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In the world of sound art today, Stephen Vitiello is about as versatile and experimental a practicioner as they come. A sound artist/electronic musician, he shapes incidental atmospheric noises - whether it be the rustling of leaves in a forest or the merged clamouring of Manhattan and its rivers - into mesmerising soundscapes that alter our perception of the surrounding environment, creating unique installations that echo a special interest in the physical aspect of sound and its potential to define the form and atmosphere of a space. Besides producing his own avant garde work, he's also been a pioneer by injecting sound into others' art as a key collaborator in projects with an awe-striking roster of artists, musicians and choreographers, including Dara Birnbaum, Jem Cohen, John Jasperse/White Oak Dance Project, Pauline Oliveros, Tony Oursler, Andrew Deutsch, Eder Santos, Nam June Paik, Scanner, Yasunao Tone, Frances-Marie Uitti and Julie Mehretu. As a devoted teacher of Kinetic Imaging, his waves of influence will no doubt be felt among the next generation of visual/sound artists.

A solo exhibition of his work opens to the public in London today at Museum 52, and we are very grateful to the artist for this exclusive interview (conducted by Lupe Nunez-Fernandez), a real insight into the way his work has been influenced over the years and how he's developed his methods.

Stephen Vitiello, performing in Malaga, Spain. Photo by Victoriano Moreno.

LNF: What was your first interaction with sound as art, your first or most important impressions and/or influences?

SV: I'm not fully sure what the first moments really were. I grew up in NYC playing in bands and then towards the end of college became interested in the idea of creating soundtracks for experimental film and video. This was 1986. A few years later, Tony Oursler asked me to do sound for a multi-channel video and sound installation called Crypt Craft. I created a lot of sound for artists in the 90s. In 2000 Curator Chrissie Iles had recently arrived at The Whitney Museum. She asked me to curate the sound component to the Whitney's 'American Century Part II: 1950-2000' exhibition. I think this was the first time I really dug into the history of sound in the arts (or sound art). As my own artist it was the year before (1999) when I had my residency in the World Trade Center and really started exploring sound outside of music personally [Ed.: In 1999, Vitiello was awarded a 6-month WorldViews residency on the 91st floor of the World Trade Center. The residency resulted in a site-specific sound installation which has been broadcast and exhibited internationally].

View of Vitiello's microphones at the WTC.

LNF: What about your first proper, independent sound art project (besides your collaborations with video artists on sound for their projects in the 1990s), and what came next?

SV: The collaborations came first and through those experiences I gained a great deal of experience and ideas about how to approach sound for my own work. One thing that came before it was that Thierry Raspail, the curator from the Museum of Contemporary Art Lyon was organizing an exhibition called 'Musiques en Scene'. He was interested in a retrospective of videos that used my music but through conversation we ended up agreeing that I would do a 4-channel sound installation. I sketched out an oddly shaped room (which holds sound better than a perfect square) and created a piece that had constantly swirling sounds. I remember wanting to find a sonic equivalent to the orderly chaos of leaves surrounding you on a windy November day. It really was the WTC residency though that set my career in motion. After that I was in the 'Greater New York' show at PS 1 and then formed my relationship with my NY gallery, The Project.

Crazy Wall Thing collaboration with Tony Oursler at The Project

LNF: The visual, and analogies between the visual and the aural, play a huge role in your work. Which one of the two senses tends to be stronger in the way you personally approach and perceive art, or do you feel they're inextricably linked?

SV: I definitely feel that my understanding and personal connection to sound is the stronger of the two. I create visuals but they always refer back to the sounds. In general, I try to keep the visuals and sounds separate so that it is clear with the sound work that that is the core content of the work rather than being a response to the visual. The department that I teach in, Kinetic Imaging at Virginia Commonwealth University, is described as video, animation and sound. We are definitely coming from a fine arts basis. I've managed to convert some of my visual students to my side of the fence. At the very least, I'm trying to increase their vocabulary and to describe video and animation as audio-visual mediums not just visual. I'm doing some drawings lately that I'm very excited about but even there, I use the vibration of the speaker to project graphite, ink and pigment. I rapid low-frequency tones to the speaker which sets it vibrating and sort of spewing forth pattern and texture. It's a process drawing and the process is a small sound-based performance.

Speaker drawings, test for 10-06 show at The Project, New York.

LNF: You've previously said that sound art can be defined by sound in space, and your recent installations bear witness to this. Technology, both its seams and its seamlessness, also plays a big role in so much sound art, including your own. How has technological advance and limitations shaped your work over the years? Any projects that took a different turn due to problems or imperfections? Any particular technological trends you feel have affected where sound art is going?

SV: It's always an interesting wrestling match with technology. I've been going through an anti-digital phase. I say that because I'm using a small analog synthesizer to process sounds rather than plug-ins but immediately I hear my own contradictions since I'm also using a very high-end digital audio recorder to capture sounds. A lot of my best experiences have been with small pieces of technology. Home-made contact microphones that pick up the surface noise of objects (or the sound coming through the windows of the World Trade Center). Also, a small home-built photocell device that translates light frequencies into sound. With technology-based art in general I fear the impulse that we all have that if we aren't constantly adapting with the technologies that we become instantly obsolete, or 'so 5 minutes ago!', to quote someone in the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie I think. Like many musicians, I do like when you can push a technology (an effects box or a computer, etc.) to do something it doesn't want to do or to make use of some odd quirk that others would consider an imperfection. The laptop has made an incredible amount of access available. In terms of trends, there's so many. I've identified with people who are interested in field recordings. There are people like Chris Watson who is an absolute master at beautifully recording, choosing and contextualizing sounds from nearby as well as more exotic locations. I also appreciate people who take those sounds into some other synthesized environment. I think if I was from an older generation I would be more of a purist about how one approaches their material but I feel like each recording and each situation allows for all sorts of directions to consider.

Stephen Vitiello with Tony Conrad in Buffalo. Photo by John Opera.

LNF: How do you plan & segment your projects? Right now you have a couple of solo shows about to open, and there seems to be a longer stream of projects and collaborations already in the works.. were
they all conceived as individual parts of a bigger whole? What can your audience look for in the various branches of your upcoming work? Specific, conscious links, disconnections?

SV: I guess like most people, there are bodies of work that carry through a handful of exhibitions. In the last couple years I've been doing these pieces with speakers suspended through a space. Their setup is very architecturally considered. The sounds going into the speakers are at such low frequency that they are not audible to our ears but they move the surfaces of the speakers. I did some variations on this at SculptureCenter in New York and Galerie Almine Rech in Paris. A collaboration I've been doing with Julie Mehretu (first at the Sydney Biennale and next at Kunslerhaus Wien in November) incorporates these speakers but in the pieces with Julie there is also audible audio coming from other speakers.

Untitled collaboration with Julie Mehretu for the 2006 Sydney Biennale.

The other thing that's been happening is that I received a grant from Creative Capital to do extensive field recordings across the state of Virginia, where I live and to create works from those sounds. It's been amazing having the time (and funds!) to go everywhere from state parks to a women's roller derby league to record. The best thing that has come from it is that I've been granted access to a newly discovered forest with cypress and tupelo trees that are 1000-1500 years old. In America, that's prehistoric! This was a forest that had somehow been un-charted and was just found on the edge of some privately owned land. There's a super 8 film shot (with a collaborator, Matt Flowers) from that forest that will be included in my Museum 52 show. The Museum 52 show will also have a sound piece called Night Chatter that makes use of the wonderful night sounds from these parks and forests but is also aware, at least conceptually of the idea of "chatter". Virginia is a state with a strong military presence. I've been reading this fascinating book that puts forth information that the major US government's listening bases are in the UK so this seemed like a good time (having a show in the UK) to at least loosely make reference to..

Recording in James River State Park, VA, Summer, 2006.

Recording at Cypress Bridge, Courtland, VA, Summer 2006. Photo by Rachel Hilton.

LNF: Leaving sound art aside for a moment, what sound/music will we find on your ipod or in your studio..?

SV: If I'm home, reading, I'll listen to fairly quiet pieces. I like Steve Roden's work a lot, the Australian group The Necks, Scanner (Robin Rimbaud) gave me an hour-long piece that is really beautiful but I just forgot the title. If I'm traveling I'm more likely to listen to songs - the recent Mountain Goats CD, Sparklehorse, Bob Dylan's new album, Neutral Milk Hotel...

Stephen Vitiello with Scanner at Cartier Foundation, 2002. Photo by Goran Vejvoda.