Skip to main content
jk pwm web logo
Art, Ideas, and Tools for Change • Jack Kellogg is an artist & filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. His multi-disciplinary work incorporates story, sound, and vision to explore the nature of power, the power of nature, and the absurdity/wonder of the human experience.


the understory
Music composition / sound design, 20:31
7-channel film by Chele Isaac
Sound image by Jack Kellogg

In 2017, the artist and filmmaker Chele Isaac mounted her 7-channel magnum opus, the understory, at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in Madison, WI. As her long-time collaborating partner, she asked me to create the sound image for the 20-minute piece; I produced something that sits somewhere between music composition and sound design, offering my own sonic commentary to her amazing film.

Visually, the understory is intended to surround the viewer with seven large film "portals," all running together in sync and unified by the sound image. It is at times humorous and even tender, while at others mysterious and hallucinatory – it's like a fever dream that the earth has one night, processing all the events of the day.

The only real way to experience the understory is to be immersed within it, but on this page I am sharing links related to my contribution: you may listen to the sound image (no visuals) via Soundcloud or watch the video below, which provides a taste of what the original film installation at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art was like.

• Visit Chele Isaac's website •
Art, Ideas, and Tools for Change • Jack Kellogg is an artist & filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. His multi-disciplinary work incorporates story, sound, and vision to explore the nature of power, the power of nature, and the absurdity/wonder of the human experience.


6 candle cropped
5 blossom sea dragon cropped
4 gulls still cropped
3 claire cu
2 suzanne caporal cropped
1 shifting icebergs cropped
the understory
Music composition / sound design, 20:31
7-channel film by Chele Isaac
Sound image by Jack Kellogg

In 2017, the artist and filmmaker Chele Isaac mounted her 7-channel magnum opus, the understory, at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in Madison, WI. As her long-time collaborating partner, she asked me to create the sound image for the 20-minute piece; I produced something that sits somewhere between music composition and sound design, offering my own sonic commentary to her amazing film.

Visually, the understory is intended to surround the viewer with seven large film "portals," all running together in sync and unified by the sound image. It is at times humorous and even tender, while at others mysterious and hallucinatory – it's like a fever dream that the earth has one night, processing all the events of the day.

The only real way to experience the understory is to be immersed within it, but on this page I am sharing links related to my contribution: you may listen to the sound image (no visuals) via Soundcloud or watch the video below, which provides a taste of what the original film installation at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art was like.

• Visit Chele Isaac's website •
jk pwm web logo
©2026 All Rights Reserved.
YALAL 1
Design, animation, video compositing, music & sound design by Jack Kellogg
A Message (to when I am again)
Story, design, animation, video compositing, narration, music & sound design by Jack Kellogg
The Science of Return, figures 1~3
Story, design, art, animation, narration, music & sound design by Jack Kellogg