Ian Brill: Inflection
Akron Soul Train presents Inflection, an immersive audiovisual installation by Pittsburgh-based artist Ian Brill, featuring live, responsive musical accompaniment by Akron jazz musician Theron Brown. Developed through Akron Soul Train’s 2024 Knight New Work grant awarded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the project brings together light, sound, and spatial perception in a dynamic, site-specific environment.
Located at Outside the Box at TrueNorth Akron (110 North Main Street), Inflection transforms an industrial cargo container into a multisensory experience. Using custom LED systems and mirrored surfaces, Brill creates the illusion of infinite depth, where light unfolds in diffusive, rhythmic gestures that continuously emerge and recede.
The installation explores the relationship between space and perception, inviting visitors into an environment that shifts between expansiveness and intimacy—an “inflection point” where visual language, sound, and self-awareness converge. Brown’s improvisational compositions respond in real time to the evolving visual elements, creating a “living” soundscape that deepens the immersive experience.
At the core of the work is new technology developed by Brill’s studio, enabling real-time spatialization of sound. By analyzing visual content and distributing audio throughout the space, the system creates a cohesive and continuously evolving dialogue between image and sound.
A frequent contributor to Akron’s public art landscape since 2018, Brill continues to push the boundaries of interdisciplinary practice with Inflection, merging visual, spatial, and sonic experimentation into a singular, experiential work.
Exhibition Details
Inflection by Ian Brill with musical accompaniment by Theron Brown
Outside the Box at TrueNorth Akron
110 North Main Street, Akron, Ohio
Opening Reception: May 23, 2026 | 5–7 PM
On view Saturdays, 5–7 PM, May–October 2026 (weather permitting)
Free and open to the public
About the Project
Inflection marks a shared 10th anniversary for Akron Soul Train and Curated Storefront, both founded through 2016 Knight Foundation Challenge grants. The project reflects a continued commitment to innovative, community-centered arts programming in Akron.
Curated Storefront activates vacant and underutilized spaces throughout downtown Akron with contemporary art, contributing to a vibrant and accessible urban environment.
About Knight Foundation
We are social investors who support a more effective democracy by funding free expression and journalism, arts and culture in community, research in areas of media and democracy, and the success of American cities and towns where the Knight brothers once published newspapers.
