cities are natural framed performance and music events as urban gatherings. Experimental sound and interactive visuals explored how people play, contemplate, and create in their habitat. The project unfolded across three sites—Stream Art Space in Bushwick, a residency at Pioneer Works with Clocktower Radio, and another residency on Governors Island with the Public Works Department. Clarke partnered with local artists and technologists to craft installations and performances that wove architectural and sonic data from each neighborhood into the work. Materials ranged from glass and laser-cut paper to responsive audio-visual systems, grounding the pieces in place while adding speculative layers.
During the Pioneer Works residency, Clarke staged three events titled Compositions 1–3. For Composition 3, the final program, she teamed with curators Christine Tran (Witches of Bushwick, Discwoman) and Mike Sheffield (She Was Freaks), as well as interactive media artists Sara Rothberg and Sue Ngo, to present an evening of performances and visuals inspired by the city as a natural habitat.
In the venue’s main hall, Clarke and Ngo built delicate paper-and-wire structures accented with clusters of glass. Monica Mirabile of the dance collective Fluct choreographed performers to engage with these forms, the building’s architecture, and the audience. The visuals were paired with live sets by UMFANG, Volvox, Wetware, Drippy Inputs, and Clarke. Throughout the event, Rothberg projected a multichannel, driveable 3-D animation across an expansive wall, weaving in Clarke’s data-driven imagery.
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Composition 3
Clarke performs with glass, contact mics, feedback, vocals, sonnified data and field recordings taken from the Red Hook area.
(Video Stills by Joe Bender & Photographs by Luis Nieto Dinkins)
Monica Mirabile of Fluct dance company choreographed performers to interact with these structures and sounds, engaging the architecture of the building, as well as the audience.
(Video Stills by Joe Bender & Photographs by Luis Nieto Dinkins)
Performances included Wetware and Volvox. Sara Rothberg presented a multichannel 3D interactive (driveable) animation on a large stretch of wall. (Video Stills by Joe Bender & Photographs by Luis Nieto Dinkins)
Composition 1 unfolded before a sound-reactive video projection on glass created by Clarke. She, cellist Leila Bordreuil, and sound artist Byron Westbrook intertwined their performances to explore the city as a natural organism. Clarke opened by playing glass, paper, and metal, layering these textures with field recordings from Red Hook and data captured at Pioneer Works. Bordreuil followed, overlaying her cello’s textured bowing, phantom overtones, and subtly pitched utterances, shaped through unconventional amplification. As Clarke’s sound receded, Westbrook introduced synthesized layers inspired by urban field gestures, broadening the hall’s sense of space and time. Clocktower Radio documented the entire sequence, preserving it as a single audio-visual composition within Clarke’s immersive installation.
Leila Bordreuil and Clarke perform. (Video Stills by Joe Bender)
The Governers Island Residency, Clarke brought the paper, glass and other aspects of 'cities' to the Island where she merged the three-dimensional space of the room with speculative three-dimensional renders that blurred the lines between the natural (water), architecture and other aspects of the city. During the residency on Governers Island, Clarke performed similar material as she did at Pioneer Works while bringing field recordings and data from the surrouding waters and urban/natural environment.
Governers Island. Cities Installation, Renders and Performance by Clarke
Stream Gallery in Bushwick Brooklyn. As part of the show Systematic Sampling Clarke created the sculptural installation version of the series in a miniature form. It was self contanined and created to be in conversation with the works of other artists in the gallery. Melissa collaborated with Sue Ngo who designed the laser cut paper with burned edges. This was the first iteration of the series that began as a thread in the network of the installations, performances and documentation that unfolded across several years and spaces. The light movements within the small installation were taken from local data samples and became the bones of the sounds and visuals of the series.
Stream Gallery, Bushwick. Glass, Paper, Video and Platform.