The short version
- Brooklyn sound artist Daniel Neumann’s Dilation is an 8-channel installation of sustained drones tuned to the acoustics of Fridman Gallery in New York.
- The tones are calibrated to produce beating, interference and microtonal shimmering, and to resonances visitors feel as vibration.
- It runs from November 11 to December 13 in the group show Body Actualized, open Thursday to Sunday.
Fridman Gallery, at 169 Bowery in New York, opens the group show Body Actualized on November 11. The show is about how outside physical spaces relate to the spaces inside the mind. Its sound piece is Dilation (2026), by the Brooklyn sound artist and audio engineer Daniel Neumann. It is an 8-channel installation that, in the gallery’s words, “tunes sustained drones to subjective resonances (felt vibration) and the acoustic space of the gallery.” The tones are calibrated to produce beating, interference patterns and microtonal shimmering in the air.
Beating is what happens when two tones sit very close in pitch. Their waves drift in and out of step, and the ear hears one tone swelling and fading at a rate equal to the difference between them. With eight speakers in one room, the waves meet differently from spot to spot, so the piece can change as you walk through it. Neumann’s work centres on how sound and space interact. The show also hangs paintings by Naomi Lisiki and Will Maxen and washi and linocut work by Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka.
The opening reception is Wednesday, November 11, 6–8 pm. On November 14 at 7:30 pm, the International Contemporary Ensemble plays compositions by Wadada Leo Smith in the gallery, with tickets through Eventbrite. Body Actualized runs until December 13, Thursday to Sunday, 11 am–6 pm, and by appointment. The gallery does not list an admission price.
