Jen Kutler

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recent Press

“Kutler’s music is subdued and perilous, bolstered by fragments of prepared piano and vocals. The project’s search for empathy is a captivating story and the music doesn’t feel heavy-handed. Each piece finds steady, subtle drones and icy melodic fragments, hanging in a constant stream of delicate tension.” - Vanessa Ague, The Wire (Issue 445) (Sonified Physiological Indicators of Empathy, 2021)

““borders” wears its heart on its sleeve; reading the title, it’s impossible not to think of Trump’s wall and the Muslim ban (now halted), or Brexit (still unfolding), but the images and sounds are fluid. The eyes see porous, morphing patterns of liquid; the ears hear waves, implying both border and endless sea.” - Richard Allen, A Closer Listen (Sonified Physiological Indicators of Empathy, 2021)

“If ever a recording benefited from playback via headphones or an immersive surround-sound environment, Kutler's definitely qualifies. The settings are ultra-dense soundscapes within which blurry textures abound and unearthly vocals and instrument timbres drift. In the opening “Feasible,” cavernous rumblings emerge alongside steely, organ-like tones, the latter perhaps the result of stretched-out piano voicings and the whole somehow managing to suggest ties to both dark ambient at its most macabre and Baroque music.” - Ron Schepper, Textura (Sonified Physiological Indicators of Empathy, 2021)

“The pieces using voices as the source can be twisted and haunting. But for the most part, Kutler’s processed audio does not directly represent the jarring feelings of anxiety and fear that the subjects no doubt experienced. Instead, she has transformed them into an otherworldly combination of beauty and dread.” - Mike Borella, Avant Music News (Sonified Physiological Indicators of Empathy, 2021)

“It is an exquisitely fraught listen. Allure and unease press into each other. Flocks of pizzicato burst from gentle feedback tones; the quivers of audio time-stretching protrude like goosebumps upon arcs of melody; a choir of children wobbles between harmonic parallel and pulsing misalignment.” - Jack Chuter, Attn Magazine (Sonified Physiological Indicators of Empathy, 2021)

Press Archive

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Releases & broadcasts

work

Chatter Marks

Chatter Marks is a composition for chamber ensemble commissioned by Switch~ Ensemble is an investigation into the relationship between the breakdown of an individual and the crumbling of social, political and economic foundations of the United States. The score asks performers personal questions about their upbringing and lives while sewing machines turned monophonic mechanical synthesizers are employed to follow the pitch of one performer at a time, mimicking the musicians’ emotive playing and ultimately falling short. The musicians attempt to hide, change or break the sewing machines any way that they can, like prey evading a predator. The piece concludes with a section using curstom ferromagnetic vibraphone bars and an electromagnetic exciter unless all notes ring out unless they are held down. As the bars are gradually muted, the performers must steal tones from each other until there is nothing left.

Premiered November 2022 Performed by Switch~ Ensemble - Laura Cocks (Flute), Madison Greenstone (Clarinet), Megan Arns (Percussion), Lauren Cauley (Violin), T.J. Borden (Cello), Jason Thorpe Buchanan (Electronics) and Chris Chandler (Sound) - at PS21 Chatham, NY

Chatter Marks is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and The Amphion Foundation.

Measures

MEASURES is a flexible web based sound art ecosystem which focuses on AI as a tool to witness people in the most human way possible – through experiencing a person feeling empathy. MEASURES offers a new way to feel connected and to experience one another across borders, cultures, socioeconomic classes and other zones of isolation.

Users wear an electronic wristband which provides audio cues and measures the participant's electrodermal activity. The data is transferred over WIFI to a server which compares the data to a set of “points of excitation” and generates a unique sound work.

Each sound work is subsequently analyzed for its own “points of excitation.” The results are used as the basis of the next user's auditory stimuli and physiological data comparison to generate the next sound piece and so on. The sound works are added to a freely accessible public online archive.

The form of MEASURES is unique as the hand worn data collection device exists as an electronic art object and generates a potentially infinite archive of sound works, and is designed to be accessible as a tool for installation, real-time performance and solitary use. .

To our knowledge, MEASURES is the first system in the artistic and scientific communities designed with the specific purpose of measuring empathy. MEASURES content originates from an infinitely expansive pool of participant data that is comprised of empathetic responses. MEASURES takes the form of the data collection device as an electronic art object, generates an expansive biodata-driven archive of individual sound works and is a system designed for performance and solitary use.

In progress, 2022

Measures is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and Wave Farm.

Cathode Ray Gunpoint

Cathode Ray Gun Point is an audio-visual performance piece in which Kutler relates stories by the light of a single match while wearing a lie detection circuit which controls the audio and visual environment. Video of Kutler reciting the text is manipulated by an RGB raster manipulation unit or "wobbulator" made from a vintage cathode ray tube projector and hand wound coils. The "wobbulator" is controlled by the lie detector's signals. The stories told are accompanied by audio generated from the lie detector's signals which return to the air via speakers to manipulate the match's flame.

Images are from Transient Vision Festival, Spool Mfg. 2021, by Deanna Kaparo.

Cathode Ray Gunpoint
Performance Text
(c) 2021 Jen Kutler

I can only speak for myself.
I was born a monster in a downtown hospital at 8:44 am on a cold winter morning with the help of a doctor who didn’t know better and a mother that did the best she could with what she had.

I loved animals, baseball and Halloween. I was unaware of the genes I contained, the destruction I was capable of, and the nature of the lizard epigenetics that determined when and where I would lose my tail or more to the point, my head.

You see, now I’ve been lucky enough to be able to tell you that I have survived this long. Not just as a monster but as a friend, a slice of a support network, a wife, a confidant.

I didn’t realize the nature of my monsterousness until I was old enough to read, until I was old enough to speak.

In that house we believed that love was love, that black lives matter and that the black hole at the center of the universe simply doesn’t care whether true justice is served or not.

In my youth I studied alchemy — my work was to concoct a ratio of elements to achieve invisibility. In its final iteration it looked something like (1) part hoodie up, (3) parts unbrushed hair, (2) parts lack of makeup and (5) parts no eye contact. The rule was to always move quickly because you never knew how long its power would last.

When I was at the end of my teens I became chronically ill though I didn’t know yet that a word existed for it.

At that time, I was still covered by the luxury of health insurance, something I have been without for the past ten years of my life.

I am at this point approximately 90% monster, 2% normal healthy human, 41% caretaker which corresponds to 32% normal human woman during this time - in this yuga - in this country under this regime of the instagram soul filter.

I used my health insurance to go to doctors, many doctors, all men who would tell me that there was nothing wrong.

At this point I took it upon myself to do - what was considered at the time under my limited understanding of the world, my own research.

And I thanked the black hole at the center of the universe for the internet.

I then assessed myself as about 61% post traumatic stress but also pre traumatic stress from past and future sexual abuse which is 33.3% normal for a human woman during this time - in this yuga - in this country under these circumstances.

Before there was “me too” as a movement there was just me and a number exorbitantly greater than two which would only continue to climb until my resting bitch face grew in, my pepper spray was permanently affixed to my right hip and I had snapped enough - to take a punch in the subway from a stranger and keep fighting.

I came across a diet that was meant to cure my monsterhood though at the time it was advertised as something to combat adrenal fatigue with alkaline foods.

To my best knowledge now - at this moment, this diet is a hoax.

For better or for worse, it did help my chronic illness improve though my mental health continued to run rampant rendering me something like 85% monster, 19% gullible and 32% not giving a shit since my condition was improving.

I could tell you that I learned to do white woman yoga and quit my job to live and work in a white person ashram. I could tell you that I didn’t speak much at that time.

The sounds that I heard in that place were as true as any other. Sometimes holding one’s breath can choke the monster out for a few moments.

I wake up. I move. I do not feel.

The robots with artificial intelligence that will one day inherit this world will not struggle with kindness less, just differently.

There is an interesting place that can exist, not physically but otherwise where the walls are cheap and easy to erect. This place comes under fire, sometimes from elsewhere but usually from one’s self.

Once enough walls go up, there is no more risk of fire, no more space to move and no more sunlight.

So I name the monster - ventromedial pre-frontal cortex, amygdala and white matter fibers.

By the time I leave the white person ashram, my invisibility has certainly run out. I profusely thank the black hole at the center of the universe that my monster defeated the devil.

So I name the monster - the myth of entrainment. And I call the devil by his christian name -> spiritual bypass.

Whatever ashrama looks like in that yuga, this yuga, where pseudo-spiritual parents leave their children’s bodies southy of the border with their spear gun wounds to ensure that they don’t grow into monsters because the internet — well, this isn’t it.

So by the grace of the black hole at the center of the universe, I am made aware of the fact that I must move these walls if I am to survive, there is no food left in this lightless capsule and I will slowly starve to death.

I can’t move an inch. I can’t move a wall. So I stop and I panic. And I force myself to breathe.

And I address the monster in the formal tense. And I ask “What is your name?”

——————————————————

Surprised, the monster stares at me and slowly tells me, “I don’t have time for names, I keep you alive. I intervene.”

So I name the monster - a practice, not a personality trait.

And I think to myself, “Why in the world would a monster want to protect me?”

And he said, “We are the same.”

So I name the monster, a true patriot, a true christian.

And I caught myself screaming “But I’ve lived and died between the lines, and Q is the truest of patriots!”

It is at this point that I realize that I too, am doing the best I can with what I have. It is 3:23 in the morning and I am 93% shame - not ashamed but shame itself. I am 46% monster and 72% a scared little girl in the body of a grown woman. I am 31% more visible than I was two minutes ago and 29% more human which makes me 99.3% more terrified.

So I name the monster, hot and cold cognition.

The monster whispers to me, “It is the ultimate truth that will keep you with me. That alone is the truest truth.”

So I name the monster, starving to death.

And I whisper back, “I am dying here.”

And I name the monster - neurological changes that mimic addiction.

And the monster screams “You don’t know better. You’re the reason we’re under fire in the first place.”

So I name the monster, fuck off.

And all of a sudden by the grace of the black hole at the center of the universe I recognize her face. It was the face in the hospital downtown that kept my heart beating when it should have stopped and the face that spared me when they held me down and took my body every. single. time.

I thought to myself maybe the rope around my neck and I should be thanking her.

She is close enough that I can smell her. She smells like burning.

So I name the monster, the tertiary harmony of cognitive dissonance.

I think to myself I would gladly die here with her - whole-ish, safe-ish, me-ish.

But for the first time in a long time I saw the monster sobbing. And with her hood up and her hair unbrushed, she leveled just one inch of just one stone of just one wall.

It is at this point that I finally become 100% human and 100% monster. I am 100% shame and 100% feminine masculine spectrum natural homo-sapien in this time, in this yuga where missing children are weaponized for geopolitical agendas when rape is very very real, perpetrators walk the streets freely and victims are systematically punished - child and adult alike.

And so I am finally myself when I am with you, I think to myself. In order to not react we need to go where we are, not be where we aren’t. I am reminded. The warmth of the light on our face, our face under fire. I think. We can only speak for ourself.

Tech note:

The RGB raster manipulation unit, based on the original raster manipulation unit used by Nam Jun Paik is the first to be able to have full RGB color and is the first to be constructed from a cathode ray tube projector. More details about this tool can be found on the tools page.

unheard extended

Unheard Extended is a series of infrasonic compositions based on traditional harmony octaves lower to resonate the body instead of the usual hearing mechanisms in the ears. The body is extremely sensitive to intonation and dissonances as a result of tuning, therefore a natural Pythagorean temperament is used in these pieces. The works explore the spectrum of consonance and dissonance as a bodily feeling which evokes comfort, contentment, fear and uneasiness as experiences of melody and harmony take on new, and somehow familiar meanings.

Wave Farmacy

Wave Farmacy is a radio talk show and series of sound pieces presented by WGXC 90.7FM Acra, NY and hosted by Jen Kutler and Tim Light. The show invites guests engineers and mental health professionals at the tops of their respective fields to attempt to solve listeners’ issues with their skill sets. Engineers on the show use engineering, physical and mathematical principles to solve emotional, relationship and mental health issues while mental health professionals use counseling, behavioral and mental health tools to solve technical problems. The show is aired on the fourth Tuesday of every month at 2pm EST on 90.7FM Acra, NY and online at wgxc.org. Show archives can be heard at soundcloud.com/wavefarmacy.

Southern Comfort

Southern Comfort is a radio sound piece by Jen Kutler featuring text and performance by Quintan Ana Wikswo. The title Southern Comfort surrounds the queer US/Mexico border experience in its complexity of solidarity and joy in the face of bigotry, violence, hate crimes and the AIDS crisis. Kutler and Wikswo's works invoke a rich, evolving and intergenerational legacy of obscured drag, ballroom, trans, mixed-race and gender queer fissures of deep southern and southwest American Culture through which the whiskey culture forms a through line of recreation and transgression. These rituals transcend the simple imbibing of alcohol.

The sounds are synthetic voices generated from physiological sensor devices worn on Kutler's body to document her response to the emotive narrative. These voices draw from granular synthesis, sine waves, cassette tape loops and stringed instruments.

December, 2020

Sonified Physiological Indicators of Empathy

Sonified Physiological Indicators of Empathy video pieces for Borders, Long and Short Term Memory Loss:

in loving memory of being touched

In Loving Memory of Being Touched is a series of touch simulation pieces written for direct electrical nerve stimulation - the closest thing to touch available in quarantine during The 2020 Novel Coronavirus Pandemic. Using components removed from a hospital communications system, the parts have been repurposed and assembled into handmade devices that simulate the sensation of touch using electrical pulses. The pieces are composed on an electronic keyboard to mimic the consonance and dissonance of musical passages to create a sort of song to be felt physically.

noise date

Collaboration with Tim Light

Noise Date is a social media platform for members of the noise community, apocalyptic personalities and those with no social skills. Designed to be as impenetrable as its users. Meant to be taken extremely seriously. Sign up at noisedate.com. January, 2020.

Presence

Collaboration with Erin Gee

Presence is a telematic sound performance for two bodies, inspired by isolation and a need for human connection met with networked, electronically simulated touch. Through transcutaneous nerve stimulation and custom biosensors that track the autonomic nervous system, Gee and Kutler embrace the unconscious and autonomous nature of “feeling.” Data is collected from Gee and Kutler (cardiac, respiratory and skin conductance) to instrumentalize their inner worlds at a distance. This data is used to activate sine tones, granular synthesis and electronic touch in a real-time, networked, feedback loop. Custom hardware translates the biosignals into transcutaneous electronic pulses. These networked pulses further immerse the artists in each others’ biosignals through an uncanny “touch.” The performance is driven by samples of vocal suggestions performed in the style of ASMR that are triggered by moments of confluence in the biodata. The voice of this work encourages the listener to consider their own relationship to touch and sound during isolation. 

During the performance, endoscopic video footage is taken of each performer in real time, shared through abstracted representations of the ongoing physiological data. Through these visualizations, the artists explore the limits of phenomenological intimacy over networked technologies, privileging the performers’ inner bodily worlds as primary visual content of the piece. All technology used (biosensors, transcutaneous touch simulator, tools for data transmission on puredata) is open source.

hush

disembodied

Indicies A01 Video

This is the video for Nate Scheible’s A01 from his album on Never Anything Records entitled Indicies. 2019

Link & line

generating values

Generating Values is a piece about discrepant experiences of the same surroundings and its relationship to social conduct. Two participants are presented with the same video content simultaneously which includes simple lines, technical specifications, images related to race and gender, geometric patterns, and other visual stimulation. Using hacked EEG sensors, the electrical patterns in the participants brains are measured and translated to MIDI signals. Different types of activity and mental states dictate the values that are produced. The values are then interpreted to generate two channels of audio and manipulate the original video signal. Over the course of the piece, the data stream is smoothed and becomes a standard, alluding to the ethical standards we develop as the interpretation of our surroundings molds our principles.

2017

A live audio-only version of Generating Values recorded at the Wave Farm 20th Anniversary Performance at Fridman Gallery from October, 2017. 

Women’s Work

The Whether

casting

Casting is an interactive sound sculpture that reacts to shadows. The audience is invited to look into their shadow as it is cast on the piece. When engaged, the piece generates an ambient soundscape of manipulated field recordingS and explores discrepancies between auditory documents of memory and memory as it is re-constructed in the mind. Casting utilizes audio of common childhood sound environments and replays it as manipulated samples and granular audio based on the motion, shape and intensity of the shadows cast on it. As the piece is engaged, the user adjusts their body shape and shadow to create sounds that seem pleasing or interesting, rather than listening to the results of their shadow as it originally fell. This mimics the way that we often choose to remember the past differently and experiment with our own sense of the memory.

2018

adsrain 

ADSRain is a mobile sound sculpture composed of an umbrella with added electronics to transduce rain drops into synthetic tones. Participants are invited to wear headphones while walking in the shelter of ADSRain and listen to the various pit pats, drones, buzzes, hums and rhythms produced by the wind and rain striking the umbrella.

Check upcoming for ADSRain group walks around NYC and the Hudson Valley.

2016

penetrating silence

touch compositions & remote touch transmission

Experiencing touch compositions and remote transmissions requires a custom MIDI controlled touch simulation device. Have a look at the hardware schematic & code. Have a look at the software webMIDI interfaces by Daniel van der Meer. You can purchase an assembled touch simulation unit here.