The Digital Harings

Photo Courtesy The New School © Phillip Van Nostrand

Solo trombone, electronics, Casiotone, Keith Haring digital sketches

Premiere: December 7, 2017 @ The Bruno Walter Auditorium, Manhattan, NY, USA

composition and performance Kalun Leung
mentorship Jane Ira Bloom

From The New School Press:

Q: What interested you about this project? Leung: Getting back to old-school, detective-style, pen and paper research. Digging deep into tangible primary resources; being able to touch archival material; not relying on fragmented and second-hand info from the internet.

Q: What artifact or resources did you end up selecting and why? Leung: I ended up using 5 digital Macpaint drawings by Keith Haring, from the Timothy Leary Archives. Haring’s work is instantly recognizable and continues to permeate contemporary pop culture in the form of graphic tees and fashion endorsements. Besides personally owning Haring shirts, underwear, and branded notebooks, I was intrigued when I discovered digital art that researchers unearthed in a floppy disk that the artist sent to Timothy Leary in the 80s. These were the only known digital images that Haring produced, 3 of which I will reveal to the public for the first time!

Q: What surprised you about combining research with music? Leung: I was surprised that the Keith Haring Foundation gave me permission to use Haring’s works. Using music and academia opened up possibilities for tapping into material that would have otherwise remained in the collections of a private estate.