RESIDENCY EXHIBITION SERIES
JULY 10 – AUG 10, 2026
Toby Kaufmann-Buhler
Sawing Sound
“Sawing Sound” features video-based media art by Plexus Projects Artist-in-Residence Toby Kaufmann-Buhler. The exhibition includes a web-based multichannel interactive video experience that explores the relationship between a saw sound (manipulated with software) and real-time manipulated analog video synthesis. Selected stills from the videos highlight the serendipitous geometric abstractions created by the video synthesis process. The exhibition also includes video documentation of a live presentation of Sawing Sound integrated into a performance collaboration with an interdisciplinary dance ensemble.
“…my work explores history, memory, identity and sensory perception…much like the electronic signals that pass through video and audio devices, I explore signals that pass through cultures and time periods; these signals are continuously transformed as they reach our current perception of them…” — Toby Kaufmann-Buhler
Toby Kaufmann-Buhler explores sensory perception, identity, and memory through his work in image, sound, and space. This involves the integration of a number of different media including video, film, found/composed sound, text, and installation work. His work was featured in the 2010 Wisconsin Triennial; more recent exhibitions include Time (Im)material at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Gallery 1308, Paradoxes in Video at Sazmanab Project in Tehran, Iran, the Bookless fundraiser at Madison's Central Public Library, and the group exhibition About Seeing at the James Watrous Gallery. He received his MA from the Royal College of Art, and his BA from the University of South Florida.
play-through demo of interactive web-based multichannel video
SELECTED VIDEO STILLS FROM “SAWING SOUND”
LIVE PERFORMANCE OF “SAWING SOUND”
Seed, cloud, hyacinth, bird (excerpt), performance with live manipulated saw sound and video by Toby Kaufmann-Buhler
Vital Spark Performance Group, directed by Erika Schmidt
Dancers: Melisa Clark, Lina Cloffe, Val Geisey, Lea Reill, Alex Welych-Miller
Performed at West Rutland Town Hall, West Rutland, VT (October 2024)
About the Work
Loosely inspired by CRT video walls, the history of video art, pattern-based music and sound art, this work is a modular, interactive grid of videos based on a series I have been developing during the past 10 years. I first started making these short videos in 2016, focused on the relationship between saw sound (manipulated with software) and real-time manipulated analog video synthesis. In 2021 I made a long string of these videos and this turned into an open-ended series; the following year I began developing the concept of integrating the videos into a user-activated, interactive grid. I have occasionally recreated this grid in new iterations, with the fourth version in 2026. Simultaneously over this time period, I have refocused the Sawing Sound project into other areas including performance. These have mostly been solo performances with live manipulated saw and video at a variety of venues (most in the Midwest); in October 2024 I collaborated with the dance performance group Vital Spark for two performances in southern Vermont. Sawing Sound is also available as a digital edition on Metalabel. — Toby Kaufmann-Buhler