Byron Westbrook (b. 1977) is an artist working with the dynamic quality of physical space using multi-channel sound and images. His audio/video performances under the name CORRIDORS involve the distribution of processed instrumental and environmental recordings through a multi-channel environment with a focus on energy distilled from sound and light. He has worked with Phill Niblock at Experimental Intermedia since 2004. He has presented at venues such as Tonic, Roulette, Diapason Gallery, ParisLondonWestNile, Les Voûtes (FR), Wien Konzerthaus, Rhiz, Issue Project Room, The Stone, NonEvent (Boston), Sonic Circuits Festival (DC), Institute of Intermedia (CZ), Experimental Intermedia, Exit Art Gallery. He has shared performance bills with Tony Conrad, Sawako, Mountains, Stefan Tcherepnin, David Daniell, Lichens, Alessandro Bosetti, Jason Kahn, Jon Mueller, James Blackshaw, Anette Krebs, and Soft Circle, among many others. Westbrook has also collaborated with Paris-based composer and former Kitchen curator Rhys Chatham in the drone metal group Essentialist (Table of the Elements), as well as performed in the ensembles of Phill Niblock, Rhys Chatham, Glenn Branca, Duane Pitre and Jonathan Kane. In 2007, he was the recipient of the Jerome Foundation Emerging Artists Commission through Roulette Intermedium. In 2008 he was an artist in residence at HotelPupik at Schoss Schrattenberg. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.CORRIDORS is a multi-channel audio/video environment that uses amplifiers, speakers and video projections strategically placed within a performance space. It was originally developed as a distribution sytem for improvised guitar feedback and has evolved over the last three years into composed works using a myriad of sound sources through the system, which is also now customized for the individual works. The project emphasizes how redistributed energy of sound and light in space alters one's perception.
Audio elements consist of either guitar feedback processed live, pre-recorded instrumental performances or sounds from nature. These recordings are pre-processed to reduce the sounds to the pure energy of the source material (as opposed to resembling the source). They are then redistributed live through the performance space via multi-channel system with additional processing to cater to the composition and space.
Video elements function as sources of light. Following the audio concept, the video sources are processed to reduce identification of form, object and location to abstract light thus highlighting the essential energy and movement.
