Stephen Vitiello is an American

visual The visual system is the physiological basis of visual perception (the ability to detect and process light). The system detects, transduces and interprets information concerning light within the visible range to construct an image and buil ...

and

sound art Sound art is an artistic activity in which sound is utilized as a primary Time-based media, time-based Artistic medium, medium or material. Like many genres of contemporary art, sound art may be interdisciplinary in nature, or be used in Cross-genr ...

ist. Originally a

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

he is influenced by

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting. V ...

ist

Nam June Paik Nam June Paik (; July 20, 1932 – January 29, 2006) was a South Korean artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the founder of video art. He is credited with the first use (1974) of the term "electronic super highway" ...

who he worked with after meeting in 1991. He has collaborated with

Pauline Oliveros Pauline Oliveros (May 30, 1932 – November 24, 2016) was an American composer, accordionist and a central figure in the development of post-war experimental and electronic music. She was a founding member of the San Francisco Tape Music Center ...

Robin Rimbaud Robin Rimbaud (born 6 May 1964) is a British electronic musician who works under the name Scanner due to his use of cell phone and police scanners in live performance. He is also a member of the band Githead with Wire's Colin Newman and Malka ...

(aka Scanner) and

Frances-Marie Uitti Frances-Marie Uitti (born 1946) is an American cellist and composer known for her use of extended techniques and performance of contemporary classical music. Tom Service, music critic for the ''Guardian'' newspaper, has called her "arguably the wor ...

; as well as visual artists Julie Mehretu,

Tony Oursler Tony Oursler (born 1957) is an American multimedia and installation artist married to Jacqueline Humphries. He completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California, in 1979. His art covers a range of med ...

and

Joan Jonas Joan Jonas (born July 13, 1936) is an American visual artist and a pioneer of video and performance art, "a central figure in the performance art movement of the late 1960s".World Trade Center World Trade Centers are the hundreds of sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may also refer to: Buildings * World Trade Center (1973–2001), a building complex that was destroyed during the September 11 at ...

in 1999 where he recorded sounds from the 91st floor using home-built contact microphones, as well as

photocells A photoresistor (also known as a light-dependent resistor, LDR, or photo-conductive cell) is a passive component that decreases in resistance as a result of increasing luminosity (light) on its sensitive surface, in other words, it exhibits phot ...

and used that material in his ''Bright and Dusty Things'' album (New Albion Records) as well as in an installation environment, ''World Trade Center Recordings: Winds After Hurricane Floyd.'' Vitiello has had

solo exhibition A solo show or solo exhibition is an art exhibition, exhibition of the work of only one artist. Rather than a group of artists who collaborate to form an exhibition. The artwork may be paintings, drawings, etchings, collage, sculpture, or photogr ...

s of sound installations, photographs and drawings at museums and galleries including The Project, NY, MASS MoCA, the High Line, Museum 52,

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

and Galerie

Almine Rech Almine Rech Ruiz-Picasso ( Rech) is a French art dealer and owner of the eponymous contemporary art gallery. The gallery has exhibition spaces in Paris, Brussels, London, New York, Shanghai, Gstaad and Monaco. The gallery opened in 1997 in Paris. E ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. Group exhibitions include '' Soundings: A Contemporary Score'' at the Museum of Modern Art, the 2002

Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. The event began as an annual exhibition in 1932; the first biennial was held in 1973. It is considered ...

, the 2006

Sydney Biennale The Biennale of Sydney is an international festival of contemporary art, held every two years in Sydney, Australia. It is a large and well-attended contemporary visual arts event in the country. Alongside the Venice Biennale, Venice and São Pa ...

and ''Ce qui arrive (Unknown Quantity)'' curated by Paul Virilio at the Cartier Foundation, Paris. CD and LP releases include ''Captiva'' with Taylor Deupree (12k), ''The Sound of Red Earth'' (Kaldor Public Art Projects), ''Box Music'' with Machinefabriek (12k), ''Listening to Donald Judd'' (

Sub Rosa ''Sub rosa'' (Neo-Latin for "under the rose") is a Latin phrase which denotes secrecy or confidentiality. The rose has an ancient history as a symbol of secrecy. History In Hellenistic and later Roman mythology, roses were associated with secr ...

), The Gorilla Variations (12k), and ''Buffalo Bass Delay'' (

Hallwalls Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center (aka Hallwalls) is a non-profit art organization located in Buffalo, New York. Since 1974, Hallwalls has shown and shows the work of contemporary artists of diverse backgrounds who work in film, video, literatu ...

). Vitiello is currently a professor in the Kinetic Imaging department at

Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a Public university, public research university in Richmond, Virginia, United States. VCU was founded in 1838 as the medical department of Hampden–Sydney College, becoming the Medical College of Virgin ...

Collaborations

Vitiello has collaborated with

Harald Bode Harald Bode (October 19, 1909 – January 15, 1987) was a German engineer and pioneer in the development of electronic musical instruments. Biography Harald Bode was born in 1909 in Hamburg, Germany. At the age of 18 he lost his parents and ...

(posthumously),

, Andrew Deutsch,

, Steve Roden,

Taylor Deupree Taylor Deupree (born April 30, 1971), is an American electronic musician, photographer, graphic designer and mastering engineer. He is most known for the founding of the 12k, 12k record label, along with his work as a member of Prototype 909, and ...

Lawrence English Lawrence English (born 1976) is an Australian composer, artist, and curator from Brisbane. His work is broadly concerned with the politics of perception, specifically he is interested in the nature of listening, and sounds' capability to occupy ...

Ryuichi Sakamoto was a Music of Japan, Japanese musician, composer, keyboardist, record producer, singer and actor. He pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the Synthesizer, synth-based band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his ...

and

Jem Cohen Jem Alan Cohen (born 1962) is an Afghans, Afghan-born United States, American filmmaker based in New York City. Cohen is especially known for his observational portraits of urban landscapes, blending of media formats (16 mm film, sixteen-millimet ...

among others.
Charles Sage interview with Stephen Vitiello

Awards

Vitiello has received numerous awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship for Fine Arts,

Creative Capital Creative Capital is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in New York City that supports artists across the United States through funding, counsel, gatherings, and career development services. Since its founding in 1999, Creative Capital has co ...

funding in the category of Emerging Fields, and an Alpert/Ucross Award for Music. Residencies include the Rauschenberg Residency, Captiva, FL, the Sirius Art Centre, Cobh, Co. Cork, Ireland and at MIT.

References

External links

Artist Homepage

Artkrush.com interview with Stephen Vitiello (January 2006)

Sound files to stream and download

Steve Roden and Stephen Vitiello
in ''

Bomb A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechan ...

'' 21st-century American classical composers Living people American sound artists American electronic musicians American male classical composers 21st-century American guitarists Guitarists from New York (state) American male guitarists 21st-century American male musicians Year of birth missing (living people) {{electronic-musician-stub