Tim O’Keefe is a Brooklyn based creative known for his scoring & audio art work having scored a variety of feature films, documentaries, film installations, and branded content. Highlights include State of Surveillance (VICE on HBO), Raw Craft with Anthony Bourdain, Tales of Our Times (Guggenheim Museum), and Ai Weiwei Introduces “Turn It On_ China on Film”. His agency work includes scoring spots for Ferrari, Gucci, Nike, and NARS. Films he has scored have premiered at Cannes, Venice, Sundance, Gagosian Gallery, PACE Gallery, MoMA, and MOCA.
In addition to his scoring work, Tim has written & produced music with a diverse range of artists including founding member of Cluster and electronic music pioneer Hans-Joachim Roedelius, famed Motown music icon Smokey Robinson, and bassist Andy Rourke of the UK’s legendary band The Smiths. Tim is also an adjunct professor at New York University’s Integrated Design & Media and Music Technology programs, teaching a graduate level course on digital media art installation and a course on live electronic music performance.
Tim is the founder of Freedom Beat, a social justice organization focused on the role of music in global nonviolent civil resistance movements. He produced over 30 short form documentaries highlighting significant international music artists and the movements they are associated with. As a producer, he would research social justice movements, artists connected to their cause, recruit local production teams & academic experts, and coordinate each film's production. His interest in nonviolent civil resistance led him to be invited to participate in the Fletcher Summer Institute for the Advanced Study of Nonviolent Conflict at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. His films have been screened at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., and at Sweden's Urban Voices Festival. Bringing together his interest in politics, policy, storytelling, and audio, Tim has worked as a producer & sound designer on a variety of podasts including The United States Institute of Peace & Burning Man Project’s Culturally Attuned podcast series and Revolution 1: The Story of The Tunisian Uprising.
Tim's creative interests span many mediums including music, sound, podcast, film, and code-based interactive art. He is particularly interested in social impact driven projects at the intersection of art, politics, and technology. He received his MFA in Digital+Media from Rhode Island School of Design in 2012. He was the film editor of a number of music videos that premiered in Rolling Stone, VICE, Interview Magazine, and Paper Magazine including REM's That Someone Is You and for his past side music + film project, Daddy - Let Me Get What I Want.
For further listening, check out Tim’s Soundcloud
For more about Tim, check out Making The Music of Raw Craft with his score composer partner Andy Rourke:
Learn more about Tim's creative process and where he gets his inspiration from in this short film he made:
Composer and Sound Designer | Exhibition and Film
2022 Algae Chorus with Yan Shao This Is Not A Drill Exhibition at NYU Bobst Library
2017 Ai Weiwei Introduces Turn It On: China on Film Guggenheim Museum
2017 Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World Guggenheim Museum
2017 High School Lover A&E Network
2016 State of Surveillance VICE/HBO
2016 Tales of Our Time Guggenheim Museum
2015 Right to Die VICE/HBO
2014 The Sound and the Fury Venice Film Festival
2013 Psycho Nacirema Pace Gallery
2013 As I Lay Dying Festival de Cannes
2011 Ruscha The Museum of Contemporary Art
2011 Western The Museum of Contemporary Art
2011 Memories of Idaho Toronto International Film Festival
2011 Endless Idaho by Gus Van Sant and James Franco Gagosian Gallery
2011 Three's Company: The Drama Sundance Film Festival
Composer and Sound Designer for Podcast
2021 Revolution 1: The Story of The Tunisian Uprising
2021 Culturally Attuned: A USIP & Burning Man Project Podcast
2019 Behind The Pages The Journal on Education in Emergencies (JEiE)
Composer and Sound Designer for Performance
2017 Perv Collective with Ayakamay Lodge Gallery
2016 Cinema Diaconate as Daddy Sundance Film Festival
2015 Celebration with Ayakamay Ideal Glass
2011 Collage with James Franco NYU
2008 Punkplay by Gregory Moss Brown Trinity Consortium
2008 What Once We Felt by Ann Marie Healy Brown Trinity Consortium
2008 Some of the Rooms by Chen Gu Brown Trinity Consortium
2008 Diagram of a Kidnapping by Brendan Pelsue Brown Trinity Consortium
2008 Bad Money by Meg Miroshnik Brown Trinity Consortium
2008 Inked Baby by Christina Anderson Brown Trinity Consortium
2006 Falling Up by Trista Baldwin Perishable Theatre
2006 Gotham is Safe Again by Laura Jacqmin Perishable Theatre
2006 Line by Molly Rice Perishable Theatre
2005 Phenomena of Paragon by Nathan Andary Dance Complex
2004 Tales From Hollywood by Mark Kemball Columbus Theater
2003 Post Photo by Deborah Butler Artbeat Festival
2002 Static by Ellen Godena Berwick Research Institute
2002 The Techno Ballerina by Karelle Levy Miami Light Project
2002 Weightless by Christine Evans Brown Trinity Consortium
1999 Memory of Surfaces by Ernesto Pujol RISD Museum
1999 Migrations by Heather Henson Hear Theatre
1999 Migrations by Heather Henson Perishable Theatre
Composer and Sound Designer for Games
2007 GMTS (GeoCommander) Whatif Productions
2001 Frequency Harmonix Music Systems
Exhibitions
2012 Portal One Gelman Gallery, RISD Museum
2012 Dueling Frequencies Sol Koffler Gallery, RISD
2011 Breaking Out Pixilerations Festival
Releases
2017 Daddy - Let Me Get What I Want (Remixes)
2016 Daddy - Let Me Get What I Want
2010 <tfo> - Grand Strategy I
2009 Bloodless Coup - Regime Change
2006 <tfo> - Surface_Sounds
2003 Future Music Magazine CD Compilation (Spain)
2003 Future Music Magazine CD Compilation (UK)