Cronicaelectronica recently released Digital Sound Drawings by Moren Riis, 6 pieces that use direct processing of drawings into sound. The release, which is free to download, is also complimented with a limited edition set of prints from Marius Watz, where traced segments of conical shapes cause vibrantly coloured interference patterns.

Network diagrams, occlusions and eclipses of celestial bodies, and dynamic charts reminiscent of Paul Klee’s Pedological sketches all abound in Cornelius Cardew’s experimental musical scores. Continue reading

Thursday Club presents Derek Holzer: TONEWHEELS — Experiments in Opto-Electronic Synthesis and Graphical Sound [TBC] :: March 19, 2009; 6:00 - 8:00 pm :: Seminar Rooms, Ben Pimlott Building, Goldsmiths University of London, London, UK.

TONEWHEELS is an experiment in converting graphical imagery to sound, inspired by some of the pioneering 20th Century electronic music instruments such as the Variophone [Evgeny Scholpo (USSR) 1930], the Welte Light-Tone Organ [Edwin Emil Welte (DE) 1936], the ANS Synthesizer [Evgeny Murzin (USSR) 1958], and the Oramics system [Daphne Oram (UK) 1959]. Continue reading

Tonewheels — drawn sound and light music with Derek Holzer :: January 10, 2009; 2:00 pm :: xxxxx_micro_research [Berlin] :: Workshop fee: 12 euros :: Limited places! Please register at: m [at] 1010.co.uk

TONEWHEELS is an experiment in converting graphical imagery to sound, inspired by some of the pioneering 20th Century electronic music inventions. Transparent tonewheels with repeating patterns are spun over light-sensitive electronic circuitry to produce sound and light pulsations and textures. This all-analog set is performed entirely live without the use of computers, using only overhead projectors as light source, performance interface and audience display. In this way, TONEWHEELS aims to open up the “black box” of electronic music and video by exposing the working processes of the performance for the audience to see. Continue reading

OSRAM Art Projects presents SEVEN SCREENS - Bjørn Melhus’ Screensavers - an Interactive Multimedia Installation on LED Screens :: until April 22, 2009 :: OSRAM Haus, Hellabrunner Straße 1, 81543 München, Germany.

Screensavers is the name the internationally acclaimed media artist Bjørn Melhus has given his digital clones. With his sound reactive computer animations, whose images and texts are generated from an actual radio program, the artist renders the everyday language of mass media visible. Continue reading

Subway Synesthesia by Kenji Kojima — the first exhibition in AC [Direct]’s Unearthed series :: November 6 - December 13, 2008 :: Opening: November 6, 2008; 6 - 8:00 pm :: AC [ Direct ], 547 W. 27th St, #519, New York City.

Since 1990, Japanese artist Kojima has been experimenting with the relationships between perception and cognition, mathematics, technology, music and art. Kojima’s series of photographs, New York City Subway, are presented as diptychs that become the material for his moving image and sound installations. These photographs, along with simple text overlays, act as a sort of eye-to-mind primer that are then dissolved into hundreds of pixels of flowing color and sound. Through RGB Music, these digital photographs are further reduced to their color pixels that are then transformed into a series of musical compositions.

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The Voice by Art of Failure (Nicolas Maigret and Nicolas Montgermont) - The Voice arises from the diversion of a software for blind people, allowing to transform a video image into sound. The concept is used to design a tool for a performance / installation, where some objects chosen on the place become a series of instruments producing tones according to their shape and color. The performers stage objects of everyday life in a concert where the spectator is immersed « in an almost utopian relationship between visual and sound ».

The Voice software has been designed by Peter B. L. Meijer to propose an alternative way of perception for blind people. With the use of a webcam or a mobile phone, a sound transcription of the visual scene recorded by the device is synthesized. After a learning phase, this set-up allows blind people to recognize some elementary objects, and then a real space movement (link). Continue reading

Edward Zajec: ORPHICS :: Opening: September 12, 2008; 6:30 pm :: Exhibition open until October 11, 2008 :: WRO Art Center :: ul. Widok 7, 50-052 Wrocław, Poland.

Orphics is a two-decades old cycle of graphical compositions inspired by music. The works are interpretations of renowned 20th century composers (Satie, Bartók, Ravel) in terms of form and color, however not in the manner of traditional animation, but through systemic transformation. The result is a relationship between elements in space and time: every frame of the compositions portrays exactly these two dimensions of sound organization of subsequent metres. Continue reading

TONEWHEELS :: August 1, 2008 at Access Space:: 1 Sidney Street, Sheffield UK.

TONEWHEELS is an experiment in converting graphical imagery to sound, inspired by some of the pioneering 20th Century electronic music inventions. Transparent tonewheels with repeating patterns are spun over light-sensitive electronic circuitry to produce sound. This all-analog set is performed entirely live without the use of computers, using only overhead projectors as light source, performance interface and audience display. In this way, TONEWHEELS aims to open up the “black box” of electronic music and video by exposing the working processes of the performance for the audience to see. Continue reading

FILE Sao Paulo 2008 :: Fiesp Cultural Center :: August 5 - 31, 2008 :: Opening: August 4.

The program occupies the Fiesp Cultural Center’s Art Gallery, Theater and Mezzanine, which host the exhibition, performances and lectures. FILE, the major art and technology festival in Brazil and Latin America, as well as one of the most renowned events in the world in this area, for nine years has inserted the country in the global context of art and technology, or media art, performing a compilation of the artistic productions in the fields of electronic and digital arts, and working as an indicator of those productions’ plurality. Continue reading

LIVE sound & image :: July 18, 2008; 8:00 pm :: East Coast Aliens Salon, 216 Franklin Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY.

An evening of innovative approaches to sound and image, featuring three duos that each take distinctive approaches with roots in past practices. DRAW creates immersive live sets of video and sound collage, LoVid links sound and image synthesis, and Cinemage draws on Chris Marker’s La Jetée as inspiration. With a live set by Amsterdam based turntablist dj sniff and Keir Neuringer. Continue reading