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 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
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/
Great news! Dafna’s been selected for the Fall Equinox 2022 Cohort of Mutual Mentorship for Musicians. M³ is a platform created in 2020, co-founded by vocalist-composers Jen Shyu and Sara Serpa, to empower, elevate, normalize and give visibility to women, non-binary musicians and those of other historically underrepresented gender identities in intersection with race, sexuality, or ability across generations in the US and worldwide, through a radical model of mentorship and musical collaborative commissions. https://mutualmentorshipformusicians.org/
Fall Equinox 2022 Cohort is: Krissy Bergmark – tabla (Chicago), Aline Frazão – voice, guitar (Angola/Berlin), Jessica Jones – tenor saxophone/piano (NYC), Tara Kannangara – trumpet/voice (Toronto, Canada), Gwen Laster – violin (Beacon, NY), Rosángela Isabel Pérez Molero – violin (Venezuela/Argentina), Naomi Nakanishi – piano (Boston), Dafna Naphtali – electronics/voice (NYC), CC Sunchild- piano/voice (Atlanta), Zeynep Toraman- Electronics/Composer (guitar and synth) (Berlin/Turkey), Ni Made Ayu Dwi Sattvitri – gamelan (Indonesia), Kavita Shah – voice/piano/ukulele/electronics (NYC). Stay tuned for Dafna’s new project with Gwen Laster (violin) in 2023!
ICTUS nights is coming up!— 3 days of improv-mania curated by Chris Cochrane featuring top contemporary improvisers.
Artistic Director David Watson.
Featuring Andrea Centazzo of ICTUS records https://ictusrecords.com/
October 6 & 7 & 8
(Dafna Naphtali performs on Oct 6 & 7)
at The Shift at 411 Kent Avenue, Brooklyn
more information: https://ictusrecords.com/ictus-nights-brooklin-ny/
Summer of 2021, Nichola Scrutton (sound artist and singer from Scotland) created a project of micro-commissions to composers/sound artists Ruth Wiesenfeld, Elisabetta Senesi, Dafna Naphtali, Julia Drouhin and Claire Docherty – each invited to create miniature sound compositions using fragments from those drawings as a visual prompt. The umbrella title is Memory | Dream | Encounter.
On 31st August 2021 the six composers met in a virtual gathering to listen together, discuss the works and creative process.
Claire Docherty – Pulse dream fragment For Una MacGlone (bass) & Emma Roche (flute) (3’23)
Dafna Naphtali- Striations (3′)
Elisabetta Senesi – Under the Surface (3’50)
Julia Drouhin – Mer4 (3’50)
Nichola Scrutton – Gestures (3’44)
Ruth Wiesenfeld – the wool from which the ribbons were made (3’54)
The images were a prompt, a connecting point, a spring board for dialogue. The sound compositions stand as individual works and as a collection, which hopefully will be shared publicly in the future.
more information:
Musical Ecologies returns to in-person events***
Thursday, October 14th with Brooklyn-based composer/performer Dafna Naphtali. A native New Yorker, Naphtali is well-known as a vocalist, electronic musician and sound artist. For tonight’s program, she will perform works involving live sound processing, voice, algorithmic studies, downsized versions of her multichannel sound and sound-walking pieces, and improvisations, all drawing on work created and developed over 20+ years. With special guest, percussionist Danny Tunick.
The evening will begin with a conversation hosted by series curator Dan Joseph. ***Audience limited to 25, proof of vaccination required for entry. Please wear a mask.
Tickets: www.eventbrite.com/e/musical-ecologies-with-dafna-naphtali-tickets-177466004597
More information — Musical Ecologies —https://www.musicalecologies.net/?fbclid=IwAR3IchfPFL-wPDmU7lYTIZenbidUBoJZjoV9OcrFBAZNujxJDRe1Ua12fb8
FB invite https://www.facebook.com/events/4430169463708572?ref=110
Dafna/Edith performed their duo part of their tour that Spring before the release of “We Q”
at Grundstein Kunsttankstelle Ottakring / Grundsteingasse 45, Vienna
Ottakringer kulturfreunde festival
(postponed due to Covid-19)
