BIBLIOGRAPHY
Published Writings by Judy Dunaway
Resonance: The Journal of Sound and Culture, Vol. 1, Issue 1 (University of California Press: April 2020), "The Forgotten 1979 MoMA Sound Art Exhibition." CLICK HERE TO READ PAPER
To read an interview about the paper go to: https://www.ucpress.edu/blog/52015/uncovering-the-history-of-sound-art/
Musicworks Magazine, Winter, 2002, “My Beautiful Balloon, Part II: Orchestration and Playing Techniques for Balloons as Sound Producers,“ pp. 40-46. Backissues available from Musicworks Magazine.
Musicworks Magazine, Fall, 2001, “My Beautiful Balloon, Part I: A History of the Balloon as a Sound Producer in Experimental Music,“ pp. 14-21. Backissues available from Musicworks Magazine. Download article here: My Beautiful Balloon (Part 1)
Konzert, Klangkunst, Computer: Wandel der musikalischen Wirklichkeit; Institut für Neue Musik und Musikerziehung Darmstadt - Hauptarbeitstagung (55th : 2001), “The MP3 Phenomena and Innovative Music," Mainz ; New York : Schott , 2002.
The Improvisor: The International Journal of Free Improvisation, “Amica Bunker, a History,“ Volume XI, 1996, pp.26-36. Read excerpts from this article at the ABC No Rio website.
Ear: Magazine of New Music, April 1990, “Femme Fretale: A Brief History of Women and the Guitar,“ vol. 15, no. 2., p. 22.
Published Scores by Judy Dunaway
The following scores are published by Material Press (Frankfurt):
For Chorus with Balloons (1999)
For Bass Koto with Balloons (2000)
The Sound of Skin (2003)
On the Air (2007) for alto and soprano saxophones (one player) and musique concrete, to be broadcast live over radio
For Amplified Grand Piano with Balloons (2012)
These scores may be ordered directly from Material Press.
Writings About Judy Dunaway's Work
Catalogue from "instinct #12: An AIDS Walkthrough" (2023)
https://www.instinct.berlin/an-aids-walkthrough
https://www.instinct.berlin/judy-dunaway-instinct12
"Listening to an Epidemic: The Impact of HIV/AIDS in the Sonic Arts"
by Samuel Perea-Diaz, Masters Thesis, Sound Studies and Sonic Arts, Berlin University of the Arts, Berlin, Germany: 2022. pp. 45-50.
On the Poetics of Balloon Music: Sound Artist Judy Dunaway (Part Two) (interview and article)
Carlo Patrão, Sounding Out! (online magazine) April 22, 2019
https://soundstudiesblog.com/2019/04/22/play-against-levity-experimental-music-and-the-latex-balloon-part-two/
"Acts of Envelopment: Implications of Touch in Judy Dunaway’s Works for Balloons" from "A Portfolio of Two Essays" by Tonia Chi Wing Ko, Doctoral Dissertation, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY: 2017. Available for free download at: https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/51610
Transmission Arts: Artists and Airwaves by Galen Joseph-Hunter, with Penny Duff and Maria Papadomanolaki, PAJ Publications, New York: 2011. Includes discussion and description of Judy Dunaway's “Duo for Radio Stations,“ p. 85.
SoundVisions by Torsten Mueller, Kunsu Shim and Gerhard Staebler, PFAU Verlag, Saarbruecken: 2005. Includes discussion of score example from Judy Dunaway's “Molto,“ pp. 78-79.
Interviews
Cross Pollination S02 E02 Podcast: Judy & Rafaele – New Instruments, Dead Zones & Decomposition (2022)
Interview with "iii - instrument inventors initiative" resident artists Judy Dunaway and Rafaele Andrade by Chetana Pai.
https://instrumentinventors.org/post/crosspollination-s02-e02-judy-rafaele-new-instruments-dead-zones-decomposition/
"Judy Dunaway: Chamber Ensemble for Balloons" by Erfan Abdi (2022)
short documentary about artist residency at iii Instrument Inventors Initiative, Den Haag, Netherlands
https://vimeo.com/778478309
Radio Survivor, Podcast #292 (with host Jennifer Waits)
Interview with Judy Dunaway about her research, her art and other things - posted 04/06/21
www.radiosurvivor.com/2021/04/06/podcast-292-the-history-of-sound-art/
RADIO WEB MACBA (Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art) posted 1/29/2018
Interview with Judy Dunaway by Anna Ramos from July 2017
outtakes posted on Radio Web MACBA Extra 1/31/2019
The Cusp (online magazine), podcast
interview with Judy Dunaway by Hannah Nepil (recorded in 2016)
published January 25, 2019
https://thecuspmagazine.com/features/judy-dunaway-podcast-interview-artist-makes-music-balloons/
Knut Remond, ohrenhoch sound gallery (Berlin) - exhibit booklet
November 2013
CLICK HERE TO READ INTERVIEW
Adam Phillips, VOICE OF AMERICA
Avant-Garde Music for Toys, 'Playing' in New York, April 1, 2009
Archived version of Adam Phillips' interview is available on his website: http://www.audiobyadam.com/tag/avant-garde/
Reviews
Michael Anton Parker, DOWNTOWN MUSIC GALLERY (online)
August 2006
Review of "Mother of Balloon Music" CD on Innova Records
"Like Radulescu's String Quartet no. 4, some of the material on here is both musically revolutionary and viscerally devastating in its spectral intensity. This is microtonality as crafty violence. In the second movement of the 21-minute opus "For Balloon and String Quartet", the bowed strings and rubbed balloon become indistinguishable swirls in a relentless swarm of dizzying circular pitch motion. Dunaway's two duo improvisations with Tom Chiu also use the primary balloon music technique of rubbing (or otherwise agitating) the surface (a technique insightfully labelled by Dunaway as an "orb-shaped string"), which allows for a flexibility of sound production far exceeding any other known instrument, but the big surprise here is the flexibility of the violin because Chiu somehow manages to make it sound like a balloon! The high-pitched acrobatics and sound mergers they achieve is breathtaking and will surely change many people's lives."
CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE REVIEW
Meredith Yayanos, COILHOUSE MAGAZINE (online)
October 2007
Review of "Mother of Balloon Music" CD on Innova Records
"Dunaway is utterly fearless in her approach to her craft, and unflinching in the face of inevitable backlash from both her classical and avant-garde contemporaries... Her Etudes No. 1 and 2 for Balloon and Violin (2004) [with Tom Chiu] are particular favorites of mine, perhaps because they are what my own stuffy classical violin instructor would undoubtedly have dismissed as good musicians behaving unforgivably."
CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE REVIEW
Uta M. Reindl, KUNSTFORUM INTERNATIONAL
January-March 2001
Review of presentation of "Duet for Jumbo Balloons" and "Flying F*ck" as part of the "Lobreden auf Eros (In Praise of Eros)" exhibit at Moltkerei Werkstatt in Koeln, Germany (excerpt)
Translation from German: "In "Duet for Jumbo Balloons," the American performance artist Judy Dunaway demonstrated two giant balloons as a sound-fetish, by sliding Walkmen or vibrating dildos gently along the thick outer skin of the giant balloons. The piece was reminiscent of Matthew Barney's choreography. In a second work (the sound installation "Flying Fuck"), the artist worked with smaller, transparent balloons along with dildos (vibrators), which -- if turned on -- filled the area with a soft roar." CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE VERSION
Rene Van Peer, EXPERIMENTAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
September 1998
Review of "Balloon Music" CD on CRI (excerpt)
"Dunaway doesn't leave any room for doubt -- the balloon is a musical instrument, and a wonderfully hybrid one at that...Balloon Music is convincing evidence... As a whole this is a thoroughly gratifying compilation of music that can be drawn from this unusual instrument... With her balloons she outgrunges many a rock band. She achieves an admirable accuracy in her timing and in hitting her pitches, but she also shapes these elements into passionate solos."
CLICK HERE TO GO TO COMPLETE REVIEW
Kenneth Goldsmith, NEW YORK PRESS
October 7-13, 1998
Review of "Balloon Music" CD on CRI (excerpt)
"If someone didn't tell you the primary instrument was a balloon, you'd never know; she gets a phenomenal range of sounds out of them, most of which sound more electric than acoustic...She makes her instrument sound like a cross between Hendrix's feedback-drenched guitar, the moans of Albert Ayler's sax and the high wail of a Jewish shofar...it's hard to believe it's all done with balloons. It's Cab Calloway in Munchkinland. It's Olivier Messiaen on helium."
CLICK HERE TO GO TO COMPLETE REVIEW
Kyle Gann, THE VILLAGE VOICE
August 8, 1995
Review of July 13, 1995 performance at Hear Theater (excerpt)
"Judy Dunaway performs with balloons. She's not naked when she does it, and it isn't in Times Square, either; I heard her at sweltering, 80-degree-plus Here Theater in Soho on July 13. She's good. She stretches the, uh, mouthpiece, I guess, of an inflated balloon to let it squeal, and shapes her mouth as a resonator, somewhat the way Inuit throat singers play off of each other's vocal cavities. The result is a primitive but highly nuanced wail, distant and lonely. Other times, holding a contact-miked balloon between her thighs, she rubs her fingers on each side in patterns that simulate complex, glissandoing counterpoint. Close your eyes, as I did for awhile, and the amplified, reverbed results sound remarkably like French musique concrete from the '60s. In a scene where success often hinges on finding your niche, she's discovered one out a long drive from the main highway."
CLICK HERE TO GO TO COMPLETE REVIEW
Kyle Gann, from www.kylegann.com (archival site)
"My Favorite Women Composers of All Time"
"Judy Dunaway - improviser and singer/songwriter best known for her spine-tingling work with amplified balloons"
Amy Gwinnett, THE CUSP (online magazine)
November 8, 2016
Review of performance at Cafe Oto, London, U.K.
"The layers and depth of sound she evoked from this were remarkable, through stroking the balloon to make juddering, squeaking noises, and at times the music was positively cinematic..."
CLICK HERE TO GO TO COMPLETE REVIEW
Other
Video advertisement for Fluxus Sex Ties event at Museum Wiesbaden (2023)
https://vimeo.com/775289860
Resonance: The Journal of Sound and Culture, Vol. 1, Issue 1 (University of California Press: April 2020), "The Forgotten 1979 MoMA Sound Art Exhibition." CLICK HERE TO READ PAPER
To read an interview about the paper go to: https://www.ucpress.edu/blog/52015/uncovering-the-history-of-sound-art/
Musicworks Magazine, Winter, 2002, “My Beautiful Balloon, Part II: Orchestration and Playing Techniques for Balloons as Sound Producers,“ pp. 40-46. Backissues available from Musicworks Magazine.
Musicworks Magazine, Fall, 2001, “My Beautiful Balloon, Part I: A History of the Balloon as a Sound Producer in Experimental Music,“ pp. 14-21. Backissues available from Musicworks Magazine. Download article here: My Beautiful Balloon (Part 1)
Konzert, Klangkunst, Computer: Wandel der musikalischen Wirklichkeit; Institut für Neue Musik und Musikerziehung Darmstadt - Hauptarbeitstagung (55th : 2001), “The MP3 Phenomena and Innovative Music," Mainz ; New York : Schott , 2002.
The Improvisor: The International Journal of Free Improvisation, “Amica Bunker, a History,“ Volume XI, 1996, pp.26-36. Read excerpts from this article at the ABC No Rio website.
Ear: Magazine of New Music, April 1990, “Femme Fretale: A Brief History of Women and the Guitar,“ vol. 15, no. 2., p. 22.
Published Scores by Judy Dunaway
The following scores are published by Material Press (Frankfurt):
For Chorus with Balloons (1999)
For Bass Koto with Balloons (2000)
The Sound of Skin (2003)
On the Air (2007) for alto and soprano saxophones (one player) and musique concrete, to be broadcast live over radio
For Amplified Grand Piano with Balloons (2012)
These scores may be ordered directly from Material Press.
Writings About Judy Dunaway's Work
Catalogue from "instinct #12: An AIDS Walkthrough" (2023)
https://www.instinct.berlin/an-aids-walkthrough
https://www.instinct.berlin/judy-dunaway-instinct12
"Listening to an Epidemic: The Impact of HIV/AIDS in the Sonic Arts"
by Samuel Perea-Diaz, Masters Thesis, Sound Studies and Sonic Arts, Berlin University of the Arts, Berlin, Germany: 2022. pp. 45-50.
On the Poetics of Balloon Music: Sound Artist Judy Dunaway (Part Two) (interview and article)
Carlo Patrão, Sounding Out! (online magazine) April 22, 2019
https://soundstudiesblog.com/2019/04/22/play-against-levity-experimental-music-and-the-latex-balloon-part-two/
"Acts of Envelopment: Implications of Touch in Judy Dunaway’s Works for Balloons" from "A Portfolio of Two Essays" by Tonia Chi Wing Ko, Doctoral Dissertation, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY: 2017. Available for free download at: https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/51610
Transmission Arts: Artists and Airwaves by Galen Joseph-Hunter, with Penny Duff and Maria Papadomanolaki, PAJ Publications, New York: 2011. Includes discussion and description of Judy Dunaway's “Duo for Radio Stations,“ p. 85.
SoundVisions by Torsten Mueller, Kunsu Shim and Gerhard Staebler, PFAU Verlag, Saarbruecken: 2005. Includes discussion of score example from Judy Dunaway's “Molto,“ pp. 78-79.
Interviews
Cross Pollination S02 E02 Podcast: Judy & Rafaele – New Instruments, Dead Zones & Decomposition (2022)
Interview with "iii - instrument inventors initiative" resident artists Judy Dunaway and Rafaele Andrade by Chetana Pai.
https://instrumentinventors.org/post/crosspollination-s02-e02-judy-rafaele-new-instruments-dead-zones-decomposition/
"Judy Dunaway: Chamber Ensemble for Balloons" by Erfan Abdi (2022)
short documentary about artist residency at iii Instrument Inventors Initiative, Den Haag, Netherlands
https://vimeo.com/778478309
Radio Survivor, Podcast #292 (with host Jennifer Waits)
Interview with Judy Dunaway about her research, her art and other things - posted 04/06/21
www.radiosurvivor.com/2021/04/06/podcast-292-the-history-of-sound-art/
RADIO WEB MACBA (Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art) posted 1/29/2018
Interview with Judy Dunaway by Anna Ramos from July 2017
outtakes posted on Radio Web MACBA Extra 1/31/2019
The Cusp (online magazine), podcast
interview with Judy Dunaway by Hannah Nepil (recorded in 2016)
published January 25, 2019
https://thecuspmagazine.com/features/judy-dunaway-podcast-interview-artist-makes-music-balloons/
Knut Remond, ohrenhoch sound gallery (Berlin) - exhibit booklet
November 2013
CLICK HERE TO READ INTERVIEW
Adam Phillips, VOICE OF AMERICA
Avant-Garde Music for Toys, 'Playing' in New York, April 1, 2009
Archived version of Adam Phillips' interview is available on his website: http://www.audiobyadam.com/tag/avant-garde/
Reviews
Michael Anton Parker, DOWNTOWN MUSIC GALLERY (online)
August 2006
Review of "Mother of Balloon Music" CD on Innova Records
"Like Radulescu's String Quartet no. 4, some of the material on here is both musically revolutionary and viscerally devastating in its spectral intensity. This is microtonality as crafty violence. In the second movement of the 21-minute opus "For Balloon and String Quartet", the bowed strings and rubbed balloon become indistinguishable swirls in a relentless swarm of dizzying circular pitch motion. Dunaway's two duo improvisations with Tom Chiu also use the primary balloon music technique of rubbing (or otherwise agitating) the surface (a technique insightfully labelled by Dunaway as an "orb-shaped string"), which allows for a flexibility of sound production far exceeding any other known instrument, but the big surprise here is the flexibility of the violin because Chiu somehow manages to make it sound like a balloon! The high-pitched acrobatics and sound mergers they achieve is breathtaking and will surely change many people's lives."
CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE REVIEW
Meredith Yayanos, COILHOUSE MAGAZINE (online)
October 2007
Review of "Mother of Balloon Music" CD on Innova Records
"Dunaway is utterly fearless in her approach to her craft, and unflinching in the face of inevitable backlash from both her classical and avant-garde contemporaries... Her Etudes No. 1 and 2 for Balloon and Violin (2004) [with Tom Chiu] are particular favorites of mine, perhaps because they are what my own stuffy classical violin instructor would undoubtedly have dismissed as good musicians behaving unforgivably."
CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE REVIEW
Uta M. Reindl, KUNSTFORUM INTERNATIONAL
January-March 2001
Review of presentation of "Duet for Jumbo Balloons" and "Flying F*ck" as part of the "Lobreden auf Eros (In Praise of Eros)" exhibit at Moltkerei Werkstatt in Koeln, Germany (excerpt)
Translation from German: "In "Duet for Jumbo Balloons," the American performance artist Judy Dunaway demonstrated two giant balloons as a sound-fetish, by sliding Walkmen or vibrating dildos gently along the thick outer skin of the giant balloons. The piece was reminiscent of Matthew Barney's choreography. In a second work (the sound installation "Flying Fuck"), the artist worked with smaller, transparent balloons along with dildos (vibrators), which -- if turned on -- filled the area with a soft roar." CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE VERSION
Rene Van Peer, EXPERIMENTAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
September 1998
Review of "Balloon Music" CD on CRI (excerpt)
"Dunaway doesn't leave any room for doubt -- the balloon is a musical instrument, and a wonderfully hybrid one at that...Balloon Music is convincing evidence... As a whole this is a thoroughly gratifying compilation of music that can be drawn from this unusual instrument... With her balloons she outgrunges many a rock band. She achieves an admirable accuracy in her timing and in hitting her pitches, but she also shapes these elements into passionate solos."
CLICK HERE TO GO TO COMPLETE REVIEW
Kenneth Goldsmith, NEW YORK PRESS
October 7-13, 1998
Review of "Balloon Music" CD on CRI (excerpt)
"If someone didn't tell you the primary instrument was a balloon, you'd never know; she gets a phenomenal range of sounds out of them, most of which sound more electric than acoustic...She makes her instrument sound like a cross between Hendrix's feedback-drenched guitar, the moans of Albert Ayler's sax and the high wail of a Jewish shofar...it's hard to believe it's all done with balloons. It's Cab Calloway in Munchkinland. It's Olivier Messiaen on helium."
CLICK HERE TO GO TO COMPLETE REVIEW
Kyle Gann, THE VILLAGE VOICE
August 8, 1995
Review of July 13, 1995 performance at Hear Theater (excerpt)
"Judy Dunaway performs with balloons. She's not naked when she does it, and it isn't in Times Square, either; I heard her at sweltering, 80-degree-plus Here Theater in Soho on July 13. She's good. She stretches the, uh, mouthpiece, I guess, of an inflated balloon to let it squeal, and shapes her mouth as a resonator, somewhat the way Inuit throat singers play off of each other's vocal cavities. The result is a primitive but highly nuanced wail, distant and lonely. Other times, holding a contact-miked balloon between her thighs, she rubs her fingers on each side in patterns that simulate complex, glissandoing counterpoint. Close your eyes, as I did for awhile, and the amplified, reverbed results sound remarkably like French musique concrete from the '60s. In a scene where success often hinges on finding your niche, she's discovered one out a long drive from the main highway."
CLICK HERE TO GO TO COMPLETE REVIEW
Kyle Gann, from www.kylegann.com (archival site)
"My Favorite Women Composers of All Time"
"Judy Dunaway - improviser and singer/songwriter best known for her spine-tingling work with amplified balloons"
Amy Gwinnett, THE CUSP (online magazine)
November 8, 2016
Review of performance at Cafe Oto, London, U.K.
"The layers and depth of sound she evoked from this were remarkable, through stroking the balloon to make juddering, squeaking noises, and at times the music was positively cinematic..."
CLICK HERE TO GO TO COMPLETE REVIEW
Other
Video advertisement for Fluxus Sex Ties event at Museum Wiesbaden (2023)
https://vimeo.com/775289860