Exhibitions

dependent / vARIABLE

Spatial sound installation by joseph branciforte

October 27 - December 12, 2025

Gallery Event

Artist Talk & Closing Reception | Wednesday, December 3, 5–7 p.m.

Location | JoAnn Mazzella Murphy '98H Arts Center

Iona University announces dependent / variable, a spatial sound installation by composer and sound artist Joseph Branciforte. Built from a constellation of distributed computing modules—each running its own sonic logic—the work establishes shifting territories of sound throughout the gallery. As visitors move through the space, they trace unique paths across overlapping fields, overhear fragments of dialogue between modules, and notice alignments that appear, vanish, and return in ever-changing configurations.

The title draws from mathematics: a “dependent variable” is one whose value changes based on other variables in the system. In dependent / variable, every element—the computing modules and the visitors themselves—behaves as a dependent variable, shaped by all other elements present. The installation’s character emerges from this live network of interdependencies rather than any single controlling factor. Each visit offers a unique experience as the system continually recombines but never repeats.

At a time when technology is often framed as an engine of definitive answers—efficient, optimized, closed—dependent / variable proposes a counterpoint. Here, technology becomes a generator of possibilities rather than conclusions, creating a space for openness, attentiveness, and lingering in uncertainty. In dialogue with Iona’s pedagogical initiatives on attention in the age of AI, the work invites us to imagine technology not as a means of closure, but as a medium for presence.

About the Artist

Joseph Branciforte (b. 1985) is a composer and sound artist whose work explores the intersection of structured systems and emergent phenomena through custom-built technology. He works fluidly across performance, composition, and installation in both acoustic and electronic mediums.

Branciforte’s recorded works include collaborations with vocalist Theo Bleckmann (LP1, LP2), praised by The New Yorker as “beguiling” explorations of voice and machine, and Sti.ll (2024), his acoustic arrangement of Taylor Deupree’s microsound work, which Pitchfork called “a contemporary classical composition of arresting beauty.” In 2019, he founded the Greyfade record label to champion process-based composition, alternative tuning systems, and digitally mediated improvisation—bringing careful attention to sound, concept, and visual form across the imprint. Alongside his artistic practice, Branciforte has shaped the sound of over 400 albums as a GRAMMY®-winning recording engineer, collaborating with many of the most respected figures in experimental music. For more information, visit the sites www.josephbranciforte.com and www.greyfade.com. 

Past Exhibitions

• A Retrospective of Four Decades of Work | works by Dr. Jerome Levkov: Scientist and Artist
• Visual Arts Student Exhibition 2025 | Curated by Professor Thomas Ruggio & Professor Jeffrey Price
• RADICAL ACTION: Tracing Dorothy Day | Kristi Pfister
• The North Star | works by Diego Garcia
• The Women Dandies of The DRC: Dressing Dapper As Gendered Resistance In Central Africa | Photographs by Junior D. Kannah
• Love Your Mother | Jennie Thwing
• Visual Arts Student Exhibition 2024
• Carthage | Paintings by Fedele Spadafora
• The Gratitude Project: Paintings and Poetry by the US Poets Laureate
• Time is a River | Curated by Cara Lynch
• A Gift Of Light | Works by Br. Kenneth Chapman
• Visual Arts Student Exhibition 2023
• Saving Beauty: The Contemporary Icons of Threatened And Endangered Species of Angela Manno by Angela Manno
• My Own Rose-Tinted 3D Glasses by Werner Sun
• Dublin Bay by Liam Hourican
• FORMATION: Images of the Body by Tobi Kahn
• Personae by Carlos David
• Visual Arts Student Exhibition 2022
• The Weight of Optimism: Works by Heather Layton
• Considering the Goddess: A Survey of Sculptural Works by John Cino
• Cesare Dandini’s Holy Family with the Infant St. John: A Rediscovered Florentine Baroque Masterpiece
• A Hidden Wholeness: The Zen Photography of Thomas Merton*
• Art as a Spiritual Practice
• A Woman's Work..., Curated by Beth Giacummo
• Struggle - An Exhibit of Our Times, The Lincoln Park Conservancy, Inc.
• Female Gender Identity and Equality by the New York Society of Women Artists
• Unapologetically Me by Alvin Clayton
• Women in the Abstract: A Solo Exhibition by Award-Winning Artist, Steve Lyons
• Visual Arts Faculty Exhibition
• Plastic Paradise by Elena Kalman
• Female Gender Identity and Equality By New York Society of Women Artists (NYSWA)
• The Visual Arts Student Exhibition, curated by The Visual Arts Faculty
• SHE Voices: Expressions of Femininity, featuring Esther Kong Lo, Gloria Crouch-Nixon and Judith Weber.
• Influenced by Matisse: New Works by Alvin Clayton
• Shifting Focus: Hidden in Plain Sight, Curated by Rick Palladino
• More Fun Than Fun, featuring Andrea Beizer, Alysa Bennett, Ruby Silvious, Carol Taylor-Kearney, Peter Treiber, and Ruth Wolf