Join composer and sound artist Rob Funkhouser for a workshop exploring the hidden sounds of everyday objects. Funkhouser will guide audiences through strategies for using amplification to reimagine the world of tiny sounds happening around them through the use of musical instruments, household items, and contact microphones. Participants will get the chance to explore a set of instruments and objects, and will also be guided on a short walk to find new sounds hidden in the environment around Monument Circle. No previous skills are required. Family friendly.

About:

Rob Funkhouser is a composer, performer, and instrument builder who can never quite sit still. His work is concerned with ideas of place, memory, and pattern and he is interested in interrogating the interstitial spaces between established genres. He holds an M.M. from Butler University in Music Composition, and most recently completed Peace of Mind, Speed of Thought for Classical Music Indy. He has released projects through various labels in three different countries, but finds his home turf on Auris Apothecary and Medium Sound. His current projects include an ongoing series of recordings and writing under the title Walking Music, building a new set of instruments in collaboration with artist Justin Cooper, and ongoing work on new performance tools for music and installations. In 2020, he began a long-term living residency with Big Car as part of their APLR program. He also serves as Education Manager for the Rhythm Discovery Center, where he runs public programming for schools and community members. He has collaborated with diverse groups including Forward Motion, Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, So Percussion, No Exit Theater, and Chicago-based director Ryan Gleason.

SPARK is a partnership with Downtown Indy, the City of Indianapolis, and the Indiana War Memorials Commission — and funded by the Capital Improvements Board. It is a continuation of our work last year and in 2015 on the Circle. Check our website for more.

At Big Car, we approach our work at the Circle as a site- and community-specific socially engaged art and creative placemaking project. The SPARK on the Circle pop-up park was collaboratively designed with Indianapolis-based Merritt Chase to be a restorative public place where people of all walks of life can relax, play, socialize, and engage with art and artists in the heart of our city.