MSHR presents Negative Flower, a new sculptural electronic system for live improvisation, built from driftwood, circuitry, and an array of handmade instruments.

Tonight’s quadraphonic performance brings Birch Cooper and Brenna Murphy into a network of digital synthesis and electronic voltages moving through what they call “boolean hallways.” The two artists share control with the distributed circuitry, as human and electronic impulses continually act upon one another.

MSHR sees what’s hidden: “Like wind through a garden of stones,” they write, “the sonic material reflects the shape of its framework.”

MSHR is the collaborative project of Birch Cooper (b.1985, Ester, Alaska) and Brenna Murphy (b.1986, Edmonds, Wash.), founded in Portland in 2011 after emerging from Oregon Painting Society, an art collective. Cooper and Murphy build sculptural electronic systems that integrate analog circuitry, digital synthesis, light, and sound. Their performances and installations explore the relationships between human presence and electronic systems, often using handmade instruments and light-audio feedback.

The name MSHR is a modular acronym designed to hold varied ideas over time. It can be pronounced as letters or like one who meshes.

Over the past 15 years, MSHR has performed and exhibited internationally, including at Calm & Punk Gallery and DOMMUNE, Tokyo; Sound Art Museum, Beijing; LOM space, Bratislava; Ngajiswara, Yogyakarta; Neighbours 2.0, Bangkok; The Lab, San Francisco; Sonoscopia, Porto; Sorbus, Helsinki; Museum of Arts and Design and MoMA PS1, New York; and Threewalls, Chicago, with Ceremonial Chamber. They are based in New York.

MSHR last performed for Lampo in September 2016. Brenna Murphy made her Chicago debut with Lampo and Conversations at the Edge in September 2012, premiering the live performance SkyFace~TextureMappr and screening a collection of video works.

Presented in partnership with Soccer Club Club