John Levee
Assistant Program Director
Biography
John Thomas Levee is an artist, composer, and educator working at the intersection of a variety of mediums. His work often examines notions of human interaction with the environment and with technology. Often site-specific, Levee’s work strives to ask of the viewer: “How does this work relate to its surroundings? To you? By extension, how do you relate to your surroundings?” These questions are meant to drive dialogue regarding humanity’s influence on the natural world and on ourselves, specifically in regards to industrialization and technological advancement.
Obsolete technology, field recordings, and found objects are all integral to Levee’s work. For him, all of these components are evocative of specific places and times, and function as transportive tools. In regards to obsolete technology, his video work tends to use VHS tapes, CRT TVs, and cameras which record to outdated media formats. Not only do these provide constraints to the process of artmaking, which is integral to Levee’s artistic production, but also point to technology as a thematic element of the work.
Levee believes that using obsolete, recycled, often landfill-bound technology in the production of the work draws connection to the relationship between ever-advancing technology and human destruction of natural spaces. They currently teach at Champlain College, where they are the Assistant Program Director of Game Sound Design. They have studied at Columbia University in the City of New York, where they received their MFA in Sound Art, and at Stetson University, where they received their BS in Audio Technology & Industry and their BA in Digital Arts.
Favorite Quote
“If I was an artist, and I was in the studio, then whatever it was I was doing in the studio must be art.”
—Bruce Nauman, 1978