited to take part in an online panel tonight for the Balance-Unbalance 2016 Conference in Manizales, Colombia. The conference focuses on sound, art, and the environment. Our panel discusses the potential for a worldwide open microphone network to become a resource for artists, researchers and activists working around acoustics and ecology.

Tune in here or here at 5PM tonight, NYC time. (May 11 2016).  My fellow panelists:

Grant Smith, (Manizales, CO, soundtent.org ): Reveil / Soundcamp and the Live Audio Archive.

John Grzinich, (Estonia /  maaheli.ee ): Streaming the dawn chorus from Estonia for Reveil/soundCamp

Maria Papadomanolaki, (London / voicesoundtext.com ):  Sonic Perceptual Ecologies + Transient streams

Dawn Scarfe (London, UK, dawnscarfe.co.uk ): Reflections from Bivvy Broadcasts and Estonia

Zach Poff (NY, USA, zachpoff.com ): Pond Station: live sounds from a pond in upstate New York

Shimotoku Daisuke (Tokyo, JP/ www.cyberforest.jp ): The cyberforest programme at the Un of Tokyo

Jiyeon Kim (Jeju Island, S Korea / teum11.wordpress.com ): Streaming from Wasan-Ri for Reveil

Eric Leonardson (Manizales, CO / ericleonardson.org ): The Radius soundcamp in Chicago

Leah Barclay (Brisbane, AU / leahbarclay.com ): The Biospheres Soundscapes programme.

Creative Tech Week 2016

I was part of a panel with Galen Joseph-Hunter (Wave Farm), Heidi Neilson, and Ian Vanek called Environmental Transmission Works, Site-specific Installations at Wave Farm, part of Creative Tech Week 2016. We discussed our long-term outdoor projects at Wave Farm. (audio at link above)

REVEIL 2016

I was honored to contribute to REVEIL 2016, where my Pond Station installation was featured in the UTC -4 timezone. REVEIL relays the sounds of live open microphones provided by streamers around the world. This year we even heard birds filtering through the water and into the hydrophones.

Starting on the morning of Saturday 30 APR just before daybreak in Rotherhithe near the Greenwich Meridian, the Reveil broadcast tracks the sunrise west from microphone to microphone, following the wave of sound that loops the earth every 24 hours.

Sounds are provided by the Locus Sonus network and other streamers, together with a collection of live audio sources assembled for this broadcast.

REVEIL is different from the vast majority of radio available online: it is not dedicated mainly to music or talk, and none of it is pre recorded. Each sound is propagating live somewhere in real time.