Avian Annotations: Immersive Concert
Date
Sunday, February 7, 7:30–9:00 pm
Price
$28
Student Discount: 10%
*Up to 45 participants per session
Fou Gallery and Spectrum are pleased to present Avian Annotations, a 90-minute sound and visual interdisciplinary performance responding to Meng Du’s exhibition.
Conceived in close dialogue with the exhibition, the program brings together contemporary chamber music, spatialized sound, and live-composed video to explore themes of time, ecology, fragility, and transformation that are central to Meng Du’s sculptural practice.
The performance takes inspiration from two bodies of work in the exhibition:
A Call From… centers on a cast-glass rotary telephone whose translucent form holds the negative impression of a cedar cone, drawn from the artist’s dream and encounter with a rare specimen at the Beijing Botanical Garden. Accompanied by handset sculptures with spiral mesh tubes and seed-like wooden beads, the work evokes dormant life, ancestral memory, and speculative temporalities. Musicians respond through an asymmetrically spatialized composition, allowing sound to circulate around the sculptural elements.
To Leave, To Arrive draws from the bracts of the Davidia involucrata (dove tree), an ancient species whose fluttering white forms resemble birds in flight. Suspended glass seeds and organza elements form a floating arc in space, anchored by subtly altered everyday objects. The installation reflects on vulnerability, interruption, and endurance across geological time. In response, Involuntary Ghosts, a 20-minute four-channel spatial audio performance, imagines birds singing for lost kin within a changing environment. Using real-time simulations, the work blurs birdsong into spectral textures, hovering between presence and disappearance.
Select portions of the performance will be accompanied by live-composed video by multimedia artist Jim Tuite, further extending the dialogue between sound, image, and material.
Exhibition
Meng Du: In the woods, Might be late
December 6, 2025–February 22, 2026
Musicians and Video Artists
David Rothenberg is a musician, philosopher, and author known for his work at the intersection of music, nature, and philosophy. He has published over a dozen books, including Why Birds Sing, Bug Music, and Survival of the Beautiful, translated into more than eleven languages. Rothenberg has released over forty recordings, including One Dark Night I Left My Silent House (ECM), and has collaborated with artists such as Pauline Oliveros, Peter Gabriel, and Suzanne Vega. In 2024, he won a Grammy Award as part of For the Birds (Best Boxed Set). He is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Mason Youngblood is a behavioral scientist and sound artist at Stony Brook University’s Institute for Advanced Computational Science. His research explores the cultural evolution of communication and creativity in human and non-human animals, with work published in Science and featured by National Geographic and Scientific American. Drawing on a background in electronic music and generative composition, Youngblood creates immersive sound works using scientific data. His recent projects reconstruct the vocal cultures of endangered and extinct species, inviting audiences to experience non-human perspectives and the fragility of ecological knowledge.
Jim Tuite is a New York–based artist working across video, drawing, and photography. He holds an MFA from the School of Visual Arts and a BFA from Tyler School of Art. Tuite is known for live visual performances that employ video synthesis, archival footage, 3D modeling, and audio-responsive processing. His work emphasizes metaphor, association, and rhythm in close dialogue with sound. He has presented live visuals at Experimental Music Festivals, NEEMFest, Ambient Chaos, and Modular Synth Series events. His drawings were featured in Furious Pure (2024).
Glenn Cornett is the founder of Spectrum, an organization dedicated to fostering innovation and virtuosity in the arts. Since 2012, Spectrum has presented modern and contemporary music events in New York City, often in unconventional or interdisciplinary contexts. As a composer and performer, Cornett works with guitar, electronics, and keyboards. He is also a biotech entrepreneur specializing in neurological and cardiovascular research. Cornett holds an MD from the University of Michigan and a PhD in neuroscience from UCLA, where his doctoral research examined deep-brain responses to musical stimuli across musicology, neurophysiology, and cognitive science.
Payment and Cancellation Policy
At Fou Gallery, we are dedicated to offering meaningful and enriching experiences through our courses. Due to the intimate nature of our programs and the detailed planning required with our instructors, we kindly ask for your understanding of our non-refundable policy. Once registered for a course, all payments are final and cannot be refunded.
