[Image: Pe Lang + Zimoun, Untitled Sound Objects, 2008] Organizing the Unpredictable: Tim Knowles and Pe Lang + Zimoun at bitforms gallery by Alan Licht: The 2008 works by British artist Tim Knowles and Swiss duo Pe Lang + Zimoun that are teamed up in Unpredictable Forms of Sound and Motion, curated by Steve Sacks at bitforms gallery, leave a bit less to chance than the title implies. The technology-driven pieces in the show take ideas originating in 60s and 70s land art, musical minimalism, and performance art, and situates them within constraints reminiscent of a scientific experiment. The result is that the works emerge as concrete entities, rather than as transient, site-specific or dematerialized experiences. 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

Music Is Math from Glenn Marshall on Vimeo. Continue reading

Sit Down, Stand Up from Glenn Marshall on Vimeo. Continue reading

Enrico Costanza, PhD student at the Media and Design Laboratory of Lausanne’s Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale, has focused his research on designing objects that can bring digital and physical worlds closer. His Audio d-touch project, developed with Simon Shelley, is a clear example of this approach. It consists of three tangible interfaces that are used for musical composition and performance. They have been suggestively named, Augmented Stave, Tangible Drum Machine and Physical Sequencer.

The latter has been used in two live performances by the Sicilian cellist and composer Giovanni Sollima. Using the sequencer Sollima is able to record audio or voice samples and organize them in variable length loops. Continue reading

Returning for its third year, the Electronic Music Foundation’s acclaimed sound art, music and ecology festival Ear to the Earth will take place this month in locations all over New York City. Ear to the Earth is organized around the principle that sound’s distinct emotional impact makes it a significant medium in which to explore environmental concerns such as global warming, extinction and habitat destruction. Divided into two sections, “New York Soundscapes” and “Other Soundscapes,” this year’s events maintain a strong urban emphasis. Andrea Polli’s installation Cloud Car, takes the automobile, a key force within the development of American cities, as its locus. With the aide of special effects technician Chuck Varga, Polli will envelop a Ford Taurus station wagon entirely in mist. Visitors will be invited to sit in the car and listen to environmental sound compositions. Resembling a broken down vehicle on the side of a highway, the work is a poignant symbol for America’s current predicament in regards to oil dependency. Cloud Car will be on display at Eyebeam October 18th and will then move to the New York Hall of Science on October 25th. Continue reading

In case you missed it, Radiohead have gone all data-aesthetic with their latest video, House of Cards. What’s more, it’s fully zeitgeist-compliant, with open access and a call for re-visualisations of a quite massive dataset: hundreds of megabytes of spatial data gathered with various 3d laser-scanning rigs. If the download stats and early signs are anything to go on, we will be seeing much more of this dataset. Continue reading

Abandoning any attempt at continuity or chronological order, here’s another project from a while back that really should have been posted here months ago! Synchresis is a DVD I curated for the Australian Network for Art and Technology late last year; it’s a survey of Australian audiovisual practice, with an emphasis on “fused” or “synaesthetic” AV - a niche where the Australian scene is very strong. The DVD features work by Jean Poole, Andrew Gadow, Robin Fox, Gordon Monro, Wade Marynowsky, Abject Leader, Pix + Delire, Ian Andrews and Botborg.

Below is the essay,”Monsters and Maps,” that I wrote for the project. It introduces the works on the disc but also touches on some more abstract thoughts about synchresis, synaesthesia, cross-modal perception, the map, and audiovisual practice. Continue reading

[Images: left: Welte Light-tone disk Edwin Emil Welte; right: Vibroexponator soundtracks - Boris Yankovsky] Tonewheels by Derek Holzer and Sarah Kolster is a concise historical appraisal of sound-light synthesis with some exciting new inclusions of lesser-know contraptions and artists. Lots of interesting charts, diagrams and musical notation. Vibroexponators, Photonas and Optigans!

James Peels’ article for the online tendril of cabinet magazine, The Scale and the Spectrum, analyses the history of the chromatics of sound in the context of his own series of colour-music paintings which attempt at presenting a visual installation of silent music. Continue reading

[Amit changing the physical heart of his guitar] My friend Amit Zoran, from the Ambient Intelligence group at MIT Media Lab, continued his work on structural innovation, re-designing acoustic musical instrument according to the abilities and characteristics of rapid prototype materials. Together with Pattie Maes and Marco Coppiardi, they created a new generation of physical instruments by tailoring wooden hearts. The wooden pieces are inserted in the body of the guitar to give the instrument the desired sound identity. Continue reading