Peter Courtemanche | Absolute Value of Noise

B I O G R A P H Y

Peter Courtemanche is a contemporary sound and installation artist from Vancouver. He creates radio, installations, network projects, performances, curatorial projects, and handmade CD editions. He likes to work with "gadgetry" - custom turntables, lamp filaments, wire coils, high voltage ionizers, magnetic transmitters and receivers. His art works often have a literary basis - inspired by narrative texts and the history of specific installation sites. Installation works include: "Divining for Lost Sound"(1996-99) - an outdoor interactive sound work created in collaboration with Lori Wiedenhammer; "Spark-Writing" (2004) - a sound piece that plays with ideas of fantastical musical instruments; "Preying Insect Robots" (2006) - a set of six hand-sized robots that are active in a variety of performance and installation spaces; "Poison Mentor" (2009) - a sonic mushroom that measures radiation; and "The Silent Speaker" (2010) - a piece that plays with the idea of time and the cycle of life moving backwards. Network pieces include ".. devolve into II .." in collaboration with Roberto Paci Dalò (commissioned by ORF Kunstradio, 2002) - a conceptual and technological platform for collaborators to question issues of public vs private, virtuality and isolation from physical/green environments. And he has done numerous projects for Art's Birthday - an annual celebration and "network event" on January 17th. In 2007 he founded Second Site collective - a group of artists creating electronic art for outdoor spaces.

(Peter Courtemanche, March 2011)

LINKS

Second Site collective
Art's Birthday
Western Front Artist-run-centre
ORF Kunstradio | Art-radio from Vienna