Start your search by typing

LAB 5.5: Improvisation Space, Alisdair MacRae

Drawing on his background in improvisational jazz and dance, New York based artist Alisdair MacRae will create an interactive improvisation space in The LAB. The project uses viewer-activated sculpture to explore the improvisational qualities of seemingly rigid technologies. MacRae is influenced by the sculptures of Mowry Baden and Roland Brener which often include elements of improvisation and participant-determined use of space. This LAB project will be shown in conjunction with the current Baden & Brener exhibiton.

“Improvisation has always interested me as a creative means to freedom,” says MacRae. MacRae will divide the LAB space into two separate areas with the use of a soundproof wall, setting up the opportunity for call and answer communication between separate electronic keyboards installed in each area. Participants will be able to access one another visually via a small window inserted in the wall. As he explains, it is not solely musical but also gestural improvisation that will take place as “spatial improvisation is further available as the viewer moves between both areas.”