Beginning next week, Touch, Listen will be on exhibition at The Center for Book Arts in New York, alongside with works from some great artists of the century.

Throughout the years, Vito Acconci's work and Marshall McLuhan's writings have inspired my body of work in various different ways. To have my work on exhibition alongside with theirs is undoubtedly an honor for me.

Ear to the Page explores the interaction between recordings and books, using three categories: sound works that reflect the structure and aesthetic of books; packages that thematically entail a book as well as a CD or vinyl record; and books that have a sound component or somehow serve to transcribe or document ideas that previously existed, or potentially can exist, as sound.

Artists/Musicians participating in the exhibition include: Vito Acconci, Juan Arkotxa & Leslie Mackenzie, Bernard Baschet & Francois Baschet, Cathy Berberian & Eugenio Carmi, George Brecht, Inge Bruggeman & Hank Lazar, Jose Luis Castillejo, Jon Gibson, Kenneth Goldsmith, Grace Jones, Jennie C. Jones, Allan Kaprow, Dan Lander & Micah Lexier, Christian Marclay, Marshall McLuhan with Jerome Agel, John Simon and Quentin Fiore, Michalis Pichler, Steve Roden, Allen Ruppersberg, Tate Shaw & Andrew Sallee, Masumi Shibata, Michael Snow, Jan van der Marck/Art by Telephone, and Dennis Yuen & Morry Galonoy.

Organized by James Hoff and Alan Licht, Independent Curators.

Ear to the Page
September 22, 2010 - December 4, 2010
The Center for Book Arts
28 West 27th Street, 3rd Floor
New York, New York 10001
(212) 481-0295
Admission is free

Read a bit more about Touch, Listen.

Today is the last day of this year's National Poetry Month. In 2007 Morry and I created the piece Touch, Listen to celebrate NPM that year. A little bit of reminiscence:

Read about Touch, Listen and then a little bit more about Touch, Listen. And don't forget to call the phone number to hear a poem being read to you on the phone: then you get to celebrate NPM yourself as well.

TDK Japan will release an application to teach on the popular Nintendo DS portable gaming platform, which has its repertoire of teach-yourself titles such as cooking, make-up, yoga and languages.

The title is Minagara Oresu DS Origami (見ながら折れるDSおりがみ). It has 100 projects for your to follow step-by-by on the portable DS screens — in motion picture! Most certainly there is the famous crane, and also other animals and creatures. A voice recognition feature also allows you to control the navigation while both of your hands are working with the paper. Say "mouichido" and it will repeat the current step for you.

That's right, it's in Japanese only. But with the animation, it really shouldn't matter and everyone should be able to follow. After all, isn't origami a universal language?...

At Chelsea Art Musuem on April 5, Morry Galonoy and I debuted Touch, Listen, a piece that combines poetry, book art and interactive voice techologies.

In collaboration with Morry Galonoy, Touch, Listen is my first attempt to get back to working with interactive art and combining my love of book art and technologies. I have been working with technologies for years but have been reluctant to combine my non-digital book art with digital interactive work.

When I started working with books professionally, I decided to stay away from incorporating digital technologies into my books. I wanted to do something non-digital. I hoped that I could regain my creativity when staying away from the computer. For a few years, I had it.

Then all of a sudden I wanted to integrate technologies with my books again. But for the first piece, I am certain that I wasn't going to incorporate an LCD screen in a physical book (which is absolutely cliché and passé nowadays).

In collaboration with Morry Galonoy, Touch, Listen is my first attempt to get back to working with interactive art and combining my love of book art and technologies. I have been working with technologies for years but have been reluctant to combine my non-digital book art with digital interactive work.

To celebration National Poetry Month, we created an interactive piece that combines poetry, book art and voice technology which debuts at the "10 Years Running" show at the Chelsea Art Museum this month.

Touch, Listen (2007)
Dennis Yuen & Morry Galonoy
Bookcloths, Davey board, decorative paper, linen threads, ink, long-stitch binding, voice XML, PHP, syndication from LibriVox's public domain podcast stream of audio poetry

Books are meant to be touched.

Poetry is meant to be listened to. Tel: (617) 850 9366

Each is an art form that should be experienced intimately and personally through our senses.

Touch, Listen explores the book as a tactile art object meant to be held, touched and physically interacted with, and its hypothetical content, in this case, poetry, meant to be performed and listened to. Separating the forms allows us to experience each one as an extension of our ideas, thoughts and feelings, as well as content to its own form.

April is national poetry month.

Last night was the opening of the "10 Years Running" show, a 10th year celebration of Parsons The New School for Design's Design & Technology department. From almost 8 years ago, I graduated from the program and I am so glad and excited to be a part of the show.

I have selected 4 books to show at the Chelsea Art Museum in New York. In addition, an interactive (digital) piece titled Touch, Listen also debuted in the show as well.

In the picture below, clockwise from left to right: Oversized Silver Coptic (2006), Duotone (2006), Buttonhole Rainbow (2007), Black Plum (2007) and Touch, Listen (2007).

Five books have arrived and were installed at the Chelsea Art Museum earlier this afternoon for Parsons's "10 Years Running" show which will open tomorrow.

A new piece titled Touch, Listen, in collaboration with Morry Galonoy, will debut at the show as well. It's my first piece that brings together the two very separate aspects of my life: my love of book art and interactive technology. I have been working and playing with digital technologies for more than 10 years but have been separating them from my book art. Touch, Listen breaks that preference.

To see and interact with my books, as well as Touch, Listen, visit Chelsea Art Museum from tomorrow to April 14th.

In a couple of days, a few of my books will be shown in Parsons Design & Technolgy's "10 Years Running" show. The show will open on Thursday and run until the 14th this month at the Chelsea Art Museum in New York. I am very excited about it. I believe that my books have to be held, touched and opened; so if you are going, you will have a chance to touch my books.

Also, the most exciting of all is that a new piece that integrates mobile and voice technology will also be showcased in the show. Go check it out!