Invite: Thomas Ankersmit 6/25 Wed 6pm talk at MIT + 6/26 Thu 7pm performances at Goethe Institut

[Ian Condry]

Dear friends and colleagues at Boston Tech Poetics:

We in the MIT Spatial Sound Lab are collaborating with Non-Event and Goethe Institut Boston to bring you rare summertime special events.  I hope you’ll consider coming.  

Short versions first, then more details below.  Hope to see you!  Best, Ian 

Thomas Ankersmit artist talk on his spatial sound practice 

June 25 Wed 6pm (5:30pm doors and snacks) 

MIT, Room W20-429, Stratton Student Center 4F, 84 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139

free and open to the public 

Performances by Thomas Ankersmit, Leo Okagawa and Staubitz / Waterhouse

June 26 Thu 7pm (6:30pm doors)

Goethe Institut Boston, 170 Beacon St., Boston, MA 

$15 general / $10 students & Non-Event members

More details:  

ARTIST TALK

Thomas Ankersmit “Non-Technological Spatial Sound”

June 25 Wed 6pm (5:30pm doors and snacks) 

MIT, Room W20-429, Stratton Student Center 4F, 84 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139

free and open to the public 

An artist talk and conversation centered around Ankersmit’s experiences in composing for immersive audio systems like 4DSOUND, performing on systems like the GRM Acousmonium, and his long history of performing in sites with unusual acoustics (ranging from radar domes to water reservoirs to oil silos). Ankersmit will also go into his personal interpretation of Maryanne Amacher’s research, who was a pivotal early inspiration to his work. Maryanne Amacher did some of her most important artistic research during her time as a fellow at MIT’s Center for Advanced Visual Studies in the 1970’s.

Thomas Ankersmit is a musician and sound artist based in Berlin. For the past twenty years, he’s focussed on the Serge Modular analog synthesizer, both live and in the studio. From 2003 to 2023 he toured and collaborated intensively with New York minimalist Phill Niblock (1933-2024). He’s also performed and recorded with artists like Valerio Tricoli, Kevin Drumm, Jerome Noetinger and Thomas Lehn. His music is released on the Shelter Press, PAN and Touch labels, and combines intricate sonic detail and raw electric power, with a very physical and spatial experience of sound. Acoustic phenomena such as infrasound and otoacoustic emissions (sounds emanating from inside the head, generated by the ears themselves) play an important role in his work, as does a deliberate, creative misuse of the equipment.

PERFORMANCES

Thursday, June 26, 2025   TOM ANKERSMIT LEO OKAGAWA STAUBITZ & WATERHOUSE   Goethe-Institut Boston 170 Beacon Street, Boston Music:7pm (Doors: 6:30pm) Admission: $15 general | $10 for students and Non-Event members No one turned away for lack of funds For information about accessibility call the Goethe-Institut Boston at 617-610-9398 . Questions about tickets, contact sus...@nonevent.org.

GET TICKETS

Non-Event, MIT Spatial Sound Lab, and the Goethe-Institut Boston are pleased to present an evening of music featuring performances using the Serge modular synthesizer, field recordings, found objects, and electronics with artists from Germany, Japan, and Rhode Island. About the Artists Tom Anchorsmith is a musician based in Berlin and Amsterdam. For the past twenty years, he’s focussed on the Serge Modular synthesizer, both live and in the studio. From 2003 to 2023 he toured and collaborated intensively with New York minimalist Phill Niblock (1933-2024). His music is released on the Shelter Press, PAN and Touch labels, and combines intricate sonic detail and raw electric power, with a very physical and spatial experience of sound. Acoustic phenomena such as infrasound and otoacoustic emissions (sounds emanating from inside the head, generated by the ears themselves) play an important role in his work, as does a deliberate, creative misuse of the equipment. Leo Zappak is a sound artist based in Tokyo, Japan. He started recording environmental sounds in 2014, and around that time he started making multilayered collage works from elements of recorded sounds, analog machine’s noise, and simple electric tones. His works were released from the labels in many countries. He has also been working on an improvised performance since 2017. Using some electronic devices, he explores the structural possibilities of sound through the combination of simple tones. In 2022, he started his own record label, “zappak”, and has been publishing music by other artists on CD. In addition, as one of the label’s activities, he also organizes live performances for other artists. Staubitz and Waterhouse is the Rhode Island-based duo of improviser Mary Staubitz and composer Russ Waterhouse.  Their mutual interests in stealth field recording, post-minimalism, and tragicomedy manifest in works that collapse boundaries between high and low culture.  As a performing unit they use found objects, steel turntable, synthesizer, and field recordings to generate tension, bewilderment, and belly laughs.