Performa is delighted to present Music For 16 Futurist Noise Intoners :: November 12, 2009; 8:00 p.m. :: Town Hall, 123 West 43rd Street, New York, NY :: $30 Orchestra / $25 Balcony, available here.

Music For 16 Futurist Noise Intoners is an evening-length concert of original scores and newly commissioned compositions for the intonarumori, or “noise-intoners.” An incredible group of musicians and composers from the experimental music world — including Einstuerzende Neubauten frontman and Nick Cave collaborator Blixa Bargeld, avant-garde saxophonist John Butcher, Deep Listening pioneer Pauline Oliveros, Faith No More and Mr. Bungle vocalist Mike Patton, sound and text-based performer Anat Pick, avant-garde musician Elliott Sharp, and Continue reading

Listening To History: Some Proposals for Reclaiming the Practice of Live Music by Jon Rose. Written for Leonardo Music Journal, Volume 18, 2008. This article is available for free download from the MIT Press website.

ABSTRACT: The author explores the vibrant, but often hidden, unorthodox musical culture of Australia, recounting little known movements, events, dates, personalities and Aboriginal traditions. He urges the listener to investigate and value this unique and fecund musical history, and in so doing, find models that are relevant to solving the dilemmas of a declining contemporary music practice. Continue reading

Thursday Club: Artemis Papageorgiou: Wii/nd Chime + Ryan Jordan: Sensory Response Systems :: January 15, 2009; 6 -8 pm :: Seminar Rooms, Ben Pimlott Building, Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, South East London.

Artemis Papageorgiou will discuss Wii/nd Chime’s collaborative development as an instrument of reminiscence. Wii/nd Chime signifies a shift from the physical realm to the virtual and the simulated. The sonic languages of both wind chimes and the 8-bit video-game sounds are combined into a system of interaction, which invites people to discover the potential of this new, hybrid object. Continue reading

[Image: Graphic Music Sequencer - Caleb Coppock (top) & Untitled #06 - André Gonçalves] Algomantra recently posted on a project by Caleb Coppock, which allows the composition of music by directly drawing onto paper discs. Since the kind of graphite marks made by ordinary pencils conduct electricity it provides a system for drafting a visual score in sectored patterns on paper discs. The Graphic Music Sequencer uses wire brushes that contact a paper disc as it spins on a standard record player. When the wire sensors move across the conductive graphite a tone is generated, the pitch of the tone is further regulated by the thickness of the pencil line. It’s interesting that in nearly all musical scores, including those of experimental layout, there needs to be some system of decoding and mediation to translate mark into sound. Continue reading

Ajay Kapur - Electronic Sitars, Robotic Tablas, and Sarawati’s ElectroMagic :: April 3, 2008; 5 - 7 pm :: Machine Project, 1200 D North Alvarado Street, Los Angeles, CA.

TABLACENTRIC is thrilled to present Ajay Kapur, whose work revolves around one queston: “How do you make a computer improvise with a human?” Using the rules set forth by the north Indian classical tradition, Ajay strives to build new interfaces for musical expression by modifying the tabla, dholak and sitar with added microchips and sensor systems, while building robotic musical instruments which can be programmed to perform along with the human performer. Continue reading

[1] The Omnisound Generator :: Electric motor, mechanical sound generator, spherical mixing chamber, plastic tubing, industrial headphones :: 34″ x 24″ x 10″ :: Warning: extended use with the headphones may induce slight nausea, vertigo and mental confusion in some sensitive persons. Use at your own risk.

Seven octaves, 84 discrete tones, all at once all the time, a history of western music as played back in its entirety as one incessant chord. This drone, this filler of space and monster of the twelve-tone scale, is unrelenting in its ever pervasiveness. As a pneumatic sound engine, the Omnisound Generator allows for remote placement into the machine via air coupled headphones. Monitoring the insides with stethoscopic precision, hear its heartbeat, its scream, its infrasonic rumblings and the wind rushing by. ALL SOUND ENGINES ARE GO! Continue reading

Sphere Of Influence - The Ball Project: Music, chance and games by Jon Rose.

Best known for his work on, around and about the violin, Jon Rose is a global performer, presenting his group and solo projects regularly in over 30 countries. He brings over 25 years experience pioneering the use of digital technology in live music performance to the Ball Project and this Festival outcome Sphere of Influence. The ball as symbol is universally recognised. A ball flying through space has an inherent mystery; it replicates our lonely and insecure position in the universe. To sport fans, the ball verges on being a sacred object. Ball games, especially in this sport-obsessed city, are nearly a religious rite. The earth is our favourite ball - our future on it less than certain. Continue reading

Baby Love by Shu Lea Cheang :: October 1 - November 2, 2007 | Mon - Sat | 10am - 12pm & 2pm - 5pm :: Free :: Carriageworks, Sydney.

Baby Love is art that moves you and your imagination…. Climb aboard a giant teacup and glide into a futuristic fantasy with a dummy-sucking baby doll clone to your favourite love song at Sydney’s new home for contemporary arts, CarriageWorks. Its cathedral-scale foyer will play home to 6 giant teacups, each with a larger-than-life baby doll clone. Baby Love is a wi-fi mobile installation by New York based Taiwanese artist, Shu Lea Cheang, who calls cyber-space ‘home’. Shu Lea is a multi-media artist working in the field of net-based installation, social interface and film production. Continue reading

Surfing gains a whole new dimension with TurntablistPC by Danish artist Mogens Jacobsen. Featured in the WEBSCAPE exhibition at The Art Museum of West Sealand in Denmark, TurntablistPC reacts to online traffic by playing a record in the exhibition space every time a participating website is visited. Take part in this “global DJ” project and make a record spin miles away every time someone visits your website!

TurntablistPC is on show from September 21 - November 25, 2007. We need your participation! All you have to do is place a small piece of html code on your website. Continue reading

N. is an artistic visualization and sonification (direct translation of data to sound) of near real-time Arctic data. N. is an ongoing, evolving composition.

A dramatic warming trend has been experienced by the Arctic over the last decade that may accelerate global climate change. The N. installation expresses the isolation and environmental extremes of this remote region and addresses the importance of the region to the global ecosystem. Data and images for N. have been provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Arctic research program. A portion of the raw sound material used in N. comes from live sferics (short for atmospherics), electromagnetic transmissions of lightning from the INSPIRE VLF (very low frequency) receiver at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. N. also makes use of a custom, open source object for Max / MSP called Datareader created by Andrea Polli and Kurt Ralske. Continue reading