Brandon
LaBelle is an artist and writer working with sound and the specifics
of location. His work explores the space between sound and sociality,
using performance and on-site constructions as creative supplements to
existing conditions. Through his work with Errant
Bodies Press he has co-edited
the anthologies “Site of Sound: Of Architecture and the Ear”,
“Writing Aloud: The Sonics of Language”, “Surface Tension:
Problematics of Site” and "Radio Territories". He initiated
and curated the Beyond Music series and festivals from 1997 – 2002
at Beyond Baroque Literary/Arts Center in Los Angeles, and in 2001 he
organized “Social Music”, a radio series for Kunstradio ORF,
Vienna. Throughout the 90s he played drums in various bands in Los Angeles,
notably Farflung and Purse, and worked as idbattery (with l. chasse) producing
experimental performances and field recordings. His work has been featured
in exhibitions and festivals internationally, including "Sampling
Rage" (1999) Podewil Berlin, “Sound as Media” (2000)
ICC Tokyo, "Bitstreams" (2001) Whitney Museum New York, “Pleasure
of Language” (2002) Netherlands Media Art Institute Amsterdam, “Undercover”
(2003) Museum of Contemporary Art Roskilde, "Experimentais Poeticas
da Voz" (2008) Museum of Contemporary Art Niterói, and "Sonic
Acts" (2010) Netherlands Media Art Institute Amsterdam. His writings
appear in various books and journals, including “Experimental Sound
and Radio” (MIT), “Soundspace: Architecture for Sound and
Vision” (Birkhäuser) and "Re-inventing Radio" (Revolver).
He presented a solo exhibition at Singuhr galerie in Berlin (2004), an
experimental composition for pirate drummers as part of Virtual Territories,
Nantes (2005), a series of Prototypes for the Mobilization and Broadcast
of Fugitive Sound at the Enrico Fornello Gallery, Prato (2007) and at
Ybakatu Gallery, Curitiba (2009). His ongoing project to build a library
of radio memories, “Phantom Radio”, was presented at Radio
Revolten, Halle in 2006 and at Casa Vecina, Mexico City in 2008. His recent
series of secret motel interventions in Hollywood, Motel Polytope, was
presented at gallery 727, as part of Surface Tension_Los Angeles (2010).
He is the author of “Background Noise: Perspectives on Sound Art”
(Continuum 2006) and "Acoustic Territories: Sound Culture and Everyday
Life" (Continuum 2010). He is co-organizer of the Surface
Tension project and participant within the collaborative team
e+l.
He lives in Berlin.