About Darsha
Darsha Hewitt (CA/DE) is an interdisciplinary artist investigating the material politics of
Music and Sound. She makes electromechanical sound installations, drawings, audio-visual
works, how-to videos, sculptural installations and performative workshops that explore
technological entanglements and their implications on humans and ecology.
With a media archeological perspective she explores sound beyond its sonic parameters
through deconstruction of discarded technology. She focuses on the ethics of (planned)
obsolescence, post-growth strategies and practices of technology that consumer society
throws — in doing so her works race out systems of power, economy and control inherent
throughout socio-techno infrastructures.
Alongside reverse engineering, restoration and aesthetic experiments with decomposing music
technology, she connects with a diverse range of technical communities, including retired
engineers and technicians as a means to learn disappearing hands-on techniques that she
integrates into her studio research and shares within the art/technology milieu. Her signature
DIY electronics and experimental approach to sound pedagogy have been profiled in forums
such as Chaos Computer Congress, Make: Magazine and recently in Garnet Hertz’s book ‘Art +
DIY Electronics’ (MIT Press, 2023).
She has worked as an Artistic Associate in Media Art and Design at the Bauhaus University,
Guest Faculty Member in Sound Studies and Sonic Arts at the Berlin University of the Arts
and has held guest professorships in New Media at Kunsthochschule Kassel and Sound at
Karlsruhe University of Art and Design. She was recently a Founding Fellow at
The Institute of Digital Sciences Austria with Ars Electronica.
Selected Exhibitions, Performances, Presentations...
- Total Screen Time: Brainrot / Exhibition / Panke Gallery (DE)
- Sound Arguments / Lecture Performance / Orpheus Institute (BE)
- Collaborations Afield / Keynote Lecture /Harvard University (US)
- tekhnē Residency / Q-02 laboratory for experimental music and sound art (BE)
- Turboschnalzlautsprecherrennen / public sound intervention / Urbane Künste Ruhr – Grand Snail Tour (DE)
- Fin et début / Einde en begin / Exhibition / iMAL (BE)
- HiFi to LoFi Continuum / Listening Session / iMAL + Q-02 (BE)
- Keynote Lecture / New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) – GAUDEAMUS Festival (NL)
- Material Lo-Fi Imaginaries – Workshop with Claire Williams / iMal (BE)
- SCI_ART – Panel Discussion + Listneing Session / SAW Center + Artengine (CA)
- CTM HackLab – Co-Facilitator/Curator, CTM Festival / Radial System (DE)
- Kunst und Technik Preis – exhibition Kunstverein Heidenheim — Hanns-Voith-Stiftung, Heidenheim (DE)
- Mini Teilchenbeschleuniger AV Experiment – Workshop, Kunsthalle Osnabrück (DE)
- Tech Rider’s Dilemma – exhibition – Marginal (RO)
- High Fidelity Wasteland III, Goldstein Galerie, Frankfurt am Main (DE) /Solo Exhibition
- Sonica Festival, Museum of Transitory Art, Ljubljana (SL)
- 20 Oscillators in 20 Minutes, Künstlerhaus Dortmund (DE)
- What Comes MEX,Künstlerhaus Dortmund (DE)
- Kampnagel + Deichtorhallen – Residency Host (DE)
- How to Beam! Exhibition @ Kampnagel + Deichtorhallen – Curator (DE)
- Reverso, WRO Media Art Biennale, Wrocław (PL)
- Device Art, KONTEJNER, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb (HR)
- Werkleitz Festival, Halle (Saale) (DE)
- EMAP Garden: Move to…ecosphere, Ars Electronica, Linz (AU)
- Digital Ist Besser, Städtischen Galerie, Villingen-Schwenningen (DE)
- High Fidelity Wasteland II, Global Forest, St. Georgen (DE)/Solo Exhibition
- Feedback McLuhan and the Arts, Museum für Kommunikation Frankfurt (DE)
- Transmediale, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (DE)
- Computer GRRRLS, MU Eindhoven (NL)
- Carbon and Light, Ottawa Art Gallery (KA)
- Computer GRRRLS, Gaîté Lyrique, Paris (FR)
- Sideman 5000 Listening Session, Hartware Medienkunstverein, Dortmund (DE)
- What if it Wont Stop Here, Archiv Books, Berlin (DE)
- Computer GRRRLS, Hartware MedienKunstVerein, Dortmund (DE)
- Requiem for a Failed State, Auf AEG, Nürnberg (DE)
- Sound Effects Festival, ARKO Arts Council Korea (SK)
- Requiem for a Failed State, Leipzig Halle14 (DE)
- Feedback: Marshall McLuhan & the Arts, West Den Haag (NL)
- Close, Never Closer, Universität der Künste Berlin (DE)
- Sonic Arcade: Shaping Space with Sound, Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY (US) 2017 Microwave Festival, Hong Kong City Hall (HK)
- Future Flux Festival, RDM Submarine Warf, Rotterdam (NL)
- Piratebloc Radio: In Situ, Eastern Bloc, Montreal (QC)
- The Watch, Transmediale, Langenbeck-Virchow-Haus, Berlin (DE)
- SideMan 5000 Listening Session, Spektrum Berlin (DE)
- Side Man 5000 Project, FACT – Foundation for Art and Creative, Liverpool (UK)
- Kontroll-Modus Feedback, Halle14, Leipzig (DE)
- Object Mechanics, Kunstkraftwerk Leipzig (DE)
- Side Man 5000 Project, Goethe-Institut, Montreal (KA)
- 25 oscillators – 25 minutes, 32. Chaos Communication Congress, Hamburg (DE)
- 25 oscillators – 25 minutes, Frameless, München (DE)
- Lab 30, Augsburg (DE)
- Sight and Sound Festival, Montreal (KA)
- Experiments with CRT TV, Network Consciousness, Residency Unlimited, (NY)
- 25 oscillators – 25 minutes, APO33, Nantes (FR)
- European Sound Art Award, Skulpturenmuseum Marl (DE)
- Going Dark, Transmediale/Lab for Electronic Arts and Performance, Berlin (DE)
- WRO International Media Art Biennale, Wrocław (PL)
- Electrostatic Bell Choir, Blackwood Gallery, Toronto (KA)
- Electrostatic Bell Choir, Stéphanie Lagueux, SKOL, Elektra | Montreal (KA)
- 25 oscillators – 25 minutes, Piksel Festival, Bergen (NO)
- 25 oscillators – 25 minutes, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford (UK)
- Electrostatic Bell Choir, Edith-Russ-Haus für Medienkunst, Oldenburg (DE)
- Electrostatic Bell Choir, Pulverturm Oldenburg (DE)
- 25 oscillators – 25 minutes, New Music Festival, Vancouver (KA)
- Deep Wireless Festival, NAISA, Toronto (KA)
- WWKA, MUTEK 12th Edition, Montreal (KA)
- Deep Wireless Ensemble, NAISA, Toronto (KA)
- WWKA, Nuit Blanche, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (KA)
- end + Receive V.10, Winnipeg (KA)
- The Québec Triennial, Musee d’art contemporaine de Montreal (KA) 2008 My Computer, Gallery 300m3, Gothenburg (SE)
- Crosstalk, FrontGround, Galeria Manolo Rivero, Merida (MX)
- Personal Soundtrack Emitters, Video Pool, Winnipeg (KA)
- Media Povera, Ottawa Art Gallery (KA)
- Make Art Festival, Poitiers (FR)
- Damaged Goods, Piksel 2006, Bergen Center for Electronic Art (NO)
- Les racines d’Origine, Art Origine, Strasbourg (FR)
- Press Play, Interaccess, Toronto (KA)
Residencies (selected)
- KONTEJNER – European Media Arts Platform Residency, Zagreb (CR)
- Sonic Wild{er}ness, Hailuoto (FI)
- FACT – Foundation for Art and Creative Technology, Future Humans Production Residency, Liverpool (UK)
- STEIM – Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music, Research Residency, Amsterdam (NL)
- PACT Zollverein – Research Residency, Essen (DE)
- Stipendium für Junge Künstler im Bereich Sound Art, Braunschweig University for Art (DE)
- Edith-Russ-Haus für Medienkunst, Produktionsstipendium, Oldenburg (DE)
- Cultivamos Cultura, Bio-Art Research Residency, Sao Luis, (PT)
- Western Front Media Arts Society, Research Residency, Vancouver (KA)
Interviews / Catalogues / Bibliography
- Hewitt, Darsha. Meet the Machine: Sideman 5000 Edition. Interface Critique 2, ed. Florian Hadler, Alice Soiné, Daniel Irrgang (Heidelberg: Unversitätsbibliothek Heidelberg/arthistoricum.net). 2019
- Valiquet, Patrick. “100% Expert!“ Mastery and Equality in Darsha Hewitt’s Sideman 5000 Adventure. In Jóri, A., & Lücke, M. (eds.), The “New” Age of Club and Electronic Dance Music Culture. Springer Verlag, 2020.
- Gaikis, Lona, Schimana, Elisabeth Ed. Hidden Alliances Versteckt Verbunden, Ars Electronica, Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2019.
- Langill, Caroline, Catherine Sinclaire. Carbon + Light: Juan Geuer’S Luminous Precision, Exhibition Catalogue, Ottawa Art Gallery, 2019
- Neubert, Clara. Mit dem Rasenmäher zur gesellschaftlichen Emanzipation, mdr.de/Winter 2017
- Ludovico, Alessandro. 20 Oscillators in 20 Minutes, Neural Magazine, issue 53 / Winter 2016
- Williams, Elliot. 32C3: 20 OSCILLATORS IN 20 MINUTES, Hack-A-Day, 2016
- Kirn, Peter. 20 Oscillators in 20 Minutes is Comic Gold, Create Digital Music, 2016
- Walter, Moritz. Colour Changing LED Makes Techno Music, Hack-A-Day, 2016
- Smith, Greg J.. Slinging Beats with Darsha Hewitt – A Side Man 5000 Interview, Creative Applications 2015
- Bell, Donald. Learn Electronics from the World’s Oldest Drum Machine, MAKE: Magazine, 2015
- Migone, Christof. “Hear Hear” Blackwood Gallery – University of Toronto, 2015
- Debatty, Régine. We Make Money Not Art, Glitches and vintage baby monitors, interview (online), 2014
- Kropiowski, Łukasz. Do it Yourself Art – Prace Darshy Hewitt, Artpunkt 19, Article, 2014
- De Menezes, Marta. Sul Sol – Cultivamos Cultura, Exhibition Catalogue, 2013
- Smith, Greg J.. Invisible Forces, Domestic Rhythms, Text for Solo Exhibition, 2013
- Migone, Christof. “WoodTwo” Blackwood Gallery – Catalogue University of Toronto, 2013
- Himmelsbach, Sabine. (für das Edith-Ruß-Haus für Medienkunst) “Produced@” Revolver Verlag Berlin, 2013
- De Menezes, Marta. Sul Sol – Cultivamos Cultura, Exhibition Catalogue, 2013
- Christof Migone, “WoodTwo” Blackwood Gallery – University of Toronto, 2013
- Gérin, Annie. Perambulations: Art of Motion and the Streets of Ottawa” dans La culture en transit : mobilités culturelles Brésil-Canada / Cultures in Transit : Cultural Mobility in Brazil and Canada, Pascal Gin et Walter Moser (eds), Ottawa, University of Ottawa Press, coll. « Transferts culturels, 2012
- McCallum, David. Darsha Hewitt: Electronics Cowgirl, Music Works Magazine, Summer 2010, #107
- Falvey Emily. Electronic Blue Orchids: Media Povera Catalogue, The Ottawa Art Gallery – ABC Art Books Canada, Ottawa, Canada, Catalogue for exhibition: Sept. 11th – Nov. 11 2007, pp. 14-15, 54- 57, 60
- Cole, Crys. Zen and the Art of Listening. 2007, Poolside: Nano-Mega, Videopool, Winnipeg