MacDowell residency

In Oct/Nov I had the privilege to be a Fellow at MacDowell Artist Residency in Peterborough New Hampshire. I used the time to work on several different projects, including my 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship project, DUOS++OCTET which gathers all of my duo partners into a larger ensemble (the work was begun in my show at Roulette April 24th and is continuing)

I worked and created for 4 weeks, surrounded by beautiful trees in a peaceful (and quiet) environment, and in the company of, and inspired by the brilliant writers, filmmakers, choreographer and visual artists, I began composing and practicing and working toward what will be ultimately a primarily a solo guitar and voice album (to be named) inviting collaborators to join me on some tracks.

I also wrote poetry and took many many photos of trees some will become scores for future pieces, As seen below ;) Gratitude for the privilege, and the community and new friends and MacDowell.

residency at APO-33 in Nantes

Dafna was in residence at APO-33 in Nantes, France, June 26-July 9, working on her new multichannel audio/video piece “Audio Chandelier: Passeri”. The piece with 10-channels of audio and 4-channel video reflects on changing patterns of bird migration, climate change and bird song. She gave a concert at the opening July 8th, which overlapped with Nantes Maker Campus.

More information is on Instagram and Facebook.

Dafna Naphtali DUOS++OCTET at Roulette 4/24

DUOS++OCTET is an upcoming performance at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn, NY
bringing together Dafna Naphtali’s long-time duo partners, her live-sound-processing of her voice and their instruments, plus Dafna’s 8-channel Audio Chandelier in live performance.

April 24th, 8pm @Roulette Intermedium
tickets and info: https://roulette.org/event/dafna-naphtali-duosoctet/

Dafna Naphtali – live electroacoustics, voice
Jen Baker – trombone / multiphonics (Clip Mouth Unit)
Gordon Beeferman – organ/piano/toy piano (Pulsing Dot)
Chuck Bettis – electronics / throat
Ras Moshe Burnett – saxophones, flute
Hans Tammen – electronics, guitar
Edith Lettner – saxophones, duduk
Andrew Drury – percussion/drums

Guggenheim Fellowship

Dafna Naphtali has been awarded 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship!


John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation announced the 2023 Fellowships, and has awarded 171 artists, researchers, writers and others this prestigious award.

This is an outstanding opportunity and it is humbling to be included in this cohort of brilliant scholars and artists.

Constellations with Thea Little

Constellations is a new installation/performance exploring Feng Shui concepts via interactive-aleatoric activation of recorded sounds, voice, found objects and spoken word phrases corresponding to each of the 9 quadrant-spaces (Bagua+Center) in Feng-Shui in the Chinese practice of spatial arrangement of a space for positive energy flow.

Begun as an invited collaboration between artists on Gold Bolus label for their Super Bolus V Compliation 2022, Constellations is continuing beyond the first track they made together, and an initial work-in-progress showing at Chez Bushwick in 2022. What started as a track for Super Bolus V has serendipitously turned into a larger concept for installation and performance.

Thea and Dafna decided to explore Feng Shui concepts through Aleatoric activation of Vocals, Words, Singing and Field Recordings.

Each of the quadrants differs conceptually (e.g., Career & Life path, Fame & Reputation, Love & relationships). Each Bagua quadrant has related elements (Wood, Fire, Metal, etc), related verbs, adjectives and other associated words which we recorded.  Thea is training in Feng Shui practice and has brought her expertise to the project.  

Dafna is inspired by methods behind Beckett’s novel “Lessness”, and its randomized order of sentences. She uses similar concepts to create spoken phrases, assembled from our pre-recorded Bagua words, with a software she’s writing (Max/MSP), each generated sentence relating to a quadrant. The words and vocal sounds play from multiple audio speakers, as sounds will be activated via proximity sensors as visitors are near or touch curated  found objects placed in each quadrant of the installation.  We’ll incorporate video within some quadrants (either projected or on small video screens) . All to be underscored by nine 6-channel vocal compositions (Dafna singing), changing over time in response to visitors’ location.

Women on Making at Whitebox Gallery Oct 8-23

Women on Making at Whitebox Gallery Oct 8-23
Presenting video.visuals.movement and sound work by Linda Mary Montano, Dafna Naphtali, Yohanna M. Roa, Zorica Colic, Kim Connerton, Tamiko Kawata, Wendy Miller, Maho Ogawa. Curated by Masa Hosojima.

Included is Dafna Naphtali’s audio-video AWOL_socket (2016) created in multi-chain of controls (modular synths controlled by facial movement and Max patches, in turn controlling video synthesis, feedback and a Nam June Paik “Wobbulator”). Created as part of a 2016 Signal Culture residency.


Opening performances @Whitebox
 Oct 8:
Yohanna’s “Textile Woman” 7:30pm
Wolfgang Lanzenberger’s film “Documenta Fifteen” 7:45pm
Dafna Naphtali (voice/electronics) & Maho Ogawa (movement artist) 8:00pm

Whitebox Gallery: 9 Avenue B, New York NY.
https://whiteboxnyc.org/2022/exhibitions/making/