Object Collection was founded in January 2004 when Kara FeelyandTravis Just
presented a concert of John Cage's seminal theater and music composition, Song Books, at the Kunst-Station Sankt Peter in Cologne, Germany.
This landmark work, that pairs experimental music and theater together within a single interdisciplinary performance, became an inspirational model
for the genesis of the company. Object Collection puts these ideas into practice by presenting hybrid theater-music
performances, which take the shape of large-scale projects, duo performances, and curated performance series. Based in New York City, the company
collaborates with an increasing number of actors, musicians, composers, designers, and visual artists, actively combining techniques and methodologies
from different mediums in order to generate new artistic work in unchartered forms. Object Collection's work has appeared at a variety of theaters,
concert venues, galleries, art spaces, and festivals, including: Performance Space 122, Prelude Festival, the Ontological Theater,
Experimental Intermedia, Chez Bushwick/AMBUSH, Issue Project Room (New York); Podewil/TESLA, KuLe (Germany); Loop-Line, SuperDeluxe, Urbanguild,
Art Space Tetra, Gallery Soap (Japan); and Art Basel (Miami).
Kara Feely Kara Feely is a writer, director and designer for experimental theater and interdisciplinary performance. Her work draws inspiration from
experimental writing and music composition strategies, and combines a variety of materials, from found text fragments and landscapes of objects, to recorded
interviews and radio broadcasts. Works she has written and directed for the company include: Problem Radical(s) (PS122, 2009), Gun Sale (Prelude Festival and
on tour throughout Japan, 2009) FAMOUS ACTORS (Ontological Theater, 2007), Evoke memories of a golden age. (Ontological Theater, 2006) and
Is this a gentleman? (Ontological Theater, 2005). Is this a gentleman? was published in Antennae #7, and
FAMOUS ACTORS in PLAY A JOURNAL OF PLAYS Issue 4.
Additional projects with Object Collection for which she has worked as writer, director, and/or performer include: the 2008 Experimental Music series at the
Ontological Theater; the experimental music and reading series CHOP SHOP (Berlin); the sound-interview installation L-shaped not more than seven feet at
TESLA/Podewil (Berlin); and John Cage's Song Books at the Kunst-Station Sankt Peter (Cologne). She has also performed throughout Japan on Object Collection's
2008 and 2009 tours, at KuLe (Berlin), Experimental Intermedia (New York), the AMBUSH series at Chez Bushwick (Brooklyn), Issue Project Room (Brooklyn), and
presented a solo show at the Los Solos series (Baltimore).
Travis Just comes from a background in improvised music and experimental composition, his work often uses texts, gesture, and unconventional
technologies in addition to instruments and electronics.
His music has been presented around the world at Performance Space 122, PRELUDE, The Stone, Le Poisson Rouge, Ontological Theater,
Experimental Intermedia, Chez Bushwick/AMBUSH, Issue Project Room, Brooklyn College, Columbia University, Merce Cunningham Studio, NYC;
Podewil, KuLe, Berlin; Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, UK; SuperDeluxe, LoopLine, Tokyo; Art Space Tetra, Fukuoka; Gallery Soap,
Kokura; Art Basel Miami; CalArts, LA; Brown University; Galerie Mark Müller, Zürich; Kunst-Station Sankt Peter, Cologne;
Kunstraum, Düsseldorf; Fruchthalle, Kaiserslautern; Ivan Franko National Theater, Kiev, Ukraine, among others. His music has been
performed by numerous artists and ensembles including: Maulwerker, Wandelweiser Composers Ensemble, Dither Guitar Quartet,
incidental music Berlin, Reihe Elektronischer Musik Bremen, and the Dog Star Orchestra. Travis' music has been broadcast on WFMU,
WKCR, WNYC (New York), SWR (Germany), Radio New Zealand, and JOFW (Japan). His scores have been published in the journals Antennae and Play.
In addition to his compositional work, Travis has curated at the Ontological Theater, The Stone and an auto repair yard in Berlin.
Travis received a BFA (composition/performance) in 1999 from the Mannes College of Music/New School University while studying with Andrew Cyrille.
In 2002 he received an MFA (composition/performance) from California Institute of the Arts and studied with James Tenney, Wadada Leo Smith and
Michael Pisaro. Travis was a 2003 DAAD Scholar at the Hochschule für Musik Cologne and studied composition there with Johannes Fritsch.
