Reviewing

Intercept Tone/Vacant Level

Meridian7 aka Lori Napoleon

Meridian7 presents Intercept Tone/Vacant Level, a multi-channel audio installation inspired by archival recordings of the electromagnetic terrain that captivated early telephone network explorers. As an AIR at Harvestworks, Meridian7 completed three instruments that bring obsolete telephone equipment back to a life of patching audio signals. The piece explores the sonic terrain of analog switching networks punctuated with rhythmic signal pulses, crosstalk, static, messages between the wires.

[Jun 27-29] Meridian7: Intercept Tone/Vacant Level Surround Installation

Meridian7 aka Lori Napoleon
Fri, Jun 27 2014, 7pm Reception
Sat/Sun Jun 28/28 2014 3pm-7pm Open to the public

Harvestworks 596 Broadway, #602 | New York, NY 10012
Phone: 212-431-1130
Subway: F/M/D/B Broadway/Lafayette, R Prince, 6 Bleecker

Lori Napoleon Photo by Seze Devres
Lori Napoleon Photo by Seze Devres

Meridian7 presents Intercept Tone/Vacant Level, a multiple channel audio installation inspired by archival recordings of the vast electromagnetic terrain which captivated an early subculture of telephone network explorers from the late 1950’s to the 1970’s. Meridian 7 aka artist Lori Napoleon created and performed an early version of the piece using her hand built analog modules in the 2013 New York Electronic Art Festival. As an Artist in Residence at Harvestworks ‘13, she completed three new instruments that bring obsolete telephone equipment back to a life of patching signals, including a comb filter which she constructed inside a table-top hotel switchboard, creating evolving timbres through a process of time-delayed feedback that forms “notches” of positive and negative interference. Intercept Tone/Vacant Level is part of an ongoing project that transforms vintage switchboards into modular synthesizers and sequencers. The piece explores the vast sonic terrain of vintage analog switching systems, their banks of relays and miles of cables punctuated with rhythmic signaling pulses, continuous drones and hums, vaguely human-sounding crosstalk, errant static and messages between the wires. See www.meridian7.net for more information.

Meridian7_Switchboard Synth Interview and Operation from seventhmeridian on Vimeo.

Meridian7

Meridian7 aka Lori Napoleon is an artist/synthesist inspired by creative expression using science and technology. Driven by her love of electronic music and a primordial urge to “build stuff,” Lori relocated from Chicago to New York to complete a Master’s degree at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU. Her work has spanned holography, transmission arts and analog circuitry, leading her to exhibit at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, lecture at the Sigma Pi Sigma Congress for physics students, install interactive work in Trinity College’s Science Gallery in Dublin, and transform light waves into sound at Boston’s Computer-Human Interface Conference. Lori is currently focused on transforming antique telephone switchboards into a patchable, modular synthesizer system, and recording audio excursions under the guise Meridian7. Her work and influences are featured in forthcoming film “I Dream of Wires: The Modular Synthesizer Documentary.” She is currently creating a series of new synthesizers and producing music under the 2012-2013 New Works Residency Program at Harvestworks Digital Media Center in New York City.

Lori Napoleon

Lori Napoleon Photo by Seze Devres