Michael Garfield
Josh Smith reevbooking@gmail.com
MICHAEL GARFIELD
MUSIC
Between the personal warmth of songwriting tradition and the whirling electronics of festival culture, Michael Garfield is making music for which new words must be invented – intimate and heady, focused and raw. Not content to merely push the
boundaries of acoustic fingerstyle technique, Michael weaves guitar, voice, effects, sound system, and audience into a greater instrument ecstatically
playing itself. These guitar tapping etudes, cyberacoustic loopscapes, and
passionate lovesongs are the performance of a world on its way: an age of
reunion when dualisms fade in the glare of a love beyond opposites, and old
categories no longer apply.
LIVE ART & ILLUSTRATION
Trained as a paleontologist and scientific illustrator before launching into festival
culture, Michael Garfield is the Indiana Jones of live art. Since November 2007,
he has set up his easel in a legendary range of situations, from underground
caves and raging basement clubs to NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett
Airfield to New Year's raves in the Costa Rican rainforest. He has painted,
displayed, and spoken on panels alongside internationally renowned visionary
artistsAlex & Allyson Grey, Robert Venosa, Martina Hoffmann, Mark Henson, Android Jones, Amanda Sage, Oliver Vernon,Mars-1, Kris D, and J Garcia. His festival appearances include Burning Man (Entheon 2009 & 2010, FractalNation 2011),Wakarusa, Electric Forest, Sonic Bloom, Rothbury, Rootwire, Trinumeral, Bear Creek, Motion Notion, Gem & Jam, Global Sound Conference, and
Geoparadise...and he has held live art residencies for the Trilogy Lounge in Boulder (2008), the Mondrian Hotel's Pere La Chaise Lounge in Scottsdale (2009), and ActionPacker Pro Productions in New Orleans (2010). He also plays as organizer and journalist for the growing live art community, leading festival performance and gallery teams and showcasing colleagues with the ongoing
interview series, The Field Guide To Live Artists.
WRITING & SPEAKING
If you aren't awestruck by the vast mystery in which we participate – or you are, and are looking for the words – Michael would like to help. Speaking and writing on the fertile intersections of evolutionary science, spirituality, technology, culture, and creativity, Michael is equally comfortable in both festival and academic cultures. A researcher at the Hybrid Reality Institute, he has presented at both Burning Man's Entheon and Red Lightning Villages and John F. Kennedy University's Integral Theory Conference – and written featured articles by RU Sirius' transhumanism quarterly H+ Magazine, Daniel Pinchbeck's archaic revival nexus Reality Sandwich, integral theory blog KenWilber.com, and D.C. futurist think-tank The Arlington Institute's internationally-syndicated newsletter, FUTUREdition. He also works as a music and culture blogger, editor (including a stint with Christiana Wyly's blog at The Huffington Post), and creativity consultant. Author Paul Lonely called Michael's afterword to his experimental novel, Suicide Dictionary, "better than the book itself." He is currently at work on a body of essays exploring evolution and selfhood for The Renaissance Project.
Between the personal warmth of songwriting tradition and the whirling electronics of festival culture, Michael Garfield is making music for which new words must be invented – intimate and heady, focused and raw. Not content to merely push the
boundaries of acoustic fingerstyle technique, Michael weaves guitar, voice, effects, sound system, and audience into a greater instrument ecstatically
playing itself. These guitar tapping etudes, cyberacoustic loopscapes, and
passionate lovesongs are the performance of a world on its way: an age of
reunion when dualisms fade in the glare of a love beyond opposites, and old
categories no longer apply.
LIVE ART & ILLUSTRATION
Trained as a paleontologist and scientific illustrator before launching into festival
culture, Michael Garfield is the Indiana Jones of live art. Since November 2007,
he has set up his easel in a legendary range of situations, from underground
caves and raging basement clubs to NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett
Airfield to New Year's raves in the Costa Rican rainforest. He has painted,
displayed, and spoken on panels alongside internationally renowned visionary
artistsAlex & Allyson Grey, Robert Venosa, Martina Hoffmann, Mark Henson, Android Jones, Amanda Sage, Oliver Vernon,Mars-1, Kris D, and J Garcia. His festival appearances include Burning Man (Entheon 2009 & 2010, FractalNation 2011),Wakarusa, Electric Forest, Sonic Bloom, Rothbury, Rootwire, Trinumeral, Bear Creek, Motion Notion, Gem & Jam, Global Sound Conference, and
Geoparadise...and he has held live art residencies for the Trilogy Lounge in Boulder (2008), the Mondrian Hotel's Pere La Chaise Lounge in Scottsdale (2009), and ActionPacker Pro Productions in New Orleans (2010). He also plays as organizer and journalist for the growing live art community, leading festival performance and gallery teams and showcasing colleagues with the ongoing
interview series, The Field Guide To Live Artists.
WRITING & SPEAKING
If you aren't awestruck by the vast mystery in which we participate – or you are, and are looking for the words – Michael would like to help. Speaking and writing on the fertile intersections of evolutionary science, spirituality, technology, culture, and creativity, Michael is equally comfortable in both festival and academic cultures. A researcher at the Hybrid Reality Institute, he has presented at both Burning Man's Entheon and Red Lightning Villages and John F. Kennedy University's Integral Theory Conference – and written featured articles by RU Sirius' transhumanism quarterly H+ Magazine, Daniel Pinchbeck's archaic revival nexus Reality Sandwich, integral theory blog KenWilber.com, and D.C. futurist think-tank The Arlington Institute's internationally-syndicated newsletter, FUTUREdition. He also works as a music and culture blogger, editor (including a stint with Christiana Wyly's blog at The Huffington Post), and creativity consultant. Author Paul Lonely called Michael's afterword to his experimental novel, Suicide Dictionary, "better than the book itself." He is currently at work on a body of essays exploring evolution and selfhood for The Renaissance Project.
Show me someone who believes they have an original idea, and I will invite them to meet Michael Garfield.
- Colorado Music Buzz, Denver CO
It takes creativity to make the next step in a newer, more shocking direction, but it takes a visionary to go beyond the breaking point and meet music on the other end of the spectrum. That’s what Michael Garfield does..."
- Evan Townsend, TheUntz.com
"[Michael's] illustrating, as Huxley would say, the 'antipodes' of the Divine Imagination."
- Alex Grey
- Colorado Music Buzz, Denver CO
It takes creativity to make the next step in a newer, more shocking direction, but it takes a visionary to go beyond the breaking point and meet music on the other end of the spectrum. That’s what Michael Garfield does..."
- Evan Townsend, TheUntz.com
"[Michael's] illustrating, as Huxley would say, the 'antipodes' of the Divine Imagination."
- Alex Grey
