Connexion
Their very diverse backgrounds (video editing, web design, vjing, 2D-3D graphics, video post-production, sound design) and a powerful synergy among themselves, lead to the development of Pixel Shapes collective that aims to produce impressive video mapping, visuals and installations.
From traditional video projection techniques to the most complex forms of architectural video mapping.
Looking for new forms of communication through the use of multimedia technologies and nonconventional supports.
Design of multimedia scenography.
Sound department is handled by Giovanni Raniolo, established sound designer and music producer.
Infopixelshapes@gmail.com
LINK BOX
Facebook / YouTube / Instagram
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These days AV artists are hiding out all over the place, this time curiosity didn’t kill the cat, as I stumbled upon the work of Cinema.AV on Instagram. it’s amazing where a hashtag can take you… #videosynth. I was keen to find out how someone so visually analog ends up that way, and how they manage in an ever expanding digital world (at the time of writing more so than ever).
1.Tell us about your first ever live gig? When was it and how did it go?
For years, I used to play a kind of ambient, soundscape style of music, and for live performance, I would put whatever found vhs tape behind me for visuals. Often without a screen. It often just turned into lighting for my performance, instead of clearcut visuals.
Fast-forward to a couple years later, in summer 2015, where I started buying jvc video mixers, archer and vidicraft boxes. It was here where I took it upon myself to do visuals for a show I had booked. Sadly, I didn’t realize, the projector couldn’t handle the distorted signals I was throwing at it. Luckily though, someone at the last moment, let me borrow theirs. It was total godsend. The result was this hyper-distorted cross between national geographic videotapes. It worked for the more abstract, psychedelia I had booked for the evening,
Later down the line, I found the need for time base correctors in live performance, and mixers equipped with such. To evenly blend, rather an abruptly with one of those RCA Y splitter cables turned on end. Which is actually the same as the classic Klomp dirty mixer. It was all stuff I got for free, or nearly no money. Never top of the line. Always the most difficult, least practical solutions. But the result was always unique to the moment, to the performance; endlessly fleeting.
2.We discovered your work on Instagram. How do you usually connect with the AV community online? Does social media play a big role for you?
Strangely, yeah. I hardly ever go out locally, unless of course I’m playing a show. So beyond that setting, you’ll never find me in the wild. Even before this quarantine action, I was a total homebody. Staying in whenever possible to work on art and infinitely explore the machines. So having access to social media platforms is actually key to the whole system. I can actively gauge what pieces people actually like, what ideas stick and in turn, get shared with a larger audience.
Its those posts that snowball into bigger and better gigs. As the recognition on a global scale is significantly more gratifying than just the local efforts I receive so often. In fact, for the better part of 2019, I was very busy with live video work. Having nearly no time off, I accepted this as a lifestyle, rather than just hobby. And in the social media zone, I’ve been able to publicly beta-test things like the Erogenous Tones Structure module, Phil Baljeu’s custom vector graphics system and as of late Andrei Jay’s latest raspberry pi video synth and feedback algorithms as hardware devices. The curiosity the results generated have in turn, sold modules and made the manufactures money to sustain their efforts.
…having access to social media platforms is actually key to the whole system. I can actively gauge what pieces people actually like, what ideas stick and in turn, get shared with a larger audience.
To be fair though, I’m not sure how much of this actually real. If it’s all made up, or the reactions are fabricated. It’s a fine silver-lining we’re all walking along. One day, a post could generate hundreds of interactions, while the next day, nothing. I think alot of that could actually be the option for folks to drift between realities, between the physical and the cyberspace. It’s in this cyberspace, that I do often connect with other artists, say for example my bud Konopka and has online video painting series. To watch him create something entirely from scratch, in real time, thousands of miles away is a true head-spin if you think about it. But not even 5 years ago would have been possible.
3. It’s fascinating to how analog and digital worlds inspire AV artists. What’s your take on the two and how do you find working with analog systems for live visuals?
Truly. When I first got started, it was all analog, all found devices. Though in time, I’ve found the whole LZX modular zone, which started analog and now has drifted into this wild digital hardware dimension that has opened up all kinds doors. The obvious attraction to the large analog modular is the physicality and pure intuitive nature of the whole thing. As in a live setting, there is nothing more fun and unpredictable than a hand-wired mess of cables and devices to create this ever-fleeting dialogue, never again to be replicated. For ambient, for house, for techno and literally everything in between, there’s this infinite body that just works, and often never crashes or fails.
If anything, it’s always the digital component that freezes or fails first. I’ve done shows with computer artists that for some reason or another, who just can’t make it work that particular night.
If anything, it’s always the digital component that freezes or fails first. I’ve done shows with computer artists that for some reason or another, who just can’t make it work that particular night. So just step in and end up taking over the evening with my system. However, I’ve had my fair share of venues tell me their systems are HDMI only. So learned to convert the analog composite outputs of the modular to the HDMI with aid of things like Ambery converters and scalers, Extron scalers, and even the silly Blackmagic shuttle, that has it’s own share of issues. It wasn’t until last summer that I realized the Roland V4-EX had a very effective means of conversion and scaling to HDMI, VGA, and back down again. The result was a total game-changer. So I sold my other mixers, and devices to scale up to HDMI and hadn’t looked back. This meant I could seamlessly work with digital projection systems and streaming processes. And from the get-go, it’s been used in every performance effort since. It’s even let me collaborate with both digital and analog artists alike. To fade and key between all manner of artists and ideas.
So little things like that make the whole system go, which leads me into the question…
4.What’s your basic setup when do performance live AV shows? (If you have one)
I am constantly pushing myself as an artist. So every year or so, I’ll experience this major creative shift around winter time, when my job at the photo lab temporarily shutters for winter break on campus. It is is then where I have about a month to chill and regroup my mind. This generally means some new gear enters the studio, and in turn the dirty warehouses they get thrown into for live work.
In 2019, I saw my modular system grow from a single 6U, two row case that could fly on any airline, to a larger 12U, four row system, that for the majority, made it’s way into every gig. In tandem with the V4-EX, the two were all I needed to do 8-10 hours of a rave whatever else I was getting booked for. However, the few time I flew out for one-offs, I brought it back down to 6U. Which was a lot of fun and lent itself to collaboration with other artists. It was in this time though, away from gigs and rather chill moments at the lab, where I began to experiment with the virtual dimension of VSynth, the Max/Msp visual extension. The result was very reminiscent of my larger modular system. Though at the time, my computer could only handle small patches. Anything big would see my computer begin to overheat and grind to a halt.
This got me looking at computers, seriously. As a video generation and manipulation tool, much in the same way the dedicated hardware was, but a larger, more sophisticated, and recallable level. It was months of research and a very generous donation within the family that lead me onto a gaming-oriented laptop, complete with a dedicated graphics card, that in it’s day was considered high-spec, and miles beyond my aging macbook. From the moment I lifted open the box and got it booted, I went straight into complex Max patches and dense 3D structures with the aid of Resolume Arena. When I realized I could save, and recall every motion, I started plotting how to gig with it. To layer to pieces together and to treat Resolume as a video sampler of my analog devices. What began to happen was a meshing of dimensions. No longer was one any better than the other. They were one of the same. It was with this entry that live performance physically became less stressful and far more manageable. No longer did have to carry this unwieldy modular system on a train or a bus. I could now discreetly carry the common laptop computer, just as everyone else.
Setting up and breaking down, with the projector, is a two cable, two power supply motion. So quick and so light. With the aid of a midi controller, all the tactility remains, and nothing changes. The digital results do look incredible though. I cannot deny that. No matter what I have though, I make the best of all of it. For touring, in 2020, my setup is just that. I did some dates with Steve Hauschildt and Telefon Tel Aviv across Texas and the process was so smooth. Same for the brief efforts with LLORA and BATHHOUSE, just weeks ago. So much less to think about, all with the same manipulations and motions.
5. What would be your dream AV gig?
Currently speaking, the dream is still to tour, to travel and do large scale art installations with my video work. I had things lined up, but those have all fallen in favor of the current pandemic. But that’s honestly not going to hold anyone for long. These things will all still happen, just not soon as I had anticipated. I was truthfully hoping to break into the festival dimension; Mutek, Movement, Sonar, Aurora, as from a live scale, that feels like the next big move, amidst touring through the theaters and dedicated art spaces. I’ve had tastes of all those, but like anyone serious about their craft, I want to further and really make a name for myself, as truly, I don’t know what else to do.
Find out more about Cinema.AV on his artist page
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Deadline: 1st June 2020
Since it first opened in 2019, the ELEKTRA Gallery regularly hosts exhibitions. Located in the heart of the Mile-End, this new venue supports the artistic community, focusing on originality and embracing contemporary aesthetics in research and experimentation.
www.audiovisalcity.org/elektra
This is a call for projects for digital contemporary artists who wish to exhibit works between September 2020 and June 2021. The selected projects will be part of the gallery’s official program.
To submit an exhibition proposal, please send the following elements to zhamila@elektramontreal.ca:
The gallery offers professional technical assistance to set-up and has limited but high-quality equipment. Works with audio content can only be presented with headphones.
ELEKTRA pays artist fees for each selected exhibit.
The ELEKTRA Gallery is located at the Pôle de Gaspé at 5445 avenue de Gaspé #104, Montréal, QC, H2T 3B2.
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Evan Henry, from Dallas, Texas, is a truly multidisciplinary AV artist, who primarily works visually under the artistic name Cinema AV, but who is also known to write ambient music scores with both analog and digital synthesizers. His work embraces both analog and digital set ups, with his main interest visually representing sound.
What began as a love of photography, cinema and found footage grew into something much greater when in 2015, Evan was introduced to video circuit-bending and once-obsolete video electronics. Using these pieces in a live performance setting was always his goal, and from the get-go, tachyons boxes, vcrs, and video mixers turned into buying used Gieskes 3trinsrgb+1c standalone video synthesizer, building its expanders and just over a year later, the LZX cadet and castle line of DIY eurorack modules.
From there, video art went from beyond a hobby, to a complete way of life. Reliant on live performance, he plays at gigs relentlessly for both local, and touring artists alike. In 2018, he joined Ghostly Intl.’s Steve Hauschildt on a tour through the East Coast and Canada. He became the resident visual artist for Proton Limited in Dallas, Texas in 2019. These motions set the stage for a constantly evolving motion in the live visual dimension.
Cinema AV’s work extends itself to instant and 35mm film renderings and has appeared in galleries and pop-up’s throughout North Texas. But when not playing live, or coordinating visuals for Dallas Ambient Music Nights, Evan is occasionally writing or building a set of modules for fellow artists.
The result is an infinitely growing body of work, that in the last few years has expanded itself into largely digital dimensions in Resolume Arena and Max/Msp.
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Youtube | Bandcamp | Soundcloud | Vimeo
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DEADLINE: August 3rd 2020 (inclusive)
Event: 8-11 October 2020, Vienna
Punto y Raya Festival, the “most abstract in the world”, launches its NINTH international Call for Entries open to Short Films built up ENTIRELY with non-representational imagery. Only Dots & Lines as ends in themselves!
Authors are invited to focus on the expressiveness of audiovisual art in its purest state: Colour, Form, Motion, Sound. Participation is FREE and the films can be submitted ONLINE.
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As they say clearly, they are a street festival, but for solidarity, for responsibility and to win the fight against the pandemic, they stay at home. But to make the quarantine easier to go through, they present a challenge.
LLUERNIA AT HOME, Fire and light festival at home, takes place tonight 28th March at 20:00, and it’s the first edition. A strange way to start, and as they expected, it’s a challenge.
The people who participated had to post a one minute video of a domestic light installation with fire or light with the hashtag #lluerniaathome and all the materials had to be found at home, they couldn’t go out to search for anything. The open call closed yesterday, 27th March and today we will be able to watch in live on the web page www.lluernia.cat
The projects selected will remain in consideration till the 7th November, where Lluernia will be exhibited in the street.
Lluernia festival of fire and light, aims to become an annual event to visualize the relationship between the city of Olot and its surroundings, with the fire of volcanoes and how this origin has transformed, not only the orography and the landscape, if not the same character and culture of the people of La Garrotxa. As references, despite accepting the differences in format, they mention the “Fête des Lumieres” that is held annually in Lyon (France), the Light Festival that for the first time this year has joined the Party of Santa Eulàlia in Barcelona and the “Mapping Festival” of Geneve (Switzerland).
Stay safe tonight, lighting up your house while watching this charming festival online!
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I have been exceptionally lucky to be able to pick Overlap’s Michael Denton’s brains with all of those nitty gritty questions about their career that every visual artist wonders about. How did they get to be where they are? What was the VJ scene like in the nineties? How is their relationship with technology and whose work inspires them?
Overlap are true veterans and represent original artists on the audiovisual live performance scene, not only have they experienced more changes in performance technology than I’ve had hot dinners, they’ve been up there with some of the most popular artists of our time, performing with the likes of Chemical Brothers and have animated artwork by Damien Hirst.
You have presented your work in some of the most prestigious international galleries around the world, including the Pompidou in Paris, Tate Modern, and the Victoria and Albert Museum as well as done a VJ set with the Chemical Brothers. What is the project that you are most proud of?
Remixing and VJing The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour film for its cinema première at the South Bank with Noise of Art was a highlight.
We’re pleased with the editions on SeditionArt. They incorporate a lot of ideas from the past and are also feeding into some future shows. Musically, Greylight Green is something that works when you’re in the right mood. As these recent editions highlight, we’ve always been at the more arty end of the Vjing/music industry, and the more musical end of the art world. The music industry and the fine art worlds attribute value in such different ways. But twenty years ago, we were lucky to stumble into a certain era of EDM culture, it was like the early days of flying’s uncharted freedoms. In Turnmills nightclub in Holborn, I remember one of the guys from Reality Check, (the house VJ and AV team, for nights, including The Gallery and Trade etc), saying they showed art to thousands of clubbers every week – and they did. Hopefully for an audience the circling and repeating imagery of VJ-ing done well can create a kind of memory image burn effect – they go home with a ‘memory painting’
Fine art galleries and big projects have not necessarily been the most rewarding – the really interesting moment for us was being at clubs and festivals with a large amount of freedom, developing a style of imagery and delivery without record companies and DJ Managers controlling what we did. It was genuinely creative and new, yet fulfilling a need. This for any artist is a luxury.
Early on we’d be flown out to Creamfields in Andalucia with Microchunk, or wherever, and literally be immediately on stage with a 50k audience and the DJ, no pre planning or rehearsing, ” 5 mins guys”, maybe an artist logo at the beginning, then mix.
As Overlap you have experimented with the majority of the audiovisual art formats. Is there one in particular that you enjoy?
Long VJ sets are a nice journey, in medium sized venues with a few different feeds going into multiple screens and low lighting. AV sets are always a bit more stressy – as doing the visual/music/sound for maybe 40 mins, feels more contrived/pre planned and edgy. Multi screens can make things a lot more architectural/sculptural, with 3d projections on objects etc, and simpler more graphic imagery. So a mixture of graphic and more pictorial screens is a nice balance. Again we tend towards a more art bias, whereas a lot of club imagery is a fairly bombastic extension of the lighting show – think rising chevrons. Equally a very simple installation/projection on a gallery wall can be really satisfying. For AV sets, good acoustics and smaller venues suit the minimal music we make.
I’m sure you have collaborated and met with many of the world’s most famous audiovisual and new media artists on the scene. Who particularly inspires you?
Loads of things inspire me, from motorcycling to design and architecture. More recently though works/gigs by Ryoichi Kurokawa, Fuse, some of the things AntiVJ have done, Davide Quayola. Nils Frahm, Biosphere, through to more obscure music form France Jobin to gallery based artist like Mat Collishaw. But also painters like Nigel Cooke, with his circuitous multi picture planes that create a pictorial balance that your eye follows round and around – comparable to good VJ mixing. We were lucky to be part of a talented group of VJs represented by Microchunk in our VJing hey day – unique underground artists. I think we all inspired and motivated each other to push further artistically. Lady Pat and Grand Dame are two of Anna’s favourite, similarly self taught, audiovisual artists.
The art of VJing is a relatively new term for the art of live video mixing. When did you first become aware of the term and how has it changed for you over the years?
Firstly it was the definitive move away from the pop video, which had been: point camera at people singing the song, illustrate/narrative/advertise – ie. TV. So the culture of EDM remixing, had the authority to legitimize its visual equivalent and create the context for VJing. It’s a term I’m not overly fond of, but it does put you on the stage side of technician, ie you make and shape content – not to demean the amazing art, that is light mixing, house sound, etc. VJ content is a form of visual serialism, like music about patterns, removing the asymmetry of drama, its infinitely more complex in its potential multi layer/screen applications than linear media, maybe more so than music.
When I was at Chelsea art school, there was Glitch (first time around, VHS crash editing, late 80’s), video artist lecturers talked derogatorily of ‘club wallpaper’,meaning all things shallow. But I was interested in this form, that had a use and the public liked – unlike so much video art of the era.
The first time I got paid to show images in a bar – also in Holborn, was in 1985. The fee, one bottle of wine.
The first time I thought about something like VJing was as a very young kid, around the time the Beatles released The White album, in the back of my dad’s car one evening, driving along country roads in Dorset and thinking about ‘films’ that would be like the trees sliding past the windows. Non narrative loop structures – I certainly didn’t know what narrative meant at the time, but I did have this strange certainty of there being a future for this sensory/sensual idea. The first time I got paid to show images in a bar – also in Holborn, was in 1985. The fee, one bottle of wine. Then I showed an AV Album work called Open at Megatripolis, Heaven, Charing Cross around 1994. I met Anna in the late nineties we got invited to do stuff at the ICA and bars in Shoreditch etc. We formed Overlap and she learned a lot of the Adobe programmes very fast and we started to get paid to VJ, both loving the visual depth, luminosity and surprises that multilayering and keying threw up.
How would you define the difference between an AV set and a VJ set? Could you describe one of your set ups to us?
People I know who travel the world for major DJ acts are operating in a different world from small AV acts. There’s’ a big difference between doing multi screen VJing, with pre programmed triggered clips via midi, osc etc and mixing live on the fly, by feel. Ben Francis who does visuals for Calvin Harris, for example is taking code with BPM info etc, from the CDJ’s, but is also live mixing. Keeping the audio and imagery separate still seems to be an industry standard. The music driving the imagery, which makes sense in some ways, but is also strangely anachronistic. When we do an AV set we have married imagery to 8 bar loops, some elements are locked with time code if we’re using a separate music source, CDJ’s etc and some not, to make it more organic. Most AV performers drive Resolume with Ableton or code, or at least lock them. Unusually, we use Resolume a lot for sound.
AV shows can be done in so many ways. In the end it seems the content and the feel of what you’re doing is probably more important than how you’re doing it. How much do you want to do live – how much does the audience care how dexterous you are? DJ’s spend a lot of time dramatically illustrating that they’re turning a mixer knob, that appears to have the equivalent friction of pulling a ship back up a launching ramp, they haven’t got anything else visually to do. Where as, if you’re doing a multi 4 Bar loop AV set, five layers deep and you’re triggering them live, you’re busy with no time for the high friction mixer antics.
Recently we’ve been using performance tools like Resolume to create on as well as a performance tool. I tend to pick it up like a guitar and mess around, sometimes its a really useful ‘writing’ instrument too.
As a Barcelona resident, I can’t help but notice that you once had regular visual slots at Razzmatazz. Tell me more about that! How was the VJ scene in Barcelona back then? How is the scene in the UK these days?
This was VJ-ing with visual specialists/agency Microchunk , who were represented by William Morris, which meant we were well looked after. There was a core group of artists including Lady Pat, Mischa Ying, Ben Francis, Muthabored, Todd Graft and ourselves and we were lucky to perform and make installations everywhere from Norway’sHove festival, to Glastonbury. In Barcelona, we’d perform two nights, mainly at The Loft, Friday and Saturday from around 11pm till 6.30 in the morning, sometimes just Anna and I, but often other VJ’s. The local VJs were very gracious about us filling their slots. It was always full on at Razzmatazz, a really intense atmosphere. The club was always packed.We’re not really involved with the UK club scene at the moment, but friends who work for major acts seem to be far more controlled by a corporate plan.
You have both lived through a plethora of technological developments throughout your careers, starting with the use of VHS in your installations. What is your relationship with technology? Is it one of love and hate or it is a match made in heaven?
Anna and I are different generations – before I met Anna, I spent a lot of time blagging my way into analogue beta edit suites in Soho to make material – it was tricky, but looking back people were incredibly kind and helped me realise effecting footage shot on motorcycle trips with a clockwork Bolex. Anna and I started at the point of very low resolution VJ software – so we used hybrid mixtures of micro chapter DVD loops and Flash loops mixed with V4’s. I like the things that technology makes possible, but get frustrated with the art world tendency to think if you ‘paint ‘ with technology, that you should necessarily be using the very latest tech and trend. I enjoy mapping and responsive VR etc, but equally I like the confines of a rectangle and a painters vocabulary. Music doesn’t seem to have the same linearity, no one would think it odd playing a 1960’s Fender.
I enjoy mapping and responsive VR etc, but equally I like the confines of a rectangle and a painters vocabulary. Music doesn’t seem to have the same linearity, no one would think it odd playing a 1960’s Fender.
I notice that landscapes have been a recurring theme in your work, right up to your most recent project of Transitional Landscapes. What is it about landscapes as a subject that inspires you?
We all project memories and feelings onto our immediate surroundings. Landscape is a good genre to play with the relationship between still and moving imagery, the romantic v the analytical, the unveiling of narrative contrasted by the implicit ambiguities of painting (movies v fine art).
Mixing trees from around the world is strangely satisfying, they’re overlaying branches having a legitimacy. English copses with New World deserts keyed through wallpaper and fabric’s repeated motifs reference Richard Dadd’s The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke’s, heightened stillness, petrified trees and flattened nature, more tapestry than living environment. Then we can add other man made impositions, ghosts of utilities, power lines, imagined data paths, architectural plans, wiring diagrams and intimate blinking status LEDs. It seems to suite a first person view, apart from narrative.
What would be your advice be to young audiovisual enthusiasts who are keen to develop their careers in the industry?
Like the fine art world there are so many different strands of audiovisual arts. It will keep changing, entertainment will morph. How and what ‘artists’ do v creatives and ‘technicians’ etc is complicated. The EDM model was that music was the most important element – but now with performance more of an earner than record sales – maybe the creatives/technicians/, (not the artists) are the main act. To further confuse it all, AV is crossing over with fine art and stage design etc. So maybe listen to everyone and ignore them all.
Find out more about Overlap on their artist page
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Born in the heart of the VJ boom in the 90s, after their own artistic experimentation, and Michael’s first ever (what we would call now) VJ gig in 1985, Michael Denton and Anna McCrickard formed Overlap in 1998. They are based in Hastings in the UK. Unlike some VJs, who purely focus on the visual side of the art form, Overlap are a an AV collaborative duo in the purest sense of the concept, who also produce minimalist music in parallel with their exploration of both moving and still image. They’ve also performed at many a festival, forming part of a collective of VJs represented by Microchunk.
Their work takes the form of live audiovisual performances, exhibitions, transitional paintings, installations, VJ sets and even prints, and takes on audiovisual culture from a fine art perspective, which makes their work both fascinating and unique in a wide variety of different contexts.
Overlap started VJ-ing and performing AV sets as regular guests of resident VJs Reality Check at Turnmill’s club (The Gallery, London Calling) in 1998, guesting with Reality Check at The Chemical Brothers’ headline set at Turnmill’s Millenium gig in London’s Docklands. The next decade saw Overlap’s visuals splashed across screens at major international festivals including Creamfields, Andalucia, Electric Picnic Ireland, Glastonbury’s Glade stage, Pete Tong’s Wonderland in Ibiza and Glastonbury’s Glade, as part of the Microchunk visuals boutique. They created visuals for for the Industrial Resolution installation at the first Manchester International Festival: performed live on the largest indoor screen in Europe, accompanying the world’s leading DJs including Carl Cox, Fatboy Slim, Laurent Garnier, Layo, Pete Tong and Sasha. Overlap also played regular VJ slots at Razzmatazz (Loft), Barcelona and Pete Tong’s Wonderland, Eden, Ibiza (Deadmau5, Groove Armada). Overlap were commissioned by Microchunk to animate Damien Hirst artwork for Pete Tong’s Ushuaia at Le Grand Bazaar, Ibiza in 2013.
Overlap also work with the Noise of Art collective as resident VJ-s and moving image artists. Their fine art single screen video works have been screened at the ICA, BFI and Tate Modern. Recent projects include:- a celebration of 100 Years of Electronic Music at the National Portrait Gallery London; Forest Tree limited edition for Sedition Art; audiovisual “painting” installations for the National Trust’s Fenton House and Calke Abbey; opening the Arquiteturas Film Festival in Lisbon with their Places that Dance AV set; short films “Returning” and “Switch” awarded special mentions at the Avanca and EMAF film festivals; an audiovisual performance in the British Ambassador’s Residence in Beijing. Recent art screenings/performances of their works have included Aquatint at Riders on the Mall/ROM, MUSZI, Budapest and Digital Graffiti, Florida, Forest Tree at STRP Biennale at Strijp S in Eindhoven and Cloud Edged at Light Fantastic, House of Nobleman, Frieze.
Perhaps one of the most poignant aspects of their audiovisual artwork is its accessibility and ability to be embraced and engaging in such an extensive mixture of spaces, including performances and installations everywhere from music festivals (Creamfields, Splice festival, Madatac, Fiber, Generate, Big Chill, STRP Biennale); and night clubs (Razzamatazz, Barcelona, Wonderland – Eden, Ibiza), to prestigious galleries (Tate Modern, Pompidou, National Portrait Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum), as well as being featured in some important publications on VJ culture, such as Audio – Visual Art and VJ Culture (2006) They even remixed and VJed The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour film for its cinema première at the South Bank with Noise of Art at London’s BFI.
Their working process involves adding and removing layers, degrees of opportunism and systematised chance, creating generative combinations ranging from slow transitional paintings, to fast flowing AV performances.
Their most recent work includes Transitional Landscape, designed for exhibition and art installation, ‘Rooms’, which explores the relationship between indoors and outdoors, combining and fusing luscious wallpaper motifs with beautiful organic landscape scenes. It juxtaposes man-made life with that of the wonders of the natural world.
Find out more about their work here:
Website | Seditionart | Bandcamp | Vimeo
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Next edition expected September.
Light Move Festival is now in its 10th year in Łódź, Poland. It started back in 2010 with the idea of changing the way the city of Łódź is viewed, but painting its buildings with colourful light. Now it is a well-developed festival of light putting Poland on the map, which includes installations, projections, spatial light shows, 2D/3D mapping, and conferences.
Light.Move.Festival. combines sound, color, light and movement. In 9th edition in 2019 it developed into an international, anticipated event with a recognizable brand promoting Łódź as an innovative, multicultural, friendly and open city. Its ever-growing popularity contributes to the formation of a positive image of the city and gives reason to visit Łódź in late autumn, outside the tourist season. In 2019 alone, the festival gathered 850,000 guests, and all its previous editions – over 4 million!
On Instagram, #lightmovefestival, has an impressive rate of publication, where you can really see the success of the festival and its colourful installations and 3D mapping of buildings.
For more information:
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STRP 2020 WILL CONTINUE ONLINE!
A dialogue about the role of human beings in relation to all forms of life on earth and beyond is more relevant than ever because of what is happening in the world right now due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The festival will continue online while also working on rescheduling the rest of the STRP Festival 2020 program later this year.
Join the dialogue! With STRP Scenario #6 a possible future will be explored where humans are not superior to plants, animals, rivers, microbes and other intelligence. The live stream on 2 April starts at 20.00h.
Live radio: STRP x JaJaJaNeeNeeNee
In collaboration with JaJaJaNeeNeeNee, STRP is organizing an intense listening night with music and performances.
From 2 to 5 April we STRP will publish two essays every day, written by eight writers and philosophers who reflect on new scenarios for the Post-Anthropocene in relation to our current corona crisis.
The writers of the STRP Corona Essays are: philosopher and writer of Dark Ecology Timothy Morton, designer Pupul Bisht, philosopher Pius Mosima, curator of the Van Abbemuseum Yolande Zola Zoli van der Heide & ‘climate justice creative’ and media consultant Suzanne Dhaliwal, archaeologist and ‘Dr. Space Junk’ Alice Gorman, Marshmallow Laser Feast designer Ersin Han Ersin and writers of Radical Botany Antonia Szabrezi & Natania Meeker.
STRP book club: Donna Haraway’s ‘Staying with the Trouble’
The STRP reading group will come together online on April 23rd to discuss Donna Haraway’s ‘Staying with the Trouble, Making Kin in the Chthulucene’. Sign up before April 6 and read along with us.
Assignment for pupils and students
For all young people and students who were planning to visit STRP Festival in Eindhoven next week: STRP has not forgotten you!
The festival will be launching a hands-on assignment next week for secondary education pupils and MBO students. Pupils and students can independently complete these assignments at home. Teachers will be offered the tools to brief the assignment and to reflect on it afterwards. Make sure you are registered for the STRP Education Newsletter if you want to receive these assignments.
STRP Festival
DOMUSDELA
Eindhoven, The Netherlands
info@strp.nl
LINK BOX
Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Vimeo
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Madrid, 16th April – 3rd May, 2020
Madatac is a new media art, video art and audiovisual technology focused festival based in Madrid, Spain. It’s a veteran in the industry, celebrating it’s 10th year this year. The 2020 edition MadatacX will be celebrated 16th April – 3rd May and will include AV performances from the likes of Kenta Nakagawa, Franck Vigroux & Antoine Schmitt and the great Ryoji Ikeda.
Rather than following the common one price for all festival format, events take place over a longer period of time with various viewings and performances spread in nice little doses, great for busy audiences who are only able to attend a little at a time.
With an open philosophy, framed within a universalist, pedagogical and free access commitment, which places special emphasis on the innovation, originality, risk and poetics of audiovisual projects focused on the experimental art of new media, it has the aim to serve as a real, virtual and itinerant laboratory where artists can present their latest creations.
Find out more about the festival here:
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
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One year more, Llum BCN Festival, has left us exhausted because of attending all the installations, but at the same time has left us amazed at the hard work of many artists that could transform their effort into beautiful light artwork pieces in the space.
On February 14th, 15th and 16th, artists transformed Poblenou in Barcelona into an experimentation between light, movement, and virtual reality, challenging the limits of our own perceptions. We found major names in the international scene such as United Visual Artists, Ouchhh, Luke Jerram, Antoni Varola, as well as artists from the national scene such as Monica Rikic, Anna Carreras, Diego Suarez, to mention just few of the twenty three artists participating in Llum BCN Festival 2020.
We will show you just few of all the installations that impacted us. We think it’s a good experience because it allows you to connect with Barcelona in another way, through light, digital technology and moving images being part of the cityscape without being at the service of its exploitation.
The installation “Fiat Lux” by Antoni Arola made us walk around in circles for a long time, in a contrast of a warm and cold environment composed by geometric sculptures made by lasers and smoke. It was like a theatre play, where we were the actors, as he desired.
The installation “Musica Universalis” by United Visual Artists, an imposing choreography of movement, light and sound that is inspired by the mechanics of celestial objects. We could perceive the light and the absence of light at the same time – it was surprising.
“Persopectiva” by SUMMALAB was an installation from “OFF LLum” inspired in the paintings of the artist Josef Albers. Pictorial pieces that play with the chromatic range to create a sense of depth. The students of the master of Audiovisual Innovation and Interactive Environments at BAU University, had the opportunity to help in the process of construction and we could see awesome results.
Another installation that captivated us because of the approach of playing with light and materials to create compositions in the space was “Instantes cromáticos”by Maurici Ginés in OFF Llum BCN.
But these are just few of all the moments we enjoyed getting immersed in the space, perceiving light, sound and movement from different unique perspectives. We look forward to attending again next year.
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Barcelona, March 4-7 2020
MUTEK Barcelona marks 11 clicks around the sun on March 4-7, 2020, with 4 days and nights of live electronic music, audiovisual performances, professional activities and more.
After a decade of explorations and discoveries, the festival is preparing for a new era as a platform for dissemination and innovation in digital creativity with activities that will be developed throughout the year.
Maintaining the global commitment of the MUTEK international network to promote and create synergies with projects focused on diversity, gender equality and empowerment in the creative industry, in 2020, MUTEK.ES puts special emphasis on fostering spaces for artistic and professional formation, through different seminars and artistic residencies that will have their point of exhibition within the frame of the festival in March.
Characterized by its exceptional presentation standards and a curatorial approach that draws equally from international and national talent, always aiming to deliver revelation and discovery to our audiences, MUTEK Barcelona continues to operate in a human-scale, community-minded context.
Mutek ES
Barcelona, Spain
LINK BOX
Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Vimeo
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London, 2 – 4 April 2020
RE-TEXTURED is a multi-venue, multi-sensory festival for London and the UK.
The festival explores the relationship between experimental electronic music, modernist and industrial architecture and light and visual art, and is brought to you by the team behind Krankbrother.
Krankbrother Director Danny Clancy says: “RE-TEXTURED at Tobacco Dock is our most ambitious show to date. It’s one of the few buildings in London that allows us to fulfill our ambitions across light, sound and visual art, it’s unique structures, rooms and history have inspired us to push the edge a little more.”
RE – TEXTURED
London, Various locations
info@re-textured.com
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Bogotà, 13-23 February 2020
Bogotrax 2020 is a matrix. It is the multiple matrix of a mycelium. A constantly expanding network. Its flowers emerge whenever an encounter (between hyphae) happens.
That is the experiment: to interweave a network of partnerships where organizers and public, actors and spectators jointly participate in the production of social space.
Bogotrax Festival has been taking place in Bogotá, Colombia, for 10 years. From 2003 onward, during the month of February. Ten days of parties and workshops; talks, conferences, performances, activities in different locations, street parades, activities in different local prisons, exhibitions, graffiti, “raves”.
All this for free. Collectives and artists from different countries supported the festival with their participation.
The festival was never meant to promote brands nor it was funded by any institutions. The festival rebellious self-managing spirit led it to program the end of its first life cycle. Bogotrax restarted itself with a relevant topic: “Only in case of emergency.”
Bogotrax
Bogotà, Colombia
bogotrax@hotmail.com
LINK BOX
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Murcia, May 28 – 30 2020
In recent years we are witnessing a true technological revolution with a global impact in all areas of society, from the various forms of entertainment to education. The technology, in constant change and transformation, marks a rapid pace that shapes our way of seeing the world, a profound reflection on new ways of apprehending reality becoming necessary.
It is undeniable: the music has a leading role in the AV world. This is not a mute revolution. This becomes obvious if we consider the importance of music on mobile devices and communication technologies.
Within this context and following the trail of success of the previous editions, Congreso Internacional Música y Cultura Audiovisual MUCA VII will be held on 21, 22 and 23 January 2020 at the University of Murcia. Same aim of the event ahead: to encourage the knowledge exchange and dissemination among sound and AV professionals and researchers. To be achieved through analysis, reflection and criticism in music and culture of recent decades.
TOPICS
Music and film / Music and television / Music and advertising / Music and video games / Music and Internet / Prosumers and market / Analysis of music in audiovisual culture / Music and technology / Digitalization, globalization and new ways of marketing / Teaching music in audiovisual culture.
Congreso de Musica y Cultura Audiovisual
University of Murcia, Spain
LINK BOX
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Eufònic is a sound, visual and digital-performing arts festival held in Sant Carles de la Ràpita about an hour South of Barcelona. As an extension of this annual festival, Eufònic Urbà, provides a city-based version of the festival, which sees exhibitions and installations at the Arts Santa Mònica, right in the very heart of Barcelona. Eufònic experiences can be found in, and not limited to; museum spaces, sound actions, activities for the family audience, and concerts in unique spaces.
This year, we will have the pleasure to explore the urban festival for an entire month – leaving us with no excuse for not absorbing some audiovisual culture this winter. From February 1 to 29, 2020, we can expect to enjoy artistic presentations, audiovisual performances and experimental proposals some of which have already been presented at the summer version of the festival on the mediterranean coast, as well as some new exclusive features, as well as presentation of the creative residences.
The festival is organised in two different phases.
The most punctual of the two being 7th–8th February with more one-off performances and timed events, such as AV performances and project presentations, with artists such as NSDOS, Sam Aaron, Balfa, Clara Brea, dvdv, William Luke Valerio, Jordi Salvadó and Tim Cowlishaw & Jakub Fiala.
“where the human presence is diluted in the responsibility of being cause or effect”
The longer duration part of the festival offerings involves Tonalitats afectives (Affective Tones in Catalan), an exhibition on the 2nd floor of Arts Santa Mònica, on Las Ramblas. It can be visited for a month (until February 29) and entrance is completely free. It focuses on the visions of six artists linked to the liquid gesture, the indeterminate process and involuntary creative will as tools of work and processes of reflection. Amongst the huge variety of installations, you will be able to find everything from changes in subject matter, algorithmic creations, and neobiological worlds, creating a discourse about a variety of scientific observations, such as memory of space and context, and objectivity and physicality.
Work includes projects by artists such as Navid Navab and Michael Montanaro, Kathy Hinde, Óscar de la Fuente, Sofia Crespo, Marc Vilanova and Raquel Meyers).
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Quebec, February 5-9 2020
Mois Multi 2020 is an archipelago of artists who express themselves madly, humanly, in a gigantic and dazzling spasm of life.
In a nutshell, the 2020 programs revolves around things that collapse. A subject of undoubted importance in the current times which affects us in the private and political life. The spark for this edition came, among other things, from the APA office, which approached us almost a year ago to talk about collapse. A joyful bonfire was born from this desire.
This is an edition generated by an unstoppable youth that also leaves space to a wise and proud guard. It’s young, casual, punk and contemporary. Festival curator, Emile Beauchemin aims to program a diversity of humans, approaches, subjects and ways to approach this world that we are constantly trying to understand and reconstruct.
Mois Multi is a project created by Recto Verso whose mission is to support and promote the research, creation and dissemination of multidisciplinary and electronic arts.
In every edition, MM programs aim to bridge the gap between artworks and public, offering an unique and accessible experience of the art and the world.
Mois Multi
650, côte d’Abraham
Quebec, Canada
LINK BOX
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We couldn’t miss this retrospective exhibition about the father of Video Art and one of the main references in the history of art for Audiovisual experimentation.
More than 200 artworks ranging from TV screens, to robots, video walls and immersive installations. A must-go event meticulously curated by the Tate to give insight into the work of this game-changing artist and researcher.
The first thing that strikes in Paik’s work is his playfulness. No matter what device he uses, the outcome is always lighthearted and pervaded by a witty sense of humor.
His personal relationship with technology has always featured curiosity and optimism. In TV Garden he creates a surreal immersive environment where TV screens and plants aesthetically coexist harmoniously, although weirdly.
His attitude shows a deep connection with Buddhist philosophy. TV Buddha clearly states this. With Buddha watching the TV and watching himself at the same time, he helps us to realise that our body merges with the nature in the same way it merges with technology. One is all and all is one.
Paik embraces chaos and technology all together in his Zen driven artistic experimentation. In his Robots, wires, pins, knobs, every component is well exposed in his fascinating ironic mess. Paik’s playful approach intends to humanize technology bringing it closer to the people, easier to grasp and easier to intervene.
Paik manipulates analog technology not only for aesthetic purposes but also as a political act. His anarchist artistic experimentation counteracts the consumerism driven by the mass manipulation through the TV.
Audiovisual City top picks of Paik’s expo are undoubtedly the two spectacularly immersive installations: Video Wall and Sistine Chapel.
Video Wall is a mesmerizing live collage of multiple video feeds. It strongly communicates the instability of perception and lack of focus in the mass media world.
Our eyes restlessly bounce within the video space from one feed to the other. Only after thorough observation we realize each image is linked up with its surrounding revealing the artistic and rhythmic pattern of the artwork. Only going through these steps we manage to embrace the multiple inputs as one video totem.
The Sistine Chapel is a stunningly sumptuous Audiovisual feast. It’s a large-scale installation made by 40 video projectors exhibited in plain sight in the centre of the room as if they were musical instruments.
This baroque multi-projection is a pioneering experiment of video mapping. As it’s really hard to focus on the single video feeds, the viewer is lead to appreciate the overall immersive AVscape created by this chaotically symphonic orchestra.
Artistic expression and technological experimentation bound together and filled with Nam June Paik’s refined sense of humor. Art that speaks to everyone that has ears and eyes for it!
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The third act of the triology of Lapsus Festival 2019 welcomed Cuzanne Ciani, a pioneer of sound design and electronic music, pianist and powerful creative mind who opened the way to many other female artists.
Lapsus is the sixth edition and is divided into three special events. After ACT 1 in which the sounds of the Eastern Europe were explored through the collaboration with Unsound Festival in Poland; ACT 2, with multidimensional sounds of Moritz Von Oswald and Pina; and ACT 3, by the title of A Sonic Womb, a journey through the powerful beginnings of female electronic music.
In ACT 3, A Sonic Womb took place in CCCB with the performances of Suzanne Ciani and Eva Geist. Also Philip Sherburne talked with Suzanne Ciani about her life experience in the field and there was a projection “Circle of Light” by Anthony Roland with the soundtrack of Delia Derbyshire and Elsa Stansfield. This edition explored the beginnings of women in electronic music thanks to the immersive sound environment designed by Intorno Labs. In the night, more artists performed at LAUT.
EVA GEIST (Live)
Geist is a Vocalist, Songwriter, Composer, Synthesist and Sound Designer. She invited us through a cinematographic musical journey with peculiar melodies, warm rhythms and atmospheres with space disco – since 2016, Andrea Noce has been buliding recognised and respected work in the electronic music scene, publishing her work on record labels such as Macadam Mambo, Hivern Discs and Elestial Sound.
SUZANNE CIANI (Live)
After 40 years of professional trajectory, she has been nominated five times in Grammy awards, and her work has been important to understand the beginnings of the synth music. In her show at Lapsus she brought an exclusive performance with the modular synthesizer Buchla 200e.
Circle of Light (Projection)
This project is a film in colour of 32 minutes directed by Anthony Roland and developed through the photographic material of Pamela Bone. The soundtrack was signed by Delia Derbyshire and Elsa Stansfield. The composers had ideas that were innovative in their times.
Infinite Waves (Conversation between Suzanne Ciani and Philip Sherburne)
The well-known Philip Sherburne (Pitchfork, The Guardian) interviewed the American producer Suzanne Ciani at CCCB. Both talked about the professional career of Ciani, and of the female on the electronic scene in the 70s until the present day.
After attending ACT 3 of Lapsus Festival, with Audiovisual City, we felt kind of inspired and proud of Suzzane Ciani, a strong and brave woman who fought to work for what she loves doing despite the cultural circumstances of the moment. We also felt proud of Eva Geist, who made us dance and enjoy her incredibly special rhythms. In general, the work of the artists in this edition was impressive.
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After seeing Shoeg’s project Infiltrate at LEV Matadero, we decided to catch up with him in Barcelona to find out more about his work, and to try and decipher the fascinating performance we saw that intrigued us to discover what technologies he uses to create his live AV shows.
Primarily I understand, you would consider yourself to be a musician, am I right? Or how would you label yourself? When did you decide to experiment with the A/V side of your show?
In the last years I’ve changed that way of seeing myself, so I would say I’m an artist. It’s not only sound anymore, I feel really that I am trying to express myself also through my code, my visual stuff, even my movements. I’m also collaborating with dance companies, where it is quite important to know how you move on stage, and this made me aware of that. So, for example I try to play without the table and computer blocking the visual line to the audience. I have also changed my relationship with sound, focusing more on textured layers instead of pitch.
I started as a “musician”, but my visual side has been always there. I’ve been working for 15 years as a video editor, and I always had this fascination about image and sound synchronicity and feedback.
Have you created the visual part of the show yourself or collaborated with a visual artist? (If so, who and why?) If not, tell us about how you developed the project and any challenges you faced in dealing with both elements of the performance.
I almost always create my own stuff. I’m not closed to collaborating with other people, but I tried to involve other artists in the past and for a reason it almost never happened, except for when I worked at the very beginning on the project with Ana Drucker, but after that I spent 2-3 years without a visual show, and I was really missing it. At some point, I wanted it back and I decided I had to refresh my coding knowledge to achieve what I wanted. I studied Computer Science for a couple of years, so at least I had a starting point – more or less.
I wanted to build a real time reactive visual system, that could be completely autonomous in a live set. The idea was to set up a bunch of rules, and do something sound reactive that could last 45 minutes in a live set without getting boring. So first challenge in this process was choosing which tools suited my needs the better. I tried, for example, Open Frameworks, which was a bit too complicated for my coding skills. Later, I knew about game engines like Unreal or Unity, which are free and you can do a lot of things scripting, easier to code. It’s also great to have this good amount of documentation and works done by other people online. I’m curious now about what Touch Designer can do, but for the moment Unity allows me to have a precise control of what I need.
On the other hand, I wanted to work with objects from the real world in 3D aesthetics. I could model them with Blender, but I have no idea. So I learned some 3D techniques, like photogrammetry or 3D scanning. I remember wanting something more “perfect”, but discovered almost by accident the beautiful imperfections this techniques introduce in the models.
We recently saw your performance of your latest project ‘Infiltrate’ at LEV Matadero. What tools and set up are you using for the show?
All the sound was generated using a couple of Etee sensors that the guys at Tangi0 lent me for a couple of months. These devices capture my hand and finger motion, as well as pressure data, and that is converted into MIDI signal through a Max MSP patch. Finally, MIDI is sent to the Virus and Digitakt. I had to bring hardware synths to the live sets, because I need a lot of polyphony to build these big layers of sound, and I couldn’t achieve it in virtual synths. Then, the visual stuff is a Unity app reacts to the sound mix.
How does the use of this technology improve, or add to the quality and experience of your show for you, as an artist?
It allows to express myself in ways I could’ve never imagined. I’ve never performed as comfortable and with wide palette of possibilities with an instrument until I discovered motion sensors combined with the computer. The ability to map any behaviour to any response allows you to optimize your abilities in order to get what you want. This can’t ever happen with “traditional” instruments, you have to adapt to the instrument rigidness and background. I also see the coding process as a prosthesis, an extension able to repeat mechanical operations while you pierce through them.
What does the future hold for Shoeg in the world of live performance?
In the near future, I have to improve a lot of things: I want to make my hands more prominent on stage and be less computer dependent. People keep asking what is happening with the sensors, and I want to make it a bit more understandable. I also have this long list of ideas to code which don’t have time to make, and I would also like to collaborate with other people. But before that, I want to record a new album. I hope I’ll be able to work on it in the next months.
You can find out more about Shoeg’s work through his artist page.
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The past week, 5th – 9th November, MIRA FESTIVAL celebrated its 9th Edition and Audiovisual City were present to enjoy the program that featured audiovisual shows, 360-degree experiences in DOME format, installations, workshops and conferences.
This edition rethought the combination of art and technology as tools of protest, to turn thinking into action, and invited us to interfere in a personal transformation to trigger a change in the future. In addition to this ingenious theme, the festival opened a new stage at Fabra i Coats, dedicated to multidimensional sound: the 3D Sound Room by Estrella Galicia.
For the live AV shows, we want to highlight some well-known artists that MIRA festival brought this year. Thursday Sam Shepert (AKA Floating Points) played accompanied by the visuals of Hammill Industries. Friday’s Av highlight was CLARK feat. Evelyn Bencicova and her show of a wide gamma of textures along with his characteristic techno. Alessandro Cortini also produced some emotional content through electronic sounds, with his warm and human visuals. On Saturday Biosphere performed a series of recordings and improvisations captured outdoors on the island of Senja, and Vessel and Pedro Maia presented the dualities of the human condition. But these are just some of the many artists who participated in this edition.
Some of the artists that surprised us at Audiovisual City were, on Friday, the Nihiloxica band, with their intercultural experiment, fusing the indigenous Bugandina percussion with dark European club music. Also, on Saturday, the duet of 700 Bliss, with who you clearly see a relationship with the theme of the festival, sounds and words are embodied in suffering and social alignment in an unfair world. And finally, Curl, on Saturday, where we could see an unexpected turn in the style of the band, showing a previous experimental work. The originality and strength of these artists left us astonished.
We show you some of the magical moments that we captured at the festival.
MIRA Festival
Barcelona, Spain
info@mirafestival.com
LINK BOX
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Carlos Martorell is a sound and visual artist based in a small Catalan town called Torelló, near Girona. His work focuses on the symbiotic relationship between humans and technology. He uses his programming skills and knowledge of new technologies to explore the visual and audio through the creation of experimental music and live AV.
He creates sumptious virtual worlds through programming language such as Unity, as well as with 3D scans. It’s not uncommon to see him performing with non-traditional MIDI equipment, using apparatus such as gloves and hand-held technology, which as an adds a peculiar physical dimension to his live shows.
SHOEG: Website
LINK BOX: Soundcloud / Bandcamp / Instagram / Youtube / Resonate
Header photo © Hayley Cantor
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Nina Verhagen a twenty-one-year-old translating student. I’m a writer and a film enthusiast.
Fascinated by music, video, photo, and film- I dive into everything regarding audiovisual that interests me or sparks my interest. Same thing.
Social media is amazing, it is a way to connect and speak to people all over the world. One image can go through so many countries. It’s fascinating!
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Earlier this month, we met with Marta Verde to find out about her performance with Tensal at LEV Matadero, and to pick her brains about all those niggling little questions we had after following her career for the last few years.
Who are the artists that you are most looking forward to seeing at LEV Matadero?
Myriam Bleau and Ryoichi Kurokawa.
How were you contacted about the project at LEV Festival?
They called me and proposed that I collaborate with Tensal for their edition at Matadero in Madrid. I had never worked with him before.
Do you ever find that some genres of music just don’t inspire your work?
Absolutely. In general I don’t work on the clubbing, or nightlife scene, so related styles of music wouldn’t be my first choice of project. I actually started doing visuals with traditional Galician music.
Do friends often come to see your performances?
Yes, it depends on the performance. These days they tend to film me in vertical, so I rarely have content that I can use other than for Instagram [she laughs]
How do you feel about being on stage as a visual artist?
I don’t really like that part at all, but of course it’s part of the job. I’m quit shy, really. My show at LEV Matadero is quite different from what I usually do – in terms of music genre, as well as the time of the performance – pretty late, since I’m on at 1am.
What is the most unusual project are you’ve worked on in your career so far?
A few years ago I worked on a project with a musician called Julián Elvira who built a flute that played different frequencies (I had no idea that this wasn’t already the case with flutes!) It was really interesting, because I learnt a lot about music and we were able to work very closely together for the collaboration. We premiered the show in Martin E. Segal Theatre, New York.
What are you working on at the moment?
Right now, I’m working on a live performance with Madrid-based composer, José Venditti. He plays saxophone, and works on deconstructing sound through classical patterns.
What set-up will you be using for your performance tonight?
A couple of months ago I bought an analogue video synthesizer from LZX Industries. It’s really fun. There’s no preview, so anything can happen, and I also can’t save any presets. I also won’t be using any code for this show, which is very unusual for me. I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of analogue video techniques, and don’t really understand why people go to great lengths to copy the aesthetic digitally, when they could just try to get a real one.
Do you use social media a lot to promote your work?
You can follow me if you like, my instagram account is mainly dominated by photos of my cat and screenshots of my work. I don’t really get work through social media channels, people tend to contact me directly. The work is really interesting and every project is completely different. Usually I’m presented with some kind of problem and I find ways to solve it.
Apart from doing visual performances, you are currently working at a Fab Lab, right?
It’s very common for freelancers to supplement their work through teaching, which I love. I find it really motivational and inspiring to work with young people and their ideas. I used to work as a coordinator in a Fab Lab, and I still give classes on programming and digital manufacturing there, but not on a regular basis anymore. I tend to work in different locations and on a more ad-hoc basis, that way I can combine teaching with my own projects.
If you want to read more about Marta’s work, you can check her artist profile page here.
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Marta is a Creative Coder and Digital Artists from Galicia, based in Madrid.
Originally, she studied Fine Arts, and now she is specialised in new media arts and digital technologies applied to the performance arts. She also teaches at the Fab Academy, as an expert in digital fabrication.
Marta develops visuals, interactive and generative graphics, as well as dynamic/interactive content for lighting design, custom electronic devices and wearables, interactive installations for musicians, dance and theatre companies, artists, designers and arts institutions.
Her work is constructed through the use of custom built software and hardware specific to each visual set, allowing her to manipulate all the content in real time and to explore the limits of visual noise, repetition and the link between the organic and the electronic.
She works primarily in Spain and Portugal on a wide variety of projects, from theatre to festivals. Marta has also performed at festivals such as Primavera Sound, LEV Matadero, Sonic Arts Festival, MIRA and WOS Festival.
She also has taught about technology and interactivity at: IED Madrid, Ephemereal Architecture Masters Degree at ETSAM Madrid, Medialab-Prado, La Casa Encendida ,Fundación Telefónica, BAU, UOC, and has mentored Hackatons at Makers of Barcelona with Ciclo.io.
https://martaverde.net/
www.instagram.com/martaverdebaqueiro
https://twitter.com/greenmartinha
https://www.facebook.com/martaverdebaqueiro
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This week, we caught up with Huma about his most recent project ‘Eva,’ to find out a little more about how his musical project developed into a live AV show. Huma is Andrés Satué’s personal project, an evolution from his early musical days in a rock band to his more recent progression into the world of electronic music. He’ll be performing ‘Eva’ at Mira Festival, Fabra i Coats, Barcelona, Thursday 7th November
Tell us a bit about the visual side of your show. What can the audience expect in terms of live A/V performance?
The idea is to treat light from a 3D environment by making the light beams coincide, forming geometric figures in motion in the air.
Have your created the visual part of the show yourself or collaborated with a visual artist? (If so, who and why?) If not, tell us about how you developed the project and any challenges you faced in dealing with both elements of the performance.
I’m working with Jose Vaaliña from Eyesberg studio. It was a very natural collaboration, we met after finishing two gigs I did in Barcelona and we talked about the possibility of working together as we have very similar ideas about the relation between music and visuals, now it’s happening and I can say we are both really happy with the results.
What tools and set up are you using for the show?
We are using 5 powerful projectors, various smoke machines (fog and hazer) and also some visuals. The beams of light will react to sound to create a symbiosis between both. Also we will use some lights and strobes for punctual moments.
How do you feel about the importance of the visual experience in your projects past and present?
It is something I have always thought about as a very important element. Even when I played in rock bands lots of years ago we always carried a few lights to add impact to the final part of the show.
Since I’m working as Huma, I collaborated with Drömnu using visuals at the very beginning, then moved to colorful L.E.D.s, smoke and strobes working with Juan Pablo Larrazabal and now I wanted to try new things and Jose appeared. I like the idea of doing something immersive, not something that you have to look at the detail or that can distract the public but something that will enhance the music.
You’ve been making music for more than 10 years now. What is the project that you are most proud of, or have the most attachment to so far?
Well, I’m always more attached to the last thing I’ve ever done. Even though I really think that ‘Eva’ and this show is the project in which I have worked the most on and the project I’m the proudest of to date.
Got any questions for Andrés, Eyesberg, or just want to share anything with us? Jot down your thoughts below
https://hedonicreversal.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/hedonicreversal/
https://hedonicreversal.bigcartel.com/
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Berlin, January 24 – February 2 2020
CTM’s 21st edition launches with an announcement of new performances, special projects, and commissioned works.
Combining unique productions, concerts, and club nights with a dense daytime programme of talks, discussions, installations, and an exhibition, CTM 2020 proposes multiple entry points into thinking about this year’s Liminal theme.
Liminal phenomena and states are transitional phases in which a familiar order sees its values and symbols destabilised; norms are suspended or turned on their heads. We find ourselves in ambiguous spaces, somewhere between a past that is no longer valid and an ever-becoming future.
TM 2020 will again play out across some of Berlin’s most standout cultural and nightlife venues. For the first time, the festival hosts special projects at Radialsystem V and an immersive listening series at Silent Green’s Betonhalle, while continuing its close relationship with HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Berghain, Kunstquartier Bethanien, Festsaal Kreuzberg, and SchwuZ. A limited number of Early-bird Festival Passes are available now.
As always, CTM takes place parallel to and in collaboration with transmediale festival. The jointly organised Vorspiel 2020 Open Call is out now. Vorspiel will again bring together a wide range of Berlin-based artists, initiatives, and venues, hosting a city-wide programme of cultural events.
CTM Festival
Berlin, Germany
contact@ctm-festival.de
LINK BOX
Facebook / Twitter / Youtube / Vimeo
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THE HAGUE, September 19-22 2019
From a festival organization to an international platform for trans-disciplinary creativity: ever since the launch of its first edition in 2005, TodaysArt has been bringing artists, thinkers, and audiences together in an ever-changing, yet inspiring setting.
Inspired by relevant political and artistic topics, TodaysArt aspires to promote and foster innovation and creativity as well as public interest for current developments within arts, culture, and society.
The network specializes in the presentation and development of emerging digital culture and contemporary visual and performing arts. By doing so, TodaysArt connects local and international talent to established creators and pioneers to collectively explore new possibilities and forms of expression.
The festival is known for its surprising settings: every year, the festival travels through the city of The Hague before temporarily finding its niche in a wide array of unconventional public spaces and venues.
Over the past thirteen years, TodaysArt has built up an impressive international profile by presenting and producing works that are developed in collaboration with some of today’s leading creators. TodaysArt’s key activity is the annual TodaysArt festival in The Hague. Besides this, the network organizes and participates in a variety of international events, exhibitions, and acts as a co-producer for the development and distribution of artists and projects in The Netherlands as well as abroad. (See the program here)
TodaysArt
The Hague, Netherlands
LINK BOX
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WE ARE CREATIVE CONTENT DESIGNERS AND VISUAL STORYTELLERS
Formed in 2012, The Colour Project is a UK based Motion Graphics and 3d Design studio specialising in video projection mapping.
We design shows and visual content for, events, launches and epic architectural mapping shows. We produce original graphics, animations and bespoke video content to tell compelling stories and amaze audiences.
We’ve created shows internationally and at home, from galleries to World Heritage sites. Our audiences range from hundreds to tens of thousands and we work with brands and cultural organisations to create spectacular live events and installations in public spaces.
THE COLOUR PROJECT
info@colour-project.com
LINK BOX
Instagram / Twitter / Facebook / Vimeo
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Collanews 