this is not memorex: sample culture revisited by Greg Smith - In familiarizing myself with this work over the past few weeks, I’ve felt an odd sense of nostalgia developing. These projects collectively highlight various facets of what we have dubbed sample culture, that is the continued evolution of the triumph of the fragment. There are dozens of threads that can be traced back to the 1980s and while I am personally indebted to the potent combination of Brian Eno and David Byrne, the perpetual litigation of Negativland, and the sonic collage of the Bomb Squad, I am going to instead direct my attention to another dusty artifact from collective memory. Continue reading

Object Collection presents FAMOUS ACTORS, experimental music / theater :: June 17-19, and 21-23, 2007 :: Ontological Theater, St. Mark’s Church, 131 East 10th Street and 2nd Ave, NYC :: Tickets $12 with code word “cakes” :: 212.352.3101.

FAMOUS ACTORS is a performance / installation that applies the logic of experimental music to everyday human behavior. The actor is re-defined in a clinical context as someone who: 1) alters another’s state of consciousness through scientific means; 2) monitors something or someone closely; and 3) maintains calm in a complex situation. What results is an intricate arrangement of very familiar things. Featuring rhythmically notated gestures and conversations, field recordings and live vocal sampling / processing. Continue reading

Tate Modern: Free in the Turbine Hall :: Mathieu Briand SYS*011. Mie>AbE/SoS\ SYS*010, aka the Spiral + More:: May 25, 17.00–18.00 pm and May 26, 10.00 am -18.00 pm.

SYS*011. Mie>AbE/SoS\ SYS*010, aka the Spiral is a sculptural sound installation and performance space created by the French artist Mathieu Briand (b1972). It comprises five turntables, one etching machine to burn new vinyl records, a matrix of four vinyl records on which sounds from machines and other samples have been etched into locked groove loops by the artist, two mixing desks and the possibility of plugging in up to seven additional instruments, laptops and other hardware. Mathieu Briand’s Spiral intends to create an alternative space within the museum structure. He envisions this installation as a “Temporary Autonomous Zone” (Hakim Bey) that would disrupt the traditional structure of the museum by deconstructing its hierarchies and altering its rules for a certain period of time. Continue reading

Automatic, Ongoing Soundscape

Agent Radio is one of the main projects taking place in the Department of Random Radio of the Institute of Artificial Art Amsterdam. The IAAA promotes the establishment of dedicated radio stations for the diffusion of sound-environments created by algorithmic music, physical processes, industrial machinery, randomly selected audio-documents, and arbitrarily sampled live sound. [via]