Bonnie Han Jones is an Korean American improvising musician, poet, and educator working primarily with electronic sound and text. Her work is iterative, multidisciplinary, and typically involves building concepts through research and study and then moving these ideas through a variety of different mediums, methods, and forms. She uses electronic music, recorded sound materials, text, video, performance, and score with attention and focus on listening and improvisation as a core theme and generative method. The work broadly explores noise, sonic identity, listening as thinking and sound as knowledge.
Jones has been an active improvising musician since 1999, and has released several recordings of collaborative and solo projects including green just as I could see (Erstwhile, 2012), with Andrea Neumann; AS:IS (Olof Bright, 2012), with Christine Abdelnour and Andrea Neumann; Clandestine Cassette Series #2 (Northern Spy, 2011); Arena Ladridos (Another Timbre, 2010), with Chris Cogburn and Bhob Rainey; NINA (Simple Geometry, 2010), with Chris Cogburn and Liz Tonne; Jones Family Farm (Compost and Height, 2008); Vines (emr, 2006); One Day (Erstwhile, 2008), with Toshimaru Nakamura; and English (Copula, 2004), with Joe Foster.
Jones has received commissions from the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, United Kingdom, and the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. She has presented her work and collaborations domestically at ISSUE Project Room, Brooklyn; Katzen Arts Center, Washington, D.C.; Kelly Writers House, Philadelphia; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Los Angeles; MoMA PS1, Long Island City; Ontological‐Hysteric Theater, New York; REDCAT, Los Angeles; Swiss Institute, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and internationally at Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, Mexico; and Teatr Weimar, Malmö, Sweden, among others.
As a Baltimore-based arts organizer, Jones was a founding member of both the Transmodern Festival and CHELA Gallery, and is a member of the High Zero Festival and of the Red Room collective. In 2010, along with Suzanne Thorpe she co-founded TECHNE, an organization that develops anti-racist, feminist workshops that center on technology-focused art making, improvisation, and community collaboration. TECHNE’s programs are delivered through partnerships with grassroots organizations that share an aligned commitment to racial and gender equity.
Jones is the recipient of a Fulbright Award (2004), and has been an artist in residence at Kunsthall Krems, Krems an der Donau, Austria; Elektronmusikstudion EMS, Stockholm, Sweden; Mills College, Oakland; STEIM, Amsterdam, Netherlands; and Q-O2, Brussels, Belgium. She has presented lectures and workshops at Centro Cultural Universitario Tlatelolco; Dartington College; Dia:Beacon; Johns Hopkins University; Oberlin College; Maryland Institute College of Art; and University of California, Berkeley. She received her M.F.A. at Bard College. Bonnie was a 2018 recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.
Born in South Korea, she was raised on a dairy farm in New Jersey, spent her formative years in Baltimore, Maryland and Providence RI and currently resides in Chicago, IL. https://bonnie-jones.com/ bonniejonesatgmaildotcom
Short Bio (150 words)
Bonnie Han Jones is a Korean-American improvising musician, poet, and performer working with electronic sound and text. She performs solo and in numerous collaborative music, film, and visual art projects. Bonnie was a founding member of the Transmodern Festival and CHELA Gallery and is currently a member of the High Zero Festival collective. In 2010, along with Suzanne Thorpe she co-founded TECHNE, https://technesound.org/, an organization that develops anti-racist, feminist workshops that center on technology-focused art making, improvisation, and community collaboration. She has received commissions from the London ICA and Walters Art Museum and has presented her work extensively at institutions in the US, Mexico, Europe and Asia. Bonnie was a 2018 recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award. Born in South Korea, she was raised on a dairy farm in New Jersey, spent her formative years in Baltimore, Maryland and Providence RI and currently resides in Chicago, IL. https://bonnie-jones.com/ bonniejonesatgmaildotcom
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