Kevin Allen

Bridge
Super-8mm, 11 minutes
2012

Artist Statement

A study of three similar but distinct microcultures: the Manhattan Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge and Williamsburg Bridge. Interrogated through the use of contact microphones, the physical infrastructures of these bridges become audible and reveal their inherent macroacoustics. The film treats the bridge as an anthropological body for discourse, as a physiology of limbs, organs, eyes and ears moving in time.

Biography

Kevin T. Allen is a filmmaker, sound artist and radio producer whose practice ranges from the ethnographic to the experimental. He has exhibited at numerous venues, including MoMA, the Margaret Mead Film Festival and the Ann Arbor Film Festival. His sound work has been featured at museums and festivals, including the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Third Coast International Audio Festival and Deep Wireless Festival of Radio Art. He has made ethnographically imbued films in Vietnam, Sri Lanka, India, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, the Wild West, and the migrant farm worker community of Immokalee, Florida. Recent research has lead to him find culture not exclusively in human forms, but also inherent in physical landscapes and material objects. His work is funded by the Jerome Foundation.

Website
www.phonoscopy.com