BILL FONTANA

Portraits

Email:<bfontana@resoundings.org>

Born: Cleveland, Ohio, 1947

Resides: San Francisco

Education:

- New School for Social Research, New York, B.A. 1970

- Cleveland Institute of Music, 1967

- John Carroll University, Cleveland, 1965-67

Fellowships:

- Artadia 2005 San Francisco Bay Area Award

- Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Electroacoustic Music, University of Birmingham, 2005

- National Endowment for the Arts, Artists Fellowship, 1990-91

- John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, 1986-87

- Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission, 1985-86

-Berliner Kuenstlerprogramm des DAAD, 1983-84

- National Endowment for the Arts, Composers Fellowship, 1979

Web Site: www.resoundings.org

Teaching:

- Academy of Media Arts, Cologne ( 2001 to 2003)

- California College of Arts and Crafts, 2002\

- San Francisco Art Institute, 1997

- Sorbonne, Paris (1994-95)

Gallery:   Haunch of Venison, London

http://www.haunchofvenison.com/

Consulting:   

- NBBJ Design, Seatttle - 2002 to the present

- California Academy of Sciences  -1988 and 2004

Selected Commissions and Sound Sculptures:

• Harmonic Bridge, Tate Modern and London Underground Platform for Art, London, Summer 2006
• Sonic Mapping, St. Martin's Church and the Birmingham Electro-Acoustic Music Studio, Birmingham, 2005
• Sound Lines, Leeds Dark Arches, 2005
• Speeds of Tiime, Palace of Westminster, London, 2004
• Primal Soundings, Leeds City Gallery and Contemporary Art Society, 2004
• Speeds of Time, BBC,   London,  2003
• Antigone (sound composition and environmen), Duesseldorfer Schauspielhaus, Duesseldorf, 2002
• Falling Echoes, Creative Time, New York, 2002
• Acoustical Visions of Venice,  48th Venice Biennale,  1999
• Wave Memories, Trafalgar Square, National Maritime Museum, London, 1999
• Time Fountain,   Fundació Antoni Tapies,  Barcelona, & Reina Sofia,  Madrid,   1995
• Sound Island, Arc de Triomphe, Paris, 1994
• Soundbridge Cologne - Kyoto, 1993 - simultaneously installed in Cologne and Kyoto at the Museum Ludwig and National Museum of Modern Art Kyoto
• Vertical Water, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1991
• Landscape Soundings,  Vienna Festival, Kunsthistorisches Museum,  1990
• Sound Sculptures through the Golden Gate, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1987
• Entfernte Züge (Distant Trains), Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD, West Berlin, 1984
• Oscillating Steel Grids along the Brooklyn Bridge,  World Trade Center and Brooklyn Museum,  New York, 1983
• Sound Recycling Sculpture, Akademie der Künste, West Berlin and Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris,  1980
• Sound Sculpture with Resonators, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1978
• Kirribilli Wharf, Australian Broadcasting Corp and Sydney Opera House, 1977

Selected Permanent Installations and Works in Collections:

• Pigeon Soundings, Kolumba Museum, Cologne, Germany, 2005
• Primal Soundings, Leeds City Gallery and Contemporary Art Society,  2004
• Musical Information Network Lyon,  Lyon Tramway Line 1,  2001 
• Echo Phases,  Simeon Properties Emeryville  Tech Center, Emeryville, CA 2000
• Wave Phases at Chesil Beach, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, U.K., 1999
• Sound Sculpture with a Sequence of Level Crossings, 1982/1997, digitally remastered eight-channel installation, collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
• Wave Trains, 1996, Mülheimer Brücke subway station, Colgone, Germany
• Spiraling Sound Axis, 1993, North Carollina State Revenue Building, Raleigh
• Earth Tones, 1992, Oliver Ranch, Sonoma County, CA 

Selected Environmental Sound Recording and Design Projects:

• Sonic Landscaping, NBBJ Design,  Seattle, 2004-2005
• Ants, Sounds of the Rainforest of Trinidad and Army Ant Habitats, California Academy of Science, 2004
• Sounds of the British Coast, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, England, 1997 to 1999
• Sounds of the Old City of Jerusalem,  DAAD Berlin,  1995 to 1996
• Australian Rainforests, Australian Broadcasting Commission, 1988
• Farallon Island Soundscapes, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, 1988
• Sounds of Hawaii, Hawaii Public Radio, Honolulu, 1986
• Acoustic Journey, An Investigation of Traditional Japanese Sounds on the Verge of Extinction,  Wacoal Art Center, Tokyo, 1985
• Rainforests of Thailands, Jungle World Exhibit, New York Zoological Society, 1984
• Soundscapes, 365 Four Minute Radio Programs on Environmental Sound, National Public Radio,  1982 to 1983
• Wild California, Natural Sounds of California, Oakland Museum Natural Sciences Department,  1979
• Australian Sound Studies, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 1973 to 1978

Selected Bibliography:

• Alan Riding, The Sound Artist Bill Fontana Amplifies the Tate Modern's Millennium Bridge, NewYork Times, 2006
• Robert Riley, Bill Fontana – Speeds of Time, Haunch of Venison, London, 2005
• Julian Crowley, Interview with Bill Fontana, The Wire,  London ,  April ,2004
• Mary Blume, "Portrait of Bill Fontana," International Herald Tribune, July 9, 1994
• Bill Fontana, The Relocation of Ambient Sound, Leonardo Volume 20 # 2, Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1987
• John Rockwell, "Sound Island," New York Times, June 18, 1994
• John Hanhardt, Heidi Grundmann, and Werner Fenz, Landscape Soundings, Vienna Festival, Vienna, 1990

Selected Compact Discs, LP Records and Cassettes

• Harmonic Bridge, published by the Haunch of Venison Gallery, London, 2006
• Il Sonore, published by the French Ministry of Culture, Paris, 1994
• Satellite Sound Bridge Cologne-San Francisco, published by Wergo, Mainz, Germany, 1994
• Virtual Nature, published by the Austrian State Radio (ORF), Vienna, 1994
• Landscape Soundings, published by the Austrian State Radio (ORF), Vienna, 1990
• Australian Sound Sculptures,  by Editions Block, Berlin, 1988
• Sound Sculptures through the Golden Gate, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1987
• Acoustical Journey, Wacoal Art Center, Tokyo, 1985
• Sounds of Hawaii, Hawaii Public Radio, Honolulu, 1984
• Field Recordings of Natural Sounds, Sierra Club, San Francisco, 1982
• Sounds of the Bay Area, KQED, San Francisco, 1982
• Landscape Sculpture with Fog Horns, KQED, San Francisco, 1982
• Sound Sculptures by Bill Fontana, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1978