Professional and Biographical Information

Degrees

Ph.D., Brown University (2018)
A.M., Brown University (2016)
M.Sc., Chalmers tekniska högskola (2006)
B.A., Columbia University (2002)

Research Interests

My studio practice is conceptually driven and research-based, and for each of my projects, I investigate a different ensemble in the world. By this I mean both human and nonhuman phenomena such as geologic shifts, computer networks, animal societies, or human histories in which individuals are expressively intertwined. By making the dynamics of these ensembles audible, the goal is to make sense of their complex interrelationships in a way that invites new political possibilities.

My training as a computer scientist and musician informs my work, but research and development are an essential part of my practice—most of my projects also involve learning new, experimental methods of inquiry. Through these I draw out, re-perform, and/or contest the latent embodied and temporal dynamics in play. The results have incorporated such varied forms as resonating sculptures, sensor-driven radio broadcasts, eavesdropping light bulbs, distributed concerts, telegraph-bots, and audible bioreactors. I tend to eschew screen-based digital aesthetics in favor of performances and objects that expose their technical components. Through each artwork, I wrestle with unresolved relationships and continue to learn from the process long after the piece is “complete.”

Though I have frequently worked in concert halls, museums, festivals, and galleries, I am more interested in nontraditional settings, site-specific interventions, open-ended collaboration, and spontaneous experimentation. With these I hope to connect my work to the practice of everyday life and the ensembles of which we are a part.

Teaching Interests

In my teaching, I work with students to engage critically with technology—programming languages, electronics, and audio in particular. We approach these as studio artists might approach any other material, gaining intuition about their affordances and plumbing their limitations. While this necessarily involves learning some engineering principles, I see my courses as an alternative entry point to working with tech as opposed to approaching it through the sciences. For example, instead of completing problem sets, we express ourselves through digital "sketches." Hopefully, this encourages students who might not otherwise get involved with things like code to give it a try. When it comes to sound, I'm interested in what students can learn about interrelationships by finding new ways to listen to—and make noise in—the world around them.

Selected Recent Exhibitions

Brooklyn Botanic Garden, New York, NY (2021)
Science Gallery, Bengaluru, India (2019)
Chicago Architecture Biennial, Chicago, IL (2019)
Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati, OH (2019)
Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO (2019)
Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, Providence, RI (2018)
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa (2018)
CentroCentro Cultural Centre, Madrid, Spain (2018)
Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria (2017)
Transmediale, Berlin, Germany (2017)
Eyebeam, New York, NY (2016)
ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany (2015)

Selected Publications

Brian House, “Acid Love: Mines, Remediation, and Ensembles of the Witwatersrand,” Leonardo 54:5 (2020)

Brian House, “Quotidian Record: The Musical Interpretation of Mobile Phone Location Data,” in The Routledge Companion to Mobile Media Art, eds. Larissa Hjorth, Adriana de Souza e Silva, Klare Lanson (Routledge, 2020)

Brian House, “Animas: Disaster, Data, and the Resonance of a River,” Journal of Sonic Studies 18 (2019)

Laura Kurgan, Dare Brawley, Brian House, Jia Zhang, and Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, “Homophily: The Urban History of an Algorithm,” in e-flux Architecture (2019)

Brian House, “Synchronizing Uncertainty: Google’s Spanner and Cartographic Time,” in DATA browser: Executing Practices, eds. Helen Pritchard, Eric Snodgrass, and Magda Tyźlik-Carver (Open Humanities Press, 2018)

Brian House, “Against Listening,” Contemporary Music Review 36:6 (2017)


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