ForestBot, a kinetic, acoustic installation by Jeff Feddersen features a group five robotic sculptures made of wood, metal, fiberglass, rattles, motors and custom electronics. Tall, gently swaying stalks support small rattles at their tips and counter-weighted mechanisms near the ground. Algorithmic movements in the mechanisms cause the rattles to sound. Small variations in the speed, weight, and placement of the mechanisms, and the length of the stalks, impart subtle variations to the overall sound texture created. At the same time, powerful motors in the articulated bases of the sculptures can tilt the stalks, causing them to move almost imperceptibly, as if following the sun. The slowly changing sound environment is unpredictable yet peaceful. The first version of ForestBot was developed for LEMUR, a collective of musical robots. The piece was exhibited at MixedMedia, a digital art show in Milan, in 2006. It has been reconfigured for the sun porch, a setting where the sounds of ForestBot can be heard in relation to the surrounding garden, and seen against the backdrop of Wave Hill’s woodlands.

Jeff Feddersen is an artist, musician, and engineer interested in new musical instruments and sustainable energy. His work-in-progress, EarthSpeaker, is a solar-powered acoustic instrument installed at free103point9's Wave Farm in Acra, NY, developed with support from NYSCA and Glide Design. He has developed new means of musical expression, such as real-time composition software, multi-modal digital input devices, and two amplified acoustic instruments - the Silverfish and the Double Harmonics Guitar. He has exhibited or performed at Homemade Instrument Day at The Lincoln Center, New York, NY; The Extended Instrument: An Investigation into Sound Art and Contemporary Music with Harvestworks; New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME), Hamamatsu, Japan; and Musicacoustic 2005, Bejing, China, among other places. He teaches at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program, where he was also a Resident Researcher, and recently finished a stint with the NASA flight hardware developer Honeybee Robotics. He earned his MPS degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, and his BA from Macalester College, St. Paul, MN. Visit fddrsn.net for more information about his work.

The Sunroom Project Space is an opportunity for New York area emerging artists to develop a special project or create a new body of work to exhibit in a solo show. This year five artists were chosen. Peter Gerakaris and Pedro Cruz-Castro exhibited their work this past spring, and installations by Jeff Feddersen and Margie Neuhaus are on view in the fall. The project concludes with Joianne Bittle Knight’s exhibition from October 19 – December 2, 2007.

Public Programs
October 14, 2pm, Meet the Artists, Jeff Feddersen and Margie Neuhaus greet visitors and talk about the installations on view.

ForestBot, 2005 Fiberglass, aluminum, wood, plastic, electronics 5 units, 13’ x 2’ x 2’ each Courtesy of the artist

ForestBot, 2005 detail Fiberglass, aluminum, wood, plastic, electronics 5 units, 13’ x 2’ x 2’ each Courtesy of the artist

The Sunroom Project Space Series is supported by the Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation. Support for the Visual Arts Program is provided by the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, the Greenwall Foundation, Target, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts–a state agency. Sustaining support for Wave Hill is provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

   
The Arts at Wave Hill are sponsored by