With a Little Help from Our Friends: Halsey Burgund

Ed:
Halsey, I’ve been a follower of your work for over a decade, and we’ve worked together a couple of different times at different museums. It is interesting to me how widely you venture afield in terms of genre and the way your projects realize themselves. How would you describe yourself and what you do? If you’re at a cocktail party and somebody is like, “Oh, Hi, Halsey what do you do?” What is your answer?

Halsey:
It’s shocking given that though I’ve been doing this for a while and that I occasionally do go to cocktail parties, I always find myself struggling a bit with this answer, because as you say, there is a breadth of forms that my work takes. That said, there are guiding principles; ideas and things that interest me that seem to transcend the forms which the final output takes. I do a lot of work with technology, how people use technology, what the implications of technology are and how technology can help artistic and creative expression. A lot of times I will use cutting-edge technologies to jump into new ideas and explore new approaches.

But I’m also very interested in old technologies, in particular language. Language is something that fascinates me. I do a lot of work with the spoken voice; I ask lots of people questions and use the recorded responses to those questions in different ways from musical compositions to evolving installations. To me, language is one of the earliest technologies. One of the earliest ways that humanity figured out how to consolidate knowledge, communicate, evolve and in some ways, think. I like to say that my work is an exploration of new technologies and old technologies and how they could be used in expressive, creative ways. I realize that’s very broad, but that is one thread that goes through everything I do.

The other one of course, is audio. You know I’m a big audio person. I come from a musical background, and I love using my ears for exploring things. Whether it be explicitly works that are only audio or works that are video with audio, the audio gets me excited. I think a lot about how intimate audio can be and what an amazing form of communication it is. Of course, with the spoken voice, words and language are critical, but there is so much nuance in the way people speak; so much individuality, so much musicality. The inspiration is endless.

Ed
So, “It’s complicated” basically. That’s usually the TL;DR version of that answer.

Halsey:
True. And I honestly think that if it isn’t a little complicated, you might not be working.

Ed:
That’s a great point. You talked a little bit about your background. What did you go to school for, what did you study, and what path did you see for yourself when you were younger?

Halsey:
It’s funny, actually. I do not have a background that would suggest I would be doing what I am doing now. I majored in geophysics, but I did a lot of music in undergrad. I had a band and performed and all that stuff, but my degree is a BS in geophysics.

I’ve always been super in love with the natural world, and I’ve always loved trying to understand it and trying to understand the physical processes. And I loved the process of trying to figure that stuff out and how to go about solving problems. I think of my life now often as solving “art problems”. I get an idea for something that I’m going to solve and figure out how to create that experience for other people. I think, perhaps surprisingly to some people, that my training with the scientific method is something that I find very useful for artistic, creative approaches. I think science is extremely creative. 

So undergrad was geophysics. Then I went and became a furniture maker.  I designed and built furniture. I was too in my head at school, and I wanted to get out and do things with my hands. I’ve always loved building stuff. I did that for a while until I realized that I couldn’t make a living doing that without cutting corners that I wasn’t interested in cutting. I thought it’d be much more fun to have that as a hobby where I could do it because I love doing it rather than doing it because I’m forced to because I need to make a living. Then I got into the high-tech world. I jumped into the dot com boom and got some experience in the tech world and tried to get enough runway to quit and do more creative stuff. 

So that’s how I got to the place where I am now, which is an independent creator of artistic projects and technology as well. A lot of what I do is working with a platform called Roundware that I created, which is a contributory audio augmented reality platform that I use for my work and other folks use to create educational experiences. 

Ed:
To acknowledge debts, I should state that you’re part of the reason I am where I am today, because of your Roundware project, Scapes. My first encounter with your work was going to visit the DeCordova to see Scapes. 

And I came home and thought, “Wow, there’s a lot going on in the world beyond my little bubble. Maybe I need to get out more.” As somebody who was working at a science museum at the time, I kind of poo-pooed that stuff as being unserious and fluffy. I had my own comeuppance at your hands, because we spent probably two and a half hours with Scapes. And the fact that essentially one person was able to pull that all off was supremely impressive. I can’t think of another experience in that category that is as good as Scapes, even eleven years later. 

Halsey
How flattering! I appreciate that. I think back on Scapes sometimes, and I’m like, “Why on Earth did I say I could do this?” It’s one of those things where you look back at it and think, “I was young and naive, and I shouldn’t have said I can do that.” But of course, you’re pleased that you did. There are good things about being young and naive sometimes!

But there’s one thing I want to mention that your experience with Scapes highlights. One of the reasons that I love contributory work is that you put your artwork out there and people can either show respectful appreciation for it or stomp all over it. Right there in it, not later in an article somewhere. It freaks me out, but at the same time, you open yourself up in these moments for magical things to happen. You get the kids talking and saying things that are not intended to be insightful but end up being amazing. And you’ve got emergent use cases, or people creating asynchronous stories over time and all these sorts of behaviors that have come out of it. I could never think of those things, I could never do that. I’m the opposite of the prototypical painter in his or her garrett, painstakingly creating perfection. I just can’t do that. I admire people who can do that. I need this external input and this randomization, setting up a system, trying to elicit things from people who are participating, but also allowing the computer to “improvise.” And you’ve got to take the downs with the ups, but to me it’s worth it.

Ed:
I totally agree. I think there is that sweet spot of working at the edge of what you’re capable of and what is possible. Certainly in my own career, those moments of like, “I think this is possible, and we’re gonna try.” and when it works, it’s great! And when you fall down, at the very least, you’ve extended yourself into something new and potentially interesting. How would you describe your path from Roundware and participatory audio into the stuff that you’re currently interested in, like In Event of Moon Disaster? What is the flow that has led you that far? Because you seem to be now branching out into social commentary.

Halsey:
Again, it’s one of these circuitous paths. I think there is a consistency of exploring not only what new technologies can do, but also what the potential problems are with new technologies. In Event of Moon Disaster is a project that jumps into AI, and what AI can be used for, specifically misinformation in the form of deepfakes. I think a lot about the problems and challenges in the world. I’m not in a position as an individual artist to influence lots of people directly like a politician or celebrity, but I am somebody who can create experiences and somebody who can affect individuals in a meaningful way through those experiences. And if I can do that – if I strive to do that – then it would be wonderful if the way I affect folks is partially aesthetic, just a pure experiential situation, and also one in which some durable learning can take place. I think that’s one of the things that art is really great at; opening people up to a situation where they’re willing to learn stuff and willing to perhaps see perspectives that aren’t ones that have already been firmly imprinted onto them.

For In Event of Moon Disaster, which I co-directed with my collaborator Fran Panetta, we created this experience of a rewritten history of the Apollo 11 moon landing mission that was not successful. We have President Nixon deliver this real speech via a deepfake; one he never delivered in real life, thereby shocking people: “Oh my gosh, there are astronauts stranded on the moon!” Then we open the curtain and say this is how we did it and what the implications are of this on society. So whether that’s a direct path or not from my previous work, there is always something about trying to affect society in a positive way. I have delusions of grandeur frequently, but I realize the art world is only one of many ways that this needs to happen and that makes me feel useful, which is important.

Ed:
Awesome. And it’s just complete random coincidence that you happen to be working on this at the same time that they came up with a whole television series, “For All Mankind” based on an alternate history of the space race?

Halsey:
I’ve wanted to get in touch with Ronald D. Moore about that, just because I think he would probably appreciate it. I love that show. We had no idea about it when we were doing our project. In fact, one of the folks we were working on for the visuals of the deepfake emailed us and was like, “Oh, there’s this show, and it uses part of the contingency speech.” I believe Nixon is on the phone discussing the details with his speech-writer; things like, “Oh, no, don’t use that word, use this one instead.”. So there was reference made to this real, famous speech that we brought back to life. It’s a great show! I just finished season two.

Ed:
Earlier today, we were talking about this sudden craze in large, immersive experiences, like the various Van Gogh experiences that are filling Boston and other venues in the U.S. More broadly, what are you watching? What are you listening to? What, what’s the kind of stuff that you find interesting and exciting?

Halsey:
I think those traveling immersive exhibitions and organizations like Superblue are trying to put together the art side with the entertainment side and create these hybrid experiences which seem really cool. Immersive theater is part of that too. I saw a wonderful talk by Sharon Clark the other day about her company Raucous in the UK, which does some amazing immersive theater stuff. I honestly think audio is having another moment. I think audio-first platforms are suddenly on the uptake. People really are making money on podcasting now, which means that it’s going to stay. Then you have things like Clubhouse and the associated halo effect  which suggests that an audio-first platform could be successful. Combine that with all the interest in spatial computing, like Niantic with Pokemon Go and, you name it, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Apple; everybody’s got their spatial engines trying to bring computing out into the real world and having it augment one’s experience. That’s what I’ve been doing for ages from an audio perspective. I think there’s a lot of potential both creatively and technically there. So, those are the things I’m keeping an eye on; just be open to inspiration when it happens.

Ed:
Thanks, Halsey. I’ll end on that, since that practice of always being on the lookout for inspiration is so important to us at TEA. We’re very excited to be working with you and look forward to making some new magic together.