Interference Arts, a Company That Creates Multimedia Performances in Minneapolis, MN

Interference Arts employs music, multimedia performance and installation, arts-based community development, and future visioning research to promote healthy individuals and vital, sustainable communities. We are built on the foundation that the arts play an important role in addressing human challenges and breaking down traditional barriers to communication and problem solving.

In our exploration of issues important to humanity, we disrupt the status quo to engage people in process, conversation and community action. Our work serves as a call for artists and audiences alike to act—to interfere—constructively and collaboratively, deepening community conversations and paving the way for change.

In physics, Interference refers to the mutual action of waves of any kind, as of water, sound, heat, or light, upon each other, by which the vibrations and their effects are reinforced or neutralized.  In human activity the word “interference” suggests intentional interaction with a sense of purpose to make change. Interference Arts applies the concept “interference” as a paradigm representing the way the company employs the arts to engage with the world. Certain kinds of energies and actions converge to magnify, enhance and enrich, reinforcing movement towards stated goals. Conversely, other energies and actions serve to suppress, minimize or eliminate negative results. Interference Arts inhabits this realm, interfering with energy and action to make change – like a canoe paddle coming into contact with the water, or like a butterfly flapping its wings and causing something to happen on the other side of the planet.

Interference Arts projects include music and multimedia performances, installations and gallery exhibitions, community development initiatives where the arts play a significant role, and arts-focused research envisioning the world far into the future. Artwork focuses attention on individual and communal understanding, and on clarifying our goals and our path. Community development initiatives employ the arts to address community challenges, and are targeted towards infusing the arts as a critical component of creating healthy and sustainable communities. Research activities envision the future as a means to highlight current conditions, and to clarify a path to achieve long term strategic goals.