Visionary sound art at the Tang Museum
Critter and Guitari (Kucinski, left, and Osborn) Photo by
Eric Jenks
As a freshman in 1998, Chris Kucinski saw classmate Owen Osborn around campus with his hand-made electric banjos and wondered, “Who is this guy?” Soon they were playing music together and creating more instruments.
Kucinski studied art, Osborn physics and music. They turned their fascination with
sound, technology, materials, and design into Critter & Guitari, their Brooklyn business designing and marketing portable synthesizers and other
instruments that encourage musical exploration. Also interested “in how the world
of sounds can translate into the visual world,” Osborn says, they often wire their
instruments to video monitors that portray sound in colorful abstract animations.
That’s what they’ve installed in the Tang Museum’s elevator: fun high-tech gadgets
that museum-goers are invited to use for making and recording sounds, playing them
back and altering them, and seeing how they look in video.
Elevator Music 30: Critter & Guitari runs through June 5 at the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery.
