Visual Studies Workshop will present an evening of improvised sonic performances on handmade electronic instruments by Pittsburgh artist Michael Johnsen. Sonic artist Matt Wellins (also a Pittsburgh native, currently based in Alfred NY) will open the show, performing with his own custom built instruments. Media artist Michael Johnsen designs and builds custom electronics specifically for live performance. He has invented an integrated menagerie of devices whose idiosyncratic behaviors are revealed through their complex interactions. He characterizes his work as "an intense focus on observation, the way a shepherd watches sheep". Johnsen currently works as a designer for Pittsburgh Modular Synthesisers, and is co-founder of the Pittsburgh experimental micro-cinema, Orgone.

[source: Facebook, 2016-Feb-29]