O Plant!

New work with plants at Temple University Gallery 2018.

Miya Masaoka revisits her work with bio response from plants from the 1990’s

  • Solo Exhibition: Refuge in the Vegetal World; Miya Masaoka

  • Solo Exhibition: California College of the Arts, Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art

    The Masses and Dirty Sounds/Sounds Dirty: Dirt, plants, computer, human interaction, sound
    Curated by Diego Villalobos.
    February 16 – March 24 2024
    360 Kansas St, San Francisco, CA 94103
    https://wattis.org/calendar/february-16-24-2024

  • Stanford University, CCRMA solo Concert

    February 14, 2024
    7:30pm – 9:00pm
    Location: CCRMA Stage / CCRMA LIVE, Stanford University

    Miya Masaoka will present a selection of fixed media multichannel works and a live performance.
    FREE and Open to the Public.
    info@ccrma.stanford.edu

  • Monumenta Ethereal : Still images, Rome, NYC

    This is a developing project in Rome, Italy…. More »

  • New Work for Mivos String Quartet, American Academy of Rome

    Thursday, June 8, 2023. Mivos Quartet, The Horizon Leans Forward
    American Academy in Rome: Open Studio
    Angelo Masina 5, Rome, Italy.

  • San Francisco Contemporary Music Players

    Thursday, May 11, 2023 San Francisco Contemporary Music Players: The Dust and the Noise for cello, violin, piano and percussion by Miya Masaoka
    7:00 pm ‘How Music is Made’ Pre-Concert Talk | 8:00 pm Concert | Post-concert Party
    Herbst Theatre, SF War Memorial, 401 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco
    TICKETS General: $35, Student: $15 (more…)

  • Olivia de Prato : Solo Violin, Miller Theater

    Tuesday, April 4, 2023
    Olivia de Prato Solo Violin CD Pop Up Concert, World Premiere Mapping a Joyful Path for solo violin by Miya Masaoka and works with other acclaimed composers: commissioned by the New York Foundation for the Arts. Miller Theater, 2960 Broadway, New York, NY 10027 Free admission (more…)

  • MaertzMusik Berlin, Berliner Festspiele, Germany

    Sunday, March 26, 2023 The Imaginary Decolonized Space/Place for 3 Musicians and Sine Waves/Difference Tones composed by Miya Masaoka
    MaertzMusik Berliner Festispiele

    Final night The Imaginary Decolonized Space/Place

  • Solo Contrebasse at the American Academy in Rome, Italy

    Wednesday, February 1, 2023 6 pm. The Salon at the American Academy in Rome with contrabassist Dorian Jackman offering a recital of solo works by Bach, Hans Werner Henze, Stephen Scodanibbio, and Miya Masaoka on February 1, 2023. Via Angelo Masina 5, Rome, Italy

  • Houseplants and Extreme Weather Data Report: Warsaw, Poland

    Sunday, February 5, 2023 When I was Plant installation and talk 17:00 (5pm)
    Installation with Houseplants, EEG sensors, electronics, printed papers with extreme weather data, sound, human and plant interaction. Centrum Sztuki Włączającej / Teatr 21 Centrum Sztuki Włączającej / Władysława Skoczylasa 10/12, 03-465 Warszawa, Warsaw, Poland
    teatr21.pl

  • EMPAC: Talk: The Space Imaginary in Sound and Music: New Work for Violin and Sine Waves:

    Wednesday, November 7, 2022. 7pm : EMPAC premiere for violin and sine waves for the Wave Field Synthesis Array and virtuosic violinist Olivia de Prato. Talk: Multi-Dimensional Spatiality in the 15th Century and Now. On the corner of 8th Street and College Avenue / Troy, NY 12180 (more…)

  • BANG ON A CAN : Longplay 2022

    Sunday, May 1, 2022 1:15, Robert Black, solo contrebasse, Four Moons of Pluto composed by Miya Masaoka. Mark Morris Dance Center, Brooklyn, NY
    https://bangonacan.org/long-play-2022/

  • Governors Island, Harvestworks Residency and Commission. Building 10a, Nolan Park, Soft opening June 2022

    Resonant frequencies meet parabolic surfaces made from clay of the earth, animals of the sea, and met with the activity of human toil. (more…)

  • 10,000 Tones for PEACE Benefit Arts for Arts

    Friday, March 18, 2022, 10,000 Tones for PEACE Benefit 7pm The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center
    Miya Masaoka One String, Ned Rothenburg – Reeds, 50 musicians and dancers NY, NY 107 Suffolk St, New York, NY 10002
    https://www.artsforart.org/advocacy.html

  • ISSUE PROJECT ROOM: 2021 Benefit

    Wednesday, October 13, 2021, 7:30pm, Yamaha Artists Services, New York. New Work, Signing, collaboration: Miya Masaoka and Joanna Mattrey. Duo collaboration premiere of these two artists

  • OSTRAVA DAYS 2021 BANDA II: MIYA MASAOKA: THE ENERGY BURNS FROM WITHIN for orchestra

    August 25-27, 7pm, 2021 OSTRAVA DAYS 2021 BANDA II: MIYA MASAOKA: THE ENERGY BURNS FROM WITHIN for orchestra, conducted by Petr Kotik. Triple Hall Karolina, Music of Today Festival, 11th Bienale, Ostrava Center for New Music, Ostrava, Czech Republic. Masaoka Talks and Meetings August 22-28
    https://www.newmusicostrava.cz/en/ostrava-days/program/247-ostravska-banda-ii.html

  • Seeking a Sense of Somethingness (out of nothingness) TIME : SPANS FESITVAL 2021

    TIME : SPANS 2021: EMPAC WAVE Field Synthesis Showcase: 3D compositions by Miya Masaoka, Nina Young, Bora Yoon, Pamela Z. Thursday August 12 to Monday August 16. The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, 450 W 37th Street, NY, NY

  • New Noh Opera “Long Arc of Time” (postponed due to Covid)

    New Noh Opera “Long Arc of Time” scheduled for Ostrava NOVO Opera Festival in the Czech Republic 2021 has unfortunately been cancelled. https://vimeo.com/520686622… More »

  • When I Was A Plant v. 2 (Spanish Speaking plant, with climate data)

     2019 Toronto Biennale, Main Exhibition space
    November 14-December 1, 2019, curated by Myung-Sun Kim and Maiko Tanaka.
    (more…)

  • When I Was A Plant v. 2 (Spanish Speaking plant, with climate data)

     2019 Toronto Biennale, Main Exhibition space November 14-December 1, 2019, curated by Myung-Sun Kim and Maiko Tanaka. The plant  is “speaking,” or expressing the voice of living things, which might otherwise be construed as silent, mute, and passive. The response of the plant and its root system in real time is a manifestation, metaphor of… More »

  • When I Was a Plant (for multiple plants + performers)

    November 14, 2019. Artist Talk, Post Vocal Performance, Tellings, Toronto Biennial.
    https://torontobiennial.org/programs/miya-masaoka-sonifying-the-plants/

  • I Am A Plant (response in image + sound)

    Materials:  philodendron, electronics, wire, video, sound, human interaction. Gutenberg Sound Art Academy, Mainz University, Germany, August, 2019. (more…)

  • Cubistics: A 3 Dimensional score: performance, video, sculpture

    Cubistics, a 3-Dimensional Score
    December 15, 2019 20:00
    Masaoka, Kaffe Matthews, Andrea Parkins
    Silent Green, Gerichtstraße 35, 13347 Berlin, Germany

    Past Events

  • Singing River So To Speak*

    July 6, 2019
    Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Canada
    Ensemble Evolution; Commissioned work, conducted by Steve Schick; flute, clarinet, bassoon, piano, percussion,  violin, viola, cello. 
    *based on the poem by Maya Angelou, “On The Pulse of Morning”

  • Listen Ahead traffic signs

    … More »

  • Listen Ahead: Ear Hut

    Listen Ahead consists of a series of traffic signs, and the Ear Hut, a small structure that is designed to privilege the ear over the eye, or the sense of listening over sight. (more…)

  • O Plant!

    detail. Houseplant, electronics, wire, wood. sound… More »

  • Masaoka Castle Ruins in Japan

    The Masaoka Castle ruins are in the mountains in the Ehime Prefecture near Matsumoto.  There are Masaoka Family reunions held there every four years…. More »

  • O Plant!

    New work installation with plants and human interaction, Temple Contemporary, Tyler School of Art,  Fall, 2018… More »

  • Monochord

    The one string koto, or ichigenkin, is a very rare instrument.  Masaoka has studied the ichigenkin with the 4th Iemoto of the Seikyodo Ichigenkin Tradition, Issui Minegishi.  She is the great, great granddaughter of Tokuhiro Taimu, the founder of Seikyodo Ichigenkin, who was said to retreat to mountain caves in Japan to meditate, fast and… More »

  • Hiko Hiko

    Shamanistic by nature, Hiko Hiko is an alternative persona who time travels to distant planets, ancient Japan, Harlem, making unannounced appearances and creating evocative acts and disappears just as quickly.  They sometimes wear kimono rags and the high platform shoes of the Zen priests, and clothes embedded with varied percussion.  Hiko Hiko is non-binary and  has… More »

  • Vaginated Chairs and microphone inserts

    MoMA PS1 in the Book Space April 1, 2018. Several participants wore internal vagina microphone pick ups, and the sound was fed to the speakers in the space. Vaginated Chairs MoMA PS1  … More »

  • Factory recordings in Poland and Russia

    Factory Recordings In Prada, Poland at a helicoptor parts’ factory… More »

  • LED KIMONO

    Custom wearable computing kimono with hundreds of hand-sewn LEDs creating a responsive garment that can trigger sound and receive video data in real time. Performances included the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, The New York Electronic Music Festival, and Siggraph, Yokohama, Japan. More information on the archived LED KIMONO project website…. More »

  • The Movement of Things

    I have been writing both music compositions and creating audio installations that utilize very long glissandi, and I am particularly interested in the fundamental elements and principles of speed, and the varying speed and its associative perception for the listener.   For The Movement of Things, the many divisi of the sections of the orchestra were… More »

  • Vaginated Chairs, Kunstmuseum Bonn

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  • Plants Derail Model Train

    Issue Project Room (silo) Brooklyn 2006 Plant response and activity triggers track derailment. Re-enactment of Paul Sauvin’s experiment in the 1950’s.  … More »

  • The Bee Projects (1996-2001)

    Cell Space, San Francisco Electronic Music Festival  2000 8 channel (a-dat) Recorded bee sounds spatialized with early software (C sound), speakers in a large circle. (to be  linked in Review section)  Review: Classical Voice: CONTEMPORARY MUSIC REVIEW Electronic Music, A Blast, A Vision May 5, 2000   By Thomas Goss Give some people an amp, and they can’t… More »

  • Thinking Sound

    There were many version of this piece.  Brain data output was sonified and  processed with signal processing.  IBVA (Interactive Brain Visualization Software) developed by Masahiro Kohata. Piece composed by Miya Masaoka.  (Brain output from various participants, including Saimin Li).  The ensemble SFsound perfomed the piece at Yerba Buena Center Gardens…. More »

  • Dark Passages

    Music composed by Miya Masaoka, Libretto by Thulani Davis, Directed by Ellen Chang. A multimedia oratorio with readers, actual activists and resistors, string quartet, Buddhist chanters, actors, projected slides, video. Ruminations on Japanese American concentration camp survivors and WW II wtih Buddhist chanters, live ensemble, video and still projections, archival footage and actors/readers.  Dar Passages… More »

  • Bee Project #1-6

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