Joshua Ward:
"I make sound based work. Though I have diverse skill set that includes extensive experience with object making, digital and A/V production, as well as performance, my interest in perception and immersive experience among other things led me to a place, early in my second year of grad school, where I began working almost exclusively with sound.
As an artist making work rooted in the audible, it is frequently a challenge for my work to find an audience, especially in the traditional fine art context. Time based and experiential/event oriented work is difficult to commoditize, and doesn't always fit well within the confines of the white cube. However, this difficulty has turned into an amazingly fertile field to plow. Looking for new ways to present the sort of work I want to make has yielded some exciting fruit. Essentially it’s allowed me to move from making work about the things I’m interested in to making work that actually becomes instances of what I’ve been talking about with the work. That sounds kind of confusing, but hang on with me for a second while go through what my work is about, and maybe it will make more sense.
I’m interested in changing perceptions, enticing people to see things from a different point of view. I believe that attention changes perception and perception changes experience. I want to point things out; I want to force connections and route new neural pathways. I enjoy the exploration and explication of phenomenological minutia and the nuances of the everyday, because therein lies the heart of the fantastic. Wonder, curiosity, and discovery are strong motive forces in my practice; I strive to communicate these things to others and create shared experiences."