Arts & Culture

Meet the Artist: Michael Murphy

By Sarasota Scene |

October 2023—Michael Murphy, a Sarasota native, leads a dual life that seamlessly blends his professional role as Technical Director at the Sarasota Opera House with his artistic pursuits in digital art and interactive installations. His journey into the world of art and technology was influenced by his experiences as a drummer and his travels with various bands.

Torus 5 – Audio Reactive video – 5 frequencies are selected and assigned to each of the rings, their size is relative to the assigned frequency’s intensity.

By day, Murphy brings his technical expertise to the Sarasota Opera House, managing the technical aspects of live performances. His career in production and technology provided the groundwork for his exploration into the realm of digital art.

Blubss – Audio Reactive Video – Two circles move randomly on screen, when the beat of the music hits a pattern advances that delays the visibility of the circles, parts of the video are forced out of sync and back in time.

However, it was during his time touring with bands that Murphy stumbled upon his artistic niche. Immersed in the live music scene, he began experimenting with light, visual effects and projections to enhance the concert experience, bridging his love for music with an emerging interest in digital art.

Block Faces – AI portraiture and Geometric Instancing – A grid of boxes is displayed, their color and height are dictated by a source image, a series of AI portraits. The displayed image evenly divided across the grid is displaced by waves and mirrored at various angles.

As the resident projection artist at Sarasota’s monthly ArtLab events, Murphy’s creative talents have found a platform. His real-time digital projections have become an integral part of these gatherings, illustrating the transformative potential of technology within the art world. His work will utilize inputs ranging from proximal information and motion tracking to live audio and live video to manipulate the imagery or structure. Murphy will frequently collaborate with other non-digital artists to help them showcase their work to a massive and interactive canvas. Murphy seeks to find truth in the process while remaining present, genuine, and humble. Several events in October will showcase some of Murphy’s work, providing an opportunity to witness this fusion of technical expertise, artistic vision, interactive elements and most importantly, play.

To view more of his work, visit his instagram, @bichaelburphy.

Particle Flag – Particle System- 1,638,400 Particles are organized, assigned color, scattered and reorganized into a waving cloth like material.

Upcoming October Events:

October 11th at ArtLab 7pm-10pm (second Wednesday of the month) at Art Ovation Hotel (1255 N Palm Ave)
October 28th at Art Ovation Hotel (1255 N Palm Ave)
October 28th at Sage’s Haunted Mansion Party (1216 1st Street)

Put your add code here