A Synesthete's Atlas: Cartographic Improvisations between Eric Theise, Kenneth Cornell, and Clifford Grindstaff
Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
Guild Cinema
Real-time cartographic improvisations using projected, manipulated digital maps by Eric Theise in dialogue with Kenneth Cornell and Clifford Grindstaff’s multi-textured sonic landscapes and noise excavations. A visual wash of street grids, land masses, water bodies, and curiosities from built and natural environments. Sounds cinematic and mercurial from the dark Southwest's Land of Enchantment. Orphaned labels and free-floating symbology. Auditory roundabouts and acoustic cul-de-sacs. Colors that clash, calm, and fade. Jittery zooms and traversals. Liminal drones. Glitchy artifacts from crowdsourced geographies.
The performance will occasionally introduce strobing effects that may affect photosensitive viewers.
Thu, Apr 9, 2026
7pm $12 all seats
Guild Cinema 3405 Central Av NE Albuquerque, NM https://www.guildcinema.com/
Eric Theise is a San Francisco-based artist and geospatial software developer. Through video, performance, and works on paper he reinvigorates the perceptual inquiries of structural filmmakers, experimental animators, the Light and Space movement, and 60's light shows – with the occasional injection of letterform experiments inspired by visual poetry – as new possibilities in the realm of digital cartography.
Theise manipulates projected digital maps in performance with musicians and other time-based artists under the banner A Synesthete's Atlas–since its 2022 Lisbon premiere it’s been performed in nearly fifty North American and European cities. Theise’s collaboration with composer Shahrzad Talebi was premiered at the end of March by line upon line percussion ensemble as part of CAST’s (Contemporary Art & Sound Technologies) inaugural season at dadaLab in Austin, Texas, and he comes to Albuquerque as part of a follow-on tour through Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado.
Kenneth Cornell is a sound artist, improviser, and musician from Albuquerque, New Mexico. He has worked with electronics, synthesis, and various instruments over 3 decades now. His performances and installations have been in many independent venues, concert halls, night clubs, galleries and museums across the U.S. and Ireland.
https://bandcamp.com/alchemicalburn
Clifford Grindstaff plays saxophone and bass clarinet with treatments among other instruments.