Robert Blatt (b. 1984 in Anaheim, California) is an artist, musician, and writer. His practice investigates sound and listening through diverse media, exploring their interconnections with environment, community, and language. Recent projects have focused particularly on environmental and ecological co-relations. His work expands from experimental music to include book arts, installation, new media, performance, photography, poetry, printmaking, and video, alongside some simply hard-to-pin-down occurrences in the everyday.
His work has been presented at 2220 Arts + Archives (US), A plus A gallery (IT), Art in Odd Places (US), Athens Institute for Contemporary Art (US), Bank Street Arts (UK), Centrala (UK), CODEX (US), co-incidence festival (US), Darmstädter Ferienkurse (DE), Electric Nights (GR), Hundred Years Gallery (UK), Ideas of Noise Festival (UK), Instituto Internacional (ES), KM28 (DE), Kunstraum Walcheturm (CH), The Lab (US), Miami Live Arts (US), Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (US), OnCurating Project Space (CH), Phonos (ES), PAS (Petersburg Art Space) (DE), Studio Loos (NL), Subtropics (US), toitoiDROME (BE), Trade School (US), University of Cambridge (UK), University of Huddersfield (UK), Villa Merkel (DE), Wayward Music Series (US), West Oakland Sound Series (US), Worm (NL), Zaal 100 (NL), Zentrale (AT), and others. He has received a Music/Sound Fellowship from Akademie Schloss Solitude (DE), as well as grants and residencies from Initiative for Digital Exploration of Arts and Sciences (US), Jack Straw Cultural Center (US), Kala Art Institute (US), Regional Arts & Culture Council (US), Winslow House Project (US) and Vrije Academie GEMAK (NL).
Publishing forms an ongoing component of his practice, particularly through artists' books and editions, which are held in public and private collections, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Library (SFMOMA), Phoenix Art Museum, Letterform Archive, The University of Texas at Austin, University of Toronto, Pennsylvania State University, and University of California, Irvine. A significant selection of this work is also distributed through Motto in Berlin and Passages Bookshop in Portland, Oregon. Recordings include The Free Air (C84 cassette tape and accompanying book containing a score and essay by Blatt), released by Andromache Records, as well as appearances on releases by Audition Records, iii Editions, Zeromoon, and others. His scores and writing have appeared in print and online projects by Bloomsbury Publishing (forthcoming), The Center for Deep Listening / Terra Nova Press, Rotations / Poetic Research Bureau Editions, Weserburg Museum für Moderne Kunst, Small Projects for Coming Communities, Schlosspost & Solitude Journal, and Much Too Much Noise, among others.
He regularly collaborates on expanded, intermedia projects, including with filmmaker Sílvia das Fadas; scientist/musician Carla Cao; artists Ana Smaragda Lemnaru, Joel Ong, and Jon Paden; and composers/sound artists Jorge Gomez Abrante, Kevin Corcoran, Gustavo Matamoros, David Pocknee, Mark So, Leo Svirsky, Maya Verlaak, and Michael Winter. Additionally, much of his work and scores have been realized by or in collaborative performance contexts with, among others and besides the aforementioned, Michael Baldwin, Madison Brookshire, Dario Calderone, Erik Carlson, John Dombroski, Maya Felixbrodt, Corey Fogel, Ben Glas, Marie Guilleray, Louis d'Heudieres, Joseph Kudirka, Yun Lee, Steve Parker, Michael Sattelberger, Sepand Shahab, Elliot Simpson, Caspar Sonnet, Greg Stuart, Stefan Thut, Manfred Werder, Luke Wilkins, and James Yeary, as well as ensembles such as Asko|Schönberg, Curious Chamber Players, Extradition, The Living Earth Show, and Modelo62.
He co-founded and directed Inlets Foundation for Experimental Practices in Miami, realizing performances of experimental music in unconventional locations and situations. Additional projects at the intersection of artistic, organizational, and curatorial practice include Works on Paper: Experiments in Language and Sound with David Abel at Passages Bookshop (US) and Listening Experiments with Gust Burns at Gallery 1412 (US). Related collective initiatives have involved the experimental music and performance art collectives Acid Police Noise Ensemble and the New Fordist Organization in the Netherlands, and Unused Lexical Variable, a composer collective, in Seattle. He also co-authored the yearlong Twitter-based notation project @textscoreaday. He is, in part through such contexts, a performer of works by other artists, primarily from the so-called experimental music tradition, with guitar, objects, voice, electronics, body, etc.
He has been a visiting artist and/or guest lecturer at institutions such as The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (CZ), Conservatorium van Amsterdam (NL), Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (BR), Guildhall School of Music and Drama (UK), Parsons School of Design at The New School (US), Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance (UK), University of California, San Diego (US), and University of Georgia (US).
He holds a Master of Music in composition from the Royal Conservatoire, The Hague and a Bachelor of Music in guitar performance from the University of Washington. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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