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

The Edith Russ Site for Media Art awards work stipends has awarded a 2009 stipend to The Sine Wave Orchestra (Ken Furudate, Kazuhiro Jo, Daisuke Ishida, Mizuki Noguchi)

The fundamentals of our networked, global and technological culture and our resulting means of interaction are connected by the sine wave. We dance to them on our mp3 players, watch TV because of them and surf their peaks and troughs while making long distance phone calls. Sine waves form an ethereal and omnipresent framework, which become the tactile material the SINE WAVE ORCHESTRA (SWO) sculpts and manipulates through unique participatory sound events. Continue reading

[Image: Oscar Fischinger holds “fake” rolls made by his Studio for publicity purposes] Sound Out of Paper with Andrei Smirnov :: May 21, 2009; 9:00 pm :: NK, Elsenstr. 52 2HH, 2Etage Berlin.

Russian proto-electronic music from 1930s and beyond, a presentation and film viewing session of synthesized sound from light called Graphical (Drawn) Sound technique produced in the 1930s and recently discovered at the Russian State Film Archive. The technology of synthesizing sound from light called Graphical (Drawn) Sound technique which was invented in Soviet Russia in 1929 as a consequence of the newly invented sound-on-film technology. At exactly the same time similar efforts were being undertaken in Germany by Rudolf Pfenninger in Munich and, somewhat later, by Oscar Fischinger in Berlin. Continue reading

Raster Noton: The Shop — with a special performance by Carsten Nicolai (Alva Noto) and Olaf Bender (Byetone) :: Opening: May 26, 2009; 7:00 - 9:00 pm :: e-flux, 41 Essex Street, New York City.

Raster Noton’s investigations into sound frequencies and sequences are principally developed in the field of music, but often cross over into the visual arts. Using digital signal processing as their primary medium (often in combination with moving images and graphics) the label’s many releases and live performances explore minimal, modular, and concrete approaches to the structure of sound and its possibilities for being activated and manipulated as a material form. “While their late 20th century forebears applied the aesthetics of processes and mechanisms from manufacturing and industry to their craft, so many of the Raster Noton label’s publications emulate the unseen operations and transactions of our era – the flow of information.” (davidz) Continue reading

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

Performance Research & Interactive Performance Series presents Marko Ciciliani: Towards ‘dirty light’ – light design in the context of musical composition :: March 25, 2009; 4:00 pm :: Gaskell Building 048/Drama Studio Seminar, Brunel University, West London and webcast live.

In his work as a composer, many of compositions of the past years incorporated light design as a visual component. When working with light, he is at first approaching it as an additional musical parameter, although an inaudible one. In his current research, he is investigating in how far sound and light are compatible with each other. They share some significant characteristics: both are projected from singular sources, both are forms of energy and both are abstract forms of art. At the same time, both have also have some significant differences – for example in how our ears and eyes work and how our brain processes the incoming information. 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

FILTER and ONOMATOPEE at P40 in Hamburg present Shotgun Architecture at P40 — A sound and light installation by Justin Bennett :: until 11th of January 2009 :: Alte Pathologie/P40, Friedrichsberger Strasse 32, D-Hamburg.

Can one make sound visible? What happens to our thought processes and emotional perception when sound and its movement is performed or even manipulated in space? Mapping urban space and its architecture through the sound of a gunshot, the method Justin Bennett is currently using, entails numerous domains of expression.

P40 is a turn of the century building with an ornamental red brick facade, a cupola roof and spaces with high ceilings. Built as pathology department for the Eilbek hospital until its privatization, the space has been used and redefined for different purposes over the last decade. Bennett analyzed this piece of architecture with a gunshot and recorded its echoes. Continue reading

transmediale.09: DEEP NORTH - Performances: Fragility, Excess & Speculation with Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand, Sonolevitation; Pe Lang + Zimoun, Untitled Sound Objects; Ryoichi Kurokawa, Parallel Head; Telcosystems, Mortals Electric; Christian Mueller, Gaudenz Badrutt, magma; AElab (Gisele Trudel and Stephane Claude), LSCDC:: January 28 - February 1, 2009 :: House of World Cultures, Berlin, John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10.

At a time when fears about the climate and global systems turn into existential discourses, transmediale.09 offers speculative, critical and emotional toolkits for cultural change. Excitement and intuition, bodily experience, and laboratory setups are performed on two special evenings of audio-visual programming. Continue reading

Colony ::: symbiosis … electronic light + sound flash mob :: December 12, 2008; 8:00 - 9:00 pm :: Life.Lab, Digital Harbour, Corner of La Trobe Street and Harbour Esplanade, Docklands, Melbourne, Australia :: Rain or Shine!

You are invited to participate in a multiplayer performance within Colony, an interactive urban art environment. Bring your iPhone, borrow a friends or steal one and download the free Colony app from the App Store. Up to thirty people may simultaneously play the urban art environment and feed energy to the media creatures that inhabit it. Each of the totems in the networked sculpture may be played like a musical instrument responding to touch with light and sound.

Colony, by Troy Innocent (weathering steel, acrylic, computer-controlled light, 12-channel sound, interactive installation, iPhone web app), is part artificial lifeform, part icon of a digital media landscape. Continue reading