Devon Turnbull on Elevating the Beauty of Sound

To be in a room with one of the artist and audiophile Devon Turnbull’s texture-rich Ojas hi-fi audio systems may be the closest one can get to being in the studio with the musicians themselves. It’s not a stretch to call what he creates “sound sculptures”: Over the past two decades, Turnbull has built up his company Ojas through experimentation, engineering, and deep exploration, and in recent years, his work has been presented at SFMOMA, as well as at Lisson Gallery, both in New York and London. Currently at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (through July 19), as part of its “Art of Noise” exhibition, he’s showcasing his large-scale “HiFi Pursuit Listening Room Dream No. 3,” with listening sessions on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.

On this episode of Time Sensitive, Turnbull discusses why, while there’s a certain spiritual factor to his practice, he wants to “at all costs, avoid the guru complex”; the role of Japan in shaping his understanding of sonic purity; and the synergistic relationship between D.I.Y. culture and his systems.

Special thanks to our Season 13 presenting partner, Van Cleef & Arpels.

Show notes:

Devon Turnbull

[01:34] “Art of Noise”

[12:21] Hamfests

[15:20] Isamu Asano

[16:43] Wabi-sabi

[16:43] Kanso

[16:43] Shibui

[16:43] Mingei movement

[16:43] Theaster Gates

[18:41] Tube Kingdom

[18:41] Stereo Sound

[19:09] Tamura Transformer Company

[23:53] Sound Practices

[25:43] Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974)

[26:29] Nils Frahm

[29:05] Alex Calderwood

[29:05] Sarah Andelman

[29:05] Virgil Abloh

[29:05] James Jebbia

[35:27] Toccata and Fugue in D minor

[39:19] Karimoku

[41:15] Kunichi Nomura

[54:32] Arne Jacobsen

[54:32] Poul Kjærholm

[56:15] New Sounds

[58:36] Fred Again

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(163)

Simon Critchley on Giving Up the Fantasy of Mastery

Who better to bring remarkable clarity to the density of Martin Heidegger’s Being and Time than the British philosopher and New School professor Simon Critchley? After decades spent studying and teach...

7 Loka 1h 37min

Jacques Pépin on “Taste Memory” and a Life in the Kitchen

Jacques Pépin has long found beauty in simplicity—a glass of warm milk, a freshly sliced lemon, a garden-ripe tomato—and in transmitting knowledge from one hand to the next. Now 90, the French chef, a...

30 Syys 1h 14min

Iris van Herpen on Visualizing the Invisible Through Haute Couture

Iris van Herpen’s boundary-defying, otherworldly work exists somewhere between couture, sculpture, science, technology, architecture, and nature. For nearly two decades, the Dutch fashion designer has...

16 Syys 1h 19min

Dries Van Noten on the Meaning Found in Making

Dries Van Noten’s lifelong fascination with craft and making runs deep. He grew up in a multigenerational family of retailers and tailors in Antwerp, and in the 1980s, he was part of the famed avant-g...

24 Kesä 59min

Felix Burrichter on Print’s Enduring Power in the Algorithmic Age

Through PIN–UP, the German-born, New York–based editor, curator, and founder Felix Burrichter continues to expand the possibilities of what an architecture magazine can be. He constructs intuitive bri...

17 Kesä 1h 20min

Maria Popova on the Role of Chance in Shaping Our Lives

Through her multifaceted work, the Bulgarian-born, Brooklyn-based writer, reader, and researcher Maria Popova, founder of the “free, ad-free, A.I.-free, fully human” website and newsletter The Margina...

10 Kesä 58min

Sheila Hicks on Life as a Series of Portals

For our latest “site-specific” episode of Time Sensitive, Spencer meets Sheila Hicks inside her courtyard in Paris’s Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood, where she has called home for more than 60 yea...

27 Touko 1h 4min

Valerie June on Joy as a Form of Resistance

The singer-songwriter Valerie June has a gift for writing contemporary songs that feel timeless and as though they could also have existed at various points across the past century. Her expansive laye...

13 Touko 1h 13min