Matthew D. Gantt • RUBY
Sunday, June 29, 2025
169 Bowery NYC
8:00 pm
Music in the Shape of a Sphere is a work for imaginary landscapes, sonic environments, digital sculptures and virtual sound objects. Using the real-time simulation capabilities of the Unreal game engine interfaced with various software synthesizers and generative sequencers in Ableton and MaxMSP via OSC, this piece operates less as a musical performance with accompanying visualizer, or a film with live score, but instead as a kind of cybernetic system where audio processes prompt change in the virtual environments, and emergent properties of the simulation drive further changes in sonic outcomes. This bi-directional OSC bridge between game engine and audio software conceptualizes the total arrangement as akin to a modular patchbay, where any aspect of the 3D simulation can be ‘mapped’ to sonic parameters, and vice versa. The materials in this piece have developed across a two-year period of experimentation, manifesting as WebVR installations, single-channel video works, kinetic software sculptures and similar before settling into their current configuration in performance.
‘Oh, seedy!’ is a vulnerable admission of audio-frustration – a slow, yet consistent churn of an abrasive reality mixing with cyclical falsehoods, and the gradual degradation of its surroundings. Intrusivity expanding on all sides into every crack and crevice of conscious and collective thought, coagulating into new forms of manufactured mental illness – evil yet enticing. If one imbues artificial entities with the power to manipulate our systems of choice, where does our agency go? Where is it now? Where has it been?
About the Artists
Matthew D. Gantt is an artist, composer, and educator based in Troy, NY. His practice focuses on sound in virtual spaces, generative systems facilitated by idiosyncratic technology, and digital production presets as sonic readymades. He worked as a studio assistant to electronics pioneer Morton Subotnick from 2016- 2018, and has been an active participant in the international creative community, presenting or performing at spaces such as Pioneer Works, Issue Project Room, MUTEK Mexico, EMPAC, Feral File, IRCAM, ICST Zurich, and countless DIY venues and grassroots organizations. Gantt releases music with Orange Milk and Oxtail Recordings, was a member of New Museum’s NEW INC creative incubator, and has taught experimental composition in both institutional and DIY contexts, including Harvestworks, CUNY Hunter, Bard College, Sarah Lawrence, and a variety of community workshops aimed at creating equitable access to developing technologies. Gantt’s work has been featured in The Wire magazine, Pop Matters, Exclaim!, Tiny Mix Tapes, Bandcamp New and Notable and more.
Ruby Poile, mononymously known as RUBY, is an artist focused primarily on music and sound in the electronic realm. Though born in Cambridge, England, she draws heavy inspiration from her upbringing in the forests of Washington state, and the explorative curiosity the environment fostered for her. RUBY’s work delves into many facets of the human experience, both individually and collectively, drawing upon past, present, and possible future as a means to insight curiosity in the listener, creating worlds filled with audio-bugs hidden under audio-logs for the listener to uncover. Having independently released over 26 full-length projects, several sound-packs, and a plethora of audio-visual experiences, RUBY finds equal enjoyment out of the process and the results, keeping a keen eye on the bigger picture of what her work wishes to say. [For more information please visit ru6y.com]
NEW EAR :: 