Bio
Steve Wanna is a multi-disciplinary sound and visual artist whose work includes music, sound design for dance collaborations, sculpture, installation, photography, and works for mixed media. Born and raised in Lebanon, he immigrated to the United States with his family as a teenager, eventually receiving a doctorate in Music Composition from the University of Maryland in 2004. Most of Wanna’s work generally falls into one of two categories informed by the principles of emergence and auspicious coincidence as defined in systems theory, swarm intelligence theory, and Buddhism: under the right conditions, great beauty can emerge without much intervention. The first category includes works that highlight or capture the moment of their creation, a process frozen in anticipation of the potential of unfolding. These works are usually mixed media and draw on experimental techniques that use materials like paints, powders, and wax in atypical ways. The second includes works that are in constant flux, perpetually in states of becoming rather than being. These tend to utilize various electronic components driven by software designed by the artist to create carefully controlled randomness, which imbues the works with a sense of autonomous life. His work has been presented at home and abroad.