Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

HiFi Pursuit Listening Room Dream No. 3 features a large-scale, handmade audio system by multi-disciplinary artist Devon Turnbull. Known under his creative pseudonym OJAS, Turnbull handcrafts high-fidelity audio systems designed to envelop the listener in sound that is as rich in texture as it is in emotion. Upon entering, visitors will experience realistic, natural sound from Turnbull’s sculptures and a chance to slow down and engage deeply with sound. The listening room is part of the upcoming Art of Noise exhibition.

Join multidisciplinary artist Devon Turnbull and renowned radio host and author John Schaefer for an evening conversation on music, their work crafting listening experiences, and Turnbull’s latest installation at Cooper Hewitt, HiFi Pursuit Listening Room Dream No. 3. The installation features a large scale, handmade, audio system designed to envelop the listener in sound that is as rich in texture as it is in emotion. After a short introductory talk, experience the listening room as Turnbull and Schaefer operate the sound system and play a selection of music inspired by Schaefer’s iconic radio show New Sounds. HiFi Pursuit Listening Room Dream No. 3 is part of the upcoming Art of Noise exhibition, opening in full February 13, 2026. Devon Turnbull, known under his creative pseudonym OJAS, is a Brooklyn-based artist and audio engineer. Turnbull handcrafts high-fidelity audio systems—monolithic works of functional sculpture that seek to express the natural and emotional essence of music. His work is the result of a lifelong dedication to experimentation, engineering, and explorations in the audio underground. His installations have appeared in cultural institutions such as SFMOMA, Cooper Hewitt, and Lisson Gallery; public spaces including Public Records, Patina Osaka, the Nine Orchard Hotel, and Supreme stores worldwide; as well as the private collections of some of the world’s top musicians and music producers. Through all these projects, Turnbull’s unwavering pursuit of sonic purity remains his defining hallmark. John Schaefer is an American radio host and author. He has hosted and produced WNYC’s radio series New Sounds since 1982 and the New Sounds Live concert series since 1986. Since 2002, he has also hosted Soundcheck, an arts and culture program engaging guests and listeners in conversations with people from New York City’s creative arts scene. Schaefer has written extensively about music, including the book New Sounds: A Listener’s Guide to New Music (Harper & Row, NY, 1987; Virgin Books, London, 1990); The Cambridge Companion to Singing: World Music (Cambridge University Press, U.K., 2000); and the TV program Bravo Profile: Bobby McFerrin (Bravo Television, 2003). He was contributing editor for Spin and Ear magazines, and his liner notes appear on more than 100 recordings, ranging from “The Music of Cambodia” to recordings by Yo-Yo Ma and Terry Riley.

Join photographer Christopher Payne, former New York Times photography editor Kathy Ryan, and bestselling author Rachel Slade for a wide-ranging conversation around Payne’s Made in America project to document industrial manufacturing across the United States. Payne’s images show a startling diversity of companies, from a pencil factory and humanoid robot maker, to a lab that makes mirrors for astronomical telescopes. The panelists will discuss why Payne was drawn to documenting sites of industrial production in America, the importance of photography as a means of conveying the diversity of things made in the U.S. and the skilled workers who make them, and the challenges and opportunities of onshoring industrial production in the 21st century. SPEAKERS Matilda McQuaid (moderator) is Acting Director of Curatorial and previously Head of Textiles at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. She oversees curatorial and exhibition programming often working collaboratively with other Smithsonian museums on projects and exhibitions. As a curator she has organized nationally and internationally acclaimed architecture and design exhibitions with accompanying publications including “Extreme Textiles: Designing for High Performance” (2005), “Color Moves: Art and Fashion by Sonia Delaunay” (2011), “Tools: Extending Our Reach” (2014), and “Nature—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial” (2019). Formerly at the Museum of Modern Art (NYC) for fifteen years where she curated over thirty exhibitions, she is also an accomplished author and editor on art, architecture, and design, with many books, exhibition catalogues and articles to her credit. Christopher Payne studied architecture at Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania and worked as an architect for twelve years before committing full-time to photography. He is fascinated by design, assembly, and the built form. Over the past decade, through personal projects and editorial commissions, he has been on a photographic journey to learn more about what’s made here: the traditional industries that “built this country” as well as the newest and most technologically advanced processes. These images can be found in his latest book, Made In America. Payne’s work frequently appears in The New York Times Magazine and Popular Science, and in other major publications including Interview, National Geographic, Scientific American, The Atlantic, Time, and Wired, among many others. Kathy Ryan, the former longtime director of photography at The New York Times Magazine, has been a pioneer of combining fine art photography with photojournalism. She has worked with the world’s best photographers across all genres of photography. She regularly brought new talent into the magazine’s pages. She recently left the Times after 39 years to focus on her own artwork, curating exhibitions, teaching a course at Yale, and speaking engagements. Ryan was awarded the Dr. Erich Salomon Prize from the German Photographic Society in September 2025. Ryan won two Emmy’s for videos she produced for The New York Times Magazine’s Great Performers series. Rachel Slade is a journalist and author whose narrative work explores policy, labor, history, and economics. She’s written for leading publications including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Boston Globe, and Boston magazine. She is the author of the critically acclaimed bestseller Into the Raging Sea about the 2015 sinking of the American cargo ship El Faro during Hurricane Joaquin. The book was a NYT Notable Book and among NPR’s best books of the year. Her second book, Making It in America, explores the history of manufacturing and labor in the United States. She has held editorships at the Boston Globe and Boston magazine, and talk political journalism at Tufts.

This film follows American Industrial Photographer, Christopher Payne as he visits 3 industrial factories where he reminisces, recollects and photographs these spaces and what they mean to him. This film will be displayed 2026 at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum for its exhibition titled “Made in America: The Industrial Photography of Christopher Payne”, an exhibition featuring Payne’s intricately detailed photography of America’s factories. “Made in America: The Industrial Photography of Christopher Payne,” an exhibition featuring Payne’s intricately detailed photography of America’s factories. On view from Dec. 12 through Sept. 27, 2026, the exhibition brings together more than 70 large-format photographs captured by Payne over a decade-long photographic journey to learn more about the craft of both industrial and artisanal making in the United States.

Join Cooper Hewitt for this illustrated talk on the Royal Pavilion at Brighton by curator and scholar Alexandra Loske. First constructed as a royal residence for King George IV, when Prince of Wales, the Royal Pavilion was remodeled by John Nash with interiors by Frederick Crace and Robert Jones between 1815–1822. Cooper Hewitt is home to many of Craces’ original drawings for the Pavilion, which feature fanciful representations of Chinese culture, design, and people. Loske will discuss the Pavilion’s interiors as a late example of British neoclassical chinoiserie, while investigating how the idea of China and chinoiserie designs evolved from the 18th to the early 19th century. Jamie Kwan, Cooper Hewitt’s Assistant Curator of Drawings, Prints and Graphic Design, will moderate this talk.

Join Cooper Hewitt for an illustrated talk exploring a selection of Chinese export paintings from the museum’s department of Drawings, Prints & Graphic Design. During the 18th and 19th centuries, Canton (modern-day Guangzhou) became an important center of trade and artistic production. Drawing from both European and traditional Chinese techniques and media, Cantonese artists and artisans developed distinct types of painting that were made specifically for the foreign market. This program will provide an overview of the materials and techniques as well as the history of export gouaches. The diverse range of subject matter, including botanicals, birds and insects, genre scenes, still-lifes, and interiors, will be shown. Through exploring these paintings in Cooper Hewitt’s collection, participants will learn the rich history of these works and their role in disseminating ideas of “the Orient” to European and North American consumers and shaping the development of Chinoiserie, a 18th-century decorative style that emerged from the fascination with Chinese art and material goods.