MIAMI BEACH, FL.- This unique exhibition brings together sound works by pioneer composers, sound and media artists associated with the Interdisciplinary Sound Arts Workshop (iSAW), in conjunction with the Subtropics Experimental Music and Sound Art Biennial (February 26-March 29, 2009 in Miami Beach). Founded in 1985, iSAW is committed to supporting new and innovative work by South Florida-based composers and musicians and serves as an incubator that provides tailored services to artists and arts organizations in all media. iSAW’s artist residency program utilizes its resources for the creation, presentation, screening and showing of new work in experimental music, dance, theater, radio and installation art.

SOUND will be the most comprehensive exhibition of this genre ever presented in Miami Beach that will occupy the main gallery at the Bass Museum of Art over the five-week period from February 26 through March 29, 2009. The works in the exhibition will represent the full spectrum of sound art that includes sculptural works, media installations, sound videos and performance-related pieces.

The exhibit, designed by composers and sound artists Gustavo Matamoros and David Dunn, will be one of the most comprehensive representations ever presented of this genre. Coexisting in one large room, the pieces are computer controlled, orchestrated as a group ensemble of sound works that allow different combinations of original pieces to be experienced as solos, duets, trios, quartets, and also as a full ensemble.

The exhibition will include the following pieces: Alvin Lucier’s Music for Pure Waves, Bass Drums and Acoustic Pendulums, that is a work in which ping pong balls bounce magically off of bass drum skins excited by low-frequency waves; Russell Frehling’s Bass Soundfield, which combines tones constructed from tiny complex wave forms extracted from the highest parts of the audible spectrum to bring out acoustical features in the architectural space; The Use, a web-based interface that allows the user to create unique sound-text pieces from a collection of recorded locutions, by sound and language artist Chris Mann; Tom Hamilton’s London Fix which applies a unique compositional system to convert fluctuations in spot gold price charts into streams of pitched electronic sound mirroring the ebb and flow of the market; and a site-specific installation Chamber Music series that is derived from recordings of complete ”silence,” created in rooms where no people are present, by Steve Peters in collaboration with Miami artist Rene Barge.

Other works will involve the use of hypersonic audio, autonomous systems, sound video and multi-channel audio such as Logos Ex Machina by David Dunn, Jumping Bean Turner by Alison Knowles, Sound Works by Phill Niblock, Antenna Road by Davey Williams and Small Sounds on a Table Top by Gustavo Matamoros. This exhibit is significant for the artistic importance of the featured works, as well as for its added intrinsic educational value.

SONORAMA a free family fun event will be presented in conjunction with the exhibition and will feature activities, performances and games exploring the nature of listening and sound as art. SONORAMA will take place Saturday, March 28, 12:00 - 4:00 PM at the Bass Museum.