Image from the GCAC.
Last week, I was honored to be a finalist for the Artist Elevated Award from the Greater Columbus Arts Council, which recognizes artists and their career growth, creativity, and artistic vision. I was happy to be at the awards ceremony at the National Veterans Memorial museum in Columbus, Ohio. Congrats to the winners!
I’ve loved what Art of the Rural has been doing and making for a long time now, and I’m so glad I got to spend time talking with their founder and Executive Director Matthew Fluharty on the Art of the Rural Podcast. His insights into my new book Noisy Memory (published with UNC Press) are wonderful, and I’m grateful for the opportunity. You can listen to the podcast below!
It feels strange to keep sharing intimate projects about my family, but I think there is something in them that others might see and hear that connects to the bigger ideas and feelings that run through them. So, here is the release of a brand new piece called “The House” – it is 10 minutes long, and has recordings of my parents’ house along with a string quartet and our family’s old piano. I hope that you can watch and listen to it. Many thanks to the GCAC for their support for this project. You can also learn more by reading an essay about it here: https://brianharnetty.substack.com/p/looklisten-to-a-new-project-the-house
In the October 2025 issue of the Brooklyn Rail, I had an interview with the musician and author John P. Hastings about my new book Noisy Memory. We talked about working with archives, my process of composing, and about the social fabric of Appalachian Ohio. You can read it here:
I will be giving a public talk called “Sound, Listening, and the Environment” as part of a series at the Ross Art Museum at Ohio Wesleyan University. It takes place this evening (September 23) at 6:30pm. For more details, visit here.
Both the book and the companion compilation digital album for Noisy Memory: Recording Sound, Performing Archives are out today. You can purchase the book at the University of North Carolina Press website, or on my Bandcamp page (where you can also get the music that accompanies the book). I am so excited to share them with you, and hope that you enjoy them!
Join me for an author reading one week from today -- Come to Two Dollar Radio Headquarters in Columbus on Wednesday 8/27 at 8:00pm to celebrate the publication of Noisy Memory. More info below:
https://twodollarradiohq.com/event/2025-08-27/author-reading-brian-harnetty
You can now listen to the second episode of the Sound Is Magic podcast, on Substack or any other podcast service that you use. This week, I discuss the connections between silence, memory, family, and place. I also do a deep dive into the album Silent City (2009), which features three tracks with the singer Will Oldham. Listen below:
To celebrate the publication of my book Noisy Memory (out on 8/26 with UNC Press), I decided to make a 5-part podcast that explores the themes and sounds from the book. Here is the first episode, where I traveled to Berea, Kentucky, and where I learned how to listen to archives:
Brian Harnetty, This Was Once a Forest, This Was Once a Sea. Installation view, Ohio Now: State of Nature. Photo: Wes Battoclette, 2025. Image courtesy of the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH.
The video and sound installation This Was Once a Forest, This Was Once a Sea is now up and running at the Contemporary Arts Center Cincinnati through September 7, 2025. If you are in the area, please visit! It is part of the group show called Ohio Now: State of Nature, and it sits proudly alongside many other Ohio artists’ works. To learn more about this project, visit here.
For my latest newsletter, I wrote about an exciting group exhibition opening this Friday (May 2, from 7-10pm) at the Contemporary Arts Center Cincinnati called "Ohio Now: State of Nature." I have a new sound/video installation exploring three different places and time periods in Ohio. If you are in Cincinnati this Friday, I hope to see you there! Read the newsletter here.
Pre-orders are now available for my forthcoming book, Noisy Memory: Recording Sound, Performing Archives. The book will be published on August 28, 2025, with the University of North Carolina Press. Here is an early review of the book: “A beautifully rendered mix of memoir, creative practice, deep listening, and social history, Noisy Memory insists that cultural studies can be both scholarly and personal, artful and ethical. Brian Harnetty reminds us that archival study is never neutral, but always situated—materially, socially, and historically, but also politically—in community. This book is a model for community-engaged humanistic scholarship.”—Ryan Thomas Skinner, author of Afro-Sweden: Becoming Black in a Color-Blind Country
I recently wrote about my experiences of being on an artist residency at Appalachian State in North Carolina last month. It was a great time! You can read all about it here:
Author Joel Oliphint has written a really nice article on The Visitor premiere with the Greater Columbus Community Orchestra this Sunday, April 6, at 7:00pm, at the Hilliard Presbyterian Church. You can read the article here.
I am looking forward to being a part of a new group exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Center Cincinnati called "Ohio Now: State of Nature.” The exhibit runs from May 2 through August 17, and then will travel to the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland early next year. I'll be sharing a sound and video installation called “This Was Once a Forest, This Was Once a Sea,” which features old growth forest, an ancient sea bed, and glacial grooves, all in Ohio. For more information, visit their website here. You can also learn more and see a still from the video here.
It has been such an honor to work with the Greater Columbus Community Orchestra to develop a new piece for brass ensemble called “The Visitor”. It will be a part of the orchestra’s upcoming spring concert on April 6, 2025. I hope to see you there! For more information, visit the GCCO site here.
I am so looking forward to this residency at Appalachian State next week. If you are nearby, I would love to see you at the public events, which include an American Musicological Society sponsored “Many Musics” talk on performing archives, and a solo performance of Words and Silences.
I’ve just put out a new newsletter looking forward to projects and work in 2025. If you aren’t already signed up for the “Sound Is Magic” Substack, please consider doing so! There will be a lot of great things happening in the new year, from new music and sound art commissions, to the publishing of my first book in the fall. I hope you can join me! You can read the newsletter here:
I am sorry to announce that my residency at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, has been postponed. I’ll look forward to visiting next year sometime, and wish everyone a safe and speedy recovery from the devastation of Hurricane Helene. More information here.