Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, New York
Collaboration with interdisciplinary artist, Lezli Rubin-Kunda using live action, drawing and sound. Marking Space is an interaction in and with a space, materials and media through mark-making and sound. Our conceptual inquiry is the relationship of the sound of drawing / the drawing of sound using the gallery as a laboratory space for in-situ production. As artists, we bring our independent practices and our shared philosophical and poetic investigations into questions of knowing/not knowing, presence/absence, visible/invisible, doing/undoing and not doing.

<LISTEN> SeedWall 2’42


< LISTEN > Pipe 0’42
Posted by ellen at 2:02 pm on January 27th, 2012.
Categories: PERFORMANCE.
Epcor Centre Calgary & Sounds Like Audio Festival, Saskatoon

Strung is a collaboration with Jeff Morton for AKA’s inaugural Sounds Like… Audio Festival. Four 8-foot long horizontal interfaces are equipped with musical and industrial materials, strings, resonant materials and objects. Analogue sounds are captured with pickup mics; spoken word sound files are triggered by specific actions. Sound is output to four speakers as recursive, spatialized sound. Seasonal Waves, a 14-channel work for the +15 Soundscape at the Epcor Centre in Calgary used the same physical interfaces, without spoken word sound, and a structural approach to the composition. The work was installed for one year, until August 2012.
Posted by ellen at 6:22 pm on December 16th, 2011.
Categories: PERFORMANCE.
PickUpPutDown is an interaction in and with architectural space and experimental sound making using surfaces of the gallery as ad hoc soundboards. Participants engage with objects and materials (instrument wires and resonant materials attached directly onto the walls) through interaction, improvisation and intuitive exploration. Sound is amplified with contacts mics, processed through software with delay and output to multiple speakers as distributed sound. Performance at opening reception with Jeff Morton and David Grosse. Solo Exhibition, PAVED Arts, Saskatoon, 2011

VIDEO: Performed Installation 03’43
<LISTEN> PickUpPutDown 02’04
Installation Details: objects and materials for sound making
Posted by ellen at 2:56 pm on December 15th, 2011.
Categories: AUDIO.
A situated, interactive installation in a 160′ long corridor using constructed and found elements. Two physical soundboards positioned at opposite ends of the corridor are equipped with objects and materials for live soundmaking. Participants improvise with materials and the interfaces through ludic play, negotiating co-creation and communication over distance. Sound is distributed to four speakers along the corridor with variable delays to stretch sound spatially as recursive sound. The project was completed during a residency at NSCAD U, in the Port Loggia campus, Halifax.

<LISTEN> LinesTonesSpaces 01’29
Posted by ellen at 9:14 pm on October 5th, 2011.
Categories: AUDIO.
Canadian Western Agribition, Regina


MOO is a collaborative site-specific sound project with sound artist, Jeff Morton. We constructed an eight-station percussive instrument with agricultural objects, organic substances and in situ field recordings. Participants modulate objects, sound and materials as spatialized composition in real-time. Sound is captured and amplified using contact microphones; in addition direct manipulation of the objects triggers field recordings as a secondary order of sound. MOO was a residency project of the Saskatchewan Arts Board.
< LISTEN > MOO excerpt 1’17
Posted by ellen at 4:00 pm on November 29th, 2010.
Categories: PERFORMANCE.
Bickersteth Reading Room, University of Toronto
Realms of Knowing is a book-based and sound project as a collaborative live action. The artists set up a dialogue between texts and lived experience in a site of academic knowledge as another way of knowing and knowledge. Moffat constructs a multi-layered vocal composition referencing memory and the body; Rubin-Kunda works directly in classical philosophy books, drawing with everyday and organic materials.

Presented by: WIAprojects, CWSE, OISE, Hart House, University of Toronto. Curated by Pam Patterson & Leena Raudvee; curatorial assistant Sevan Injejikian.
Posted by ellen at 3:59 pm on November 29th, 2010.
Categories: PERFORMANCE.
College AG (Saskatoon), Doris McCarthy AG (Toronto), Thames AG (Chatham)



twicescore is a visual poetry instrument using dual keyboards and physical controllers. Two keyboards provide physical interfaces for text generation with controllers for manipulation of type as typographic design. The separate texts are projected as integrated concentric circles onto a bed of glass bead on the floor. Poems can be posted to a web site as a publishing outlet and public archive. Inspired by “zuverspaetceterandfigurinnennenswert ollos”, a 1962 rota-poem by Ferdinand Kriwet, the project fuses interactivity, co-authorship and concrete poetry.
ARCHIVE: http://www.twicescore.ellenmoffat.ca/
<VIDEO> twicescore
Posted by ellen at 10:22 am on October 12th, 2010.
Categories: MULTI-MEDIA.
Sound/Track is a foot-controlled interface that uses local and imported organic matter, sensors and extremely low frequencies ranging from 7.8 Hz to 60 Hz. Impact of participants’ footsteps on the floor-level sound board triggers switches that release sonic frequencies as primary sound which activates matter in four speaker cones as a second layer of sound. Together, preset and chance sound events propose an experimental compositional process. Group Exhibition, Gordon Snelgrove Gallery, Saskatoon.


Speaker cones contain: dried flowers and berries; leaves (birch, basil, oregano, tea); water and Palestinian olive oil; seeds (peppercorn, coriander, hemp).
<LISTEN> Sound/Track 2’09
Posted by ellen at 9:22 pm on April 25th, 2010.
Categories: AUDIO.
23rd Street, Saskatoon

urbansubsonic is a field study using urban structures and chance events as material to construct a sonic map of a site in downtown Saskatoon. Recordings employ a 1913 prism glass sidewalk as a soundboard with 4 microphones positioned spatially. As pedestrians traversed its 90′ long surface, the membrane vibrated with the impact of their actions. Filtered through an aggregate of glass, concrete, wood and metal, pedestrian sound events fuse with the room tone and acoustics of the contained space, creating a murky yet distinctly urban sonic sensibility. The composition is a 24’00 time-based sampler from twenty-four hours of field recordings.
<LISTEN_1> urbansubsonic (03:15-04:01) 00’46
<LISTEN_2> urbansubsonic (04:20 – 05:13) 00’53
<LISTEN_3> urbansubsonic (0:00 – 08:34) 00’33
<LISTEN_4> urbansubsonic (13:37 – 14:43) 00’56
<LISTEN_5> urbansubsonic (23:35 – 24:00) 00’25
Posted by ellen at 8:45 pm on April 25th, 2010.
Categories: OFF-SITE.
Basement Suite started in my domestic space. The living room floor became a soundboard for experimental sound making and the crawl space a recording studio and listening chamber. Participants performed the floor using extended techniques for sound generation with objects (furniture, pill bottle, boots, shoes, sponge, tuning forks, glockenspiel), animal and body parts (dog, knuckles, heels) and actions (walking, dancing, moving furniture, sweeping, knocking). Captured by contact microphones, I edited the recordings into an 8-channel psycho-acoustic composition for in-house and a gallery installation. 2-person exhibition, Open Space, Victoria, curated by Ted Hiebert & David Cechetto, http://www.tedhiebert.net/site/eidola.php

Physical elements of the gallery installation link to architectural and acoustic aspects of the domestic space. Suspended wooden platforms suggest a fragmented floating floor; speakers and a light fixture reference the house installation. The composition layers somatic rhythms, percussive beats and sustained phrases into an open narrative of spatialized sound.
<LISTEN> BasementSuite 01’14
In-House Sound Recording + Installation, Saskatoon


Posted by ellen at 1:33 pm on September 8th, 2009.
Categories: AUDIO.