In an introductory conversation, the artists will discuss the conceptual underpinnings of the work, the remote collaboration between the three geographically distanced artists due to the pandemic (Bern, Switzerland; Portland, OR; and Providence, RI), and the production of sound via analog synthesis, open-source software, vinyl, and Zoom itself as a rhythmic instrument. The conversation is followed by a Q&A session before Metric Displacement will officially open its virtual doors to the audience.

About the Exhibition: Metric Displacement Installation: For Metric Displacement (2021), experimental sound artists Aries, House, and Zaes each make beats that reflect their own individual experiences of place. Each beat is subsequently cut into a lock groove on a vinyl record and played on a turntable in one of multiple global sites: Bern (Switzerland), Providence (Rhode Island), and Portland (Oregon). These are streamed to a video conference (via Zoom) meeting, so that they can be experienced together, subject to the temporal distortions inherent to online relationships. Every day, a docent at each location selects a new lock groove, creating unpredictable and emergent rhythmic combinations that can only be experienced online.

This work is part of the Beyond 2020: A (Post-) Pandemic Practice series which explores our current times since the global pandemic changed the world in 2020. Artists presented in this series pose questions about our realities, identities and societies that have been shaped and transformed by digital tools that have become intertwined in our daily lives since society has been uprooted. This work focuses on the idea of physical space and isolation during our current times, where people are finding new connections to and meaning in their physical location while also finding new ways to connect and collaborate digitally.