LISTEN IN with Threscwald: John McGill, Max Abeles, Pierce Warnecke :: March 19, 2010; 8:00 pm :: Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center, New York City (at Houston St) :: free ::

Threscwald brings together three musicians working in the realm of digital audio and the performative arts. Brought together by a similar love - building software to create unique sound and imagery - they share creative processes that bear diverse yet homogenous results.

John Mcgill’s Lightning, Lizards of the Sky is a piece that attempts to harness various FFT-based effects originating in the Max/MSP environment. A sonic duality is conveyed using live audio signals to cut into saturated ‘noise’ textures. Using complex algorithms and generative techniques, Mcgill’s sound is born from a place of sensitivity towards abstract design and phrasing.

Max Abeles will present a new work, Journey Along a Vibrating Membrane. It is posed: We are slaves to technology, so what happens when our masters breakdown or run amok? A live audio/video performance oscillating between sequenced electronic music and complete degradation of digital noise, the visual journey starts on the exterior but quickly moves internal to a body whose existence hinges on the continuum of speeding zeros and ones.

Pierce Warnecke’s ‘data decay’ is an audiovisual performance that explores interactivity in its fullest spectrum by putting the audience to the test of what eyes and ears perceive as interactive. Basic audio and video forms are generated using recycled scientific data culled from various French CNRS research labs. Their initial interactive bond is then deteriorated, delineraized and made chaotic via custom data processing modules to the point where an interactive relationship is no longer apparent.

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John McGill is a multi-instrumentalist engaged in the fields of analog circuitry and digital signal processing. Primarily composing for guitar, pedals, and laptop he strives to develop interesting musical systems. These generative structures, either controlled by the performer or automated by code, can be used to reliably seek out new textures for use in real-time composition.

Max Abeles is an installation artist whose work explores the relationship between organic and inorganic structures. His practice utilizes a myriad of media to express the tension felt by a soft machine living in a world built around hard data. He received his BFA from the Art Institute of Boston and now lives and works in Brooklyn NY. He has had solo exhibitions at Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center in New York City and Lesley University in Cambridge Massachusetts. His performance piece Plaster_Patch was included in last years SIGGRAPHAsia in Yokohama Japan.

Pierce Warnecke has been creating digital material since his studies at the Berklee College of Music. Attracted equally to image and sound, he develops modules to forge custom audiovisual elements. He is inspired by the interactions between humans and machines, scientific research and complex data structures, and pushes to develop alternate ways of integrating sound, video, light and data into performance/installation contexts. He has worked as a programmer for installations and interactive projects in the US, France and Germany, and also works as a sound designer and electronic musician in France where he currently resides.