Andrea Parkins is a Berlin-based sound artist, composer, and electroacoustic performer who is known for her pioneering gestural/textural approach on her electronically processed accordion, and investigation of embodiment, and chance with her self-designed sound-processing instruments. Her projects encompass multi-diffusion site- based sound installations; electroacoustic solo and ensemble compositions; electronic music pieces, and sound for contemporary dance, film and intermedia performance.
Photo by LR Parkins
Her work has been presented internationally at venues and festivals such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Kitchen, Experimental Intermedia, Kunsthalle Basel, Café Oto, Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain (Strasbourg), Kunsthall Bergen, NEXT (Bratislava), and Cyberfest (St. Petersburg), among others. She performs as a solo artist, and has collaborated across genre and discipline with artists including Ute Wassermann, Tony Buck, Stephen Vitiello, Nels Cline, Magda Mayas, George E. Lewis, The Necks, Vera Mantero, Abigail Child, The Body Cartography Project, and more.
Since 2002, Parkins’ primary project has been her series of audiovisual performance works inspired by Rube Goldberg’s circuitous machines. Recent projects include her series of amplified performance drawings, which she developed in 2017 as an invited resident artist at the Rauschenberg Residency in Captiva, Florida; and Two Rooms (Variation 1), a site- configured performance/installation for 40 loudspeakers and solo performer, which premiered in 2016 at Akousma Festival in Montreal. Parkins’ recordings are published by Important Records, Confront Recordings, Atavistic, Henceforth Records and Creative Sources; and she can be heard as a contributor on numerous other labels.
Her work has received support from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, American Composers Forum, New York State Council on the Arts, French-American Cultural Exchange, Meet the Composer, Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center, Wave Farm Media Arts Assistance Fund, and Frei und Hanseastadt Hamburg Kulturbehoerde. Parkins holds an MFA in Visual Arts from Rutgers University and is currently a PhD fellow in Artistic Research at the Norwegian Academy of Music.
Since 2002, Parkins’ primary project has been her series of audiovisual performance works inspired by Rube Goldberg’s circuitous machines. Recent projects include her series of amplified performance drawings, which she developed in 2017 as an invited resident artist at the Rauschenberg Residency in Captiva, Florida; and Two Rooms (Variation 1), a site- configured performance/installation for 40 loudspeakers and solo performer, which premiered in 2016 at Akousma Festival in Montreal. Parkins’ recordings are published by Important Records, Confront Recordings, Atavistic, Henceforth Records and Creative Sources; and she can be heard as a contributor on numerous other labels.
Her work has received support from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, American Composers Forum, New York State Council on the Arts, French-American Cultural Exchange, Meet the Composer, Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center, Wave Farm Media Arts Assistance Fund, and Frei und Hanseastadt Hamburg Kulturbehoerde. Parkins holds an MFA in Visual Arts from Rutgers University and is currently a PhD fellow in Artistic Research at the Norwegian Academy of Music.