Musician James Ferraro presents new works composed for specific sites within the infrastructure of MoMA PS1. For Ferraro, hotel lounge playlists, elevator music, and ringtones have become psychological and architectural components to the space of commerce and daily life. Such audio helps smooth the interactions between people, and between individuals and computer systems. 100% examines automated systems in order to highlight moments when such systems fail or malfunction, interrupting the flow of communication and capital. The exhibition is comprised of three works: Saint Prius (2014), a composition Ferraro made as hold music for MoMA PS1’s phone system; Dubai Dream Tone (2014), a work created for the museum’s elevator; and Eco – Savage Suite (2014), a suite of ringtones exhibited on a special page of the museum’s website that are free for download.
The music of 100% alludes to the sonic backdrop of the 21st-century global city. Ferraro’s compositions speak to urban sound that is fragmented and abbreviated, designed to be on continuous loop and fill space without becoming intrusive. Speaking of the project and its inspirations, Ferraro says, “Stylistically, 100% sounds fake, ethno-ambiguous, New Age, plastic, and readymade. It’s like a fake indoor rain forest in Dubai’s international airport with the most advanced systems to create sustainable ecologies and habitats; or the empty utopian soundscape of a luxury tract house community. Global liquidity and consumption push forward in an infrastructure of automation. Dissonance sometimes occurs in the form of the glitches. These malfunction errors and random glitches are abstract symptoms of the ecological by-products stemming from global activity and the emergent cultural images that are encoded therein. It is a Great Pacific Garbage Patch of information and the cultural by-product. And for me this says something about the relationship between consumer fatigue from rapid frictionless information and infinite excess.”
James Ferraro (American, b. 1988) has release numerous albums including Far Side Virtual, which was selected as Album of the Year by Wire magazine in 2011. He most recently issued the album NYC, Hell 3:00 AM in fall 2013. Ferraro was a former member of the two-person group, The Skaters, and is currently a member of Bodyguard. Ferraro lives and works in Los Angeles and New York.
James Ferraro: 100% is organized by Christopher Y. Lew, Assistant Curator, MoMA PS1.