Joe Grimm :: Friday, November 19, 2010 at 8:00 p.m. :: at Columbia College, 916 S Wabash, Room 214, Chicago, IL :: Admission $10, Students $5

Organized by Lampo in cooperation with Columbia College, Audio Arts and Acoustics Department.

Epic new solo work from Joe Grimm. ALIAS (for Kathryn) is a synaesthetic light/sound performance for modified 16mm projectors, homemade light-sensitive audio electronics, and a large, white, side-mounted ceiling fan. The projectors create flicker-patterns that are often too fast for the eye to detect; but the changes in speed of these invisible flickers can nevertheless be traced in the illusions of movement (and stasis) in the fan-blades, as well as in the mutating timbres of the light-generated music. It is a meditation on the limitations of the body and the senses, on the breakdown of one’s ability to sensually access the physical world. Continue reading

Lighting the Future – An Optical Media Art Exhibition :: The White Box Museum of Art, 798 Art Dist, No 2., Jiuxianqiao Road, Beijing :: Through October 3, 2010 ::

Works by Art Clay (CHE), Harro Schmidt (DEU), David Cheung (CAN) and others in the second floor gallery. Looking at the building at night, public roaming the streets of the 798 area can enjoy the playful works by Christiane Oppermann (DEU) and Claudia Wissmann (DEU).

image: „For Cookie Cutters and Stern“ by Swiss artist, Art Clay

The works make use of a variety of lighting techniques, but are also divided into artwork for public and private spaces in a unique way making use of the different qualities and ambience found in day and night light. Continue reading

The Emotion Organ by Amanda Steggell — Curated by Michelle Teran :: June 12 – July 10, 2010 :: Opening Reception: June 17; 7:00 – 9:00 pm (Live Performances by Eve Egoyan, Gordon Monahan, Martin Arnold and Toddler Body) :: Women’s Art Resource Centre (WARC), 401 Richmond St. Suite #122, Toronto, ON. Presented in conjunction with the Independent Media Arts Conference and Festival: ON.Fire .

Why would anyone want to merely bang out music, when you could have euphoria? Why be satisfied with an ordinary spinet when you could have The Emotion Organ? Developed over a rigorous three-year period in a small studio in Norway, Amanda Steggell’s The Emotion Organ is a synaesthetic, simulacrum machine that takes its public on a phenomenological journey through the physical senses. With the organ, you can hear colors and smell sounds. Continue reading

Call for proposals: Calling all experimental musicians, musical neuroscientists, sound artists, cyborg performers, dance-floor divas and harmonic engineers :: Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin is currently developing a major new exhibition and event and workshop series entitled BIORHYTHM: Music and the Body and we are seeking your proposals for gallery installations, experiments, events, workshops and performances for inclusion. We will consider both proposals for projects within the Science Gallery building and off-site or roaming projects. Some funding is available to support projects, but projects which can bring other sources of support are welcomed.

How does the body respond to music? Is there a neuroscience of dance? Is there a formula for the perfect hit? Why does a minor cord sound sad? How does a DJ manipulate the emotions of a crowd? Continue reading

In his first solo exhibition in New England, sound artist and electronic musician Stephen Vitiello creates Something Like Fireworks, a new installation at the Davis Museum in Wellesley. The installation, done in collaboration with lighting designer Jeremy Choate, features Vitiello’s field recordings from the Australian outback, the Canadian wilderness, a Virginia marsh, and New York City’s streets. Vitiello’s soundtrack moves between the abstract and the recognizable, attuning us to the subtleties of ambient sound. In this piece, sound is connected with light and color, creating an immersive synaesthetic experience. The lighting has been designed in sympathy with the audio, and the resulting combination surrounds the visitor, altering our spatial perception. The installation is on view through June 6 at the Davis Museum on the campus of Wellesley College. Continue reading

The Amazing Acoustaphotophonogrammitron :: Through March 21, 2010 :: @ Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts’ Gallery 51 : 51 Main St. North Adams MA

A synesthetic exhibition lavishly brimming with resonant frequencies of sound and light! The Amazing Acoustaphotophonogrammitron is a group show featuring work by makers who find themselves somewhere between visual artist and musician.

Curated by MCLA Gallery 51 Gallery Manager, Ven Voisey, The Amazing Acoustaphotophonagrammitron features the work of local and national artists: Joshua Churchill (CA), Paul de Jong (NY), Lesley Flanigan (NY), Christy Georg (MA), Mark Mulherrin (MA), Ed Osborn (RI), Tristan Perich (NY), Ven Voisey (MA) and Nick Zammuto (VT).

“This show is about overlap and influence of the different senses.” says Voisey, “ Included are artists whose processes seamlessly move through mediums and whose works are simultaneously audio and visual instruments.” Continue reading

Share Festival – Market Forces 2009 :: Performances :: Various Venues, Torino, Italy.

Share Prize: Orchestra Meccanica Marinette plays Nag Hammadi :: November 3 and 5, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. :: Regional Museum of Natural Science at via Giolitti 36, Torino.

The orchestra consists of robot drummers that play steel drums “live”, under the direction of a performer. The interactive rhythms of the OMM sound out the movement, work and machinery of Turin industry. The subtext moves along the lines of the “Nag Hammadi”, the third-century A.D. Gnostic text, before plunging into contemporary mythologies through pieces inspired by the works of Ballard and Burroughs, exploring the relationship between, and the fusion of, human and machine. Continue reading

The Synesthetic Plan of Chicago :: June 1 – October 9, 2009 :: Chicago Cultural Center, 77 E. Randolph Street, Chicago.

2009 is the centenary of the publication of The Plan of Chicago. The Synesthetic Plan of Chicago: A Multi-Sensory Journey Through Chicago and Its Neighborhoods corresponds with the celebration of this historic event. An interactive installation at the Chicago Cultural Center Visitor Information Center (77 E. Randolph Street), The Synesthetic Plan of Chicago is part of the citywide summer tourism initiative, Explore Chicago: Take A Neighborhood Vacation (June 1–September 30). More than 40 artists and organizations have joined in creating this exploration of Chicago through the five senses.

Visitors and locals can experience Chicago imagery, sounds, fragrances, flavors and textures captured in miniature neighborhood scenes such as a mapping of the tastes and recipes of Chinatown, and an exploration of East Garfield Park candy. SPC’s participating artists and organizations have designed installation pieces which invite people to interact with the sensory “artifacts” of Chicago in creative and imaginative ways, and to think about synesthetic connections with things that relate to Chicago. The Synesthetic Plan of Chicago is commissioned by the City of Chicago, and it is co-curated by Annie Heckman and Dan Godston. Continue reading

International Interaktionslabor 2009: Peninsulae of Perception :: July 20 – August 2, 2009 :: Site of the former coal mine Göttelborn in southwest Germany.

This year the main focus of the workshop is on perceptual processes. The project title — Halbinseln der Wahrnehmung/ Peninsulae of Perception — is a reference to a diary written by a person afflicted with Asperger’s Syndrome. The diary has been proposed as research libretto for investigations into differing perceptual channels and psycho-social research on autism, synaesthesia, music composition and real-time performance. The acoustic-musical dimension of the 2009 laboratory is complemented by research into design or wearable audiophonics and acousmatic architectures and sound perceptions. Continue reading

Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center presents Gestures and Responsive Media — with Pamela Z, Elliott Sharp, Zach Layton, Sha Xin Wei, Sawako, Bill Hsu & James Fei :: May 14 – 16, 2009; 8.30 pm :: Roulette, 20 Greene Street, (between Canal & Grand)

Produced in partnership with Roulette’s Mixology Festival, Gestures and Responsive Media consists of three concert programs focusing on modern experiments in performance technology. Central to this series is the exciting way that live performers are exploring the use of gesture to control computers and building technological environments for free, improvisatory play. From Pamela Z’s gesture-based vocal experiments to Sha Xin Wei’s phenomenological experiments with movement and media, the presenting artists not only expand the boundaries of traditional performance and instrumentation, but also humanize electronics through creative means. Continue reading