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Derek Phillips

Derek Phillips, Asian Art Museum, sound art, artists, performance art, san francisco, theatre, theater, documentation, photography, bay area, designer

Ryan Tacata’s Lolas at Asian Art Museum



Derek Phillips, Lauren Dietrich Chavez, site specific, sound design, live art, designer, site responsive, performance art, soundscape, environmental art, Sopocles, wave organ, theater bay area, san francisco, collected works, theater maker

Sophocles #116 at Wave Organ



Derek Phillips, Yula Paluy, Muriel Maffre, Museum of Performance and Design, MP+D, theater, theatre, performance, performance art, sound design, theater bay area, san francisco, collaboration, collected works, archive

Nothing is Sacred? at Museum of Performance + Design



Derek Phillips, sound, designer, artist, old mint, san francisco

Jean Genet’s The Balcony at The Old Mint



John Cage, Lecture on Nothing, performance, sound, design

John Cage’s Lecture on Nothing



site specific, theatre, theater, performance, Angrette McCloskey, performance art, san francisco, performance studies, stanford, PAI, design, photography, documentation

Building Score 101B



Raegan Truax, performance, art, artist, durational, duration, documentation, photography, jamie lyons

Raegan Truax’s Exchange



Derek Phillips 18 minutes

Donovan & Calderón: 18 ½ Minutes



I’m all these words, all these strangers, this dust of words, with no ground for their settling, no sky for their dispersing, coming together to say, fleeing one another to say, that I am they, all of them, those that merge, those that part, those that never meet, and nothing else, yes, something else, that I’m something quite different, a quite different thing, a wordless thing in an empty place, a hard shut dry cold black place, where nothing stirs, nothing speaks, and that I listen, and that I seek, like a caged beast born of caged beasts born of caged beasts born of caged beasts born in a cage and dead in a cage, born and then dead, born in a cage and then dead in a cage, in a word like a beast, in one of their words, like such a beast, and that I seek, like such a beast, with my little strength, such a beast, with nothing of its species left but fear and fury, no, the fury is past, nothing but fear, nothing of all its due but fear centupled, fear of its shadow, no, blind from birth, of sound then, if you like, we’ll have that, one must have something, it’s a pity, but there it is, fear of sound, fear of sounds, the sounds of beasts, the sounds of men, sounds in the daytime and sounds at night, that’s enough, fear of sounds all sounds, more or less, more or less fear, all sounds, there’s only one, continuous, day and night, what is it, it’s steps coming and going, it’s voices speaking for a moment, it’s bodies groping their way, it’s the air, it’s things, it’s the air among the things, that’s enough, that I seek, like it, no, not like it, like me, in my own way, what am I saying, after my fashion, that I seek, what do I seek now, what it is, it must be that, it can only be that, what it is, what it can be, what what can be, what I seek, no, what I hear, I hear them, now it comes back to me, they say I seek what it is I hear, I hear them, now it comes back to me, what it can possibly be, and where it can possibly come from, since all is silent here, and the walls thick, and how I manage, without feeling an ear on me, or a head, or a body, or a soul, how I manage, to do what, how I manage, it’s not clear, dear dear, you say it’s not clear, something is wanting to make it clear, I’ll seek, what is wanting, to make everything clear, I’m always seeking something, it’s tiring in the end, and it’s only the beginning.
Samuel Beckett, The Unnamable

Derek Phillips

Derek Phillips is a composer and sound artist in San Francisco. His work has been performed at The Asian Art Museum, The De Young Museum, The Exit Theater, The Garage, Kunst-Stoff Arts, The Performance Art Institute (SF), Jack Arts (NY), Z/KU (Berlin), and Stanford University. He studied literature at UC San Diego.

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