Fred Szymanski is a New York-based electroacoustic composer and sound-and-image artist whose work explores non-linear processes linked to generative systems.

Szymanski’s works have been performed at international festivals including, most notably, NYCEMF (New York, 2023), MA/IN 2023 (Italy), ArteScienza Festival (Rome, 2023), NYU IRCAM Forum Concert (Brooklyn, 2022), Convergence Festival (England, 2019), SEAMUS Festival (Boston, 2019), Città di Udine (Italy, 2018), International Festival of Experimental Music (Bratislava, 2018), Musica Nova (Prague, 2017), MA/IN 2016 (Italy), International Computer Music Festival, CEMI, University of North Texas (Denton, 2015), and the Concours International de Composition Electroacoustique de Monaco, Academy Rainier III (Monaco, 2015).

His image-sound works have been featured at the Recombinant Media Lab’s Cinechamber at Mutek (Montreal) and CTM.11 Festival (Berlin) and in NOMÁDES - Onomato, Künstlerverein Gallery (Düsseldorf), SonicLIGHT (Amsterdam), the 9th Biennial of the Moving Image (Geneva), and the European Media Art Festival (Osnabrück).

Szymanski has been the recipient of several awards, including Premier Prix Electroacoustique, Concours International de Composition Electroacoustique de Monaco (2015), First Prize Musica Nova (2017), and Special Mention Città di Udine (2018), as well as Honorary Mention Matera Intermedia Festival (MA/IN, 2016) and the International Destellos Competition (2017).

Under the moniker, a laminar project, he has released recordings with the labels, Sub Rosa (Belgium), Asphodel Ltd. (San Francisco), JDK Productions (Amsterdam), Soleilmoon (Portland), and Staalplaat (Amsterdam).

His work has been exhibited at the Eyebeam Center for Art and Technology as part of the group show What Sound Does a Color Make? (2005), Whitney Museum of American Art as part of the BitStreams show (2001), and at such venues as the Diapason Gallery for Sound (New York), Artists Space (New York), and the Valencia Biennial’s VideoRom. An early work was part of the Sonorità Prospettiche (Prospective sonorities) program at Suono Ambiente (Rimini, Italy), and travelled to the Venice Biennale, Kulturforum (Bonn), Kulturreferat (Munich), Lugano, Switzerland, and the City of Turin.

Szymanski studied film and video at the Rhode Island School of Design and electronic music at the MacColl Studios (Brown University). At the time, he performed multichannel live electronic music in Boston and Providence. After settling in New York, he was a member of the experimental electronic industrial noise band, Ike Yard. The band produced LPs for Factory America (U.S. offshoot of Factory Records) and Les Disques du Crepuscule (Belgium).