Manifold Systems for Hybrid Research

MSHR Visiting Artist Studio
FaVU, Brno, CZ, Winter 2023-4








This studio will focus on the development of the studio members' individual or collective artistic practices.

Group meetings will be held at the studio once a week where we will experience and discuss artwork by contemporary and historical artists as well as the current projects of the studio members.

As the visiting artists leading this studio, MSHR's fields of research will serve as a base from which to build collective lines of inquiry throughout the semester, including the following:



•Composing with systems

•Instrument/Interface Design

•Webpage as artistic medium

•Cybernetic sculpture installation

•Art collectives

•Virtual Reality as physical medium

•Procedure and improvisation




The subjects focused on in the studio are flexible depending on the interests of the members, but we will open with a focus on artwork that uses systems:


System as Instrument- Living Compositions

We will consider the use and design of systems and instruments as an approach in artistic practices. Procedural techniques such as rule-based performance scores; generative compositions such as computer programs that feed back on themselves to produce ever-morphing media; and instrument design such as sound producing circuits whose physical properties define a musical composition.

When an artist creates a construct that has the potential to unfold in various ways, producing unforeseen behaviors, their art can become like a living collaborator. Working with generative, procedural, and cybernetic approaches offers an expansion of the artistic process- a zooming in and out of the boundaries of where the art is. Designing and exploring synthetic systems can also be a way of engaging with the interwoven biological, ecological, technological and social structures that frame our experience as embodied humans today.





Studio Structure

Our weekly meetings will be spent discussing our collective research and sharing and reflecting on the studio members' ongoing projects.

No specific skill sets are required aside from interest and commitment. Participants will develop work throughout the semester relating to the ideas discussed, with a final group exhibition at the end.

The format of the studio is open, but with the expectation of a rigorous approach and high level of participation.





Please feel free to contact us (Brenna and Birch) with any questions! Email us at memshr at gmail dot com


About MSHR


MSHR is the art collective of Birch Cooper and Brenna Murphy. We build and explore sculptural electronic systems that take form as audiovisual compositions, performances and installations. Collaboration is central to our practice - all our work is enacted collectively.

Our performances revolve around feedback systems that integrate sculptural synthesizers, lights and movement. Our installations involve generative and interactive electronic systems in labyrinthine formations.

We explore intuitive and technical gradients between sonic and sculptural forms, using analog circuitry and open-source software to sculpt mutually resonant hyperobjects.

We conceive of our practice in terms of cybernetics- as a system with many inputs and outputs that are patched back into each other. The emergent form serves as an ever-morphing navigational guide.

MSHR emerged from a larger art collective called Oregon Painting Society in 2011 in Portland, Oregon, USA. We've become increasingly nomadic over the past decade, following our projects where they lead us. Building relationships with international communities around experimental art and music has become an important part of our work.

The name MSHR is a modular acronym designed to hold varied ideas over time.




MSHR website HERE

MSHR CV HERE




MSHR artworks:


VR Sound Sculpture Installation


Live improvisation with Systems


Instrument Design


Web Art


Cybernetic Installation








MSHR