Photo by Anjelica Jardiel. Courtesy the artist.
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There are ceramic works and aquaria, and what has slowly gained a reputation as the finest manufactory of personal electronic musical instruments in the hemisphere. (The biannual music festival held at Morgre, in which composers come from all over our world to have their works performed, was one of the joys of my adolescence.)
— Marq Dythe describing the city of Morgre, from Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, Samuel L. Delany, Bantam Books, Paperback, 1985 (p. 112-113)
Artist and engineer Johann Diedrick organizes If the stars align..., an OPEN STUDIOS program inspired by Samuel L. Delany's novel Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand where Delany imagines the Morgre Festival, a gathering where composers traverse vast distances to experience music performed on electronic instruments yet to be invented. In Delany's wider work, from Nova to The Einstein Intersection, we encounter instruments that exist in the realm of the speculative and evocative. Considering such tools that expand our notion of what musical instruments can be and are able to express, Diedrick invites inventive electronic musical practices found on our terrestrial home, inspired by the earthly concerns of our times and our aspirational dreams found floating among the stars, with works in development by Rena Anakwe, Sonic Liberation Devices, and Femi Shonuga-Fleming.
OPEN STUDIOS is a series of work-in-progress showings held regularly throughout the year, organized by guest curators, and serves as an incubator for new work, inviting the public into the artistic process.
PROGRAM
Rena Anakwe: This Is a Score || SONOPOETICS [Vol. One]
Using poetry as a compositional tool, “This is a Score || SONOPOETICS [Vol. One]” is a live performance for tape and voice orchestra. The piece explores loops as a reflection of the repetitiveness that we are living through, societally, culturally and psychically. By returning to the first electronic media that she interacted with as a child, Anakwe is interested in the tactility of sound that the obsolete technology of a multitrack cassette tape machine provides when played as an instrument. The looping back of time begins here. Using various cassette tape machines, handmade tape loops, effects pedals and voice, Rena Anakwe will share an excerpt of her inquiry into using the written word to notate musical composition.
Sonic Liberation Devices: Sonic Manifesto
Performing with Sonic Liberation Devices (SLDs) as a Sonic Manifesto is a declaration of resistance, an embodied act of storytelling, and a reimagining of how music technology can serve as a tool for liberation. These performances are not just about sound but about sonic activism—using handmade, open-source instruments to disrupt conventional narratives around accessibility, design, and ownership in music technology. Each device is intentionally designed to reflect social justice issues, embedding layers of meaning within their construction and sonic output. Through live performance, I reclaim space and invite audiences to engage with music as an act of protest and connection. The instruments’ tactile interfaces, rooted in decolonial design, challenge Western biases in music-making while amplifying historically marginalized sonic traditions. Making these performances interactive and community-driven allows others to experience the power of sound as a means of resistance, healing, and collective storytelling. Performing a Sonic Manifesto is my way of demonstrating that instruments can be more than just tools for music—they can be vessels of history, activism, and liberation. It is a call to action, urging others to rethink how technology can serve people rather than systems of oppression.
Femi Shonuga-Fleming: Thanks to the ground beneath my feet
Sadnoise is the ritual practice of giving thanks to the ground beneath your feet through exploration in sonic materiality. It's an abstraction and extension of the conversation between architectonics, the body, sonic exfoliation and afrofuturism. Through temporal performance, electronics protrude the urban landscape with concrete interventions.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Johann Diedrick is an artist and engineer who makes listening rooms, spaces for encountering new sonic possibilities off-the-grid. He works to surface resonant histories of past interactions inscribed in material and embedded in space, peeling back vibratory layers to reveal hidden memories and untold stories. He shares his tools and techniques through listening tours, workshops, and open-source hardware and software. He is the founder of A Quiet Life, a sonic engineering and research studio that designs and builds audio-related software and hardware products. He is currently a 2023-25 Just Tech fellow and recently a 2023-24 Performance AIRspace Resident at Abrons Art Center. He was the Director of Engineering at Somewhere Good, a 2022 Future Imagination Collaboratory Fellow at the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, a 2022 Wave Farm artist-in-residence, a 2021 Mozilla Creative Media Award recipient, a 2020 Pioneer Works Technology resident, a community member of NEW INC, and an adjunct professor at NYU’s ITP program. His work has been featured in Wire Magazine, Musicworks Magazine, and presented internationally at the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum, MoMA PS1, Dia Art Foundation, NYC Parks Department, the New Museum, Ars Electronica, Science Gallery Dublin, Somerset House, and multiple New Interfaces for Musical Expression conferences, among others.