darrrsha's photostream  

Darsha Hewittis a Canadian artist from Ottawa Ontario currently residing in Montréal Québec. She makes sound installations and performances using experimental electronics, open source programming software and hardware, and ageing technology. Her interest in working with electronic sound lies in its capacity to act as an audible indicator for processes, information and natural occurrences that we cannot see or that would otherwise go unheard. By handcrafting, rebuilding and cross-wiring basic electronics, she strips them of their commercial obligations and exposes them to the noisy and invisible ethereal realm. Darsha’s artwork makes use of public vicinities and it responds to the environment or people that surround it. It often questions the role of automation in everyday life and how technology-reliant society silences and reinterprets identity.

Her main areas of research are late 19th and early 20th century audiovisual and communication technology. She studies the practices of mid 20th century amateur electronics and radio enthusiasts and how they used homemade technology to augment and understand the world around them. She often draws on the formulas and aesthetics found in vintage D.I.Y. electronics magazines such as Popular Mechanix and Electronics Illustrated. In addition to her art practice, Darsha teaches workshops on experimental approaches to versatile technologies and does consulting with communities new to electronic media and open source practices.