2020 Riverbox Challenge

New artwork inspired by the Riverboxes public art collection

Dublin Arts Council has collaborated with 20 artists to create new artworks and wellness-based activity prompts inspired by Riverboxes, a series of artist-made vessels discreetly hidden in Dublin parks. Each Riverbox vessel contains a unique artist-made stamp, journal and environmental information to help visitors connect to Dublin's scenic places.

To support community wellness, Dublin Arts Council has commissioned three artists to create prompts to inspire participants to draw, listen, move and reflect upon each new artwork and its natural surroundings.

Journey around Dublin to discover the original Riverboxes and the new artwork inspired by the collection. This project is part of Dublin Arts Council's Art & Wellness initiative, which deeply explores how art can nurture personal and community well-being.

CHALLENGE BOOKLET ARTISTS

Experience journaling in nature with prompts from Jenny Patton, a writer, wellness coach, Senior Lecturer at The Ohio State University and Dublin resident. A daily journaler, yogi and meditator, Jenny brings a wellness focus to her classrooms and workshops.

Become inspired to creative response from visual artist Hilary Frambes, an award-winning central Ohio-based artist, muralist and community art educator.

Try exercises for listening and reflecting from field recordist Rich Bitting, a composer and listener residing in Cincinnati, Ohio who specializes in creating soundscape-based audio compositions, concert music, visual artworks and sound art installations.

I'm very pleased to have been included in this interesting and challenging project. If you are in the Dublin, Ohio area be certain to check out the Riverboxes and the Riverbox Challenge!Arts Council.

Download Challenge Booklet

East Fork SP Dawn Chorus 6.11.20 5:33AM

Field Recording

Here's a recent field recording of the dawn chorus at East Fork State Park in Ohio. It was a moderately windymorning, but the wind died down before sunrise. The frogs were very vocal before sunrise, becoming more quiet with the sunrise.

* Please listen via headphones or conventional speakers (computer speakers will not handle some of the content or allow it to be audible)

Listen

Dawn Chorus Sharon Woods 5.27.20

Field Recording

This is a field recording of the dawn chorus at Sharon Woods Park in Sharonville, OH. USA. It begins at approximately 5:50 AM. There was a light rain falling for most of the recording. This is a suburban park surrounded by interstates and railroads. This recording was captured on the Gorge Trail.

Listen

Dawn Chorus, Warder Preserve 5.2.2020 - 6:07 AM

Field Recording

Listen to the dawn chorus at Warder Preserve in Springfield Township near Cincinnati, Ohio. Sunrise was 6:37 AM. The birds began singing well before I began this recording. Notice that when the sun rises and the anthrophony (human sound becomes lowder, the bird sounds and other biophony become less dense. This is best listen to on a good set of headphones.

 

Listen

Gaspirilla Sound

Hydrophone Recording

2/10/2020

This is a hydrophone field recording from a relatively "quiet" area on Gasparilla Sound near Boca Grande. Florida. Two mics were dropped in about 7' of water about 150 yards from the main channel. 

The powerboat prop noises were at a minimum. The water noises from the wave action on the boat I was recording from are in the foreground. Also, notice the "clicks", perhaps fish? Something was bumping the mics, perhaps also fish? Boats, boats and more boats can be heard in the background.

Here's a link

Hydrophone Field Recordings

The unusual underwater sounds from the mangroves

2/9/2020

Here are some recent field recordings from coastal mangroves near Englewood, Florida. I recorded Oyster Creek, Lemon Bay, and Lemon Creek.

In the first recording the hydrophones were about 6' apart in 12" of water. Oyster Creek is a tidal estuary and the tide was rising. At about the 5' mark, listen as a school of minnows repeatedly bumps against the hydrophone phone lead.

Give them a listen here: https://soundcloud.com/richbitting

mindGARDENS 

My new "Honey Bee" piece will be included in this exhibit.  

03/04/2019

Redbud at Collector's Art Group 

Redbud, a new exhibition of art and music by Rich Bitting opens November 16 at Collector’s Art Group, 225 E. 6th Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202. The exhibition features 16 mixed media works accompanied by 16 digital audio works.

In addition to the visual work, the exhibition Redbud will feature Redbud Revisited a new audio release that accompanies 13 new visual works. Redbud Revisited is available as an audio CD, a limited edition audio CD, and a digital download. 

A previously released audio CD, Redbud…

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10/08/2018

Fernald Nature Preserve Sound Walk 

Fernald Sound Walk

Join me Friday, November 17th from 5:30 to 7 PM as I lead a sound walk at the Fernald Nature Preserve. The walk begins with a brief 15 minute introduction to listening skills. We'll then walk silently, at an easy pace for about an hour. We will pause to gather to re-orient our listening and adjust to different ways of listening. We'll share our experiences at the end of the walk. This deep listening activity will open your ears!

11/02/2017

My New Photo Work @ Essex Studios Art Walk 

Essex Art Walk

I'll be showing some new photos, November 3rd and 4th in Studio 258 at the Essex. Josh Parrott has kindly given me some wall space to hang 15 new photographs. Josh will be showing some of his recent paintings, and Jennifer Parrott will have some of her photography as well. It is rumored that there will be some live music, so why not stop by and make a night of it?

11/02/2017

MUSLAB 2017 

My electronic music work, Beech Forest in the Moonlight, has been accepted as part of the International Festival of Electroacoustic Music - MUSLAB 2017. It will be presented November 13th, as part of the Third Transmission at ESPACIO SONORO Autonomous Metropolitan University Xochimilco in Mexico City. I am humbled and delighted to be included in this event.

11/02/2017

Rikki Santer will read "To Reconsider Melody" in Columbus Performance 

To Reconsider Melody

By Rikki Santer

for Richard Bitting after “Canticle of the Redbud”

 

 

Your head inside a temple bell tiny temple

bells inside your head.  You shapeshift into

a zen galaxy of shimmering silence, then whirl

tarantella atop a sunlit spider strand swaying

 

with rhymes of dew drops from your garden’s

redbud tree.  Listen.  The tender fizz of heart 

leaves, the wee clicks of kinship roots deep

in the belly of your backyard ravine.  This

 

soundscape sonogram reminds us.  Pause

and harvest…

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10/17/2017

Canticle of the Redbud included in Sight of Music 

Friday, September 29th,  6 - 8 PM

 Columbus Cultural Arts Center

Columbus, OH

Canticle of the Redbud, 20" x 30", mixed media on canvas, Rich Bitting

An exhibition exploring how we interact with music 

as a central aspect of our humanity

The Columbus Cultural Arts Center (CAC) will host a large juried exhibition of contemporary works by Ohio artists, in a challenge set forth by guest curator, local poet and writer, Steve Abbott. Framed by a nod to synesthesia, SIGHT OF MUSIC”will present visual…

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09/21/2017

Early Autumn - Evening Rain included in IFAR Musique Concrète field recording compilation 

 


Early Autumn Rain, Unity, Ohio is part of a compilation of field recordings by IFAR in BandCamp.

Early Autumn Rain, Unity, Ohio is a field recording of a rainy night at a 
cabin in Unity Woods, Unity Ohio, near the Edge of Appalachia Preserve in 
Adams County, Ohio recorded in October of 2003. The foreground staccato 
of rain with background ostinato of insects completes this calming 
soundtrack.

09/03/2017