Biography
Joseph Hammer, a Time-Based artist from Los Angeles, has actively created
experimental works since 1980.
His practice operates at the interface between music making and performance
art. Using a tape recorder, he creates compositions by employing a looping
technique originally developed for radio and TV sound effects. The tape
recorder is also a documenting device. Using it draws simultaneously on the
qualities of recording/listening and playback/performing.
The sound sources he uses come from both popular and avant-garde culture.
Using no digital processing, he transforms with a tape recorder, the digital audio
from a laptop. Manipulating the recording physically.
Barthes writes,”there are two musics, the music one listens to, the music one
plays.” Hammer's practice draws on the complexities of the process of listening and
playing, reflecting on the role of the audience versus the performer. He uses music
as it influences our notion of time, memory and intimacy as the basis for
improvisation and abstraction.
In various collaborations, solo, and as a member of the trio Solid Eye, Hammer
has performed widely throughout North America, Europe and Japan and is an
influential contributor to the Los Angeles underground scene.
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