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Stephen Vitiello
Biography
A sound artist based in New York City, Stephen Vitiello started in music as an electric guitarist. His encounter with video artist Nam June Paik propelled him into a different world. Collaborations with Pauline Oliveros, Scanner, and Frances-Marie Uitti helped him gain recognition, but he is mostly known for his photocell recordings of the World Trade Center, for which he enjoyed (although the word seems out of place) some media attention following the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001.

Vitiello's career trajectory is quite peculiar. He began to play guitar in punk bands in 1978 -- he was 14 years old. When in college, he studied literature and plastic arts. Around 1988, he got a job at an arts center and developed a successful career curating video- and sound-art exhibitions in the U.S. Meanwhile, his quotidian contact with visual artists transformed his approach to music, and he moved to post-punk and later art pop bands. Nam June Paik, whom he met in 1991, had a particular influence. For him, Vitiello shot video, devised sound systems, and became his assistant for various projects. This relationship culminated in the production of the Sub Rosa CD Works 1958-1979 from tapes unearthed by Vitiello, who had access to the artist's archives.
Selected Discography