Transmission Artist
MICHELLE NAGAI
See also: Michelle Nagai + Kenta Nagai
Brooklyn-based composer Michelle Nagai utilizes sound, physicality and concept to create site-specific performances, installations, radio broadcasts, dances, walks and other interactions that address the human state in relationship to its setting. These works and activities explore the exchange of perception between performer and audience/viewer. Nagai recognizes transmission, reception and “limbo” as continuously shifting, highly interactive states of being. She engages these states in her working process in order to open up the field of perception and action beyond that which she is herself capable of comprehending, making or doing.
Recent projects incorporate through-composed and improvised music for acoustic instruments and electronics, as well as natural environments, found objects, video, costumes, text, and material structures fabricated from a variety of media.
Nagai’s work has been presented throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe and has been supported by the American Composers Forum, Harvestworks, the Jerome and McKnight Foundations, Meet the Composer and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
LINKS
Works
- Giant Ear))) (Weekly Online Radio Show) Hosted by NY Society for Acoustic Ecology,
- Giant Ear))) webradio (Dispatch Series Release) The New York Society for Acoustic Ecology, Nov. 16, 2008
- Radio Action III (AD034) (Dispatch Series Release) free103point9 Transmission Artists, 2008
- Peter Stuyvesant's Ghost (Artist Multiple) PSG, 2006
- Crossed Circuits (Dispatch Series Release) Various Artists, 2005
- Scape 2 (Dispatch Series Release) Various Artists, 2004
- Tune(In))) CD (Dispatch Series Release) Various Artists, 2003
- Tune (In))) Catalogue (Dispatch Series Release) Various Artists, 2003
Exhibitions & Events
- Radio Action III: Online Radio Program, June 18, 2008 – Aug. 30, 2008 (Curated by free103point9 in collaboration with Barbara Held)
- Radio Lab and Radio 4x4 for Untitled 2002 (he promised), Aug. 19, 2007: 2 p.m. – 5 p.m.
- Michelle Nagai on Radia, May 17, 2007: 2 p.m. – 3 p.m.
- Michelle Nagai, May 4, 2007: 8 p.m. – 11 p.m.
- 4:33pm_Michelle Nagai "Untitled Sit", Feb. 10, 2007
- Peter Stuyvesant's Ghost, Nov. 15, 2006 – Nov. 19, 2006
- Habitats, Nov. 9, 2006 – Nov. 12, 2006
- NY Phonographers Meeting II, Oct. 28, 2006: 3 p.m. – 7 p.m.
- Ear to the Earth opening reception, Oct. 6, 2006: 7 p.m.
- City in a Soundwalk - Soundwalk & Mapping Workshops with Mic, June 2, 2006: 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.
- City in a Soundwalk - Soundwalk & Mapping Workshops with Mic, May 26, 2006: 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.
- City in a Soundwalk - Soundwalk & Mapping Workshops with Mic, May 19, 2006: 4 p.m. – 6 p.m.
- free103point9 @ Observatori Festival, May 5, 2006 – May 7, 2006
- ScopeOnAir, March 10, 2006 – March 13, 2006
- Giant Ear)))_Inside Out_012906, Jan. 29, 2006: 7 p.m. – 9 p.m. (Curated by New York Society for Acoustic Ecology)
- On The Air, Nov. 2, 2005 – Nov. 5, 2005
- NY Society for Acoustic Ecology Retreat Webcast, Oct. 29, 2005: 8 p.m. – Oct. 30, 2005: 11 p.m.
- On the Way Out, Oct. 27, 2005: 9 p.m.
- NY Phonographers Meeting, II, Oct. 23, 2005: 6 p.m. – 10 p.m.
- Tune(Out)))side, July 4, 2005: 3 p.m. – 10 p.m. (Curated by free103point9)
- Crossed Circuits, April 23, 2005 – June 6, 2005
- Radio 4x4: Crossed Circuits, May 6, 2005
- Microradio Sound Walk: Spectropolis, Oct. 1, 2004 – Oct. 3, 2004
- Tune(In))) Santa Fe, July 17, 2004
- Scape 2, April 24, 2004: 8 p.m. – May 22, 2004: 11 p.m.
- Sous Les Pavas, La Radio! at Psy.Geo.Conflux 04, May 13, 2004 – May 16, 2004 (Curated by Tianna Kennedy)
- Psy.Geo.Conflux Radio Lab, May 13, 2004: 2 p.m. – 4 p.m.
- Tune(In))) The Kitchen, April 22, 2004: 7 p.m. – 11 p.m.
- Radio 4x4: free103point9 Seventh Anniversary Benefit No. 2, March 20, 2004
- Radio, Radio, May 17, 2003: 8 p.m. – May 18, 2003: 2 a.m. (Curated by free103point9)
- Tune(In))), March 1, 2003: 8 p.m. – 2 a.m. (Curated by free103point9)
ARCHIVE
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Audio
- Michelle Nagai_For Henry Track for "Crossed Circuits" exhibition at Hogar Collection in Brooklyn, and track for free103point9 "Crossed Circuits" CD. (audio/mpeg)
- Giant Ear #9_Inside Out NYC, Jan. 29, 2006. 012906 (audio/mpeg)
- Giant Ear: NYSAE Retreat at Wave Farm, Oct. 29, 2005. With Michelle Nagai, Robbin Gheesling, Andrea Williams, Andrea Callard, Ben Owen, Andrea Polli, Chuck Varga, David Watson, and Edmund Mooney. These NYSAE artists speak about their own practices, and the various definitions of acoustic ecology (audio/mpeg)
- Psy.Geo.Conflux Radio Lab at Participant, Inc., May 13, 2004. (audio/mpeg)
- Soundwalking at night through milkweed au grand bois, March 1, 2003. NY Center for Media Arts Long Island City, New York On March 1, 2003, over 60 performers played into six transmitters during free103point9's first Tune(In))) event at the New York Center for the Media Arts. (audio/mpeg)
Video
- Tune(In))) The Kitchen, April 22, 2004. (excerpt) (video/mov)
Image
- Giant Ear Image (image/jpeg)
- Tianna Kennedy, Todd Merrell, Michelle Nagai, Ben Owen during Radio 4x4 for "Untitled 2002 (he promised)", Aug. 19, 2007. at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Pictured (left to right): Michelle Nagai, Tianna Kennedy, Ben Owen, Todd Merrell. (image/jpeg)
- Tianna Kennedy, Todd Merrell, Michelle Nagai, Ben Owen during Radio 4x4 for "Untitled 2002 (he promised)", Aug. 19, 2007. at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Pictured (left to right): Michelle Nagai, Tianna Kennedy, Ben Owen, Todd Merrell, Tom Roe. (image/jpeg)
- Peter Stuyvesant's Ghost CD cover, Jan. 1, 2006. (image/jpeg)





