Video, Interview: ATOM by Robert Henke, Christoph Bauder – Musical Balloon Sculpture by Peter Kirn — Inside a computer, digital music is entirely unseen. But translate it into the tangible world, and it can be anything you imagine – not limited by acoustic reality or practicality, music can become three-dimensional sculpture.

For artist Christoph Bauder and composer Robert Henke, ATOM’s light and sound sculpture found a three-dimensional matrix of balloons as its medium. Flashing in hypnotic patterns and moving into different configurations, accompanied by live laptop music from Henke (aka Monolake), music and visuals become an inseparable fusion.

ATOM received its North American premiere at Montreal’s MUTEK in May. That turned out to be perfect programming, as it placed ATOM in a week that featured complementary work from artists Artificiel. Continue reading

Graeme Miller :: Bassline :: Thursday, July 9 - Sunday 26 July 2009 :: 11am–8pm daily; 11am–10pm Thu; 12pm–10pm Sat 25 & Sun 26 :: Closed 13,15, 20 & 22 July :: in the Barbican Centre’s Car Park, London :: Opening Thursday, July 9

A series of projections reveal the landscape of the City as seen by 15 Londoners. See and hear the recorded testimonies of an hour- long walk made by the 15 participants accompanied by a double-bassist. The piece reveals participants’ memories, associations and perceptions of the area, capturing its unseen characteristics. Underscoring the work is a solo bass line mapping out the territory, based on a piece by Henry Purcell, to mark the 350th anniversary of this London-born composer.

Co-commissioned by barbicanbite09. Part of CREATE 09, part of the Barbican’s Do Something Different Weekend, part of Open Weekend. Continue reading

rota by Carsten Nicolai :: July 3 - September 26, 2009 :: Ernst Schering Foundation, Unter den Linden 32-34, 10117 Berlin.

rota, which sees itself as an experiment, deals with the effects of the so-called neurofeedback on human perception. Taking his cues from the dreamachines or mind machines — developed by Brion Gysin since the 1950s in the context of the Beatnik movement to alter the viewers’ state of consciousness through the emission of alpha waves — Carsten Nicolai presents a test set-up, where visitors can experience for themselves how the brain responds to different visual (and acoustic) phenomena. Continue reading

Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla :: July 11 - September 6, 2009 :: Opening: July 10; 9:00 pm :: Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin, Schlossplatz, Berlin-Mitte.

Allora & Calzadilla’s new work Compass, conceived specifically for the Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin, creates a new spatial and acoustic experience. Dividing the Kunsthalle horizontally, a new level is introduced into the space, inaccessible to the viewer and reducing the grand exhibition hall to less than one third of its normal height. Visitors can only hear the vibrations and sounds of an a capella dancer performing a choreography above their heads. The otherwise empty exhibition space is turned into a huge resonating chamber: “The performer is like a specter that moves through this flat horizontal stretch and whose sonic traces become a type of metrical language – a rhythmic and poetic means of communication with the public below.” (Allora & Calzadilla) Continue reading

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) presents OJO’s Flesh Car Crash (An Engagement Party Event) :: July 2, 2009; 7:00 – 10:00 pm :: MOCA Grand Avenue, 250 South Grand Avenue, Los Angeles, CA.

For Flesh Car Crash — a public intervention — members of OJO will split into two groups, each of which will pack into a small car. Once there, they will make music both by utilizing objects and materials in the cars’ interiors and by playing instruments powered by the cars’ batteries. Audience members will be invited to assist with the composition. The cars will dance, glide, and narrowly miss each other in a choreographed game of chicken. The finale should be explosive! The audience is encouraged to bring cameras and other documentary devices to share their impressions on the OJO Engagement Party site. Continue reading

Birdcage: Zeedijk — Audrey Chen (US), Wun Thong (AU), Byungjun Kwon (KR/NL), dj sniff (JP/NL) :: July 4, 2009; 7:00 - 11:00 pm :: Toko Dun Yong Store Front, Zeedijk 88, 1012, Amsterdam.

One of the first things you notice in the Netherlands are exposed windows. Whether it’s a family having dinner or a half naked lady luring you into her red lit room, the interface between the interior and exterior is often transparent. In contrast, for many Asian cultures you can barely catch a glimpse inside. Perhaps this has to do with how each culture deals with the gaze - looking at or being looked at. However, what is more interesting to us, is how do we listen within the politics of this gaze.

Birdcage: Zeedijk is a listening experience, about the way our ears can focus or drift in a given multi-sensory environment. Continue reading

Matteo Milani: Christina, could you tell us about your background, and how you arrived, through your career, to conceive the “Electrical Walks” project?

Christina Kubisch: When people asks me what I am, what do I do, I always struggle to answer. I am an artist, a composer, I work with magnetic inductance, but I also write pieces for other musicians. I am a performer, I draw. It’s hard to define me. I was a flautist, I studied Composition with Franco Donatoni at the G.Verdi Conservatory of Milan, and also Electronic Music with Angelo Paccagnini . At the end of my studies at the Mila Conservatory, I started a much more personal and effective research, attending for 2 years night courses in Electronics. During these courses, I discovered a telephonic amplifier, a small cube, from which came curious sounds. This cube had inside some coils, and it amplified the magnetic sounds close by. Fascinated by this system, I had 50 special cubes built, and with them I created my first installations. Continue reading

Routes + Routines Follow Blind Workshops by Peter Westenberg and Wendy Van Wynsberghe (Constant vzw) :: July 15, 2009; 10:00 am - city walk starts at Timelab - Sint Pietersnieuwstraat 23 - 9000 Ghent :: To participate email summercamp [at] timelab.org.

This workshop is a detour through the city of Ghent guided by environmental data. Fit up with a self-made antenna, city walkers are dwelling through the electromagnetic fields of Ghent.

Part 1: EMF Antenna: After a contextualization of the workshop by a presentation and introduction of EMF, participants will make their own EMF antenna. Tools and material are provided by Constant. Duration: 3 hours. Continue reading

Tweak Festival :: September 21-26, 2009 :: Limerick City :: Call for Proposals — Deadline July 20, 2009.

Tweak is two! Currently in its second edition, Tweak is an interactive art and live electronic music festival. Its aim is to promote understanding of the use of technology within our culture and to explore contemporary issues (social, economic, psychological, aesthetic and functional).

The festival will consist of a 5-day exhibition, (interactive artworks, robots and installations) comprising of artworks from international and local artists, 3 days of workshops and many evenings of live electronic performance. Continue reading

Tensions by Tristan Louth-Robins and Shoot (Jen Brazier, Charissa Davies, Edward James and Ryan Sims together with guest artist Lauren Playfair) :: June 26 - July 25, 2009 :: Opening: June 25; 6:00 pm :: Artists Gallery Talk: July 9; 3:00 pm :: Electronic Art Foundation, The Lion Arts Centre, North Terrace (West End) Adelaide, South Australia.

Sound artist Tristan Louth-Robins and new-media arts collective Shoot will collaborate to produce Tensions. With original soundscapes, performance and projected imagery the exhibition will explore emotion and tension through the use of personal technological devices — what they transmit, store and receive, the emotional implications for the user, and how this ultimately influences society. Continue reading