Jesse Pearlman Karlsberg

Jesse Pearlman Karlsberg is a sound artist whose work engages the intersections of personal narrative, communication networks, and history as embedded in place. His work encompasses installation, music for live performance, tunebooks, web design, audio tours, works for radio, and participatory singings. His areas of interest include the sounds of war and conflict, American shape note music in the northeastern United States and northeastern Alabama, social and religious movements in nineteenth-century upstate New York, and finding sand dollars.

Jesse’s masters thesis, a narrative set in western New York’s Burnt-over district about a young man who starts experiencing visions in the aftermath of the Great Disappointment, will be realized as a participatory shape note singing in the Spring of 2006 at the Old Songs Community Art Center in Voorheesville, NY. His music has been performed by Pauline Oliveros, Anne Rhodes, Micah Silver, Angela Opell, and Tim Eastman. He has recently presented work at the Tang Museum, Eyebeam, the Boston Cyberarts Festival, Jessica Murray Projects, the Center for Contemporary Culture in Barcelona, Psy-Geo Provflux Festival, Wesleyan University, and at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Jesse blogs about politics, art making, and shape note music at blog.silversand.org. More information about his work is online at jpk.silversand.org.