M. W. Burns (born 1958 in

Stamford, Connecticut Stamford () is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut, outside of Manhattan. It is Connecticut's second-most populous city, behind Bridgeport. With a population of 135,470, Stamford passed Hartford and New Haven in population as of the 2020 ...

) is an American

sound art Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in hybrid forms. According to Brandon LaBelle, sound art ...

ist. His audio installations explore how sound can transform one's sense of place. Much of his work has focused on

public address A public address system (or PA system) is an electronic system comprising microphones, amplifiers, loudspeakers, and related equipment. It increases the apparent volume (loudness) of a human voice, musical instrument, or other acoustic sound sou ...

and the evolving proliferation of spoken message systems where voices are deployed as behavior management devices, operating as a kind of "disembodied sonic superego". One of his earliest public works took place in 1983 in a Philadelphia park, repeating short phrases over a PA system. More recent projects integrate prerecorded sounds into existing environments to alter the perception of events. Much like the

Foley artist In filmmaking, Foley is the reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added to films, videos, and other media in post-production to enhance audio quality. These reproduced sounds, named after sound-effects artist Jack Foley, can be anythi ...

, who uses sound effects in film to create a sense of action or environment, Burns' application of sound to space plays with one's sense of presence and reality. Burns has had solo exhibitions at the TBA Exhibition Space,

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

; Northern Illinois University Art Museum; Tough, Chicago and the Lab,

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. His sound installations have been included in numerous group exhibitions, including the "2000 Whitney Biennial" at the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

, New York; "Sound/Video/Film", the Donald Young Gallery; "Contextual: Art and Text in Chicago", at the

Chicago Cultural Center The Chicago Cultural Center, opened in 1897, is a Chicago Landmark building operated by Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events that houses the city's official reception venue where the Mayor of Chicago has welcomed preside ...

; "Time Arts" at the

Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporary ...

; "The Body" at the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago and "Sound Canopy", a public project supported by the

Hyde Park Art Center The Hyde Park Art Center (HPAC) is a visual arts organization and the oldest Alternative exhibition spaces, alternative exhibition space in the city of Chicago. Since 2006, HPAC has been located just north of Hyde Park Boulevard, at 5020 S.Cornell ...

References

* https://web.archive.org/web/20121025051415/http://www.frieze.com/issue/review/m_w_burns/ * http://www.sculpture.org/documents/scmag11/may_11/chi/chi.shtml * https://web.archive.org/web/20110716094527/http://www.mocp.org/exhibitions/2001/10/audible_imagery.php {{DEFAULTSORT:Burns, M. W. Living people Artists from Stamford, Connecticut 1958 births American sound artists