Jason Levine is a Montreal-based artist focusing on the intersection between music, performance art, and interactive video. Teaching himself to program BASIC and LOGO at age 7, and performing with the I MUSICI orchestra at age 9, it is no surprise that at age 30 Jason’s art is the complete fusion of computer technology with live performance. As a computer programmer, Jason uses Max/MSP Jitter, openframeworks, and Cinder to translate gesture data from microphones, sensors, and Kinects to lights, sound, and projected video. As a performer he is a chronic improviser, inspired by the architecture of where he performs, the people in the audience, and above all by the serendipitous errors that take him in new directions. As a musician he is fascinated by all the possibilities of the human voice. Jason specializes in extended voice techniques such as throatsinging, chanting and beatboxing. Jason’s current work focuses on projecting visualizations of his voice onto and around his body while he performs. The artistic inspiration comes from his experiences of synaesthesia. Synaesthesia is a neurological condition in which the stimulation of one sense creates the experience of another sense. His particular experience involves heard sounds stimulating the experience of abstract coloured forms in and around his body. This new body of work is an exploration into creating synaesthetic experience in others.
