Artist Statement, 2009

In my current work I concentrate on setting up processes that have to do with documenting, replicating, recording and repeating:  experiences of space (the gallery, the concert hall, the urban landscape), action (performance works, “unintended” performances, video documents), and existing music and performance.  These processes have involved ordinary recording technologies, algorithmic or automatic interpretation, and what I refer to as performative listening and “live” notation.  In general, I do these things not for any particular desired result, but to allow each to uncover something unforeseen, to follow through with a process the result of which is unknown.  I have begun to conceive of this body of work as falling under the umbrella I (and others) have defined loosely as “transcription”—invoking the specifically music-related practice though in my usage it tends to bleed into other disciplines.  Arising out of the context of experimental music, my work is also presented in contexts ranging from performance art to new media, sound art, and experimental theater.

Bio

G. DOUGLAS BARRETT is a composer, performer, and writer. His work has been presented in festivals, galleries, concert halls, academic conferences, and street performance events throughout North America and Europe.  Performers of his music and performance works have included The S.E.M. Ensemble, The Flux Quartet, Tobias Liebezeit, Kerstin Fuchs, Ensemble SurPlus, Johnny Chang, Christine Tavolacci, Francesco Gagliardi, Adam Overton, Joseph Kudirka, and Mark So.  He has participated in festivals such as the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (UK), Ostrava Days (Czech Republic), Wandelweiser Festspiel (Düsseldorf), Visiones Sonoras (Mexico City), June in Buffalo, and the CEAIT Festival (Los Angeles); and has appeared at venues such as the Ontological-Hysteric Theater (New York), Listen/Space (New York), the Wulf (Los Angeles), Theater Perdu (Amsterdam), Miss Micks (Berlin), the Sonic Arts Research Centre (Belfast, UK). Barrett performs with Trio Fuchs Gagliardi Barrett, a group dedicated to experimental performance.