Lou Reed Listening Room

New York, 2022

Multimedia listening space

Lou Reed: Caught Between the Twisted Stars, the largest Lou Reed retrospective to date, opened in June 2022 at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. It features an extensive collection of artifacts from Lou Reed's archive donated entirely to the Public Library, and a bespoke listening space: the Lou Reed Listening Room.

The Lou Reed Listening Room, hosted in the Vincent Astor Gallery, is a large listening space dedicated to experiencing various sound works by Lou Reed in their original intended audio formats. It features a 13.4 sound system able to play back a variety of audio formats including mono, stereo, quadraphonic, and full-sphere ambisonics. The audio and visual content curation is refreshed monthly.

I led the production of the technical systems for the piece, and the design and programming of its video systems and content.

Project team:

  • Curators: Don Fleming, Jason Stern, Laurie Anderson
  • Creative direction: Raj Patel
  • Audio design, project management: Joseph Digerness
  • Lighting design: Xena Petkanas, Brian Stacy
  • Theatrical systems: Travis Martinez, Ed Arenius
  • Video design, technical production: Léonard Roussel
  • Production, coordination: Caitlin Whittington, Nick Karalexis

Photos: Jonathan Blanc, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Ethan Bourdeau, Hazel Lee, Xena Petkanas, Arup