Heft TRANSMISSIONS: Torin Blankensmith + Dan Gorelick, Custom Scenario + S4Y
HEFT Gallery and Projekt Blank are excited to curate a Live Performance at HEFT Gallery as a part of TRANSMISSIONS, a four-week installation featuring Torin Blankensmith and Dan Gorelick's work "Traces" and a performance by Custom Scenario, collaborating with visualist S4Y.
Early Show – Doors: 5:00pm
Late Show – Doors: 6:30pm
Program for each show:
Act 1: Custom Scenario (Elias Jarzombek and Amos Damroth) with S4Y
Act 2: "Traces", audio-visual performance by Torin Blankensmith and Dan Gorelick
Note: Both acts will perform at each show
About Torin Blankensmith
Torin Blankensmith builds and performs real-time visual instruments for live music, treating code, light, and projection as expressive systems. He has collaborated with Eli Brueggemann, musical director of Saturday Night Live, developing audio-reactive environments performed live to improvisational sets. For Florence & The Machine, he designed modular real-time visual systems for touring performance.
He co-founded DATLAB in New York with Lyell Hintz, hosting monthly gatherings for hundreds of media artists featuring talks, workshops, and large-scale AV performances. His work has been presented at SIGGRAPH Asia, Art Basel Beyond Basel, VIDEOCITTÀ in Rome, and MUTEK Japan. He has taught interactive installation and advanced TouchDesigner at Parsons School of Design since 2020 and currently teaches in NYU’s IDM graduate program. He was a member of NEW INC Year 6, the Google Creative Lab 5 program, and the ITP/IMA Project Fellowship.
About Dan Gorelick
Dan Gorelick blends classical cello and computation to create immersive experiences and improvisational performances. He explores how to make the computer as expressive as the cello, embracing broader definitions of technology. He is based between Brooklyn and San Francisco and is a member of NEW INC in Year 10 and 11. His work is featured in the New York Times, SF Chronicle, and has shared work at the Asian Art Museum, New Museum, and Gray Area and at CTM / Transmediale. He cofounded the Bay Area new media art collective AV Club and was an organizer with LivecodeNYC in Brooklyn.
About Elias Jarzombek (1/2 of Custom Scenario)
Elias is a new media artist and instrument designer. His homemade instrument, the Abacusynth, is a kinetic synthesizer that is designed to make timbral performance accessible, engaging and fun. It organizes the musical building blocks in a layout that invites play, with four spinning blocks that can be moved along rods to control sonic parameters. Winning the Peoples Choice Award and Second Place at the 2023 Guthman Musical Instrument Competition, he most recently showcased his instrument as part of the "Date Night" series at the MET.
About S4Y
Sidney San Martín is a creative technologist and performer based in Brooklyn, NY. His work and collaborations are shown worldwide and focus on live performance, music visuals, immersive art, and electronics.
About Projekt Blank
About Heft
NYC art gallery partnering with artists who use, and address, the ubiquitous systems of contemporary life. Partnering with a fluid roster of artists, the gallery shows a wide spectrum of work – emphasizing inventive uses of traditional materials, memorable experiences, and provocative artworks that are rapidly gaining recognition for advancing the New Systems art movement.
Heft created the TRANSMISSIONS initiative to bring together important musical experiences with a range of systems based fine artworks at their LES gallery. Running from May 15 – June 12 at Heft.
About VOLUMES Listening System
Volumes Speakers are conceived as spatial instruments rather than conventional audio equipment. Each unit integrates five drivers, including front- and rear-firing elements that create a layered, multidirectional sound field. Paired with dedicated stereo subwoofers, the system produces both clarity and physical weight. Sound moves through the room rather than projecting from a fixed point, extending beyond the conventional stereo image. The result is an embodied listening experience where rhythm, frequency, and spatial information are perceived through the body as well as the ear.