AddPost(new Post('Seat Beat', <<Seat Beat is an interactive installation consisting of ready-made chairs amplified by hand-build contact microphones constructed by Melissa McGurgan. Viewers are encouraged to touch, play and explore the surfaces of installation as they discover that sounds, which normally go unheard, such as the brush or subtle tap of fingertips on a surface, become robust and rich in texture as a result of the amplification and real time feedback. Dance and percussion performances, designed by the artist in collaboration with local choreographers and musicians, will also be featured at the installation during its time at Fringe Festival. By blurring the lines between audience, participant, performer and composer, McGurgan aims to provide a neutral environment where the audience and performers can collaborate, explore and contribute to a communal experience while investigating their relationship to the chairs, the space and each other.

EOD )); $page->AddPost(new Post('Artist Bio', <<Melissa McGurgan designs interactive multi-sensory experiences which incorporate her background in visual art, sound and graphic design. After receiving her BFA in Printmaking from the University of Georgia in 2004 where she studied visual art and music, she completed her MFA in printmaking from Arizona State University in 2008. During her time in Arizona, she has been featured in numerous group exhibitions including the Arizona Biennial, Tuscon Museum of Art, 2007, New American City: Artists Look Forward, ASU Art Museum, Tempe, AZ, 2006-2007 and the Martha + Mary Street Party, Phoenix, 2009. Her first solo exhibition, entitled , took place at the Chocolate Factory, Phoenix, AZ in February 2008 for which she received a Entrepreneurial Advantage Grant sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation. Her most recent collaborative interactive installation, Bubble Fountain, was commissioned by Scottsdale Public Art for the Bell Tower in 2009. In addition to exhibiting her own work, McGurgan also takes an active role as a curator and exhibition coordinator. Her first major curatorial exhibition, From Flat to Phat: New Dimensions in Printmaking, was featured at the Southern Graphics Council national conference in Kansas City, MO in 2007. McGurgan currently resides and works in Tempe, AZ as a community arts education coordinator for the Herberger Institute Community School at Arizona State University and a free-lance exhibition consultant and graphic designer.

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