We are pleased to announce the winners of our international juried competition, Networked: a (networked_book) about (networked_art). They are, ANNE HELMOND, PATRICK LICHTY, ANNA MUNSTER, MARISA OLSON, and KAZYS VARNELIS.

Each will receive a commission of $3,000 to develop a chapter that will be open for revision, commentary, and translation. Networked will launch on July 1, 2009.

The runners-up are Ele Carpenter, Christine Nadir, Mark Shepard, and Jason Freeman. Continue reading

Paulo R. C. Barros is a Brazilian publicist and a digital and sonorous artist, a Science Fiction fan, who produces VideoArt as a hobby, making use of multiple edition softwares.

RomaEuropaFAKEFactory — an international videoart, music, literature and legislative art competition.

The RomaeuropaFAKEFactory competition originates from the Freedom to Remix initiative, promoted by [A]rt is [O]pen [S]ource [Salvatore Iaconesi/xDxD and Oriana Persico/penelope.di.pixel] and Marco Scialdone, with the support of DegradArte, ComputerLaw 2.0, NeRVi and Valeria Bochicchio.

RomaeuropaFAKEFactory draws on the Romaeuropa Web Factory competition to embrace a series of reflexions and practices focused on the issues of digital rights and information ownership.

RomaeuropaFakeFactory is an international competition allowing its participants to do everything that is forbidden by the rules of the Romaeuropa Web Factory competition, subverting its logics. Continue reading

Backyardradio with Richard Barbrook, Geraldine Juarez, Martin Tetreault & Ignaz Schick, Graham Harwood, Matsuko Yokokoji and Andi Studer, Marold Langer-Philippsen, Claire Pentecost, the Institute for Transacoustic Research, Brico-Brunch / The Houses of Happiness :: until February 1, 2009; 12:00 - 13:00 CET :: transmediale.09 :: 95,2 on Micro fm! (Berlin) and streamed live online.

Backyardradio will broadcast live from the transmediale.09. Starting on Thursday, January 29th, one-hour live variety shows will host visiting artists, thinkers and festival guests for a bit of serious discussion, analog jams and communication pranks. The broadcast will continue with found sound, collected audio files and extra surprises. Continue reading

Stephen Hurrel’s Beneath and Beyond: Seismic Sounds is an audio visual installation at Glasgow’s Tranway, as part of the annual GI festival for Visual Art. The installation presents a realtime feed of seismic shifts recorded from data of 100 of so seismic monitoring stations around the Earth. We are presented with the sound of the various vibrations going on within the Earth’s core at that very moment. We also see two visual screens showing graphical displays of particularly large tectonic shifts or events at that one time. Continue reading

PAMELA Z (Solo works for voice and electronics;performance: a set of new and existing works for voice, samples, and live processing) :: February 1, 2009; 8:00pm :: The Issue Project Room, 232 3rd Street, 3rd Floor, Brooklyn.

PAMELA Z Is a composer/performer and audio artist who works with voice, live electronic processing and sampling technology. Processing her voice through “MAX MSP” software on a PowerBook, she creates performance works combining bel canto and experimental extended vocal techniques with found objects, text, and sampled concrète sounds. Continue reading

From Information Aesthetics, January 28, 2009: Rubens’ Tube: Real Life Sound Visualization with Fire and Propane: A classic physics experiment called Rubens’ Tube involves sound, a tube of propane, and fire. A length of pipe is perforated along the top and sealed at both ends. One seal is attached to a small speaker or frequency generator, the other to a supply of a flammable gas. The pipe is filled with the gas, and the gas leaking from the perforations is lit. If a constant frequency is used, a standing wave can form within the tube. When the speaker is turned on, the standing wave will create higher and lower pressure points along the tube. Continue reading

A cool new musical instrument, made from engineering tools, the ball-bearing drum machine is proving quite a hit with hardware hackers. The instrument, called BeatBearing, makes drum patterns using ball bearings. It was created by Peter Bennett, a 26-year-old PhD student at Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Click here for a video of Bennett’s prototype in action.

According to Bennett, the BeatBearing is an example of minimalist modern design created from chrome, transparent Perspex and computer graphics. It acts as a rhythm sequencer–a red line sweeps across the grid, playing a sound whenever a ball bearing is encountered, “like an updated version of the old piano-roll.” Continue reading

The 8th School of Sound International Symposium :: April 15 - 18, 2009 :: Southbank Centre, London.

The School of Sound has become a major forum on the creative use of sound with image, presenting a stimulating and provocative series of master classes by practitioners, artists and academics. Directors, sound designers, composers, editors and theorists working at the highest levels of film, the arts and media show us the soundtrack from unexpected perspectives. They reveal the methods, theories and creative thinking that lie behind the most effective uses of sound and music. If you work in film, television, commercials, radio or multimedia - this event will convince you of the extraordinary potential of the soundtrack. Continue reading

Bikelophone: Originally constructed in June 1995 as a side instrument for The Lyle and Sparkleface Band, the bikelophone has evolved into a palette of sonic exploration.

With magnetic pickups attached to amplify the sound, anything connected to the bike becomes amplified. The current configuration includes - bass strings, scrap wood and metal, metal bowls, telephone bells, a mechanical foot pedal and a touch sensitive tone generator.

The bikelophone produces sounds ranging from tranquil bliss to cacophonic terror. Using a loop-based recording system and outboard signal processors (reverbs, delays, pitch shifts, etc.), sound compositions are built in layers. These compositions become the foundation for additional solo meanderings using - vocals, tone generators, plastic wind instruments, or anything that makes a sound. Visit the inventor of the Bikelophone’s website for more sounds and info. [Thanks to Marc Garrett.]