Cities Are Natural (Composition Three): Volvox, UMFANG, Mike Sheffield
Listen to the live recording of sound performances featuring Volvox, UMFANG, and Mike Sheffield from the Cities Are Natural (Composition Three) event, the final project of Clocktower artist-in-residence Melissa F. Clarke, presented in collaboration with Christine Tran (Witches of Bushwick and Discwoman) and Mike Sheffield (She was Freaks) at Pioneer Works on June 25, 2015.
As a culmination of her three month residency with Clocktower, Clarke's immersive and responsive installation incorporated data collected during her residency and featured visuals inspired by the city as our natural habitat. This recording's sets were accompanied by performances and collaborations by Matthew LaBrecque Betlej, Sue Ngo, Monica Mirabile (of Fluct dance company), WETWARE, Drippy Inputs, Sarah Rothberg, and Carbon Pictures.
UMFANG is a resident DJ at Bossa Nova Civic Club and runs a monthly Technofeminism series. She has played alongside Kim Ann Foxman, opened for Aurora Halal’s festival Sustain Release in its inaugural year, and has performed with DIY duo Long Count Cycle and closed out DISCWOMAN in Puerto Rico. UMFANG is one of the leading women in the rapidly growing New York City techno scene and has releases coming out on 1080p and videogamemusic.
Since April of 2013, Mike Sheffield of Alan Watts and Heavens Gate has been working on a curatorial project entitled She was Freaks. The name was taken from a biography of photographer Diane Arbus wherein the author William Todd Schultz refers to Arbus’s obsession with photographing eccentrics and how she would lose herself in her subjects, giving over to them completely rather than just winning their trust for her own personal gain, “She was freaks.”
Volvox embodies the spirit and sound of underground dance culture. Her sensitive and energetic sets capture the crowd with everything from raw acid and EBM-flavored techno, to dreamy sensual deep house. Volvox holds a residency in Brooklyn: JACK DEPT. NYC, 1st Fridays at the notorious hotspot Bossa Nova Civic Club with John Barera of Supply Records. She has played gigs with The Long Count, Lost Soul, and S!CK parties, and opened for dance luminaries The Hacker and Tony Humphries.
RELATED PROGRAMS
Clocktower Exhibits & Events
RADIO SERIES
Clocktower Exhibits & Events is home to an archive of interviews with artists, curators, musicians, organizers, and more who have participated in Clocktower exhibitions and events throughout our organization’s history.
Many of the below recordings were documented while Clocktower was in the midst of a transformation. The original name, The Clocktower Gallery, was given to the exhibition, residency, and performance space in TriBeCa, founded by alternative spaces movement pioneer Alanna Heiss in 1972. After 2001, the Clocktower Gallery re-inaugurated its exhibition programming in 2005 as part of MoMA/PS1 and, after 2008, under the auspices of Art International Radio. In 2013, we moved on from our downtown Manhattan location, and have since renamed the organization Clocktower Productions, a title which encompasses our radio, exhibition, and event programming.
For more Clocktower history, listen to The Clocktower Oral History Project, in which such figures as Vito Acconci, Bill Beirne, Colette, Jeffrey Deitch, Mary Heilmann, Jene Highstein, Ann Magnuson, Richard Nonas and Joel Shapiro reflect upon their experiences with this unique New York space. Organized by artist Nancy Hwang for the Fall 2009 AVANT-GUIDE TO NYC: Discovering Absence exhibition at apexart.
NB: Clocktower Radio was launched by MoMA/PS1 in 2004 as the Web's first art radio station. It has been independent since 2009 and is licensed to host content created under PS1 management. Programs produced prior to 2011 may refer to our earlier URLs and station IDs, including WPS1.org, artonair.org, and Art International Radio. For the complete history of Clocktower Radio, read our Mission & History section.
more Many of the below recordings were documented while Clocktower was in the midst of a transformation. The original name, The Clocktower Gallery, was given to the exhibition, residency, and performance space in TriBeCa, founded by alternative spaces movement pioneer Alanna Heiss in 1972. After 2001, the Clocktower Gallery re-inaugurated its exhibition programming in 2005 as part of MoMA/PS1 and, after 2008, under the auspices of Art International Radio. In 2013, we moved on from our downtown Manhattan location, and have since renamed the organization Clocktower Productions, a title which encompasses our radio, exhibition, and event programming.
For more Clocktower history, listen to The Clocktower Oral History Project, in which such figures as Vito Acconci, Bill Beirne, Colette, Jeffrey Deitch, Mary Heilmann, Jene Highstein, Ann Magnuson, Richard Nonas and Joel Shapiro reflect upon their experiences with this unique New York space. Organized by artist Nancy Hwang for the Fall 2009 AVANT-GUIDE TO NYC: Discovering Absence exhibition at apexart.
NB: Clocktower Radio was launched by MoMA/PS1 in 2004 as the Web's first art radio station. It has been independent since 2009 and is licensed to host content created under PS1 management. Programs produced prior to 2011 may refer to our earlier URLs and station IDs, including WPS1.org, artonair.org, and Art International Radio. For the complete history of Clocktower Radio, read our Mission & History section.
