Michael Johnsen

Drawing on the rich American tradition of experimentation and cobbling, Michael Johnsen has built up an integrated menagerie of devices specifically for live performance, whose idiosyncratic behaviors are revealed through their complex interactions. His work is characterized by a relative lack of ideas per se, and an intense focus on observation, the way a shepherd watches sheep. The extensive patching of large numbers of devices produces teeming chirps, sudden transients and charming failure modes; embracing the dirt in pure electronics.