NationalSawdust+ presents : A Spatial Sound Lab Hosted by Laurie Anderson & Arto Lindsay
Featuring Princeton Atelier artists
6:30pm doors • 7:30pm event
About
Take a deep dive into the world of spatial sound with hosts Laurie Anderson and Arto Lindsay, who will share installations, compositions, and performances by artists in the Princeton Atelier program. The recent course, taught by the two pioneering artists with composer Christopher Douthitt, explored non-traditional approaches to placing sound in space, giving special attention to the dynamics of short stories, parades, suspended grammar, psychic states, animal consciousness, and depth of field in sound and film. This Spatial Sound Lab will utilize the Meyer Sound’s Constellation® acoustic system and its immersive component Spacemap®, recently installed at National Sawdust.
Featured artists from the Princeton Atelier will include Kyle Barnes, Eli Berman, Christopher Douthitt (with Rosie K), Chaya Holch, Maya Keren (with Akiva Jacobs), Alina Kido-Matzner, Janette Lu, Matt McBane, Abbie Minard, and Bora Yoon. The Princeton Atelier, directed by NationalSawdust+ regular Paul Muldoon, brings together professional artists from different disciplines to create new work.
In collaboration with National Sawdust’s resident sound designer and technical director Garth MacAleavey, this Spatial Sound Lab will utilize the Meyer Sound’s Constellation® acoustic system and its immersive component Spacemap®, recently installed at National Sawdust.
About NationalSawdust+
NationalSawdust+, curated by Elena Park, is a lively performance and conversation series which brings together luminaries from across disciplines to share their passion for music and explore ideas, making surprising connections. It taps artists and thinkers from theater, film, visual art, literature, science, and beyond to create insightful, often topical, programs.
Tickets
The Artists

Laurie Anderson is one of America’s most renowned – and daring – creative pioneers. Known primarily for her multimedia presentations, she has cast herself in roles as varied as visual artist, composer, poet, photographer, filmmaker, electronics whiz, vocalist, and instrumentalist.
Learn more at www.laurieanderson.com

Arto Lindsay is an artist, musician and producer born in Virginia in 1953 and raised in Brazil. After living for 30 years in New York, he has been living in Brazil again since 2004.
In 1977 in New York Lindsay formed the band DNA, which was part of the compilation album “No New York” produced by Brian Eno. In 1978 he joined the Lounge Lizards and then formed the group Ambitious Lovers with Peter Scherer in 1985. Since then he has been releasing records under his own name.
Lindsay has produced records by by Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa, Marisa Monte, David Byrne, Waldemar Bastos, and Ilê Aiyê among others. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with both visual and musical artists, including Ryuichi Sakamoto, Dominique Gonzalez Foerster, Vito Acconci, Matthew Barney, Laurie Anderson, Animal Collective, Cornelius, and Rirkrit Tiravanija.
In 2004 Lindsay began to make parades in hopes they might be accorded the sort of attention devoted to art. These parades, which make extensive use of custom-designed sound systems, have been presented at the Venice Biennale and at Performa in New York. He has a continuing interest in using performer-controlled surround sound in concert.
“Be part of a course that will happen only once.”
— Paul Muldoon
The Princeton Atelier is a unique academic program that brings together professional artists from different disciplines to create new work in the context of a semester-long course. A painter might team with a composer, a choreographer might join with an electrical engineer, a company of theater artists might engage with environmental scientists, or a poet might connect with a videographer. Princeton students have an unrivaled opportunity to be directly involved in these collaborations, either as participants or in “parallel play.”
National Sawdust has launched a long-term sound partnership with legendary Berkeley company Meyer Sound. We’re continuing to stretch the boundaries of creative possibility by introducing Meyer Sound’s Constellation® acoustic system and its immersive component Spacemap® to our concert space, completing a major upgrade that began with the switch to a state-of-the-art Meyer Sound PA system in early 2019.
An extraordinary breakthrough in acoustical science, Constellation allows for a single physical space to emulate the acoustics of a chamber music venue, symphony hall, or vast cathedral (and even an ideal classroom or rehearsal studio) — all with the press of a button. And with the multi-channel panning available through Spacemap®, artists can explore and play with three-dimensional spatial sound. This dynamic new auditory playground will allow artists of all stripes to imagine and craft performances with once inconceivable sonic agility and precision.

photo credit: Brigitte Lacombe