Meet the Artists - Austin Blanton
About: Austin Blanton is a human who has spent an unreasonable amount of time making noises. He likes to venture out into nature to make electronic music, to spontaneously compose from a briefcase collection of solar-powered miniature gadgets, to inhabit the voice of his mycological alter-ego Art Fungus. He is also one half of the glitch-folk duo Pocket Moon with his partner, who plays cello and intertwines her voice with his in organic intricate harmonies. He came of age in the underground DIY scene of Washington, DC, where he played bass and sang harmonies in the sonically curious but melodically inclined indie band Near Northeast. In true DIY fashion, he produced and mixed their four records in his bedroom at the top of a creaky hundred-year-old row house. He has grown to love the sound of creaks. After building some steam in the house venues, art spaces, and dive bars of their hometown DC, Near Northeast toured exotic locales like the Balkans and the Pacific Northwest. Around this time he also joined the experimental art pop collective The North Country, who just released their new record “The Future’s All We Need.” He now lives in Philadelphia and plays bass and drums for friends’ gigs around town.
How do you describe your practice?
I’m a musical artist and machine learning practitioner. My latest endeavors are inspired by the natural world - plants, fungi, lichen, symbionts, and the entangled web of creating worlds together. I lean into the paradox of integrating electronic music into natural surroundings. This conflict between technology and nature invites ruminations on the massive changes of the Anthropocene, the precarity and dissociations of global capitalism, and our search for balance and new stories of more-than-human progress.
What are your influences, what inspires you?
I’m inspired by images of slow invisible growth, like tree roots and mycelium underground; by natural examples of radical personal change - metamorphosis, chrysalises, tadpoles; and by visions of mutualism and interdependence as an expression of reality’s fundamental substance - love.
Where are you based and what is your background in terms of education?
I am based in Philadelphia, PA, USA. I have a bachelors in computer science from University of Virginia.
What does engaging with nature mean to you as an artist?
Engaging with nature means reconnecting with ourselves. We are entangled with every living thing in this fragile bubble. We have constructed a false dichotomy of humans/nature, us/them, that is rooted in tribalism and fear. I want to imagine futures where we are integrated into the fabric of nature as shepherds of all life.
What does it mean to be selected for the summer school?
I’ve lately been experimenting with using an Arduino to collect plant biosignals for sonification. The Sensing the Forest Summer School will encourage me to explore this thread deeper, as I look to expand into multi-plant collaborative interactive installations to encourage cross-species connections and deeper awareness.