Curriculum Vitae: John Hudak
born 3 28 58 Framingham Massachusetts
26 Parkway Drive, Dobbs Ferry, NY 10522
http://www.johnhudak.net
John Hudak has been interested in sound and music from
the age of four when he began to play a variety of instruments. At the University
of Delaware (BA, English 1981) and Naropa Institute for the Arts (1979), he
studied video, photography, creative writing and dance. He then began to create
taped soundtracks for his solo performance art pieces. In recent years, he has
concentrated on sound, particularly natural sounds.
Hudak's current sound work focuses on the minimalism and repetition of sounds
below the usual threshold of hearing, sounds that are filtered out or considered
non-musical. These sounds are recorded, deconstructed and processed, their rhythms
and textures being the basis for aural manipulations.
Selected Solo Recordings
old moon CDr (2 - 3 inch), 2003, kissy records (http://www.kissyrecords.com).
'old moon' consists of two separate pieces released on two 3 inch cdrs. both
pieces were made from the same source material - the sound of snow melting on
a contact microphone. 'old moon 1' is an active sound environment, like thousands
of crickets and woodpeckers working together in a tiny room. 'old moon 2' is
a slower, darker piece. imagine being able to listen to snow slowly melt under
water.
may fifth CD, 2003,
XZF.
solo piano piece granulated to achieve random pattern variations within a set
group of pre-defined possibilities.
tall grasses CD, 2002,
digital narcis ltd. (http://www.digitalnarcis.com/),
sensitive contact microphones buried in a field of grass on a windy day
figure 2, 2000, intransitive recordings (http://www.intransitiverecords.com).
The music on this disc was recorded at a live performance by John Hudak and
Jason Lescalleet in the Lindsay Chapel at the First Church of Cambridge, MA,
during the first blizzard of the season (2000). All sounds were taken from the
space at the time of the performance…from the clunking of the hot water
heaters, to the whispers of the audience.
highway CD, 2000, edition . . . (http://editionellipsis.hypermart.net/publications.html),
vibrations and sounds of cars and trucks driving on the Brooklyn-Queens expressway
my eye, my son's eye CD, 2000, generator sound art
(http://www.generatorsoundart.org/),
live and studio recordings of individual notes of a child's music box
like seeing, and then again not 7" vinyl, 2000,
liquish recordings.
collaboration with Jason Lescaleet
pond CD, 1998, meme
recordings.
sounds of underwater insects recorded with hydrophones
brooklyn bridge CD, 1998, shirocoal recordings/soleilmoon recordings
vibrations and static sounds recorded on the Brooklyn Bridge with contact microphones
don't worry about anything, i'll talk to you tomorrow
CD, 1999, alluvial recordings (http://www.manifoldrecords.com/alluvialmain.html),
an answering machine message of my mother repeating the title words, transformed
into textures
natura, 7" vinyl,
1994, Apraxia
A side, fruit flies; B side, frozen rain falling on snow triggering an ARP 2600
synthesizer
Helen Marie: Reinterpretations 2CDs, 2002, alluvial recordings (http://www.manifoldrecords.com/alluvialmain.html),
reinterpretations of source tracks from the solo CD "don't worry about
anything, i'll talk to you tomorrow," with pieces by: Jason Lescalleet,
M. Behrens, Sukora, Peter Duimelinks, Francisco Lopez, Eric Lanzillotta, Frans
de Waard, Leif Elggren and John Hudak.
Inflation CD, 2002, p+c mu-label, http://www.mu-label.com
Ringtones CD, 2002, Touch Recordings England, http://www.touchmusic.org.uk/
Cyberarts 2001 CD, 2001, ORF/Prix Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria, companion
to the Prix Ars Electronica
Total Electric Living CD, 2001, Queens Museum of Art, Queens, NY, companion
to the Crossing The Line exhibition, "June 24-October 7, 2001
BitStreams CD, 2001, JDK productions, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, http://www.jdkproductions.com,
companion to the BitStreams exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, March
22 - June 10, 2001
State of the Union CD, 2001, Electronic Music Foundation Recordings, http://www.cdemusic.org/emf/emfmedia
variious CD, 2000, intransitive recordings (www.intransitiverecordings.com)
effe/sukora 001 CD, 2000, effe,
scatter CD, 1997, Ash International, http://www.kcw70.dial.pipex.com/html/releases/ash3.5.html
a fault in the nothing CD, 1996, Ash International, http://www.kcw70.dial.pipex.com/html/releases/ash2.6.html
artifact:
http://www.turbulence.org
artifactual sounds and images collected from the web
short haiku-like phrases presented in a natural environment
itravel
http://www.turbulence.org
interactive sounds and images in varying juxtapositions
Still Life
http://www.nomadnet.org/still-life/index.htm
still-life every three minutes, a new picture of Hudak's dining room, colorized
with the palette of Van Gogh's Starry Night, and translated into an audio signal
manray project in collaboration with Steve Bradley,
http://www.slack.net/~jhbk/
an ongoing collection of experimental web-based artwork
Installations and Performances
rabbit in a cage
office ops, Brooklyn, NY, http://www.officeops.org, August 3, 2003. With Bruce
Tovsky, video. Resonator guitar played in a repeating pattern based on a recording
of the BaBenzale Pygmies of Central Africa.
See http://www.antiopic.org/
shifting limbs
Museum of Contemporary Art, Lyon, France,
http://www.moca-lyon.org/new/navig/navig.htm (under "Expositions")
March 6 - May 18, 2002. A live image of tree limbs will be input to a computer
thorugh a surveillance camera. A constant sound, derived from a live picture
of the limbs (through video to audio conversion software) will be produced at
a low volume, with movement of the limbs triggering subtle changes in the pitch
and quality of the sound. The image of the tree limbs will be presented on a
small monitor placed inside an old wooden view camera. The viewer will look
into the lens and see the live black and white video image of the trees inside
the camera (on a small video monitor). The lens will magnify the image and distort
it a bit, giving it the quality of a past image (when in reality, if the windows
are nearby, you can see the trees themselves). See a drawing of the installation.
modification 3: a digital feedback system
Experimental Intermedia Foundation
New York, Ny
http://www.experimentalintermedia.org
December 19, 2001. With Bruce Tovsky (video). A feedback system where the visual
(live video of my hand moving) modifications are controlled by the audio whose
modifications in turn are based on the video.
from where I am
WKCR - 89.9 FM, New York, November 2, 2001. A live broadcast (and computer manipulation)
of sounds from contact and open-air microphones receiving input from where Hudak
lives, on the Brooklyn-Heights promenade, over the Brooklyn-Queens expressway,
facing the bottom of the east river, lower Manhattan, and the Brooklyn piers.
tall grasses
Diapason Gallery, New York, July 28, 2001. http://www.diapasongallery.com/archive/01_07_28.html.
An all-day installation of a full wall video projection of grass blowing in
the wind, with accompanying sound derived from contact microphones placed in
the soil
pinwheels
Performance with Stephen Vitiello, part of the performance series, June Bugs,
curated by Kyle Lapidus, on the rooftop of 306 Dean Street. Brooklyn, New York,
June 3, 2001. Six children's pinwheels were attached to the rooftop, amplified
with contact microphones, then sampled and processed live with an Apple G3 powerbook
and hardware sampler.
fun with sandpaper
Solo performance, AC Project Room, New York, April 21, 2001, part of Soundoff:
A Series of New Sound Performances, curated by Neil Benezra. Sandpaper is the
only sound source, amplified with contact microphones. The sound is layered
and granulated live with a n Apple G3 powerbook. The sandpaper and the sanding
hand are projected on the wall before the audience
BitStreams
Group show, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, March-June 2001, http://www.whitney.org/bitstreams
Sound installation featuring pond (see solo recordings)
Facade
California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland. September-October, 2000, Multi-media
installation. On a gallery wall, a continually changing image of the building
housing the gallery (from an external computer quickcam) is projected, accompanied
by an audio signal extracted from the image. As the day progresses to evening,
the image changes as does the sound
VOLUME: Bed of Sound
Group show, P.S. 1, Long Island City. July-September, 2000. Featuring don't
worry about anything, i'll talk to you tomorrow
Woolworth: A Building
Studio Five Beekman, New York. February, 2000, http://www.diapasongallery.com/hudak.html.
Multi-media installation featuring live, digitally modified images of the Woolworth
building, visible from the window of the gallery, projected on a video screen
accompanied by sound digitally extracted from the image
transmissions 002
Sound Festival, Carborro, North Carolina, May, 1999, http://www.transmit.org/1999/schedule/bios/hudak.html.
Live performance of My Eye, My Son's Eye (see solo recordings), with a video
projection of my eye, which by blinking, triggers samples of a child's music
box
Blue and Red
Greenwich House Music School, New York, 1995, part of the Stormy Mondays New
Music Series. Sounds of grounding hum, produced with a home-made hum-maker that
controls the hum through four different speakers; and the sound of eight battery-operated
clock motors, that moves around a quadraphonic amplification system, creating
cross-rhythms
Dendrites
Rotterdam Museum of Art, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 1995, part of Klangpark'Sound
Festival. The amplified sound of tree limbs and leaves blowing in the wind,
broadcast on loudspeakers in the museum park
Natural Selection
Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, PA, 1994. Sound and video performance with
Steve Bradley, part of the Small Computers and the Arts Symposium. Video manipulations
of the images of fruit flies with accompanying sound derived from the fruit
flies
Time Tunnel
Philadelphia Artist's Cooperative, Philadelphia, PA, 1992. A black and white
spiral mounted on a fan turns while a performer completely wrapped in white
cloth runs toward and into the spiral with strobe light and sound
The Toiling Eye
Upstairs Gallery, Philadelphia, PA 1992. A performer lies on the ground facing
away from the audience with a video camera aimed at one of his eyes. On the
other eye, is a contact microphone. The sound of the blink coordinates with
its video image on a monitor in the middle of the stage
The Struggle of the Magicians
Community Education Center, Philadelphia, PA, 1992, part of Performance in an
Informal Space. One performer kneels with his naked back to the audience, arms
outstretched, and pulls metal cables kept taut by two assistants. The wires
are amplified, the sound changing with varying degrees of tension. Another performer
in white face walks extremely slowly across the back of the room
Siren
Painted Bride Arts Center, Philadelphia, PA 1991 at the Philadelphia Dada Festival.
Three seated performers with music stands holding sheet music prepare to play
the following instruments: a clarinet, a saxophone, and a trumpet. As soon as
the performers begin to play, a siren is turned on and stays on for the length
of the performance
Yellow Sheet
Logos Foundation, Ghent, Belgium, 1990. The performer lays beneath a yellow
sheet with a contact microphone amplifying his heartbeat, and an airplane pilot's
throat microphone amplifies sounds of breathing. One of the performer's hands
is exposed to the audience, and members of the audience are invited to touch
the hand in order to manipulate the sound
Wooden Sections
Gallery 455, San Francisco, CA, July, 1988. The amplified sounds of logs being
played with thick tree branches in a steady rhythm, and of leaves in a large
amplified wooden box being rustled, with variations in rhythm using a mixer
and two digital delay units
Marble
Gallery 455, San Francisco, CA, August 1987 and Dionysus Gallery, Rotterdam,
The Netherlands, 1990. Marbles are rolled for 30 minutes in a round metal tub
amplfied with a contact microphone.
Traveling
Private performance, San Diego, CA and Philadelphia, PA, July 1987 Friends were
asked to meet for a short period of time at the airport in Philadelphia. At
the appointed time, I stood at the edge of the ocean on the opposite coast in
San Diego, letting the water create the feeling of pushing me backward to the
other coast
Dissection of Limbo
The Lab, San Francisco, CA, October 1986, and Community Education Center, Philadelphia,
PA, June 1986. Performer dressed in white lab coat, with surgical gloves and
scalpel, dissects a paper-mache head filled with garbage, narrating the significance
of each piece of garbage
There Are Two Lives
Group Motion Studios, Philadelphia, PA, March, 1986, Theatre Jarry, Washington,
DC, March 1986, and Alchemical Theatre, New York, NY, February, 1986. The performer,
wrapped in bandages head to toe, slowly moves around the performance space to
the accompaniment of static chords played on an accordion. Eventually the performer
reaches into the bandages covering the chest area and finds there is a mackerel
(fish) that has been wrapped there for the entire performance. The performer
holds the fish and offers it a glass of milk
Desire
Group Motion Studios, Philadelphia, PA, December 1985. Dressed as a woman, the
performer moves in an extreme slow motion dance to the sound of five radios
tuned to different stations
Fire
Alchemical Theatre, New York, November 1985. Solo dance exploring soundless
emotion
Imaging
Community Education Center, Philadelphia, PA, October 1985. The performer plays
static sawing notes on a violin while walking around the audience, stopping
to utter random images that come to mind
The Poetics of Self-Effacement
Community Education Center, Philadelphia, PA, June 1984. One performer is seated
with eyes closed. Two other performers draw cards which tell them to drink coffee,
think of a word, or close their eyes. One sustained pitch rises in volume throughout
the length of the 20 minute performance, while colored dye is dripped by eye
dropper into a bowl of water sitting on an overhead projector. The spreading
color is projected on the performers, dressed in white
Portraits on Newspaper
ARTCORE Gallery, Berlin, West Germany, 1985. Exhibition of India ink portraits
done on full open sheets of the New York Times
Prix Ars Electronica, Honorable Mention
Linz, Austria, 2001, http://prixars.aec.at/2001/prix.as
For: highway (see solo recordings)
[The Sound of the New]
The Kitchen, New York, April 18, 2001, part of the series Digital Happy Hour.
A compositional demonstration, followed by a discussion moderated by Carl Goodman,
curator of American Museum of the Moving Image. Co-featuring Ben Rubin and Morton
Subotnik
Prix Ars Electronica, Honorable Mention
Linz, Austria, 1999, http://prixars.aec.at/history/music/index_e.asp
For: the ant moves/the black & yellow carcass/a little closer
Collaborative sound work with Bernhard Gunter
The Universe
Sound design and engineering for the play, written and directed by Richard Foreman,
The Ontological/Hysteric Theatre, New York, 1996
Henri Chopin - les 9 saintes-phonies: a retrospective
Staalplaat Recordings, Amsterdam, 1994
Produced and edited the CD retrospective of the seminal sound poet's work, with
companion monograph containing an interview of Henri Chopin by John Hudak and
essays by contemporary sound poets
Artist in Residence, Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center
New York, 1994
Silent Meeting Club
1994-1994. A group of people, organized by Hudak, have meetings on a regular
basis at various pre-determined sites in Philadelphia. They meet for an undetermined
amount of time without speaking
Homage to Beuys Mail Art Show
Abandoned and condemned building at 46th and Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA, 1986.
International mail art exhibition organized by Hudak to commemorate the death
of Joseph Beuys. Solicited mail art was displayed on the walls while an accordion
played sustained notes and a small tape player played tiny metallic sounds.
The participants were arrested and detained by the Philadelphia police for trespassing
in a city-owned building. The "Beuys 10" became a cause celebre in
the Philadephia papers and were eventually granted a mayoral pardon
Marks, Laura, "Immanence Online" The Haptic Critic: Sensuous Theory
and Artists, Media , 2001
Haynes, Jim. "Outer Limits." The Wire, Adventures in Modern Music,
207(May 2001), p. 77
Breslin, Ramsey Bell. "Child's Play." East Bay Express, October 13-19,
2000
Akins, Robert. "Some Notable Sites." Art in America, 87(April 1999),
p. 91.
O'Reilly, David. "A Club, So To Speak." The Philadelphia Inquirer,
Tuesday June 2, 1992