Nerve Theory

Nerve Theory live @ Elektra Festival, Montreal, Canada, 2001

Nerve Theory is the collaborative identity of Vienna-based composer and sound artist Bernhard Loibner and Tom Sherman, a pioneering video artist and writer from Syracuse, NY.

Sherman studied visual art, and started out as a sculptor – but over the years has worked in audio, radio, television, video, peformance, and text. He has represented Canada in the Venice Biennale, and his work has been shown in over a hundred exhibitions in North America, Europe, and Asia. He retired as a Professor at Syracuse University in its Department of Art Media Studies/TransMedia (NY, USA).

Loibner and Sherman began performing and recording together in 1993. They were introduced by Heidi Grundmann for collaborations broadcast and webcast by Kunstradio, a radio art program of the ORF’s national radio network. In 1998 they formed Nerve Theory, and have since collaborated on numerous live performances, network appearances, audio and video recordings. For their live performances they developed a special mix of spoken word/narrativ, video projection and live electronic music they call “Vidsonics”. Their work has been released on several CDs and DVDs and was presented on numerous festivals for media and video art. Amongst other appearances they performed together at Recycling the Future Wien 1998, Ars Electronica Linz 1999, Elektra Montreal 2001 and Konzerthaus Wien 2005.

They participated in numerous festivals for video art (e.g. Signal & Noise Festival, Vancouver, Canada, Single Reel Film and Video Festival Brooklyn, NY, Impakt Festival Utrecht, The Netherlands) and exhibitions (e.g. Paraflows Wien, Über das Radio hinaus, Weserburg Museum for Modern Art Bremen, Human+, Science Gallery Dublin)

Between 1993 and 2016 they have also created several radio pieces for Kunstradio e.g. the series H5N1, a weekly series of radio miniatures broadcast throughout the year 2006.

In 2019 they realized a sound installation with the title Electric Cars and Electric Guitars being presented for 3 months at Tonspur at Museumsquartier in Vienna in 2019. The piece was expanded and reworked for radio transmission in 2020 and has been broadcast at ORF Kunstradio in Austria and Radiophrenia in Scottland.