Gill Arno

mpld is Gill Arnò's mixed media performance/installation and publishing project.

Born in Milan (Italy), Gill studied art and typography, and played guitar, bass and drums with several bands before moving to NYC in 1997. Since then he has been designing record covers and art directing small record labels, as well as creating multi-dimensional environments as part of underground parties and mixed media events. The mpld project was initiated in 2003 in order to bring back together the interest in music and the visual arts.

The focus of mpld's exploration is the relationships that can be established between sound, light and space, considered in their phenomenological and conceptual dimensions. Memory, territory, identity and the sense of belonging are recurring themes, approached through the use of various found materials that are assembled using a combination of current and obsolete technologies.

The photoacoustic continuum of mpld's performance slowly flows through, carrying fragments from unidentified places and times. Fades and cuts play with memory's subjective persistence as light, darkness, silence and sound keep carving out each one from the other. Mechanical sounds from the projection are tapped and processed to reveal their musical potential. Color, density, texture, frequency, all are treated as simultaneous qualities of the light and the sound, although they are not related in a purposedly constrained way. The association is rather dialogic, so as to bring about unforeseen cause-effect relationships.

mpld's live performances, meant to define specific environments for social interaction, are complemented by the production of books and cds, intended to engage in a one-to-one level of communication - while the public is wrapped into the space of the performance, books and records are in turn being embraced by the reader/listener who is encouraged to seek a relationship in more subjective terms.

Gill has been involved since 1998 with a handful of labels and event organizers including Soundlab, Broklyn Beats, theAgriculture, Seasonal, Phonomena, Robert Beck Memorial Cinema and Free103point9.