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Dec 13, 2006
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Newsletter Performances
Newsletter 13.12. 2006
transmediale.07
unfinish!
January 31 - February 4, 2007
Akademie der Künste
Berlin, Hanseatenweg 10
Performances
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1. Pierre Bastien - Orchestre mécanique
2. Institut für Medienarchäologie - Nightline
3. Richard Chartier / Taylor Deupree - Specification.Fifteen
4. Edition Edison
5. Chris Salter - Schwelle 1 & 2
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1. Pierre Bastien (fr) - Orchestre mécanique
Opening transmediale.07, 30.1. 2007, 19 hrs, Akademie Hanseatenweg, Studio 1 (by invitation only)
Pierre Bastien will also be playing in a special programme of Club Transmediale at Volksbühne, Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, on 25.1. 2007
http://www.clubtransmediale.de
During the opening ceremony of transmediale.07, French artist Pierre Bastien presents his unique 'Orchestre mécanique', an orchestra made of Meccano parts, electro-motors and acoustic instruments from all over the world. According to the type of instrument that is included, each automaton plays a short melody, a rhythm or some harmony repeated in a loop.
'The dream of a composer: An orchestra on the fingertip, which gently fulfils every command: A timeless-melodic orchestra, futuristic and a bit dadaistic at the same time, which evokes ancient traditions in its astoundingly sensual music. This is, depicted in a few words, Pierre Bastiens 'Mecanium', a sort of daydream, which he pursues since 1976. The musicians of his orchestra are machines. The idea behind all this is simple, effective and poetic. Traditional instruments (Chinese sounds, Moroccan bendir, Javanese saron, koto, violin, sanze, etc.) are played by a mechanical instrument consisting of parts of a Meccano construction kit and re-used gramophone motors. These hybrid and self-playing sound-sculptures perform a series of short hypnotic pieces.' (Michel F. Côté)
Pierre Bastien (born in Paris, 1953) post-graduated in eighteenth-century French literature at University Paris-Sorbonne. In 1977 he built his first musical machinery. For the next ten years he has been composing for dance companies and playing with Pascal Comelade. In the meantime he was constantly developing his mechanical orchestra. Since 1987 he concentrates on it through solo performances, sound installations, recordings and collaborations with artists such as Pierrick Sorin, Karel Doing, Jean Weinfeld, Robert Wyatt or Issey Miyake.
http://www.pierrebastien.com/
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2. Institut für Medienarchäologie (at) - Nightline
Wednesday, 31.1. 2007, 21 hrs, Akademie Hanseatenweg, Studio 1
With a range of different performances the Austrian Institut für Medienarchäologie (IMA) focuses especially on the sonic arts and presents artists and compositions with diverse instruments and sound events.
For several years, Rebekah Wilson aka Netochka Nezvanova was pure fiction. Calling herself after a literary character of Fjodor Dostojevskij's, the trained composer was haunting the net as an Enfant terrible, anti-pop star, and digital icon. She re-appeared as a physical person in 2002 and was a curator at the STEIM in Amsterdam. In her current rebirth-phase as Rebekah Wilson she found her way back to her home country New Zealand. In the performance 'A History of Mapmaking' she uses the cello live to create sound and to manipulate sound events. (Compositions and performance: Rebekah Wilson)
The performance entitled '4:3' is a resonating memory trace transforming the experiments of Leon Theremin (Lev Sergejewitsch Termen) who worked with the avant-garde filmmaker Mary Ellen Bute in the 30s in his New York studio connecting light and sound to his 'Lichtmusik'. His idea of merging light, sound and movement opens up an exciting field for research and experiments, particularly in using digital technologies. (Compositions and electronics: Elisabeth Schimana, flute: Cordula Bösze, Terpsiton: Elena Golovasheva, instrumental design: Andre Smirnov)
In 'ghost engine - Sprechen ohne Sprache' (talking without language) two writers try to communicate without using any language. The Theremin, one of the first musical instruments designed to be played without being touched, develops the 'speech' that Liesl Ujvary and Ann Cotton explore experimentally. Additionally they play the Kaosspad (a device for music effects), and use the laptop to filter the Theremin's sounds. The emerging compositions create a panorama of human existence: straight, moving and non-verbal. (Theremin and electronics: Liesl Ujvary and Ann Cotton)
Ushi Reiter's 'Turntabel Improvisationen' brings scratching records, needles in the groove and scraps of sound into a dialogue with static sound waves and space. The performance starts with 20th century sound material produced exclusively by women. In addition to the pieces from net archives, works of contemporary sound producers will also play a key role. Vinyl records will be produced especially for Ushi Reiter's performance.
IMA is dedicated to the research and mediation of artistic practice of technological sound and visuals. As a main focus within this context IMA digs out female production of electronic art, incorporates it into the historical context and re-visualises these works for a wider audience.
http://www.ima.or.at/
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3. Richard Chartier / Taylor Deupree (us) - Specification.Fifteen
Honourable Mention transmediale Award 2007
Friday, 2.2. 2007, 21 hrs, Akademie Hanseatenweg, Studio 1
'Specification.Fifteen' evokes the stillness of the spaces of Hiroshi Sugimoto's seascapes which suggest infinite change under a seemingly uniform surface. Inspired by Sugimoto's series of photographic seascapes, sound artists Richard Chartier and Taylor Deupree created their piece on the occasion of a retrospective exhibition of the renowned Japanese photographer. 'Specification.Fifteen' will be on display as an audio-piece at transmediale's exhibition, and will be presented as a live performance by the artists in a European premiere.
Richard Chartier (born 1971), sound and installation artist, explores in his work the interrelationships between the spatial nature of sound, silence, focus, and the act of listening. In 2000 he formed together with Taylor Deupree the recording label LINE, presenting compositions and installations by international sound artists and composers.
Taylor Deupree (born 1971) is a sound artist, graphic designer, and photographer residing in New York. Founder of the music labels 12k, LINE and Happy, he devotes his work to the aesthetics of the contemporary and the development of the digital minimalism, often in collaboration with other artists.
http://3particles.com/
http://www.12k.com/
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4. Edition Edison:
Nicholas Bussmann (de), FM3: Christiaan Virant (us)/Zhang Jian (cn), Aleks Kolkowski (uk), Nicolas Collins (us)
Workshop-Installation: Thursday through Saturday (1.-3.2. 2007) all day
Performance: Saturday, 3.2. 2007, 18 hrs
Akademie Pariser Platz, Foyer
For more than a century physical sound-storage media, from the cylinder of the Edison phonograph to the CD, have made music something to be owned - an special liaison between music and object. The LP managed to become a fetish; the CD's days are already numbered. With the emergence of the standardised compression format MP3 and the Internet, sounds are once again roaming freely.
The workshop-installation 'Edition Edison' is on display during the festival at the foyer of the Academy's new building on Pariser Platz. The artists Nicholas Bussmann, FM3 (Christiaan Virant, Zhang Jian), Aleks Kolkowski and Nicolas Collins will manufacture artistic storage media, thus commenting the immateriality of digital sounds. The performance on Saturday evening will be a live concert, where the artists work with the storage media that has been produced during the preceding days. - Edition Edison is a project by Nicholas Bussmann in cooperation with the Diaphanes publishing company.
Nicholas Bussmann is a musician, composer and curator, living and working in Berlin. He started his career as a cello player, but went for the new possibilities provided by computer and electronic devices. He is focusing more on performing music rather then recording it, and he is working on conceptual compositions and game structures. Bussmann is curator of the annual Grand Prix d'Amour in Berlin. http://studiobeige.de/projects.php
FM3: Christiaan Virant is a Beijing-based sound artist and musician. Active in the Chinese punk underground for nearly a decade, he founded the experimental electronic act FM3 in 1999. Zhang Jian is China's top session keyboarder and leading computer musician. He has appeared on nearly every underground rock release over the past decade and was a member of many seminal Chinese rock acts. http://www.fm3.com.cn/
Aleks Kolkowski was born in London, and is based in Berlin since 1995. He performed in experimental music ensembles, and was working as an improvising musician, interpreter, composer and actor. His most recent work is concerned with the pre-electronic, mechanical technology of gramophones, phonographs and horned violins. http://www.experimentelle-musik.info/TU03.HTM#kolkowski
New York born and raised, Nicolas Collins studied composition at Wesleyan University (Connecticut). He worked as a composer and presented his audio-installations in the USA, Europe, South America and Japan. He was Visiting Artistic Director of Stichting STEIM (Center for Research & Development of instruments for performance arts) in Amsterdam and a DAAD composer-in-residence in Berlin. Since 1997 he has been editor-in-chief of the Leonardo Music Journal.
http://www.nicolascollins.com/
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5. Chris Salter (us) - Schwelle 1 & 2
1.-3.2. 2007, daily 20.30 hrs, TESLA, Kubus
'Schwelle' is a new media and performance project using cutting edge acoustic and interactive technologies to explore the extreme threshold states of consciousness that constitute human experience. The multi-part project uses High Definition image and multi-channel sound, interactive installation and live performance to create states of consciousness in the spectator akin to the thresholds states that one experiences at the edge of trance, sleep and death. For transmediale.07, Tesla presents parts 1 and 2. Part 1 is a turbulent exploration told by way of image and sound of the experience undergone at the time of the dissolution of the body and of consciousness. Part 2 is a live performance in which the audience confronts a lone single performer Michael Schumacher, master improviser and long time dancer by Forsythe’s Frankfurt Ballet, experiencing the traumatic transition period between death and rebirth.
'Schwelle' is a co-production between artists and researchers from cultural and scientific institutions in Canada, China, Germany, Holland, China, and the USA. 'Schwelle, Part 2' was partially developed during a project residency at Tesla in Summer 2006 and will receive its world premiere at 'tesla zur transmediale'.
Chris Salter studied economics and philosophy and received his Ph.D. in the areas of theatre and computer generated sound at Stanford University. He has collaborated with, among others, Peter Sellars, and William Forsythe and the Ballett Frankfurt. He co-founded the art and research organisation 'Sponge', whose works stretch between artistic production and scientific research. His performances, installations, research and publications have been shown at numerous festivals around the world. Salter is assistant professor of digital media at Concordia University, Montreal.
http://clsalter.com
http://sponge.org
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transmediale.07
unfinish!
festival for art and digital culture berlin
http://www.transmediale.de
info@transmediale.de
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