ABOUT

JON BERNSON

Jon Bernson is an interdisciplinary artist whose work explores and expands the traditional boundaries of storytelling, often in site-specific contexts. In 2015, Bernson was an Artist-In-Residence at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, where he developed Antiprism, a multi-media installation that explored a series of unexplained broadcasts that interrupted the programming of international television stations between 1986 and 2009.

His recent project, Third Eye Moonwalk (2016 - ongoing) incorporates music, video, meditation and performance. The project’s development has been supported by partners across numerous disciplines. In September 2018, Bernson will exhibit a site-specific installation at Catharine Clark Gallery in conjunction with the gallery’s BOX BLUR initiative to engage visual and performing art in dialogue. In October, Bernson will premiere a series of audio-visual installations at Minnesota Street Project’s 1275 location in San Francisco, including a full cast performance. Third Eye Moonwalk has received developmental readings through Playwrights Foundation and the National New Play Network at Stanford University and the Custom Made Theatre in San Francisco. His videos were developed primarily during a residency at The Growlery in San Francisco. Bernson’s involvement with the Z Forge Devisors Group at Drop Forge & Tool in Hudson, NY fostered the addition of stylized movement into the performances. In 2019, Crash Symbols will release the Third Eye Moonwalk audio drama (digitally and on cassette).

As a musician, Bernson has released more than twenty albums under several names. As a member of Exray’s, Bernson composed music that was featured in David Fincher’s Academy-Award winning film, The Social Network (2010). In 2017, Bernson contributed as Deputy Editor to Fake Newsroom, a collaborative visual magazine at Minnesota Street Project. Other notable projects include Sound Affects, a large-scale multi-media work at the Sonos Studio in Los Angeles, and Beautification Machine, a sound sculpture created with Andy Diaz Hope, which premiered at Catharine Clark Gallery and at Miami Project. A version of the work was acquired by the Nevada Museum of Art for its permanent collection, and exhibited there in 2016.

In 2018, Bernson will complete a four-year residency at the Playwrights Foundation, San Francisco. When Lighting The Voids - a StoryWorks play that Bernson wrote, designed and scored about a Gulf Coast shipyard tragedy - was featured in the 2018 Bay Area Playwrights Festival and will be produced as both a play and an audio drama in 2019. Additional works created for theater include three additional StoryWorks plays: A Guide to the Aftermath (2013), North by Inferno (2016), and Overnighters is Over (2017), which re-imagines Jesse Moss's Sundance award-winning film as an immersive multimedia experience that was performed at the Linwood Dunn theater in Los Angeles. He also wrote Distant Future Symposium (2015), for his residency at the de Young Museum and PDX to OAK (2012), an interactive play created for six actors and fourteen passengers on an overnight train trip from Portland to Oakland.

Bernson lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Contact: daysofexrays@gmail.com

C.V.

RESIDENCIES

2015-18 - Playwrights Foundation (San Francisco, CA)

2018 - The Growlery (San Francisco, CA)

2015 - de Young Museum (San Francisco, CA)

2012-15 - Tides Theatre (San Francisco, CA)

FINE ART

2018 - Third Eye Moonwalk at Minnesota Street Project (Audio-visual installation + BOX BLUR Performance / Minnesota Street Project, SF, CA)

2018 - Third Eye Moonwalk at Catharine Clark Gallery (Audio-visual installation + BOX BLUR Performance / Catharine Clark Gallery, SF. CA)

2018 - Dylan Diaries (Video collaboration with Josephine Taylor / Catharine Clark Gallery, SF, CA)

2017 - Fake Newsroom (Deputy Editor of Interdisciplinary Magazine + Installation + Live Performance / Mixed Use, Minnesota Street Project)

2017 - Beautification Machine #3 (Multimedia sculpture with Andy Diaz Hope / Commission for Jeff Whitman, Mountain View, CA)

2016 - (god)(s)(dess)(es) (InLight Festival / Richmond, Virginia)

2016 - Beautification Machine (Nevada Museum of Art / Reno, Nevada)

2015 - Antiprism: Exploring the Vessel XII Controversy (de Young Museum artist residency / San Francisco)

2015 - Beautification Machine (Miami Project / Miami)

2015 - Vanishing Point (Art Market / San Francisco)

2015 - Sound Affects (Sonos Studio / Los Angeles)

2014 - Beautification Machine (Catharine Clark Gallery / San Francisco)

2013 - Golden Beach Piano (Ocean Beach / San Francisco)

2012 - Line in the Sand (Ocean Beach / San Francisco)

PLAYS & SCREENPLAYS

2018 – When Lighting The Voids (Play / 2018 Bay Area Playwrights Festival, SF, CA)

2018 – When Lighting The Voids (Play / Center Stage Theatre, Biloxi, MS)

2017 - Third Eye Moonwalk (Play / Radio Drama / Stage Reading at Stanford University & Custom Made Theater / Playwrights Foundation's Rough Readings series)

2016 - Overnighters is Over (Interdisciplinary / Linwood Dunn Theater, Los Angeles / Commissioned by Academy of Motion Pictures, International Documentary Association and the Center for Investigative Reporting)

2015 - North by Inferno by Jon Bernson (Play / Edge Festival for New Work, North Dakota & The Flight Deck, Oakland, CA)

2015 - Antiprism: Exploring the Vessel XII Controversy (Screenplay / de Young Museum artist residency video)

2015 - Distant Future Symposium (Play / de Young Museum artist residency performance)

2015 - Museum of the Hidden City (Live documentary / Commissioned by Walking Cinema for 2015 San Francisco Green Film Festival)

2014 - Vessel XII Press Conference (Screenplay / Video premiered by Decoder Magazine)

2014 - Star-Spangled Banner / National Security Agency PSA (One minute plays / Commissioned by Playwrights Foundation)

2013 - A Guide to the Aftermath (Play / Commissioned by StoryWorks, Tides Theatre, & Center for Investigative Reporting)

2013 - PDX to OKJ (Site-specific interactive play / Commissioned by Spur Happenings)

1996-2008 - Ray's Vast Basement (Interactive play, songbook & card set / multiple venues)

ALBUMS

Exray's

2018 - Tepidusmare (Howells Transmitter) 7” Vinyl + Digital

2018 - Logbook (Howells Transmitter) Cassette + Digital

2017 - Begin Your Lives (Howells Transmitter) 7” Vinyl + Digital

2016 - Twelve (Howells Transmitter) Cassette + Digital

2014 - The Dome (Howells Transmitter) Cassette + Digital

2012 - Trust a Robot (Howells Transmitter) Cassette + Digital

2011 - Exray's (Howells Transmitter) LP + Digital

2011 - Ancient Thing (Howells Transmitter) Plexiglass 7" + Digital

2010 - Ammunition Teeth (Howells Transmitter) Cassette + Digital

Compilations

2016 - "Miami Advice" (Easy Bay - House, Disco, Boogie, and Other Oddities) Single for Cassette + Digital

2014 - "Transportation" (Driftless Ambient 1) Single for Cassette + Digital

2012 - "Paper Bag" (City Limits presents: San Francisco) Single for LP + Digital

2010 - "Everything Goes" (In a Cloud / Secret Seven Records) Single for LP + Digital

2012 - "Yellow Light" (Brooklyn Vegan) Remix with Shigeto

Window Twins

2013 - Wish (Volar Records) LP + Digital

2012 - Wish (Crash Symbols) Cassette + Digital

2010 - "Fourth Place" (Bay Bridged) Online Single

2009 - I'm This Tall City (Broken Twilight & Howells Transmitter) LP + Digital

THEMAYS

2014 - KNOWHERE (Otherworldly Mystics) Cassette + Poster + Digital

2014 - AIRSPACE (Gigante Sound) Thumb Drives + Helium Balloon + Digital

2013 - WORKSPACE (Howells Transmitter) Cassette + Digital

2012 - THEWORKS (Self-Released) Cassette + Digital

2010 - KNOWFI (Gigante Sound) CD + Digital

Compilations

2014 - "AIRSPACE" REMIX (AIRSPACE / Gigante Sound) Remix

2010 - "When I Think About You" (Motown Meltdown, Vol. 2 / Gigante Sound) Remix

2009 - "KNOWFLY" (Ball of Wax Quarterly, Vol. 16) Single for CD + Digital

Ray's Vast Basement

2007 - Starvation Under Orange Trees (Howells Transmitter) CD + Digital

2005 - Of Mice and Men (Self-Released) CDR

2004 - By a River Burning Blue Blue (Self-Released) CD + Songbook / Card Set + Digital

2001 - On the Banks of the Time (Self-Released) CD + Songbook / Card Set + Digital

1999 - Sounds from Drakesville (Self-Released) Cassette

1998 - Ray's Vast Basement (Self-Released) Cassette

Compilations

2009 - "I See the Day" (Wiretap Music Presents: Covers / Howells Transmitter) Single for CD

2008 - Split with Fences (Astronomy Club Ghost Story #25) Online single

2004 - "She Is My Diary" (Isn't it Romantic poetry + music compilation) Single for CD

2008 - "I Can Be Alone" (Surprise Parte Hoptimiste / Vivonzeureux) Online mix

2007 - "By a River Burning Blue" (Hoptiliste / Vivonzeureux) Online mixtape

WRITINGS

2013-Present - Studio Apartment (Home recording column / Decoder Magazine)

2013 - Sees All, Knows All (Interview with Sonny Smith about Multimedia Play / Decoder Magazine)

SCORES

2016 - Overnighters is Over by Jon Bernson (Interdisciplinary / Linwood Dunn Theater, Los Angeles / Commissioned by Academy of Motion Pictures, International Documentary Association and the Center for Investigative Reporting)

2016 - The Box by Sarah Shourd (Play / Z Space)

2015 - Alicia's Miracle by Octavio Solis (Play / Tides Theatre)

2015 - North by Inferno by Jon Bernson (Play / Edge Festival for New Work, North Dakota & The Flight Deck, Oakland, CA)

2013 - Gruesome Playground Injuries by Rajiv Joseph (Play / Tides Theatre)

2013 - A Guide to the Aftermath by Jon Bernson (Play / Tides Theatre / Commissioned by Storyworks & Center for Investigative Reporting)

2012 - Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (Play / Tides Theatre)

2010 - The Social Network, directed by David Fincher (Motion Picture / Sony) Song on soundtrack

2008 - Buried Child by Sam Shepard (Play / Actors Theatre of San Francisco)

2005 - In a Steel Box, directed by Vera Freitag (Documentary / Independent)

2005 - Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (Play / Actors Theatre of San Francisco)

2003 - Chemistry of Change by Marlane Meyer (Play / Actors Theatre of San Francisco)

2002 - The Open Couple by Dario Fo (Play / Expression Theatre Company)

2001 - Snake in Fridge by Brad Frasier (Play / Actors Theatre of San Francisco)

1999 - Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters (Play / Shelton Theater)

1998 - The Lucky Spot by Beth Henley (Play / Actors Theatre of San Francisco)

SOUND DESIGNS

2017 - Beautiful Agitators by Jessica James, Charles Coleman, Nick Houston, & Aallyah Wright (Play / Crossroads Cultural Center)

2016 - The Box by Sarah Shourd (Play / Z Space)

2015 - Alicia's Miracle by Octavio Solis (Play / Tides Theatre)

2014 - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams (Play / Tides Theatre)

2014 - This is Home by Donte Clark, Deandre Evans, & William Hartfield (Spoken-word play / Storyworks, Tides Theatre, Off-Page Project, & Center for Investigative Reporting)

2013 - The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman (Play / Tides Theatre)

2013 - A Guide to the Aftermath by Jon Bernson (Play / Tides Theatre / Commissioned by Storyworks & Center for Investigative Reporting)

2012 - Five Lesbians Eating a Quiche by Evan Linder & Andrew Hobgood (Play / Tides Theatre)

2009 - The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (Play / Actors Theatre of San Francisco)

2006 - The Trip to Bountiful by Horton Foote (Play / Actors Theatre of San Francisco)

2005 - The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams (Play / Actors Theatre of San Francisco)

2004 - A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller (Play / Actors Theatre of San Francisco)

TEACHINGS

2013-Present - Sunset Media Wave (Co-Founder & Instructor for multimedia high school blog at the Sunset Neighborhood Beacon Center, funded by the city of San Francisco's D.C.Y.F.)

2007-2014 - Auditorium (Co-Founder & Instructor for high school creative audio class collaboration between Sunset Neighborhood Beacon Center, Sunset Youth Services & S.F. School of the Arts)

1997-Present - Urban Music Program {Founder & Instructor for middle school electronic music and DJ program at the Sunset Neighborhood Beacon Center A.S.L.C. Program)

1999-2001 - America's Promise Volunteer Coordinator (Organized volunteer projects in the Sunset district of San Francisco)

1995-1998 - Living History Teacher (San Francisco Maritime National Park / Age of Sail Program on Hyde Street Pier)

1994-1995 - Elementary School Teacher (Teach for America/ Oakland)

CURATION

Subliminal Messages (Ongoing ambient music series at Tides Theater that solicits & presents original work from sound & light artists from around the country.)