As an award winning international DJ and long time audio experimentalist in New York's underground clubs, Terre Thaemlitz produces audio works which exploit the contrasting functions of music as a socializing force and a point for subjective release. Thaemlitz arrived in New York in 1986 to study at the Cooper Union School of Art, where he focused on issues of cultural theory and identity politics. Surrounded by the musical subcultures of the Lower East Side, Thaemlitz' longstanding interest in electronic music quickly led him to DJ-ing in underground transexual clubs, where he was presented with an Underground Grammy Award by the House of Magic in 1991. Thaemlitz became infamous for his unique intermixing of musical genres and moods, an approach which predated the presence of "Chill Rooms" in New York.