photo by Reem Gibriel
John Kannenberg creates quietly reflective work in image, sound and performance that blurs the boundaries between intention and accident. Using techniques derived from free improvisation, musical composition and digital/analog minimalism in their construction, his works deal with a wide variety of themes including the sonics of space and place, the psychology of collection, the processes of making and observing art, and the human experience of time.
John's work has been presented extensively worldwide including appearances at the 2011 Notations.NL festival in Amsterdam, the 2010 100 LIVE festival in Cairo, the 2009 Switch ON Festival in Kuala Lumpur, the 2008 Sonic Fragments Festival at Princeton, the 2007 Laptopia Festival in Tel Aviv, the 2006 Soundwalk festival in Long Beach, and the 2005 John Cage Musicircus at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. His hour-long suite of composed field recordings A Sound Map of the Egyptian Museum, Cairo was recently presented as an installation at the 2011 International Conference on Acoustic Ecology in Corfu, Greece.
As a composer, John's graphic notation work has been published in Theresa Sauer's comprehensive survey of post-Cageian graphic scores Notations 21 and performed by Manchester, UK's Chiasmus Ensemble, while his site-specific video score Collections: UMMA has been performed at the University of Michigan Museum of Art. Recordings of his sound works have been released by a variety of international record labels and websites including Entr'acte, 3LEAVES, Crouton, Disquiet, Grain of Sound, Furthernoise, Flaming Pines and Why Not LTD. John was also a contributor to and occasional guest host of Philip von Zweck's Something Else program of experimental music and radio art on WLUW 88.7FM in Chicago from 2000-2009.
John's work as a curator has included exhibitions of contemporary artworks for radio, online and physical venues including the Biennale of Electronic Arts in Perth, London's ResonanceFM art radio station, and the Jean Paul Slusser Gallery at the University of Michigan. He has also recently curated a display of ancient Egyptian soundmaking objects for the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology and lectured on the sonic experience of museums with Dr. T. G. Wilfong during the 2011-2012 University of Michigan Museum Studies Cross Currents series.
Since April 2002, John has served as the creator, designer and curator of Stasisfield.com, an experimental record label and interdisciplinary digital art space, presenting works by a diverse collection of artists from around the globe.