FARMINGTON —The work of Liz Phillips, a pioneer in sound art, will kick off the UMF Art Gallery’s fall exhibition season with “Biyuu II: An Interactive Sound and Video Installation.”

The exhibit, which is free, will run from Sept. 20-Nov. 4. There will be an opening reception from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 20.

In her site-specific installation, sound and video artist Phillips collaborates with Butoh dancer Mariko Endo Reynolds to create an interactive visual soundscape that responds to and transforms the natural actions of wind and water. Sensors trace air currents outside the gallery and movement inside as people pass through the space, activating sounds and luminous imagery.

The title, “Biyuu,” is a Japanese word that suggests the sound of wind through bamboo.

There will be daily scheduled interactions from 2:30 to 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays, however, viewers are invited to perform/interact during all gallery hours.

Phillips will present an artist’s talk, “The Resonance of Weather,” at 11:45 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 31, at the Emery Community Arts Center on the University of Maine at Farmington campus. She will also participate in “Sound, Place and Performance,” a panel discussion with author/critic Josh Kun and musician Omar Tamez, also at the Emery center.

Phillips, who is based in New York, has been creating responsive environments with new technologies for more than 40 years. She combines audio and visual art forms with new technologies to create responsive environments sensing wind, plants, fish, audience, dance, water and food.

Her work has been exhibited at museums, alternative spaces, festivals and public spaces including the Milwaukee Art Museum, Queens Museum of Art, Jewish Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Lincoln Center Festival. Past collaborators include the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Nam June Paik, Yoshi Wada and Simone Forti.

Reynolds is a professional Japanese Butoh dancer who trained in Tokyo with Akira Kasai, a co-founder of the Butoh movement. She toured Japan and the United States as a principal dancer in one of Japan’s Butoh companies.

The UMF Art Gallery is at 246 Main St., behind the admissions office. Gallery hours are noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday and by appointment. For more information or to make an appointment, email Sarah Maline at maline@maine.edu or call 778-7002.

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