Joe Ahearn

Joe Ahearn, Program Director for Clocktower, is an explorer of the interdependence between lifestyle, community, and art practice, producing countless visual, performing arts, and site-specific productions in historic locations throughout the city. Since 2008 he has been a resident, curator, and key organizer for the Bushwick-based performance and arts collective Silent Barn, a leading voice in the new national network of music spaces. Starting in the summer of 2017, Joe Ahearn is now the co-founder (along with Kunal Gupta) of a new fundraising tool called Friends.

Previously, Ahearn has spent six years as the Managing Director of Showpaper, a non-profit, bi-weekly arts, and music newsprint. Ahearn is a frequent participant on panels and public programs focusing on the "DIY" phenomenon. He is also expert in inter-organizational, multi-disciplinary, and collaborative cultural events based in unusual locations throughout the city. He’s lived in and helped set up collective and independent spaces like Death By Audio, Dead Herring, Secret Project Robot, Market Hotel and many more, as well as working with art organizations on the complete other end of the spectrum, like MoMA, PS1, New Museum, Pioneer Works, Knockdown Center, Roulette, Issue Project Room, and spaces like these all across the United States and the world.

Joe Ahearn | (646) 239-9288
Friends // Sustainable Crowdfunding for Community Organizations
Clocktower // New York City's original Alternative Art Space
Silent Barn // Collectively-run chaos & art space in Bushwick
Parties // Find me if you can

 

Programs

Site : Sound, A Sonic Portrait

A sonic portrait of performances, site-specific lectures, and acousting happenings from series Site : Sound.

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IdeasCity Radio

IdeasCity Radio was developed as a platform to exchange, discuss, share, and connect ideas and insights initiated during the IdeasCity fellowships in Detroit, Athens, and Arles. 

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IdeasCity Arles: Rem Koolhaas, Countryside

Recorded live from IdeasCity ArlesPublic Conference, this episode of IdeasCity Radio features a keynote lecture delivered by prolific architect Rem Koolhaas on the topic of countryside.

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IdeasCity Arles: Friday Night

Arleasean IdesCity Arles fellow Thibault Franc and Carro-based french-native Marc Troulier discuss Arles; the urbanization of the French countryside, and share their experiences as arts activists and organizers within their respective cities of residence.

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IdeasCity Arles: Cared For

IdeasCity Arles fellows Salome AsegaMaría Elena Ortiz, Rasu JilaniNatasha Marie Llorens, and others, reflect on their initial impressions of Arles, over a selection of international hip-hop tracks.

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MVT3 (Music Video Time 3)

Clocktower presents MVT3, the third program of the MVT trilogy series highlighting new and innovative music across all genres, celebrating the musicians and directors that create them in a way that is lost in an age of YouTube distribution and smartphone viewing. Screened in a one-night-only set of a dozen "living rooms" equipped with televisions, couches, and coffee tables for you and your gang to commandeer while watching all 32 music video cuts. See full list of music videos below. Both before and after the screening, performances live-score new video work. Click HERE for the Facebook event! Living Room Set Performances: Before - RONiiA with live video by Ginny Benson After- Todd Chandler and Marshall LaCount livescoring a film by Todd Chandler Music Videos: (Director) // (Band) // (Song) Carson Mell // Bobby Bird // Rock N' Roll Carson Mell // Bobby Bird // Album Covers Ian Vañek // Cheeky Blakk // Ride Fah Jay Buim // College ft. Nola Wren // Save The Day Andrew Jeffrey Wright // Dan Deacon // Feel The Lightning Nick Chatfield-Taylor // Dan Friel // Thumper Fletcher Wolfe // emilyn brodsky // Born Again Serban Ionescu // Fantasmes // The Shadow Self Ryan Muir // Fat Tony // BKNY

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AUDITORIUM

AUDITORIUM is an extended evening of site-specific electronic and electroacoustic performances organized by artists/curators Lea Bertucci and Tristan Shepherd. The focal point for this event is a custom 10-channel sound system installed throughout the 50,000 square feet of Knockdown Center. This system will act as the point of departure for multichannel works by innovative sound-based artists Nate Wooley, Sabisha Friedberg, Marina Rosenfeld, Woody Sullender, Phill Niblock, and Katherine Liberovskaya. Bertucci and Shepherd commission new works from the composers, instrumentalists and audio artists to develop works uniquely suited to the site.

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Tetraphonics

Since the 1970s, quadraphonic sound has been discarded by the commercial audio world, only to be adopted by experimental composers and sound artists. Almost fifty years later, as we find ourselves in a state of technological saturation, what does it mean to continue the use of quad? Presented in collaboration with Lea Bertucci at Pioneer Works, sound artists explore four varying approaches to quadraphonic sound and its mesmeric effects in performance and 4-channel video work, centered around a specially designed quadraphonic cello. WARNING: There will be strobe lights at the last performance at 10:20PM RSVP: HERE

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Ursula Scherrer, afloat

The artist Ursula Scherrer presents an extended form installation event for one night only featuring a near-holographic, animated, multiple projection video environment and a live soundtrack performed by percussionist Brian Chase (Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs) and bassist Kato Hideki (of the Tokyo and New York noise scenes). The event is a steady-state, durational, evolution of time, space, light, and sound and visitors are invited to attend any portion of the four-hour event: linger, come and go, or absorb it all. Suggested donation $8-15. Ursula Scherrer is a Swiss artist living in New York City. Her work has been shown in festivals, galleries and museums internationally. Her aesthetic training began with dance, transitioned to choreography and expanded to photography, video, text and mixed media. The poetic quality of Scherrer's video work is one of moving paintings, drawing the viewer into the images. She transforms spaces and landscapes into serene, abstract portraits of rhythm, color and light - inner landscapes in the outside world where the images have less to do with what we see than with the feeling they leave

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Anxious Spaces: Performance Festival 2015

Live performances by Aurora HalalLucas Abela, and Prince Rama, who use video, sculpture, and sound artwork in site-specific installations at Knockdown Center as a point of departure for their exploratory performances.

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Primal Screams

A raucous night of underground bands with strong female forces, featuring Screaming Females, Guardian Alien, and Priests, hosted in the AMC Empire 25 movie theater right in the heart of Times Square.

Each defiant performance of howling, shredding, and polyrhythmic drumming is accompanied by the premiere of an eye-popping experimental video work, glowing on the theater’s monumental screen. Click HERE to check out the Primal Screams Video. Zine Fair + DJ Set: 7PM The evening kicks off with a zine fair in the lobby of the theater, organized by Paper Jam, a twice-annual small press, mini-comic, zine spread held at the Silent Barn in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Plus, a live set by DJ Cassie Ramone (of Vivian Girls). Show: 8PM Videos

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Focus On Puerto Rico

Clocktower has partnered with Mana Miami to produce a residency program for Puerto Rican diaspora artists, and/or artists presently living and working in Puerto Rico.

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The Ashcan Orchestra

The performances of the Orchestra's residency opera project, "Apollo's Accidental Answer" took place on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, September 12, 13, and 14, 2012.

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Screaming Females Live at Primal Screams

A live concert recording of the New Brunswick band Screaming Females, playing an epic roster of songs filled with wild vocals and shrieking guitar solos, in a movie theater in Times Square for the multimedia event Primal Screams on March 15, 2016. The show spanned the group's whole musical career (including tunes from their 2015 album, Rose Mountain), and was accompanied by a video animation by Faye Orlove projected on the theater's massive screen. Primal Screams was a raucous night of underground bands with strong female forces, featuring Screaming Females, Guardian Alien, and Priests, hosted in the AMC Empire 25 movie theater, in collaboration with Times Square Arts. Each defiant performance of howling, shredding, and polyrhythmic drumming was accompanied by the premiere of an experimental video work, glowing on the theater’s monumental screen.

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Interference AV at AMC Times Square

Times Square Arts and Clocktower take over AMC Empire 25 for three nights of free live music and video art projection. Musical performances by Jlin, Lightning Bolt, and the Sun Ra Arkestra.

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Anxious Spaces: Installation as Catalyst II

Clocktower presents the second annual group exhibition Anxious Spaces: Installation as Catalyst, featuring a selection of artists whose work incorporates dynamic and time-based elements, ranging from robotic interactivity to performance events to social intervention. Knockdown Center's cathedral-like complex, with its breathtaking expanse, mysterious sub-chambers, surprise annexes, and hidden pockets is a dream environment for site-specific and installation art. Taken together, the architecture and the artworks transform the space into a surreal bazaar of curiosities for the adventurous. Anxious Spaces exhibits and installations by Will Ryman, Molly Lowe, Tim Bruniges, Aurora Halal, Lucas Abela, Prince Rama, Audra Wolowiec, and Ben Mortimer are on view at Knockdown Center through July 26, 2015 Saturdays and Sundays, from 2 to 6pm. Or by appointment. More on the installations:

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MANIA : Yatta Zoker

YATTA is a Sierra-Leonean American digipoet and performer who remixes shamanic sounds with their jazz vocals to create music to lie down in.

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Site : Sound at Knockdown Center

Site : Sound is a series of intimate site-specific lectures, sonic-spatial interventions, and performances, which took place across New York, from April 23 to June 25, 2017.

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Nicholas Chatfield-Taylor, Do The Devo

As part of the Clocktower’s music video production program, Nicholas Chatfield-Taylor paired up with Brooklyn-based band Unstoppable Death Machines to produce an animated music video for their single, “Do The Devo.” Taking a live performance, filmed in the main gallery of the Tribeca space in 2012, as its’ starting point, Chatfield-Taylor transformed his project space into an animation studio, complete with a custom-built light table for large drawing sessions, and inspirational ephemera from both his and the bands’ lives. Throughout the duration of the residency, groups of friends and illustrators were invited into the workspace to converse and collaborate on the process of hand-drawing every one of the thousands of individual frames, culminating in a massively chaotic and beautiful distillation of his entire community’s creative efforts.

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IdeasCity Arles: Naturally

A discussion about urban ecology in Arles, Detroit, Bogota, Perth, and more. Fellows Felipe Guerra and David Ayala-Alfonso lead-in with a selection of their favorite champeta tracks.

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IdeasCity Athens: Hanging with IdeasCity at Pioneer Works

On December 9, 2016, fellows from various IdeasCity residencies came to the Clocktower radio studio to share their experiences living and making art in New York City, Detroit, and Athens, Greece and how their time at IdeasCity has impacted their lives since.

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Chavela

Clocktower's Founder, Alanna Heiss, and Program Director, Joe Ahearn, sit down with Catherine Gund ("Cat Gun"), Filmmaker and Founder of Aubin Pictures, to discuss her career as a documentarian and her film Chavela.

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Focus On Puerto Rico at Miami Art Week

Clocktower is pleased to announce our event showcase at Miami Art Week 2017-- an extension of our Focus On Puerto Rico, Fall program.

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Knockdown Center : Ashcan Orchestra

Performing live at Knockdown Center for Site : Sound's culminating showcase, Ashcan Orchestra delivered a spellcasting performance featuring a sound-responsive light show, bells, operatic vocals, and more.

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IdeasCity Radio MegaMix : Detroit

This mix features a selection of highlights from IC_Radio's Detroit fellowship.

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IdeasCity Radio MegaMix : Arles

This mix features a selection of highlights from IC_Radio's Arles fellowship.

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IdeasCity Radio MegaMix : New York

Highlights from IC_ Radio's New York program.

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IdeasCity Arles: And, We're Off!

Vere van GoolAssociate Director of IdeasCityLadi'sasha JonesProject Manager for IdeasCity, and Clocktower's Program Director Joe Ahearn convene in the Clocktower station to discuss plans for IdeasCity Arles.

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Zoe Friedman & Peals, Time is a Milk Bowl , curator

Zeljkovision Tarot Parlor , curator

Yoga For Two, curator

Weekend, The Band , host

Video Program, Come Home, curator

Turner Williams Jr., host

Transmissions, Long Tones in A and E, curator

Transmissions , curator

Times Square Arts: Gamelatron Bunga Kota, curator

Thu Tran & Christopher Duffy, Thanksgiving Deux, Dinnervisuals, curator

The Spookfish, Recorded Live, host

The Now Age, curator

The New Dreamz: The Idea, curator

The New Dreamz, curator

The Music Box, New Orleans, host

The Leonard Cohen of Sandwiches, host

The Innernet, host

The Gamelatron Jalan Jiwo: Opening Reception, curator

The Gamelatron Jalan Jiwo, curator

The Babies, curator

Thanksgiving Deux, Dinnervisuals, curator

Taraka Larson, The Now Age, host

Tara Jane O'Neil Performs, curator

Tara Jane O'Neil Live, host

Taco Truck Torta, host

Tabor Robak's SHOWPAPER, host

SXSW 2011: Sun Araw, Prince Rama, and Weedeater, host

SXSW 2011: Quiet Hooves, Ryan Schreiber (Pitchfork), Pictureplane, Lord Scrummage, host

SXSW 2011: Nick Purdy of Paste Magazine, Hunx & His Punx, Jeff The Brotherhood, host

SXSW 2011: Japanther, Sweet Bulbs, No Age, host

SXSW 2011: Enchanted Forest, John Vanderslice, King Tuff, host

SXSW 2011: Black Congress, Parts & Labor, host

SXSW 2011: Ava Luna, Folly House, Hermit Thurshes, and Unstoppable Death Machine, host

Sumi Ink Club, curator

Streamcast, Concert & Open Studios: Weekend , curator

So Percussion, It Is Time, host

So Percussion, curator

Serra Victoria Bothwell Fels, VnessWolfCHild & Terence Caulkins: Crystal Cavern, host

Serra Victoria Bothwell Fels, Crystal Cavern, curator

September Open House, Open Studios, curator

Second Sundays: June 2015 Mixtape, host

Second Sundays: James Mercer, Bradley Pitts, Lulu Miller, Redu NYC, host

Second Sundays: Artist Interviews, December 2014, host

Sandy Stories: Artists in a Storm, host

Ron Regé's SHOWPAPER, host

Richard Nonas, Because Everything, producer

Reception: Nomi Ruiz, Borough Gypsy , curator

Reception: Byron Westbrook: Interval/Habitat, curator

RAFT: The Stranger, host

RAFT as the Stranger, curator

Rachel Mason: The Lives of Hamilton Fish , curator

Prince Rama: Never Forever and Astral Projects, curator

Playing Hooky: Hurricanes of Love, curator

Playing Hooky: DJ Dog Dick, curator

Playing Hooky 2015: Zeb, The Spy from Cairo, curator

Playing Hooky 2015: Noveller , curator

Playing Hooky 2015: Ned Rothenberg, curator

Playing Hooky 2015: Ikue Mori , curator

Playing Hooky 2015: Helado Negro, curator

Playing Hooky 2015: Frankie Cosmos , curator

Playing Hooky 2015: Ben Seretan, curator

Playing Hooky, host

Phone Tag, Live, host

Peter Edwards: Casperelectronics, host

Pesto Manifesto, host

Performance & Open Studios: MV Carbon, Ganjatronics, curator

People Get Ready , curator

People Get Ready, curator

People Get Ready, host

Peals, Time is a Milk Bowl, producer

Peals & Romantic States, host

Pat Spadine & the Ashcan Orchestra, host

Paradise II: Dream Driver , curator

Paintings and Other Indulgences: Jeffrey Deitch, Walter Robinson, and Alanna Heiss, host

Open House, Open Studios 24 January, curator

Open House, Open Studios 13 August , curator

Open House Open Studios, 27 March 2012, curator

Open House Open Studios 7 August 2012, curator

November Open House, Open Studios , curator

Nomi Ruiz, Borough Gypsy, curator

Nicholas Chatfield-Taylor, host

Neon Marshmallow: C. Spencer Yeh and Zarzutzki, host

NEON MARSHMALLOW: Audible Silence, curator

NEON MARSHMALLOW: Audible Silence, curator

MVT3: Nick Chatfield-Taylor, Jay Buim, and Joe Ahearn, host

MVT 2, curator

MV Carbon, Beyond the Dimensional Slope, curator

Muck Performance, curator

Muck Interview, host

Muck, curator

Moral Kombat: Taraka and Nimai Larson vs. G Lucas Crane , curator

Moral Kombat: Pete Nolan vs. G Lucas Crane, host

Moral Kombat: Matt Mondanile vs. G Lucas Crane, host

Moral Kombat: Darren "Driphouse" Ho vs. G Lucas Crane , curator

Moral Kombat: Darren "Driphouse" Ho vs. G Lucas Crane , curator

Moral Kombat: Darren "Driphouse" Ho vs. G Lucas Crane, host

Moral Kombat: Daniel Carter vs. G Lucas Crane, host

Moral Kombat: Cameron Stallones of Sun Araw vs. G Lucas Crane, host

Moral Kombat: C Spencer Yeh vs. G Lucas Crane, host

Moral Kombat : Casper Electronics vs. G Lucas Crane, host

Moral Kombat, artist

Moms & Monterrey, host

Mikkel Hess & the Hess Is More Ministry of Integration, curator

Melissa F. Clarke, curator

Maya Hayuk reception & Uumans performance, curator

Maya Hayuk , curator

Maximillian Lawrence , curator

Maria Chavez Performance: Improvised Spaces, curator

Maria Chavez Performance: Improvised Spaces, curator

Maria Chavez & Daniel Neumann: Improvised Resonance Compositions # 2-6, host

Lucky Dragons & David Behrman/Ben Vida, curator

Lucky Dragons, host

Lily Padula's SHOWPAPER, host

Lary 7, A Tip of the Hat, curator

Kría Brekkan, curator

Kazue Kobata on Performance, host

Judith Supine Reception with Ed Schrader's Music Beat , curator

Judith Supine , curator

John Supko & Bill Seaman: s_traits, with Wet Ink Ensemble , curator

John Orth, Holopaw, host

John Mejias, I'm Wurried +, host

John Mejias, I'm Wurried, curator

Joe & Ginny's Jam Sandwich, host

Jesse Hlebo, Habit Towards Obedience, host

Jay Buim , curator

Javelin, The Interview, host

Javelin Cowboy Music, host

James Mercer, Landfill, curator

In Your Defense, curator

IdeasCity New York, host

IdeasCity Detroit: Data, Science, and the City, host

IdeasCity Athens: The Boy, host

IdeasCity Athens: Negros Tou Moria & Black Athena: Music as Identity, host

Honey Locust Tree Relocation, curator

Holiday Giveaway Party, curator

Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Stranger Visions, curator

Habit Towards Obedience, curator

Guardian Alien in Times Square, host

Grandwizzard Theodore Live, producer

Gamelatron Bunga Kota Opening Reception, curator

G. Lucas Crane, curator

Frieze: Downtown Night, curator

Focus On Puerto Rico : Daniel Bejar , producer

Flock House Living System Pods, curator

Fat Tony, curator

Ebe Oke , curator

Dustin Wong, curator

Dustin Wong, host

DroneScape, curator

Dream Driver: Video Paradise, Julian Bozeman & Javier Morales, curator

Dispatches from SXSW 2011: Preview, host

Diamond Terrifier, host

David Horvitz: Fifty-Five Honey Locust Trees, curator

Dana Dart-McLean & Lauren O’Conner's SHOWPAPER, host

Dan Friel, Live, host

Dan Friel, Ghost Town, host

Dan Friel & So So Glos, host

Dan Friel, curator

Crystal Stokowski, Shark's Tooth, host

Crystal Stokowski Reception and Concert, curator

Crystal Stokowski, curator

Crystal Cavern Opening Reception, curator

Crystal Cavern - Closing, curator

Cross-Cuts Opening Reception , curator

Cross-Cuts, curator

Concert & Open Studios: Hess Is More (& More), curator

Closing Celebration for Shoplifter's Nervescape with Hess is More and Listening Center, curator

Clocktower People & Project Updates 2014, host

Christopher Garrett's SHOWPAPER, host

Chris Kontos DJ Set , host

Chelpa Ferro , host

Casperelectronics, curator

Carly Ptak, Idea Machine Reception, curator

Carly Ptak, Idea Machine, curator

Carly Ptak, curator

Canyon of Burning Water, curator

Cammisa Buerhaus, Chroma Color Organ, host

Calder Foundation: My Life in 19 Minutes, Ava Luna & Headless Horseman, host

Byron Westbrook: Interval/Habitat, curator

Borden Capalino, Ballyjamesduff, curator

Ben Vida, Bird Show, curator

Ben Vida Performance, curator

Bacon, Egg & Cheese, host

Babyharvester, Opening Reception, curator

Babyharvester, curator

Babycalzones Pizza Potluck #23, curator

Ava Luna, host

Ashcan Orchestra Performance, host

Apollo's Accidental Answer , curator

Anxious Spaces: Zero to Infinity , host

Anxious Spaces: Raul de Nieves , producer

Anxious Spaces: Performance Festival, curator

Anxious Spaces: Installation as Catalyst , curator

Anxious Spaces: Desi Santiago, Mummy Procession , producer

Anxious Spaces 2015: On View , curator

Anxious Spaces 2015 Closing Party , curator

Amy Yao's SHOWPAPER, host

After Hours: Cabin Fever, An Alpine Fantasy, curator

After Hours, The Drums , curator

After Hours, Sky Lines , curator

After Hours, Room Mate Grace Hotel, curator

After Hours, Nomi Ruiz at BB Kings!, curator

After Hours, Ebe Oke , curator

After Hours, Corporeal-Symphonics, curator

After Hours, Bouquet , curator

After Hours, An Evening at the Lambs Club , curator

aclu benefit, host

Above The Law: So Percussion, curator

Above The Law: So Percussion, curator

Above the Law: Kids Puttin' on the Ritz, curator

Above the Law: Fat Tony, curator

Above the Law: Fat Tony, curator

Above the Law: Fat Tony, host

Above the Law: Dustin Wong, curator

Above the Law: Dustin Wong, curator

Above the Law: Dan Friel, curator

Above the Law: Dan Friel, curator

Above the Law, curator

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