Tone Madison
The meaning of that “You Are Beautiful” mural
If you’ve headed down East Washington Avenue toward the Capitol lately, you’ve likely seen a new mural proclaiming “you are beautiful.” It’s on the side of art space and venue Art In. Behind that colorful lettering and the friendly sentiment is a local effort that aims to empower marginalized youth, especially queer and transgender youth, […]
Music, neighbors, and grand hotels
It’s a classic conflict in Madison: The people who live closest to fun stuff tend to get really ornery about all that fun stuff. In two stories over the past month, Isthmus reporter Allison Geyer has chronicled a dispute over live music at the Edgewater, a hotel that sits on the shores of Lake Mendota just a few blocks north of the […]
The electronic netherworld of Syneva
The new album from Madison electronic project Syneva, Limbo Victorian, is basically an ambient record but it covers a lot of territory in a short amount of time. Its 20-year-old creator, Hendrix Gullixson, uses software and a couple of MIDI controllers to explore eerily gritty soundscapes (opening track “Storm Presents Itself Wise” and “Soaring Together”), […]
A sampling of Madison’s finest beatmakers
Beats sold over Soundcloud may have a huge influence on hip-hop in this day and age (if it be Chano’s will, at least), but the appeal of in-person, local, on-the-ground collaboration is tenacious. It certainly shows in Madison’s hip-hop output, where producers ranging from young upstart Engelwood to platinum-certified DJ Pain 1 keep a hand […]
The world of “Digital Aura,” part II
On last week’s Tone Madison podcast, contributor Brett Schlough brought us two conversations about Digital Aura, a show of video, digital, and installation art running through August 6 at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art and through July 29 at Arts + Literature Laboratory. This week’s episode concludes our two-part series on the show with […]
The world of “Digital Aura,” part I
Madison has its share of gifted visual artists and valuable art spaces, but digital art and video art lack a strong presence here. And what is digital art, anyway? The ongoing show Digital Aura takes a broad approach to exploring that question, with a series of three works showing at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art […]