Curriculum Vitae: John Roach
born 5-5-69 Sanfrancisco, CA. USA
176 5th Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11217
jroach@speakeasy.net
www.johnroach.net

John Roach searches for the surprises that occur when visual and aural phenomena are thrown out of synch, when unexpected results are elicited from mundane objects that prefer to be ignored. The materials used vary wildly: from suitcases and old furniture to cheap electronic kits and hardware. Exhibitions include numerous Kenny Schachter exhibitions and in various other group-exhibition venues in Manhattan and Brooklyn, Santa Fe, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Mexico City. Multimedia projects include numerous sound works to accompany video, a web-based collaborative composition game for multiple artists entitled DICTIONARY and Negative Space, a streaming audio and video web collaboration with Spaceboat TV in Seattle.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2005 (Fall) The Blur of the Otherworldly – an exhibition of technology and the paranormal. The Center for Art and Visual Culture, University of Maryland Baltimore County

2005 NOMUSIC.ORG – SimultaneousTranslation takes part in a 24 hour "Royal Battle"

2004 Congreso Internacional Cultura Digital Y Ciudanía – Universidad Autonoma, Madrid Spain. Audio Visual Collaboration

2004 Simultaneous Translation V1 – Universidad Autonoma, Madrid Spain

2003 Walking Slowly Showcase – Spaceworks Gallery at The Tank, New York, NY.

2002 Hunter College Alumni Exhibition– Hunter College Times Square Gallery

2001 Colaboratory – Gale Gates Gallery, Brooklyn, NY. {see collaborations below}

2001 Band-O-Matic – PS 1 Contemporary Art Center w/ John Hudak {see collaborations below}

2001 Sound and Complexity – Plan B Evolving Arts Center. Santa Fe, NM. Curated by Guy Ambrosino

2001 Negative Space – Consolidated Works. Seattle, WA {see collaborations below}

2000 Subject to Sound – The Rotunda Gallery. Brooklyn, NY.

2000 Back East – The San Francisco Center for the Book. San Francisco, CA.

1999 Wrestling with Mary Shelly – Blohard Gallery. Philadelphia, PA. Curated by Richard Harrod

1999 The Window Project – Santa Fe, NM. Site Specific project curated by Guy Ambrosino

1998 CAMBIO – Museo Universitario del Chopo. Mexico City. Curated by Kenny Schachter

1998 Hey You Never Know – 534 Laguardia Place. NYC. Curated by Kenny Schachter

1996 The Experimenters – Lombard Freid Gallery. NYC. Curated by Kenny Schachter

1996 Taking Stock – 25 Broad st. NYC. Curated by Kenny Schachter

1996 SoHo Annual – 420 w. Broadway, NYC. Juried by Michael Brenson, Susan Hort & Robert Storr

1996 Incarcerated with Genet & Artaud – The Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA),London

COLLABORATIONS

COLABORATORY Participant and Organizer. (www.colaboratory.org)
117 New York-area artists spanning a wide range of media including architecture, painting, graffiti, web design, metalworking,etc. collaborated in randomly selected groups of three. Four teams of curators (Team 1 - Abby Messitte & Elizabeth Burke from Clementine Gallery. Team 2 - Lauren Ross from White Columns and independent curator Jane Harris. Team 3 - Independent curators David Hunt and Koan Jeff Baysa. Team 4 - Mixed Greens) curated the final results at GAle GAtes Gallery. The works were sold in a lottery-style auction to benefit the GAle GAtes Emerging Curators Fund and the September 11th Fund.

BAND-O-MATIC A collaboration with the sound artist John Hudak
A combination of My Roachaphonic bandophones (instruments with rubber bands caressed by motors) paired with the computer of John Hudak to create an interactive environment for PS 1’s “Made in the Shade” festival.

NEGATIVE SPACE. Organizer.
A live collaborative event which takes advantage of the distance between a team of performers on the East Coast and a team on the West Coast. Three musicians in New York and three musicians in Seattle play together in real time from a composition whose parameters are determined through the use of the alphabet and a U.S. road atlas. The sound from the New York team is streamed to Seattle where it is mixed with the the Seattle team’s audio at Consolidated Works. Live video of both teams is mixed with other video by the media Collaborative Spaceboat TV.

DICTIONARY Organizer and Participant.
A collaborative audio composition “game” for three participants. Dictionary exists as an internet server-based tool in which participants can share audio samples regardless of their geographic location. Parameters for each composition are determined by (among other things) the Oxford English Dictionary “word of the day” website.

ROACHROUVELLE An ongoing collaboration with the composer and sound artist James Rouvelle.
PROJECT 1: “Pageturner”
PROJECT 2: “Project 1999”
PROJECT 3: “Theoretically Yours”
PROJECT 4: “The South Brooklyn Casket Co.”

AWARDS & RESIDENCIES

Experimental Television Center Finishing Funds Award (1999)
Received grant to develop, with James Rouvelle, the expanding project “Theoretically Yours” for disposable objects, pedestrians and radio-transmitters.

Experimental Television Center Finishing Funds Award (1997)
Received grant to complete a series of pieces entitled “Pageturners.”

Experimental Television Residency Program (1997)

William Graf Travel Grant (1996)
Received grant to create video entitled “Antonin Artaud: Agité” which screened at the Institutefor Contemporary Art (ICA) in London on June 2, 1996.

TEACHING

 

Parsons School of Design (Sept. 2002 to Present)

Foundation Department: Instructor of Two Dimensional Design
In this course I introduce freshman to the fundamentals of two dimensional design. Concepts covered include: Point, line, plane, figure/ground, value, spatial relationships and color theory.

Integrated Design Curriculum Department: Instructor of Two Dimensional Design
In this freshman program, I work with students in a traditional studio and also in a computer lab. The goal of this course is to impart the fundamental principals of two dimensional design and also to give students a firm base in thedigital tools common to two dimensional design work: Illustrator and Photoshop.

Continuing Education Summer Intensive Studies program: Graphic Design
This is the digital component of a two-part graphic design course co-taught with designer Erika Fusari. The challenge of teaching this course was in giving the students a working knowledge of Illustrator, Photoshop and Quark, while simultaneously imparting design concepts... all in one month.
Other academic experience

Foundation Department Wireless Program
My courses in the Foundation Department are part of the Wireless program in which all students are equipped with a laptop and design software as well as access to The New School’s wireless network. This not only allows for exceptional flexibility in using digital tools for design, it also expands the range of possibilities for student research and critical interaction.

Faculty Software Workshops
This series of workshops for Foundation Department faculty focused on using Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign for specific curricular needs within the Foundation department.