s.low in motion

S.LOW - vip lounges are for ALL (los salones VIP son para todos) – un documental dinámico

2011-11-12T16:07:00.000-08:00

CMMAS web event - click here

S.LOW documentary FILM excerpt ONE from S.LOW on Vimeo.

Concierto/Presentación: Ricardo Climent (España / Reino Unido)

22 July 2011

Horario: 20:30 hrs

Auditorio del CMMAS

Entrada Libre

P R O G R A M A

S.LOW - vip lounges are for ALL (los salones VIP son para todos) – un documental dinámico.
Switched on (2011) para cinta sola - Manuella Blackburn (*)
Camera Down (audio/visual) Mark Pilkington

S.LOW - vip lounges are for ALL (los salones VIP son para todos) – un documental dinámico.

*Estreno nacional

Presentado por Ricardo Climent.

Sinopsis: S.LOW – (los salones VIP son para todos), es un documental no lineal, no dirigido, como resultado de el S.LOW Projekt (Berlin). En el verano de 2010, cerca de cuarenta artistas internacionales, artistas visuales, compositores, musicólogos, ingenieros, científicos de física y cinematógrafos se reunieron en Berlín para discutir los conceptos “bajo y lento” en el contexto de la ciudad. El documental explora cómo el arte puede sobrevivir afuera de la zona de confort de un soporte institucional amplio y si por resultado, los artistas pueden cambiar las reglas de compromiso con las audiencias dándoles la misma importancia en el proceso compartiendo y haciendo arte.

http://s.low-low.org/

Switched on (2011) para cinta sola de Manuella Blackburn (*)

La pieza comienza explorando los sonidos de switches, diales y botones recolectado en mi casa y mi espacio de trabajo. Un sonido particularmente interesante fue generado por prender una vieja televisión, la cual encendió una serie de pitches de alta frecuencia y alborotos estáticos antes de finalmente prenderse. Transposiciones más bajas de este sonido revelaron una colección inaudible usual de frecuencias electrónicas que se manifiestan en todo el trabajo. Fui particularmente conducida a los conceptos de objetos inanimados del encendido a momentos de inactividad, y de electricidad acumulada corriendo al tarareo por circuito. Este trabajo fue creado y completado en la Universidad de Liverpool Hope (Reino Unido) y el Elektronmusikstudion (EMS) en Stockholm, Suecia.

Camera Down (audio/visual) de Mark Pilkington

La pieza comparte una simbólica conexión con los sentidos del oído y la vista el pre escritos en la composición, una especia de convergencia metafísica, un inter juego entre dos organismos perceptuales, el del oído y la vista. El mundo sonoro de la pieza representa una aproximación dual entre el sonido natural y sintético y materiales visuales. Un paseo en montaña rusa por el paisaje sonoro y patrones de energía de luz; revelando lugares familiares y no familiares. Un dialogo entre acción y reacción, una consecuencia de eventos por el tiempo. Realizada en el centro de Investigación NOVARS en la Universidad de Manchester, (Reino Unido)

Ricardo Climent

Compositor, investigador y docente en la Universidad de Manchester (Reino Unido), donde co-dirige NOVARS Research Centre, un centro de referencia internacional para la creación electroacústica. Con anterioridad y durante una década lo fue del Sonic Arts Research Centre en la Queen’s University, Irlanda del Norte, donde obtuvo titulos de maestría y doctorado en composición con nuevas tecnologías. Ricardo ha servido en numerosas instituciones como compositor residente: Conservatorio de las Rosas (México); la Jove Orquestra de la Generalitat Valenciana; el Kunitachi College of Music, Tokio; Laboratorio LEA, Valencia; el Elektronisches Studio de la Universidad Técnica, Berlin; In you we Trust, Cushendall; CARA- Celebrating arts in Rural Areas, Irlanda. Su obra abarca una gran diversidad de géneros que van desde la composición para cinta sola con énfasis en la difusión multicanal a la composición instrumental o mixta, incluyendo colaboraciones en el ámbito interdisciplinar con áreas científicas o del arte. Su investigación se centra en la aplicación de nuevas tecnologías en la creación musical, embarcandose y liderando a menudo proyectos de colaboración de larga duración como son: el Tornado-Project.org, The Microbial Ensemble, Drosophila Tour o The Navigation System Through Sound.

Para mas información visitar: www.electro-acoustic.com o www.electro-acustica.com

Manuella Blackburn nació en Londres en 1984. Estudió música en la Universidad de Mánchester seguido de una maestría en Composición Electroacústica, adquiriendo una distinción y el Premio de Composición Peter J Leonard. Terminó su doctorado en la Universidad de Mánchester bajo la supervisión del Dr. Ricardo Climent, apoyada en el Cónsul de Investigación de Artes y Humanidades de la Universidad. Sus éxitos incluyen el primer premio por si trabajo Vista Points en la décima edición de la Competencia Musica Viva Electroacoustic Music en 2009, Portugal, y el Grand Prize en los premios de Artes Digitales de Japan para Kitchen Alchemy. Ha recibido menciones honoríficas en el Concurso de Música Electroacústica del Festival Visiones Sonoras del CMMAS, y en el VII CIMESP (Concurso Internacional de Musica Eletroacustica de Sao Paulo 2007). Otros premios incluyen Primer Premio por su trabajo acusmático Causal Impacts, en la séptima edición de la competencia Musica Viva Electroacoustic Competition del 2006, Portugal, Segundo Premio en la el Diffusion Competition, en Limerick, seleccionada en la edición del 2006 del Bourges International Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Arts Competition, y el Premio Público en la competencia CEMJKO en Brazil.

Mark Pilkington es un ejecutante y compositor de música electrónica y electroacústica. Está interesado en fusionar estructuras auditivas y visuales que pueden ser manipuladas desde la partitura o improvisadas en tiempo real durante presentaciones que cuestionan los conceptos tradicionales del arte, la música y la tecnología. Trabaja en áreas fílmicas, de grabación, instalación y performance en vivo. Actualmente es candidato a Doctorado por la Universidad de Mánchester, (Reino Unido). Se graduó con maestría en composición electroacústica de la Universidad de Huddersfield (Reino Unido) en 2004. Completó un taller intensivo de verano en Electroacústica en el Centro de Creación Musical, Iannis Xenakis (CCMIX) en Paris, Francia, en 2005 y presentó un trabajo en composición 'Audio/Visual' en la Conferencia BETA en el FACT de Liverpool en 2005. Mark dirige su propio sello audio/visual llamado ‘TUM' - www.thought-universe.co.uk. Actualmente está cursando su doctorado en Composición en el Centro de Investigación NOVARS bajo la supervisión del Dr. Ricardo Climent y el Dr. David Berezan.

S.LOW in Motion activities in July 2011 - residency at Surround Wunderbar Studio in Berlin

2011-07-08T10:45:00.000-07:00

Celestial Ambush (Bjelkeborn/Eriksson) from S.LOW on Vimeo.

20 Working Days (Fyans/Marquez-Borbon)

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Pictured below, Thomas Bjelkeborn and Viktor Eriksson during their residency at Surround Wunderbar Studio (SWS) in Berlin as Part of the IDKA-S.LOW creative exchange.

S.LOW LIAISED ACTIVITIES 2011

S.LOW in Motion July 2011 - Berlin/ N.K. WORKSHOP

2011-07-08T09:56:00.000-07:00

S.LOW liaise N.K. WORKSHOP

Saturday 9th July 2011, 1200-1800

HACKING MUSICAL INTERACTIONS: INTERACTION DESIGN FOR DIY EMIS.

This hands-on workshop introduces and explores key concepts of interaction design for electronic musical interactions (EMIs) and live musical performance. Participants will be introduced to interaction design concepts and practices as we explore them through hands-on physical sketching with simple electronic instrument circuitry, circuit bending and hardware hacking. The workshop will culminate in a specific design challenge for the participants, challenging them to create a new performance- ready circuit bent musical instrument within detailed constraints.

Maximum number of participants is 12 Pre-registration is essential and can be done by sending an email to info@nkprojekt.de.

This workshop assumes no technical background or experience whatsoever. It is accessible to novice and advanced participants alike or those simply interested in the subject area. All materials will be provided.

Date: Saturday 9th July 2011, 1200-1800

Fee: EUR 20 + 10 (materials)

location: NK

Elsenstr. 52 2HH 2Etage

12059 Berlin DE

tel: +49(0)17620626386

The Workshop Leaders:

Cavan Fyans is a PhD research student in the performative interaction research group at the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC), Queen’s University Belfast. His work examines the spectator’s perception & understanding of novel electronic musical interactions. Cavan spends time developing new and innovative ways of breaking cheap consumer electronics (Circuit Bending & Hardware Hacking) in order to re-purpose them into musical instruments for live performance.

www.cfyans.com

Adnan Marquez-Borbon is a PhD research student in the performative interaction research group at the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC), Queen’s University Belfast. His current line of research focuses on the process of learning and development of skill with novel musical instruments. As an instrument builder, his interest lies mainly in the intersection between acoustic wind instruments and electronics.

ccrma.stanford.edu/~adnanm

Detailed Description:

Concepts such as modes of interaction, affordances, constraints, style, user and spectator experience, are central to the fields of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and interaction design. However, the increasingly popular and diverse disciplines of DIY EMIs, specifically circuit bending and hardware hacking, often fail to consider such concepts in the creation of novel musical instruments. This is commonly due to both restrictions imposed by the bent or hacked device (“there’s limited space on the speak & spell to put extra buttons”) and by the introvert nature of DIY EMIs; many electronic luthiers creations are only ever performed by the luthier themselves (“no one else will play my instrument so it doesn’t matter how easy it is to work”).

The workshop addresses design considerations in a field where options, possibilities, physicality and cost are restricted. Participants will explore how consideration of affordances and constraints can lead to new, innovative and creative designs. Taking into consideration the experience of both the performer and the spectator in live performance, participants will address how we can improve live performance situations with hacked EMIs through simple interaction design concepts.

During the workshop participants will be introduced to the interaction design concepts as we explore them through hands-on examples and physical sketching with simple electronic instrument circuitry. As a group we will examine and discuss instrument design considerations and participants will be presented with a specific design challenge. Through the hands-on experience progressing through brainstorming, physical sketching, hacking, testing and modeling, participants will create a new circuit bent instrument from the design challenge whilst learning about and exploring these central concepts of interaction design.

Below pictures of the workshop at N.K.

CONCERT AT LOOPHOLE (As a practice demo of the workshop)

About S.LOW in MOTION

2011-04-17T15:18:00.000-07:00

X
S.LOW in Motion (as branded by Thomas Bjelkeborn!) encapsulates a number of activities and presentations as a result of the S.LOW Projekt in 2010. These include among others:

XX- Screenings and talks about S.LOW's dynamic documentary FILM 'vip lounges are for ALL';
XX- Partnership projects and residencies with other artistic organisations (IDKA-S.LOW-FYLKINGEN-EMS)
XX- Curatorial work (via blackduck)

Solitude Silence- a Bjelkeborn-Larsson collaboration (S.LOW 2010)

EMS Residency McCurdy - Climent

2011-04-17T11:51:00.000-07:00

From 11th to the 15th of April 2011, S.LOW artists Iain McCurdy and Ricardo Climent were resident at the EMS studios in Stockholm. They would like to extend their thanks to all the staff there for assistance during their stay.

Pictured above: Iain McCurdy's electronic workshop @ EMS (April 14th, 2011)

Pictured above: McCurdy - Climent's S.LOW Workshop – Build your own Jam Box (@ Push Festival)

Pictured above: Iain McCurdy at EMS's Studio 3 , Sweden

Pictured above: Ricardo Climent at EMS's Studio 2 , Sweden

during recording session with violin player Karin Hellqvist

About S.LOW in MOTION

2011-04-17T11:41:00.000-07:00

S.LOW in Motion (as branded by Thomas Bjelkeborn!) encapsulates a number of activities and presentations as a result of the S.LOW Projekt in 2010. These include among others:
- screenings and talks about S.LOW's dynamic documentary FILM 'vip lounges are for ALL';
- partnership projects and residencies with other artistic organisations (IDKA-S.LOW-FYLKINGEN-EMS) or
- curatorial work (via blackduck)

S.Low Residency at EMS Stockholm

2011-04-10T15:56:00.001-07:00

CONCERTS and Sound Installations:

Artists at Fylkingen's theatre

Pendulum and Cypher sound installations at the Foyer

Concert preparation

Artists at the Fylkingen bar

Ho Sound installation video @Fylkingen

Michael Larssons and Thomas Bjelkeborn setup for Solitude Silence

About CURATORIAL (VISUAL ART) - BLACKDUCK

2011-04-10T15:53:00.001-07:00

curatorial -

black duck

I.D.K.A. events in Berlin [July 2011]

2011-04-10T15:38:00.000-07:00

About I.D.K.A - S.LOW Partnership

2011-04-10T15:36:00.000-07:00

The S.LOW-IDKA partnership began in summer 2010 with the invitation of Thomas Bjelkeborn and Michael Larsson to Berlin as the opening performers of the S.LOW 2010 Projekt. The collaboration worked so well that Bjelkeborn was invited back for the closing performance of the Festival in August of that year. The association of S.Low and IDKA was furthered in April 2011 with S.LOW artists Ricardo Climent and Iain McCurdy appearing as guest composers at the 2011 Push Festival in Gävle, Sweden. This visit to concluded with a 1 week residency by Climent and McCurdy at the EMS studios in Stockholm and further concerts at the nearby Fylkingen performance space. Also featured during this series of concerts were the performers Frøydis Dahlø (flute) and Karin Hellqvist (violin) The exchange between IDKA and S.Low will continue with a visit by Viktor Eriksson and Thomas Bjelkeborn to Berlin in July 2011 to give a series of performances, film screenings and talks.

Pictured above:
Viktor Eriksson interviewed by Swedish national TV during Push 2011

Thomas Bjelkeborn: International affairs director for Push
and S.LOW artist 2010

Push Festival official poster

About the Dynamic Documentary Film

2011-04-10T15:26:00.000-07:00

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S.LOW - vip lounges are for ALL - a dynamic documentary film

Presented by Ricardo Climent

Duration: 42 minutes film - 30 minutes discussion

Synopsis: S.LOW - vip lounges are for ALL is a non-linear non-directed documentary film as a result of the S.LOW Projekt (Berlin). In the summer of 2010, about forty international and national visual artists, music composers working with electronic media, musicologists, performers, engineers, physical scientists and film-makers met in Berlin to discuss the concepts of low and slow in the context of the city. The film explores how art can survive outside the comfort of large institutional support and if as a result, artists can change the rules of engagement with audiences by giving the latter equal importance in the process of sharing and making arts. With an emphasis on people and by documenting 'the things in between' during such project, this audiovisual work allows listeners to navigate through a number of values and concepts such as, trust, believes, authorship, excellence, art-killing rules, dream-cities, time-to-share or being-faithful, as seen by the artists.

web: s.low-low.org

S.LOW IN MOTION – SWIINGING CO-OP @ FYLKINGEN, STOCKHOLM

2011-04-10T15:22:00.000-07:00

Datum: 14 Apr 2011 - 19:30

S.LOW project visar under sin andra kväll nyskapande konst och nyskriven musik av Frøydis Dahlø, Iain McCurdy, Ricardo Climent, Thomas Bjelkeborn.

Medverkande: Karin Hellqvist: violin, Frøydis Dahlø: flöjt

I foajen visas installationer: Pendulum av Iain McCurdy och Hô - a sonic expedition to Viet nam och Manchester Sonic meta-ontology av Ricardo Climent.

Se mer om S.LOW på http://s.low-low.org

S.LOW in Motion sker i samarbete med Elektronmusikstudion EMS i Stockholm och PUSH festivalen vid IDKA i Gävle.

-- Toccatina (1986) Helmut Lachenmann for solo violin - 5’00
-- Three Breaths (2009) for Flute, Bass Flute and Live Processing – Iain McCurdy - 12’00

-- Koorean Air (2010) for solo violin and electronic expression – Ricardo Climent - 8’28
-- Solitud Silence (2010) for live electronics and Live visuals by Thomas Bjelkeborn/ Michael Larsson; - c. 25'

Performers:
Frøydis Dahlö (flute)
Karin Hellqvist (violin)
Live video
Michael Larsson
Live Electronics och sound diffusion
Thomas Bjelkeborn

Iain McCurdy
Ricardo Climent

Sound system: 5 x1031 genelec, and Fylkingen's Meyer surround system (8+2)

Entré: 80 kr / stud 60 kr

MEDLEMSPRODUKTION: Bjelkeborn

Pictured above Frøydis Dahlö

Pictured above Michael Larsson

Pictured above Karin Hellqvist

Pictured above Iain McCurdy

Pictured above Ricardo Climent

Pictured above Thomas Bjelkeborn

CURATORS BATTLE MOVIE NIGHT @ FYLKINGEN, STOCKHOLM

2011-04-10T15:19:00.000-07:00

13 Apr 2011 - 19:30

S.LOW project från Berlin gör ett nedslag i Stockholm där den första kvällen ägnas åt elektronisk konstmusik och filmvisning. Curator för kvällen är bl a Ricardo Climent som är verksam i S.LOW project i Berlin och vid NOVARS i Manchester. Under kvällen finns det möjlighet att närma sig S.LOW projects speciella estetiska och sociala experiment.

Se mer om S.LOW på http://s.low-low.org/

S.LOW in Motion sker i samarbete med Elektronmusikstudion EMS i Stockholm och PUSH festivalen vid IDKA i Gävle.

FYLKINGEN PROGRAMME

WEDNESDAY 13th April 2011 @ 19:30
S.LOW IN MOTION – CURATORS BATTLE MOVIE NIGHT

s.low (2010) - documentary film (excerpt) c. 10' -
Decipher (2006) - for fixed media - Thomas Bjelkeborn 7'43
Havana (2001 - mix 2011) - for fixed media - Ricardo Climent 11'00
Pisk - flute improvisation - Fröya Dahlö - c.15'
Traitement de choc (2003) - for fixed media - Iain McCurdy 11’12

Entré: 80 kr / stud 60 kr

MEDLEMSPRODUKTION: Bjelkeborn

Sound system: 5 x1031 genelec, and Fylkingen's Meyer surround system (8+2)

[-] Around the world of EAM

2011-04-10T14:57:00.000-07:00

Posted by viktor on fredag, april 8, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Around the world of EAM (Electro-Acoustic Music)

This concert is an appetizer and a sampler of the exciting soundworlds that are created within the international community of electroacoustic music. We will move around in an ingenious sound archipelago, float into new imaginary landscapes on soothing waves for the ear.

Sound system: 8 x1031 genelec + 2 Sub Meyers

Programme:

• Peterloo – Mark Pilkington

• Si je les écoutais… – Christine Groult

• Decipher – Thomas Bjewlkeborn

• Papyrus – Diana Salazar

• Havanna – Ricardo Climent

Curators: Ricardo Climent & Thomas Bjelkeborn

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Peterloo (2011) Mark Pilkington dur 14’00

A 5.1 acoustmatic piece based on the historic event that happened in Manchester UK in 1819. The piece is a sonic reflection of the events that unfolded on that fateful day in August. A peaceful social protest of 60,000 people gathered at St. Peters field Manchester to represent to the nation that ordinary people had the right and ability to discuss social reform issues in public. A political standpoint for citizenship, that would inspire a change that would give people the right to vote for political change. Unfortunately what transpired was a miscarriage of justice in which the local authority ordered troops to disperse the crowd resulting in the Peterloo Massacre in which 15 people lost their lives and 300 people were injured. The piece is in-respect to the people who died on that day and the effects it had on changing the face of political balance within the UK as we know it today. With the help of historian Robert Poole, University of Cumbria and the Peoples Museum Manchester, I have managed to acquire historical factual information in order to accurately convey the sound events as they happened. The sonic material are transformations of recordings made at the recent students protest that happened in Manchester 2011.

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Si je les écoutais… (2007) Christine Goult dur 18’00

Electroacoustic music a mode of expression, ”cette forme de composition élabore en studio une matière sonore créatrice d’images porteuses de sens, de liens. Proche des arts plastiques dont elle rejoint la culture de la matière et de l’espace, elle se prête à la construction de formes inédites, seule, ou dans une interdisciplinarité active avec toutes les pratiques artistiques en recherche. Sa diffusion sur orchestre de hauts parleurs lui permet d’investir des lieux très variés pour y réaliser in situ de véritables spectacles sonore ” (Collective KM Pantin)

For Christine Groult electroacoustic music is lika a musical scenography where she offers the audience the possibility of new imaginary places. Elements from our everyday world, sociological, historical, geographical and architectural is brought together in her music to establish another reality. As if the visible was a testimony of the Invisible that contains it.

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Decipher (2006) Thomas Bjelkeborn dur 7’43

It slips out of hand, lives a life of its own,

can’t get hold of it, even if all were put on one

it rips apart, shows what’s inside

violently closes, leaves all

on the inside, it lingers on

until left to rest

This music is performed by an octet of trompaphones and an quartet of swischers. It was written for the anniversary and celebration of 50 years with Chilean Electro-acoustic Music and first performed at the Ai-Maako festival 2006. It was commisioned by Comunidad Electroacoustica de Chile, CECH.

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Papyrus (2010) Diana Salazar dur 8’32

Almost all source material in Papyrus is derived from recordings of a variety of paper, from notepaper to large sheets of wallpaper. I recorded much of this material during the creation of a soundtrack for a theatre production of The Yellow Wallpaper, based on the novel by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. A site-specific production of the theatre adaptation was directed by Rob Drummer and performed at the Manchester Museum in May 2008. While composing the soundtrack I was fascinated by the intricate sonic details present in the closely recorded paper and was keen to explore their potential further in a standalone acousmatic concert work. As a result, Papyrus explores the wide variety of spatial motions, trajectories and perspectives which can be created through the manipulation of this seemingly simple and lifeless material. Through the course of the work the sounds of paper gather energy and they form increasingly animated behaviours within a changing abstract landscape. There are four sections, each one seemingly revealed through a metaphorical ‘tearing’ of the wallpaper. This work exists independently of the theatre soundtrack. However the transformations in this piece reflect the behaviour of the woman behind the wallpaper in the novel: a development from hypnotic creeping in the shadows to ‘mechanical and ugly movements’ in a ‘twisting and twisted dance.

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Havanna (2011) Ricardo Climent dur 11’00

Les séries sonores 50

“I wanted to capture a sound-snap of Cuba before the Castro Era was over and all went sonically global; the engines of the remaining Buicks, the old Italian buses, etc. I was hoping to write a soundscape composition with them… but all went wrong and I could not. Although I got my recordings, they had an impact on me as never before. I was moved, they made me sad and confused, thoughtful and furious. I could neither remain impartial nor find my political side any longer.”

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Christine Groult started as a composer of music for concert, theater, choreography and documentaries. She has more and more entered her work in the search for an expressive electroacoustic music that addresses emotion. It is the poetic potential of sound (recording and processing) and the search for a new sound dramaturgy that is her particular concern.

She is teaching electroacoustic composition at the CRD Pantin. In 2007, the dynamics of the classroom has led to the creation of the association KM Pantin. Initiated by students, this group aims to encourage the creation and dissemination of electroacoustic music and create a real platform for exchange of knowledge within that community.

Diana Salazar (née Simpson) initially studied flute performance at the RSAMD (Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama) in Glasgow, where she was first introduced to studio composition by Alistair MacDonald. She went on to specialise in electroacoustic composition, later completing a PhD at the University of Manchester, UK. She is currently a lecturer at Kingston University, London.

Her works have been performed throughout the UK and internationally, across Europe and in South, Central and North America. They have also been recognised in a number of international competitions, including CIMESP, Bourges, L’Espace du Son, Música Viva and SCRIME.

She has been a composer-in-residence at CEMI (Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia at the University of North Texas, Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida, the Institute for Electroacoustic Music in Sweden (EMS), Orford Center for the Arts, Montreal and the Destellos Foundation, Argentina.

Mark Pilkington is a performer, composer and lecturer in electronic and electroacoustic music. PhD. candidate at the University Of Manchester UK – NOVARS. MA in electroacoustic composition, the University of Huddersfield in the UK 2004. He is interested in fusing together digital audio/visual structures that can be manipulated from a score or improvised in real-time thus presenting performances that question traditional concepts of art, music and technology. Experimental filming-maker and visual artist. http://thought-universe.co.uk - http://novars.org

Ricardo Climent works in areas of music composition and interactive media, involving the use of audio and visual metadata. Currently, he serves as Co-Director of the NOVARS Research Centre, University of Manchester and he previously held a Lecturing position at SARC, Queen’s University of Belfast. Ricardo has also served as resident composer and researcher at the JOGV Orchestra in Spain, Conservatorio of Morelia in Mexico, Sonology – Kunitachi College of Music, Tokyo, LEA labs, at the Conservatorio of Valencia, the Cushendall Tower- In you we trust, Northern Ireland, at CARA- Celebrating Arts in rural Areas, cross-border Ireland and N.K. Berlin. He was involved in the creation of a number of collaborative projects, such as, The Microbial Ensemble, (repertoire for a bunch of microbes, with Quan Gan), The Carxofa Electric Band (a children’s project using vegetables and Electronics with iain McCurdy), The Tornado-Project (a cross-atlantic set of commissioned works for flute, clarinet and computer for American wind virtuosi Esther Lamneck (clarinet) and Elizabeth McNutt (flute)), Drosophila (a dance-theatre tour of a blind fly with KLEM and Idoia Zabaleta), Ho- a sonic expedition to Vietnam, (a 3D interactive interface project for planetariums), project manager for S.LOW, (a cross-disciplinary project in Berlin) and Manchester Sonic meta-ontology (Audioguides in collaboration with Mantis and NoTours among others) sonorities.org

Thomas Bjelkeborn has been active in electronic music in sweden since late seventies. In 1984 he started studying and working at the Studio for Electro-acoustic Music, EMS in Stockholm. His produktion involves electro-acoustic compositions, music for choreography, computer works, live-electronics in the ensemble Sound Quartet and interactive artinstallations as the Cyberfon. In sweden he is well known for his large scale works such as The ballet for Excavaters for the Stockholm Museum of Modern Art and Touchdown event for swedens largest rock festival. Thomas Bjelkeborn is the founder for the Institute for Digital Arts, IDKA in Gävle, Sweden and was the director between 2000-2005. From 2006 he is artistic director for festivals and konserts and manages all international contacts for the PUSH festival.

All around the world.

S.LOW Workshop – Build your own Jam Box

2011-04-10T14:53:00.000-07:00

Posted by magnus on fredag, april 1, 2011 · Leave a Comment

Fredag 8e april 10.00 – 18.00 (IDKA)

Workshop – Build your own Jam Box with Iain McCurdy & Ricardo Climent

Participants will learn about cheap sensors and even how to make their own from everyday objects.
Options for interfacing with the computer and software will be discussed.
Hardware focus will be on the basic Arduino due to its cheapness but other options will be discussed.
Morning session will focus more on presentation and discussion
During the afternoon session participants will build their own sensor boxes.
Maximum of 8 participants.
Sensor types: LDR (light sensor), infra-red distance sensor, ribbon controller, pressure sensor, capacitative touch sensor, mechanical switch (bought), home made mechanical touch switch (momentary). potentiometer (rotary and slider), tilt switches.
Kostnad 250 kr per person

photo © S.LOW

Installation S.LOW at IDKA Kulturkiosken

2011-04-10T14:44:00.000-07:00

Posted by magnus on tisdag, mars 29, 2011

VISAS Tors – Fre 14.00 – 18.00 & Lör 12.00 – 15.00

Vernissage torsdagen den 7 april kl 14.00, välkomna

Utställning S.LOW at IDKA Kulturkiosken

S.LOW at IDKA

En utställning med interaktiv konst och ljudkonst från Berlin, Kina, Storbritannien och Irland med ljudande nedslag runt hela jorden. S.LOW i Berlin och NOVARS i Manchester samlar kreativa människor från när och fjärran för att skapa nya förutsättningar för konsten i nutid och framtid. Utställningen visare ett utsnitt av några kreativa konstskapare, Diana Salazar och Ricardo Climent från Manchester, Iain McCurdy från Berlin och Kaho Chung från Hong Kong. Ricardo Climent och Iain McCurdy från S.LOW i Berlin är PUSH residens 2011 vid IDKA med stöd av Statens Kulturråd. Utställningen sker med teknikstöd från EMS (www.elektronmusikstudion.se) i Stockholm.

‘In the summer of 2010 and for six weeks, thirty four international and national visual artists, music composers working with electronic media, musicologists, performers, engineers, physical scientists and film-makers from around the world met in Berlin to discuss the concept of s.low (slow and or low) in their creative practice.http://s.low-low.org

Diana Salazar's installation Sindlesongs, as part of Sonic Metaontology project

Följande visas:

Ricardo Climent – Hồ A Sonic Expedition to Viet nam

Iain McCurdy – Cipher Sound Installation

Iain McCurdy – Pendulum Installation

Volkman Klien – Contributions to Homeland Sound Topography 01 – The Right Sides of the Road.

Uli Aumüller Les séries sonores (Mix) – with comments by 40 Manchester students.

Diana Salazar – Spindlesongs Installation (Quarry Bank mills, Manchester)

INSTALLATIONS:

Hồ – A Sonic Expedition to Viet nam 2009 (Ricardo Climent)

The Navigation System Through Sound is a new sonic-GPS orientation tool created to assist dynamic compositional musical methods on a live performance. It aims to help general audiences to understand and enjoy more the language of electroacoustic music and to provide them with an enhanced surround sonic experience, inspired by that achieved on the visual sensory system in planetariums and three-dimensional cinemas. It also aims to increase the awareness, for example, on areas of sound pollution, with potential for expansion beyond typical territories of acoustic ecology. The performer/composer, as ‘the captain of the ship,’ controls the interface of a ‘sound- wheel’ inspired by maritime navigation, leading audiences to an aural journey with critical stops at specific locations with unique sonic interest. Ho is a full-of-fun, but also drama, sonic-cartographic expedition to Vietnam combining composed sounds with game engine technologies. Acknowledgments: great thanks for the open source blender community (blender.org)

For more about Ho, please visit its research blog – http://wunderbarlaboratorium.blogspot.com/

web: sonorities.org

Cipher (2009) – Sound Installation by Iain McCurdy

Cipher presents visitors with a board with an 8 x 8 grid of holes into which decorative marbles provided can be placed. Setting a marble in a hole initiates a sound idea that will continue for several minutes, gradually decaying, unless the marble is first removed. Setting another marble into another hole on the same vertical or horizontal axis as the first will, as well as triggering a new sound idea associated with that hole, cause some form of sonic transformation upon the first sound idea (if it is still active). The transformation could be a change in tempo or speed, modulation of pitch, a spectral filter, rhythmic reconfiguration, or something else specific to the nature of the original sound. Considering the structure of holes in the interface, any sound idea begun can experience a total of 14 (7 vertical and 7 horizontal) different transformations and in any combination. Bearing in mind that there are 64 basic sound ideas, sonic outcomes based upon placement of the marbles is enormous. Visitors will, as well as enjoying the sonic experience of the piece, hopefully spend some time trying to decode and understand at least some of the mechanisms of the piece. The design of the piece suggests a puzzle or strategy game and in some ways the piece is both a puzzle and a game but there is no solution (or perhaps it could be considered that there are many solutions) and there is no winner. Strategy is advanced only through listening, the visual and physical side of the piece serves only as an impression of the current musical state of the piece.

Pendulum (2008) – Installation by Iain McCurdy

The movement of a pendulum is tracked by a formation of sixty-four sensors. As the pendulum passes over a sensor a sound event is triggered. As the pendulum traces its trajectory, we experience repeating patterns of sounds. In reality, however, these patterns are constantly changing as the effects of gravity, air resistance and friction dampen the movement of the pendulum. Sounds are lost from the pattern as the pendulum’s trajectory decays but sounds can also be added to a pattern if circular or elliptical movement contracts to include sensors closer to the centre of the formation. This installation alternatively utilises sounds derived from recordings of a classical guitar or of a prepared piano. My thanks to Greg Caffrey and Simon Mawhinney respectively for assistance with these recordings.

Iain McCurdy is a composer of electroacoustic and acousmatic music originally from Belfast but currently based in Berlin. The current focus of his work is on sound installation, the creative use of electronic sensors and innovative human interface design. His work has been exhibited and performed throughout Europe and the rest of the World.

8 CHANNEL INSTALLATION

Diana Salazar Spindlesongs – Installation (Quarry Bank mills, Manchester)

Sections: Voice from the Water, Living Memory, Pulsations, The Waterwheel: A Meditation on Deafness, The Carder Starts Up, Dangerous Mechanisms, The Musical Pulse of Weaving, Looms and Words, Steam Power, Woven Words.

Spindlesongs is a sound installation which uses almost exclusively recordings gathered at Quarry Bank Mill, an 18th Century cotton mill to the south of Manchester, alongside archive recordings from the North West Sound Archive. These sounds have been edited, manipulated and layered to create sonic journeys through the sounds and stories of the cotton industry in the North West of England. Originally 8-channel surround sound was used to simulate spatial movement, referencing the motions of the machines found in the Mill, although this version is a stereo mix.

The voices heard in the work are taken from interviews with Quarry Bank Mill staff and a number of recordings of the recollections of Mill workers, archived at the North West Sound Archive, which present first-hand experiences of the cotton industry in the North West of England.

The work comprises ten short movements, each focusing on a certain sonic aspect of the Mill, the most recognizable being water, steam and specific machinery, like the looms and the carder. Spindlesongs was presented as an 8-channel installation in Quarry Bank Mill during September 2008 (pictured).

With thanks to The National Trust and the North West Sound Archive.

Biography: Diana Salazar is a composer of electroacoustic music. Her compositional output is diverse and reflects strong interests in sound spatialisation, cross-disciplinary collaboration and site-specific work. Her acousmatic works have been recognised at national and international levels, with performances including the International Computer Music Conference (Belfast 2008, Montreal 2009), Sonorities Festival of Contemporary Music (Belfast 2007), the Australasian Computer Music Conference (Sydney, 2008) and the Synthèse Festival (Bourges 2007). Works have also been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Radio France and Swedish National Radio, and selected compositions have been released on the discparc, SCRIME and Studio PANaroma labels. She has collaborated with film-makers, visual artists, dancers and theatre practitioners on a diverse range of projects, including commissions for Universities-Scotland and Youth Music Scotland. She also regularly performs as a laptop improviser.

Volkmar Klien – Contributions to Homeland Sound Topography 01 – The Right Sides of the Road.

In a generous gesture Volkmar Klien extends an invitation to the environment to be reflected in the noises he radiates. Just as composers compose to reflect their feelings, their lovers’ beauty or their hearts’ desperate sorrow in music, Volkmar Klien blasts out loud, unrelenting and somewhat forceful noise from speakers mounted on his ruby red car’s roof, not simply to reflect just a feeling (as love is), but the physical environment as such. In the same way that things do not need to be lamps to be visible, physical objects do not have to emit sound to be heard. All that is needed for their shapes to be reflected in audible information is a reasonably loud acoustic signal directed towards them.

Driving through Austria’s East Volkmar Klien records the environment’s reflections, thus contributing greatly to the study of his fatherland’s sound topography, a branch of science he founded several days before. ”Letting the environment imprint itself in my waves and walls of noise I feel I’m able to imbibe through sound so many aspects of Austria’s beauty that would otherwise remain beyond audible arts’ scope.”, he states. Surveying topography Volkmar Klien sonically documents the wonders of Austria’s civil engineering, her inhabitants’ car parking habits as well as her countryside’s and villages’ natural beauty, especially all the magnificence beyond the right wing mirror.

Biography: Volkmar Klien works in various areas of the audible and occasionally inaudible arts spanning from installation and artistic intervention to electronic sound and instrumental composition. His work has been presented at festivals and institutions such as EMPAC, Ballett Frankfurt, Wien Modern, the Institute for Contemporary Art London, ZKM Karlsruhe, Volksoper Wien and the Huddersfield Festival of Contemporary Music. Volkmar Klien was born in 1971 near Vienna where he later studied musical composition, experimental media and philosophy. 1997 – 2002 he spent in London working as a freelance artist, a researcher at the Royal College of Arts and external lecturer at the London Institute. He gained a PhD in electroacoustic composition from City University London and after spending some time as a research fellow at the Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence he currently holds the position of a Senior Lecturer at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.

Uli Aumüller Les séries sonores (Mix) – with comments by 40 Manchester students.

Les séries sonores are a collection of 58 CDs (to date), compiled by film maker Uli Aumüller, which incorporate 70 to 80 minutes each, based on a sonic theme or journey. These include soundˆshots, ambient sounds, musique d´ameublement, acoustic wallpaper for your aural interior decoration, CDs which transform your living room into a mountain meadow, a beach, or summer in the south of France, atmospheric background music for dinner, for cuddling or just about any situation.

40 undergraduate students ar University of Manchester reviewed the CDs and some of their comments are included in this Series Sonores mix, especially authorized by Aumüller for the meta-ontology project.

Biography: Uli Aumüller was educated as a sound technician (for the psychological defence of the „old" Germany) and studied Biology and new German literature (M.A. about the high baroque poet C.v. Lohenstein), studies which led him to work in the theatre field (Munich, Landshut, Mülheim/Ruhr, Bruchsal) first and then in composing radio plays. Since he move to Berlin at the beginning of the nineties he lives as an author and director of radio feature programs about contemporary music (since then over 150 productions in a length of about 30 minutes for DS-Kultur, Deutschlandfunk, Deutschlandradio Berlin, (BR, HR, MDR, WDR, SDR, SFB, SR) and since 1993 for Television as well.

S.LOW in Motion – PUSH 2011 International Residency

2011-04-10T14:38:00.000-07:00

(pictured Iain McCurdy and Frøydis Dahlø)
This concert is a portrait of two very distinctive musical temperaments, the world re-nowned sound-artists Ricardo Climent and Iain McCurdy, with added flavours from one of the worlds most ingenious and humanist composers Helmut Lachenmann. The music is performed by two of scandinavias most fantastic musicians Frøydis Dahlø on Flute and Karin Hellqvist on Violin in combination with a perfect surround sound system. The inspiring project S.LOW Berlin and its founders Ricardo Climent and Iain McCurdy feature in the PUSH 2011 International Residency.

Saturday 18.30 – 19.30 IDKA Kulturkiosken

Program

• Toccatina - Helmut Lachenmann Violin Karin Hellqvist

• Traitement de choc – Iain McCurdy

• Annus Horribilies – Ricardo Climent

• Three Breaths, for Flute and Live Processing – Iain McCurdy

• Manhattan minuit – a 60 seconds miniature – Ricardo Climent

• Koorean Air for solo violin and electronic expression – Ricardo Climent

Flute - Frøydis Dahlø

Violin - Karin Hellqvist

Curation - Thomas Bjelkeborn

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Toccatina (1986) Helmut Lachenmann dur 5’00

”Nature loves to hide.” — Heraclitus

// the violinist barely executes a traditional sound but instead develops a noise created by tapping the metal screw at the end of the bow into the strings directly in quite conventional rhythms, and with precisely measured degrees of pressure and attack; at points nearly inaudible //

// for Lachenmann, nature is never merely lying ready to be disposed of; it ”loves to hide,” and can be approached only through peeling away the layers of the familiar. Spot-lighting the acoustic machinery of the instruments themselves becomes a means of setting their expressivity aglow; the splintering rejection of a musical metaphysics, a refusal to make ”music about music as a whole,” engenders through all its severe dedication an impossibly new metaphysics of music, both present and inaccessible; these sounds speak as if on no one’s behalf but their own //

// the sounds of the Toccatina are striking in their own right; but all these techniques and effects, as disorienting, challenging, and ultimately beautiful as they may be, are only the tip of the iceberg. In his own hobbled and occasionally cantankerous fashion, Lachenmann is a die-hard humanist, all the innovative and polemical aspects of his art ultimately a provide means of creating a more intimate and potent form of communication // ~ Seth Brodsky, Rovi

Excerpts from: http://www.answers.com/topic/toccatina-for-violin#ixzz1Ij4JHRjU

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Traitement de choc (2003) Iain McCurdy dur 11’12

All the sounds heard in Traitement de choc are derived from recordings made on various pianos.

The sound transformations used in this piece almost entirely make use of a number of granular synthesis devices of my own design. Having total control over the workings of these instruments allowed me to explore ideas such as regularity and periodicity in opposition to irregularity and non-periodicity in finer detail. Control over all attributes of the grains and of their parametric progression on a grain by grain basis offered the scope I required while using an otherwise tried and tested sound processing technique.

For the source recordings two different pianos were used. The first was a Steinway Grand, and the second was an unused piano which was no longer needed.

The significance of using a unwanted piano for some of the source recordings meant that certain techniques could be employed that could potentially damage the instrument. In fact, the recording of source materials for this piece resulted in the complete destruction of the piano.

Thanks are due to Queen’s University School of Music for the donation of a piano used during the preparation of this piece.

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1666: Annus Horribilies (2006) Ricardo Climent dur 5:52

The year of 1666 marked the climax of one of England’s worst periods in history. It was the year of the great fire of London, of the bubonic plague, and the year in which the English were defeated by the Dutch & French in several sea battles. In Continental Europe, in contrast, extraordinary events of an entirely different variety were taking place: in 1666 the first signed Stradivarius violin was created in Cremona, Italy; Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre, one of the best representative composers, performers, and improvisers of the Baroque era, was born; and Italian opera was flourishing with new works such as Francesco Cavalli’s Pompeo magno and Pietro Antonio Cesti’s Il Tito.

Inspired by the dualism of events, 1666: Annus horribilis is constructed in a simple AB form. Its journey commences with a sonic evocation of the agitation and humiliation resulting from the lowest peak of a great nation. The section is dry and built upon short and crude sound sources, moving fast in a complex but organised object-concrete counterpoint. Then, a spatial transition fades those events to a wide-open scenario where both the perception of time and the transition of sonic events dramatically slow down. This is followed by a more static, sustained scenario involving frozen chord-clusters resembling sonic pictures of de la Guerre’s clave works, which are timbrally distributed across the space in surround format. The structure’s sound-world highlights and exposes the impact of two different sonic environments both based on/both derived from the same world of sounds. In my compositional thinking, I mentally designed the architectonic and emotional scenarios of both Annus horriblis and Annus mirabilis and speculated on how they might project contrasted sonic and architectonic characteristics. As a result, I found the grounds to start organising and developing the materials at micro-structure level to satisfy my musical discourse, relying mostly on listening experience.

1666 was commissioned by Third Practice Festival, Virgina and it is dedicated to those who try to overcome the difficulties in hard times.

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Three Breaths (2009) for Flute, Bass Flute and Live Processing – Iain McCurdy dur 12’00

Three Breaths explores, in three short movements, three contrasting characteristics of the flute. The role of the computer is almost entirely that of live processing so that all sound produced represents transformations of the live sound of the flute. In particular in this piece, the computer analyses the pitch and dynamics played by the flute and uses this information to define certain aspects of the transformations implemented. This offers the player a degree of control of the live electronic and relinquishes the computer operator of some of this control.

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Manhattan minuit (2010) a 60 seconds miniature – Ricardo Climent dur 1’00

From the days when Peter Minuit purchased the territories of Manhattan for 60 guilders to the wrong American Indian tribe (back on May 24, 1626), to the Donald Trump era, one may argue that many things have changed in New York… but perhaps not that many!. Manhattan minuit is a one minute minuet dance, as a sonic celebration of the fact that existing Native American Indians and the cream of America’s real-estate business and entertainment resorts, have come to an even better understanding, permmiting the Trump’s casinos to be built in Indian reservations.

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Koorean Air (2010) for solo violin and electronic expression – Ricardo Climent dur 8’28

To write Koorean Air in collaboration with virtuoso violinist Darragh Morgan was very fun and rewarding. The nature of the methodology I employed in the compositional process dissolved the differences between composer and performer to the point that I no longer consider this work to be my piece but rather his piece or at least, let us say, our piece. However, I am glad that he is the one performing it, because I would not know what to do his £80,000 violin in my hands…

In the last few years, I seem to be less and less interested in what I think and more and more in what other people think, especially when we are exploring sound and gesture. It is like making a sonic documentary film of a performer. As a result, I have composed a number of pieces with the intention to feature (if not steal) the DNA of virtuoso performers; e.g. Esther Lamneck, Elisabeth McNutt, Kontakte Grup de Percussio and now Darragh Morgan, to go beyond my sonic creativity, by challenging their aural thinking through the process.

On a different matter, I presume that a piece for solo instrument is just that, a solo instrumental work. For years I wondered why when we combine solo instruments with electronics, in most cases, the end result becomes astronomical, hyper-loud and expansive, compared to the natural force of the instrument. In Koorean Air, I explored a process of electronic de-hyper- instrumentalisation (should this word exist!). I hope audiences will experience the electronic counterpoint as simply a dialogue between the violin and its true mirror, which is the performer’s fingerprints.

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Lachenmann was born in Stuttgart and after the end of the Second World War (when he was 11) started singing in his local church choir. Showing an early aptitude for music, he was already composing in his teens. He studied piano with Jürgen Uhde and composition and theory with Johann Nepomuk David at the Stuttgarter Musikhochschule from 1955 to 1958 and was the first private student of the Italian composer Luigi Nono in Venice from 1958 to 1960. He also worked briefly at the electronic music studio at the University of Ghent in 1965, composing his only published tape piece Szenario during that period, but thereafter focused almost exclusively on purely instrumental music.

Lachenmann has referred to his compositions as musique concrète instrumentale, implying a musical language that embraces the entire sound-world made accessible through unconventional playing techniques. According to the composer, this is music

in which the sound events are chosen and organized so that the manner in which they are generated is at least as important as the resultant acoustic qualities themselves. Consequently those qualities, such as timbre, volume, etc., do not produce sounds for their own sake, but describe or denote the concrete situation: listening, you hear the conditions under which a sound- or noise-action is carried out, you hear what materials and energies are involved and what resistance is encountered.

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Violinist Karin Hellqvist was educated at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, Universität der Künste in Berlin and at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. In 2011 Karin graduates from her studies for an Artist Diploma in Performance at the Royal College of Music in London. She is also studying privately with violinist Melise Mellinger of German Ensemble Recherche.

As a violinist in a young generation of musicians engaged in contemporary music, she is active in several ensembles such as Oslo Sinfonietta, neoN (Norway) and Curious Chamber Players (Sweden). She dedicates her time to performing and commissioning new works as well as championing the established repertoire by Scandinavian and European composers, as a soloist or chamber musician. Karin’s work has been recognised by several major benefactors, for example the Dobloug Foundation, Norway, RWE Dea Norway/Germany, the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and the 45thInternational Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt.

Festival performances include concerts at Prèsences, Paris, Ultima, Oslo, Venezia Biennale, Spor Festival Århus, Estonian Music Days, Stockholm New Music, Nordic Music Days, Sound Scotland, Arena Riga and for Nuovo Viruoso in Tokyo. Karin is dedicated to collaborating with other art forms; more recently with the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm and the Royal Swedish Ballet School.

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Frøydis Dahlø. Improv-musician from the norwegian .polar winter with a wide musical .plateau to work onwith.in clear musical expressions. Reductionistic improv , static and rythmic noise and groove. ÖNCZ.org, ensemble coordinateur, olle oljud/frøy støy, loxbo!dahlø!, zofia åsenlöf. Education in improvisation and composition from University in Stavanger, Gotlands tonsättarskola, NOTAM, Sund Folkehøyskole og NISS

myspace.com/froydisdahlo

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web: sonorities.org

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