Harvestworks and Roulette are pleased to co-present Live Processing Paint and Sound, a performance by pioneer of interactive sound art Liz Phillips and painter Heidi Howard. The program, presented as part of Harvestworks’ 50th anniversary celebration, will include an introduction by Harvestworks’ Interim Director Ivana Dama, followed by a conversation with Sanna Almajedi, Performance Curator at e-flux.
Throughout the creation of Heidi Howard’s painting, Liz Phillips will live-process aquatic recordings using Mugic and light sensors, contact microphones, and a theremin, transforming brushstrokes and fish activity into an immersive water soundscape. Live video synthesis from six camera and screen feeds will illuminate Roulette’s large projection screen.
Liz Phillips synthesizers and custom electronics
Heidi Howard sensors and live painting
A livestream will be available free of charge at 8pm on the day of the performance and archived for future viewing.
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Liz Phillips is a New York–based artist and a pioneer of interactive sound art whose installations explore the relationships between sound, technology, architecture, and the natural environment. For more than four decades, she has created immersive works that use custom electronics, sensors, and spatial audio to transform audiences into active participants. Inspired by her early experiences in nature along the Hudson River, Phillips has developed environments in which sound responds to human presence, redefining the experience of space through interaction. Her work has been exhibited internationally at institutions including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Walker Art Center, Ars Electronica, The Kitchen, Creative Time, and the Spoleto Festival USA. She has also collaborated with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. Phillips is the recipient of a 2024 Anonymous Was A Woman Award and a United States Artists Fellowship, recognizing her pioneering contributions to sound art and experimental media.
Heidi Howard is a Queens, New York–based artist whose practice spans portrait painting, site-specific wall paintings, sculpture, and collaborative installations. Working across painting and spatial environments, Howard explores the relationship between people and their surroundings, often creating portraits with the sitter present. Their work has been exhibited at Wave Hill, Gaa Gallery, the Rhode Island School of Design, the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, the Queens Museum, W139, the Hunterdon Museum of Art, and James Cohan Gallery. Howard has participated in residencies including the Terra Summer Residency, Rauschenberg Residency, Carrizozo AIR, and Palazzo Monti. Their work has been featured in Vogue, The Paris Review, The Brooklyn Rail, and other publications. Howard’s first monograph, Colors Make Us Do Vibrant Deeds!, was published in conjunction with a solo exhibition at the LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies at Columbia University.
Sanna Almajedi (b. 1993, Baghdad) is a curator and writer based in New York, currently serving as Performance Curator at e-flux and co-curator of the Immigrant Artist Biennial. She recently served as Performance Curator for the 13th Seoul Mediacity Biennale, Séance: Technology of the Spirit, held between August and November 2025. Almajedi co-curated Publishing Against the Grain–which was produced by Independent Curators International and toured institutions including Zeitz MOCAA and CCA, Lagos–and more recently curated Babel at SARA’S / Dunkunsthalle, Summer Dinner at Slip House, and Bricks of Memory, Fragments of Home, an online exhibition for White Columns.
