Seth Cluett Colloquium - "Objects of Memory"

• Friday, Februrary 3, 2012
• 107 Old Cabell Hall
• 3:30pm

Objects of Memory -
I view the act of recording not as an object of memory in itself, but as a catalyst for imagination that mirrors memory in its manner of operation. I record to articulate the distance between remembrance and perception, amplifying the potential to forget. Like raindrops carving away at a roof or a stream impressing itself on stone, the persistence of recorded objects seems to strive towards permanence, both claiming and eroding space and etching a form of script on the mind. But much like memory, the hand of recorded media writes only a blueprint, articulating a structure that employs imagination as a cipher. Recorded sound (re)presents a form of experience that is separate yet inextricably linked to the memories imprinted by recording. In my practice, the fallible connection between source and recorded trace views simple, everyday actions at extreme magnification, acknowledges failure by amplifying impossible tasks, and explores the role of memory in forms that respect the contract between the artist, performer, and listener

Seth Cluett (b. Troy, NY) is an artist, performer, and composer whose work ranges from photography and drawing to video, sound installation, concert music, and critical writing. His "subtle...seductive, immersive" (Artforum) sound work has been characterized as "rigorously focused and full of detail" (e/i) and "dramatic, powerful, and at one with nature" (The Wire). Exploring the territory between the auditory and other senses, Cluett's works are marked by a detailed attention to perception and to sound's role in the creation of a sense of place and the workings of memory. The recipient of grants and awards from Meet the Composer as well as the Andrew W. Mellon, Naumberg, and Malcolm Morse Foundations, his work is documented on Errant Bodies Press, Line, Radical Matters, Sedimental, Crank Satori, BoxMedia, Stasisfield, and Winds Measure. Cluett is currently on the faculty of the School of Fine Arts at Miami University of Ohio where he teaches in the Music Department and the Armstrong Institute for Interactive Media Studies. For more information see http://www.onelonelypixel.org