photo by Ian Vollmer
Sometimes described as “creative field recording,” phonography is a strategy, technique, and a community. Most of what I make, from protest symphonies to found soundscapes is phonography.
To my ears, not all field recordings are phonography, which is rooted in very portable technology and an unusual approach. Phonographers embrace accidents and glitches as well as question received notions of technique and acceptable subject matter. 
My essays, “On Phonography: A Response to Michael Ruesenberg” and “A Secret History of Phonography” detail my approach.
I always caution beginners not to equate “good” recordings with good or high-fidelity recording quality. There are plenty of lo- and no-fi recordings which speak to the soul.
Adrift in New York (2002) is the fourth in my series of aural safaris capturing risky (and at times dangerous) sonic environments and was completed in 2002 at Harvestworks’ AIR program in New York City.
where my night sounds like (2011). A night just before coming to New York to collaborate with Grand Openings at the Museum of Modern Art, I stood on the street in front of my home and listened.
SF Variations (2004), an unedited recording with no overdubs, is from the album Favorite Intermisions.
Open Carrier: Citywide One Manhattan (2004). Police parlance for a radio that has been inadvertently left on in talk or transmit mode, an “open carrier” stymies broadcast traffic, leaving so-called “dead air” to delineate sudden gaps, smudges of hiss, a hazy drone, beeping alerts, fragmented words, quick phrases, recessed conversations, and other unexpected artifacts.
portrait of Dan Flavin’s untitled (to the “innovator” of Wheeling Peachblow (2011) is a magnetic coil capture of Dan Flavin’s famed sculpture. The untitled yet titled title honors a late 19th century glass company famed for its gradients of orange and red in manufactured glass. I thank MoMA for allowing me to attempt this recording and Stephanie Harris for her invaluable assistance.
Your 3 minute Mardi Gras (2011) is a rapid-fire portrait of New Orleans’ 2001 Mardi Gras. My aim is to preserve the meaning and the melody of speech, as well as unearth the unintended polyphony of the event. No layering or time juggling, just lots of aggressive old-fashioned linear 2-track (left and right channel synchronous!) editing. This is the third in my series of aural safaris capturing risky (and at times dangerous) sonic environments.
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