People Are Afraid To Merge..

Success

Nope this isn’t a post about some amazing achievement or that I have somehow have a bank account in the black.  Its more of a reflection on what success is for me, and specifically in my art practice.  Whilst teaching here in Saas Fee (means to fund my art practice) I get asked a lot by my guests whether my artwork/practice is successful.  The two means for validation lie mainly on me telling them whether I sell my work regularly or am I famous.  I guess in this day and age you know one unless you are on some list of success even if you are Z list Celeb…

I am honest with my guests, I am not known however like most emerging artists we are labeled so for that very reason.  As for selling, it has not been a focus within my practice to make specifically objects.  Commodifying an art practice is something we all contemplate throughout our years.  However at present I rely on my snowboard coaching as a source of income whilst I develop my voice and direction in my practice.

Success for me is nothing to do with money or notoriety and its something I feel is harder to gain.  It is purely one thing for me and the works I make which is conversation or discussion (discourse if you want art-speak 2.0).  This very basic element within the art world and beyond is not that easy to gain.  Yes in the era of social media it is easy to put work out there for more to see but to hear back is not so simple.  There is very little echo from the majority of not just my work but my peers.  The little that does come back is more of support from fellow creatives who spur you on.  However for me I seek success in the form of something more in the conversation that good art creates.  Don’t get me wrong this is not purely about adulation or people describing works as life changing its the chat surrounding how it engages and interacts on different levels and people.  This discussion is not always sought from those that like or get the work but rather negative and constructive response is just as valid.  I come from a belief that good work is so when you have a response to it this can be in the form or negative: repulsion, hate or anger.  Whilst also the positive: resonates, refreshes perspective or challenges existence.  Work that sits in the middle is what just fades.

Following on from my previous post about being adrift, the reason to currently make work whilst not be located within a place or group.  I see this isolation as a hard time to know where to exhibit or present work when I barely exist.  For me the motivation of making work when I deep down know that the rational for the work being successful is this conversation adds to stalling of making.  The works are still there in my head and whilst I navigate the next few years I will create. However finding a means to connect with networks or environments where I can gage the validity of the work is part of the process and for me right now is the biggest challenge.

Auxiliary Progress…

Since arriving here in Stockton my time has been spent exploring not just the local landscape but also my current limits of my practice. I came here looking to examine how I install current workings of sonic works and how I can develop or bridge the gap that I find between what I am making and what I am trying to offer.

The first few weeks were spent contemplating speaker architecture and how installing speaker drivers within a form that dissolved or collapsed whilst it functioned worked.  Drawing on the inspiration of the local area and its regeneration hopes/plans.  I have been thinking heavily about addition and reduction as methods of creation both in sound and process works.  Glitch process that I have been known to use is a perfect example of how regeneration seems to operate, existing ideology is rehashed the result is urban planning that though clearly considered it is not until it is implemented you realise the functional errors of such planning.

The focus on heritage and community, the life and death of generations that have called a place home.  The time that passes by and the marks those leave on a place last longer than structures in many cases.  Replacing old is not something that should be done without consideration and awareness for those that live within it.  The Auxiliary residency is based within a community that is exposed to many different social factors.  It is an opportunity to live within a place that is struggling to come to terms with how it should function.  The oddity is that with all the trials and time that it takes to rejuvenate a place it somehow still continues, functions without much thought.  Time will change the nature of a community however daily this is not something that is really brought to your attention as each day was like the last.

Mid way through this residency my father has a stroke which alongside my research here at the Auxiliary has given me a new perspective.  Seeing a parent go through a life changing moment in their existence brings reality home.  I have recently been back and forth between the residency and my parents to see how my father has progressed with his recovery.  Even though I have not been making as much as I would of hoped it has provided much needed reflection, thinking more about the sound works that have been started yet not finished.  The last few weeks here in Stockton I hope to realise some new works with little or no focus on completion yet more or presenting something that is mobile/fluid and evolving.  

 

 

DIP YOUR TOE – Govanhill Baths, Glasgow

DIP YOUR TOE

Govanhill Baths Community Trust

99 Calder Street, G42 7RA Glasgow, United Kingdom

Preview: Thursday 16th June 6:00 – 9:00pm
Open: 17th – 25th June (Thurs – Sat each week)
Weekdays: 12:00noon – 6:00pm
Saturday: 10:00 – 1:00pm

This exhibition, which is part of Print Festival Scotland, showcases 5 artists who share a contemporary and diverse approach to printmaking. For this show the artists have taken over the Slipper Baths within The Govanhill Baths, adorning each cubicle with a selection of work that reacts to the space through an array of styles, techniques and materials.

Nicola Massie (b. Aberdeen) currently lives and works in Glasgow specialising in printmaking and sculpture. Since graduating from Painting and Printmaking at The Glasgow School of Art, she has received the Glasgow Print Studio Prize, RGI New Graduate Award and was nominated for the Saatchi New Sensations Prize.

Andreas Behn-Eschenburg (b. Zürich) graduated from Painting and Printmaking at the Glasgow School of Art (2014), and continues to live and work in Glasgow. Andreas investigates the artist’s agency and deconstructs the traditions of painting into elements that are then reassembled in other media as installations within a space.

Fionnuala McGowan (b. Belfast) is another Glasgow based artist, who explores the boundaries of printmaking through creating sculptural prints. She was a recipient of the Glasgow Print Studio prize (2014), was featured in the summer 2015 edition of Printmaking Today and completed a residency in Frans Masereel Centrum, (Belgium, 2014).

Dickie Webb (b. Oxford) migrates between North and Southern Hemispheres, operating from a nomadic studio and artist residencies – SNEHTA, ACSL, Edinburgh Sculpture Workshops and Chisenhale Art Place. Recent exhibitions include Early Warning – & Model, PNEM, Netherlands, Things Are Different Now – Art Athina and Beyond Tinted – MAMY, Armenia.

David Farrar (b. Oxford) is a Glasgow based artist whose work focuses on the relationship between form and function. He has exhibited internationally, most recently in The National Original Print Exhibition (London) and has attended residencies at Frans Masereel Centrum (Belgium), The Artist House in St. Mary’s College (USA) and VCCA (USA).

 

Signs that Say What You Want Them to Say – Curated By Robert Montgomery

My work “Concept Of Since – 24 Options”, is currently part of an exhibition curated by Robert Montgomery.  The exhibition is at the Lights of Soho gallery in London.

London’s home of creative neon and light art formats is opening its doors for its inaugural open submission show entitled “Signs that Say What You Want Them to Say…” Lights of Soho will be accepting submissions from new and established light artists for a show that will be guest curated by artist Robert Montgomery.

Taking inspiration from the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, Lights of Soho is inviting young artists who use light as a medium in their work to exhibit alongside established names in light art. Lights of Soho curator Hamish Jenkinson states, “Lights of Soho is more than an art gallery – it is a window of opportunity for young artists to get involved in the art scene. With this show, I’m hoping that we can reach artists who are well into their craft or just discovering it. I’d like to show young artists that art is a democratic experience and that they too can be featured in a London gallery.”

Having started his career off by vandalising billboards and bus stops with his poetry, Robert Montgomery directly communicates with his audience through text and light. Inspired by Roland Barthes and Guy Debord, Montgomery has paved the way for young artists to write their own story. Creating large LED light pieces with his poetry, Montgomery has seen his works showcased around the world including the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in India and a current project which hijacks an entire city block in Seattle.

Montgomery says, “When Bruce Nauman made his seminal artwork in neon “The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths” in 1967 it represented the beginning of a kind of democracy. Artists, for the first time could now hijack a medium previously only the domain of commercial and corporate voices, and begin to say much more interesting things. When I was a teenager I was obsessed with the pure form of commercial signs. I would fill rolls of film on the family holiday camera photographing the neon signs on abandoned petrol stations in France, and endure the blank looks of my father as he returned from Boots later with far fewer smiling family portraits than he expected, “why would you take so many pictures with no one in them son?…. Jeez, what a waste of money.” I knew that as soon as I had any money of my own I would make my own signs saying the most whimsical things possible. Perhaps even something as whimsical and useless as poetry.

In 1992 Gillian Wearing made the important piece, “Signs that Say What You Want Them To Say and Not Signs that Say What Someone Else Wants You To Say”. This was a lovely and delicate artwork about democracy, and the idea of an open exhibition of light art takes its inspiration from Wearing as much as from Nauman. In an ideal world we would give the billboards back to the people and everyone could write their dreams in neon. “

We Must Risk Delight: Twenty Artists from Los Angeles

I seem forever drawn to artwork and artists that are based in Los Angeles.  Ever since I was studying art in my final school years I was intrigued to those artists and students working in Los Angeles.  17 years on and I am still thirsty for works created in this city more so that other parts of the world that I have seen or experienced.  Its odd how different places influence works and inform a certain aesthetic or movement in a globalised world.  Check out this article posted on KCET.org  written by Anuradha Vikram about the current exhibition of LA based artists at this years Venice Biennale.

City Among Nations: Los Angeles at the Venice Biennale

Anuradha Vikram

At the far end of a narrow walkway in the Dorsoduro district, alongside one of Venice’s famed canals, there is a series of magazzini small warehouses that face out over the lagoon. Inside the third of these, the intrepid will discover a return to the artistic heyday of the city-state known as “The Most Serene Republic of Venice.” An autonomous democracy governed this region for nearly 1000 years until the establishment of modern Italy at the turn of the 19th century. A haven for arts patronage, the Venetian city-state was a major force in the Italian Renaissance, producing the likes of Tintoretto, Titian, and Veronese. However, the artists in “We Must Risk Delight: Twenty Artists from Los Angeles,” curated by Elizabeta Betinski as an official collateral exhibition of the The 56th Venice Biennale, are not Italians. They are representatives of the contemporary city-state, Los Angeles, a place where the Biennale’s theme, “All the World’s Futures,” can be experienced on a daily basis.

The Propeller Group, The AK-47 vs M16, 2015. AK-47 and M16 bullets fused and encased in ballistic gel, on metal support and LWS platform, 128 x 43 x 17 cm; single-channel HD video, color, no sound, c. 12′. 56th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, All the World’s Futures. | Photo: Alessandra Chemollo. | Courtesy la Biennale di Venezia.

What’s notable about “We Must Risk Delight” is precisely that none of the artists included are international luminaries, of which Los Angeles undoubtedly has its share. Rather, the exhibition presents the city’s immeasurably talented working-artists, ranging in age from 30-70 and representing a broad range of ethnicities, as well as a slight majority of female artists. “Our participation in art conversations on an international level can not be reserved only for superstar names: not if our interests as a community are to keep growing and keep relevant,” curator Elizabeta Betinski explains. “Too few of us get the kind of opportunity we just experienced at the Venice Biennale and I truly hope to see that change for Los Angeles artists within my lifetime. ‘We Must Risk Delight’ was created in an effort to affect that change.” The exhibition has been a labor of love for the curator and the artists, who continue to seek financial support for their endeavor. “Democratization is, to me, an issue that needs to be addressed,” says Betinski. “We can either complain about — and thus contend with — the ‘art market’ and its inherent elitism, or we can give effort to expanding the playing field and creating opportunities for more than just a select few.” She continues, “L.A. has one of the most vibrant and exciting contemporary art scenes in the world — yet, our perspective on being a part of a larger world is still very myopic and out-of-sync with the amount of creative talent and diversity L.A. has to offer.” Such diversity, while not the cause of the show’s success, is important because it reflects the progressive values of a city that is increasingly hailed as a crucible for working artists, as well as being notable for its multicultural and gender-balanced community and presence of multiple generations of artists all supporting one another.

Walead Beshty, 56th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, All the World’s Futures. | Photo: Alessandra Chemollo. | Courtesy la Biennale di Venezia.

Thematically, the exhibition’s focus is transcendence of real-world limitations, and the art on view speaks to the possibilities of fantasy and imagination to lift us above our daily challenges. That utopian spirit is also typical of Los Angeles, a city that is in many ways an impossibility, wrested from the desert that perpetually threatens to reclaim it. The artworks on view take a variety of forms, from Tanya Batura’s surreal ceramics suggesting organic growths made of eyes, to Robbie Conal‘s nostalgic portraits of 1960s pop icons Bob Marley, John Lennon, and Jimi Hendrix. Kenturah Davis’ contribution, four large-scale drawings depicting African-American subjects whose images are comprised of written text describing their aspirations, speaks to both the challenges and the ambitions of L.A.’s creative class.

“We Must Risk Delight: Twenty Artists from Los Angeles.” Collateral Event of the 56th la Biennale di Venezia, Biennale Arte 2015. Curated by Elizabeta Betinski. Presented by bardoLA in collaboration with Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia. Panorama view of installation with works by (L-R) Ben Jackel, Frank Ryan, Tony de los Reyes, Jamison Carter, Amir H. Fallah, Sherin Gurguis, Alexis Zoto, Carolyn Castaño.

Painting is everywhere, most of it boldly colorful. Amir H. Fallah exhibits two paintings from a recent series in which he reconstructed the lives of a married couple based on diaries and objects procured from an estate sale in East Los Angeles. Alexandra Grant and Sherin Gurguis, two artists currently featured in the COLA award exhibition at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, are represented with exuberant works on paper that dazzle against the brick walls of the magazzini space. Grant shows two works from her “Century of the Self”series, proclaiming “I was born to love not to hate,” and Gurguis contributes intricately patterned cut-paper works that riff on traditional Islamic screen work. Gurguis also contributes a large, ornamental cut-out sculpture alongside sculptural works by Ben Jackel, Margaret Griffith, Rebecca Niederlander, and Jamison Carter. Carole Silverstein, Mark Licari, and Shizu Saldamando also dazzle with color, though on a smaller scale. These three artists each embody a distinct Los Angeles vernacular in their very different bodies of work: Silverstein working with pattern and landscape, Saldamando in figuration to describe local archetypes, and Licari bringing the psychedelic perspective.

“We Must Risk Delight: Twenty Artists from Los Angeles.” Collateral Event of the 56th la Biennale di Venezia, Biennale Arte 2015. Curated by Elizabeta Betinski. Presented by bardoLA in collaboration with Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia. Works by Kenturah Davis, Carole Silverstein, Margaret Griffith, and Shizu Saldamando.

Despite L.A.’s international stature as a film capital, the moving image is less prominent in the show, although animations by Stas Orlovski and Carolyn Castaño, and Natasha Prosenc Stearns’ sculpture and video installation, ensure it is not left out of the discussion. Photography is also less visible, though well-represented by Brandy Eve Allen’s intimate portraits. Alexis Zoto is the only artist to respond directly to Venice as a site, creating an installation in dazzling gold around a large chandelier that evokes the ersatz Baroque aesthetic of Venice’s many palazzos, while incorporating pre-Columbian geometries that speak to the contemporary hybridization of culture across place.

Charles Gaines, “Notes on Social Justice: Dey’s All Put on De Blue,” (1880), 2013. Each 86.4 x 71.3 cm. Detail. | Courtesy of the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery.

Reflecting that hybrid reality and the broadest possible scope of geographies, the 2015 Biennale encompasses pavilions from 87 countries as well as 42 collateral exhibitions. Still, no other city occupies a footprint comparable to L.A.’s this time around. In addition to “We Must Risk Delight,” L.A. artists figure prominently in Okwui Enwezor’s main exhibition. The Giardini’s Central Pavilion features legendary Angeleno artist and CalArts faculty mainstay, Charles Gaines, with an installation of his recent “Notes on Social Justice” and plexiglas ‘Librettos’ works (the latter also on view at Leimert Park’s Art + Practice until May 30). The Biennale’s live program – one of three key thematic areas or “filters” – also features monthly live performances of Gaines’ master composition based on five “Notes on Social Justice” texts. The first of these featured a male and female vocalist in duet, accompanied by a string quartet. Future performances over the course of the exhibition will layer and multiply texts and compositions from the five source texts. Both the installation and the live performance use canonical documents from the history of social justice movements as their basis, building on a body of work that has incorporated the words of Susan B. Anthony, Stokely Carmichael, and Malcolm X. By appropriating these texts whole and treating them with visual and auditory lyricism, Gaines defuses the oft-leveled criticism of political art as aggressive or alienating, instead drawing viewers in with beauty and warmth while allowing the eloquence and commitment of the original speakers to come through with clarity.

Charles Gaines, “Notes on Social Justice: Dey’s All Put on De Blue,” (1880), 2013. Each 86.4 x 71.3 cm. Detail. | Courtesy of the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery.

Adjacent to the Gaines installation is a gallery of recent works by L.A.-based Walead Beshty, whose works include a number of “Aggregate” sculptures (2013) constructed from production discards from Guadalajara’s Cerámica Suro, a long-established industrial ceramics producer and exporter. The sculptures, covered in thick, drippy paint, are as vulgar and chaotic as Cerámica Suro’s wares are precise. These works, accompanied by collaged sculptures made from cut-up Guadalajara tabloid newspapers draped over metal poles, respond to the official and unofficial economies of globalization by foregrounding the commoditization of human bodies and folk cultural traditions for casual consumption by Mexico’s elites and their wealthier neighbors to the north.

Additionally, CalArts graduates Matt Lucero and Tuan Andrew Nguyen are included at the Arsenale with their collective, The Propeller Group, whom Angelenos may remember from their humorous video installation commenting on global corporate culture at 2012’s Made in L.A. Biennial at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. In Venice, they are represented by a block of ballistic gel containing an AK-47 bullet and an M-16 bullet shot at one another, which upon fusing come to represent a merger of American and Soviet military histories in the aftermath of the Cold War — think Afghanistan or Syria for some real-world examples of how this plays out. The AK-47 vs M16 (2015) also includes a slow-motion animation of the bullets passing through the gel, which creates an abstracted forensic map of contemporary global conflict.

Courtesy la Biennale di Venezia. Walead Beshty, “¡La Voz de Jalisco El Periodico Que Dice Lo Que Otros Callan Más Noticias Más Deportes! (Miércoles, 7 Agosto 2013: Metro, La Prensa Jalisco, Express Guadalajara),” 2013. Daily newspapers, dimensions variable.

Another notable Angeleno at the Biennale is Vanessa Beecroft, an Italian-born artist whose installation “phantom limb stone garden” at the Italian Pavilion made up of figurative sculptures in bronze and shades of stone reminiscent of the range of human skin tones. One of her most ambitious and successful sculptural installations, the work cannot be viewed in its entirety as it is intentionally blockaded by large, rough-sided marble slabs. The fragmented viewpoint of the observer and the truncated female bodies within make reference to Marcel Duchamp’s final work, Étant Donnés (1946-66), a Surrealist-inspired tableau referencing both theater and early cinema, which prefigures Beecroft’s more than twenty years of work responding to the tropes of contemporary high fashion.

Los Angeles’ emergence within the international contemporary art landscape speaks to the city’s position at the forefront of worldwide trends. While the Biennale’s pavilions appear to celebrate nationalism, increasingly one finds within them artists from many countries (Spain and Belgium being notable examples this time). Los Angeles exemplifies a future in which metropolitan areas are in direct dialogue with one another, around the globe, through cultural as well as commercial exchange. Comprised of residents from all parts of the planet, Los Angeles boasts a majority-minority demographic that other European and American cities are destined to share. The city is shaped by its national context, but also shapes it, and acts as a hub for international cultural exchange. L.A. is uniquely positioned to serve as a model for the world’s cities going forward, being already invested in seeking ways to develop more equitable, sustainable, and liveable conditions for its citizens. Given how the city’s contemporary artists reflect and promote those concerns, it’s no surprise that they are so prominently represented at a global exhibition focused on the future.

“We Must Risk Delight: Twenty Artists from Los Angeles.” Collateral Event of the 56th la Biennale di Venezia, Biennale Arte 2015. Curated by Elizabeta Betinski. Presented by bardoLA in collaboration with Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia. Installation view.

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Top Image: Walead Beshty, 56th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, All the World’s Futures. | Photo: Alessandra Chemollo. 

Anuradha Vikram is a curator, critic, educator, and Director of Residency Programs at 18th Street Arts Center.

Max for Live: Granulator

Robert Henke aka Monolake delves into granular synthesis with his Max for Live Granulator.

Rethinking Image Presentation – Thierry Furger

I am never really that satisfied with presenting a photograph, as is, maybe because I do not consider myself a photographer or possibly the medium itself feels detached when solely presented.  Seeing Thierry Furgers’ work exhibited in “It was all a Dream” was simple yet effective in bringing the site and location to the image.  I guess for me the images had a feel rather than just being processed.  The photographs became objects and tactile, for me this causes a sense of urgency to engage more with the works.  Like I say simple method but used to great effect.

Here are some images of “It was all a Dream”. Further work and information is available here: http://www.buffedpaintings.com/ and http://www.thierryfurger.ch

 

 

THE SCHOOL OF SOUND INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM 2015

THE SCHOOL OF SOUND INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM 2015

Programme of the SOS 2015

A unique series of masterclasses exploring the art of sound in film, the arts and media

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Wednesday – Saturday
8-11 April 2015
Purcell Room, Southbank Centre
London

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What is the School of Sound?

The School of Sound is a symposium created to encourage a cross-disciplinary approach to using sound in the arts and media. We explore what sound does, how audiences listen.
It is a place where for 4 days you can raise your awareness of how audio production works, how it conveys information and emotion, how you can work with it.
But how do you think about something so ephemeral? And how do you teach it? Sound always seems to be occupying areas of ambiguity – the emotional, the subtext, the intuitive, the borders between reality and fantasy, the conscious and the subconscious. And by their very nature, academia and professional practice  shy away from ambiguity and cross-fertilisation, staying within their own boundaries. But interesting things happen when you start mixing them up!
For four days, out of your usual routine, you’ll be immersed in a world of imagination, invention and innovation. Listening to presentations from a diversity of incredible talents, you will be able to disconnect from your day-to-day work, taken out of your comfort zone, to reflect on sound as something that is profoundly complex, entertaining and important.

Why attend the School of Sound?
It is not an academic conference it is not about getting a job and it is not about hardware or software. The SOS provides a rare opportunity to hear and meet 20 creatives working at the highest levels of the arts and media speaking in detail about how they think and work.
And the SOS is not about just one area of sound production. It covers film, theatre, dance, games, installation, music and radio that will expand your thinking and increase your ability to work in diverse areas of media and the arts.
At the SOS you will mix with hundreds of like-minded people – professional practitioners, educators, artists and students – with whom you can network, exchange ideas and create collaborations.

The SOS is delighted to announce the first details of the 2015 programme. Speakers include

Choreographer SIOBHAN DAVIES in conversation with composer/performer MATTEO FARGION 
Opera and theatre director PETER SELLARS
Sound artist and Foley specialist NICOLAS BECKER
Artist, filmmaker and writer JOHN AKOMFRAH 
Installation artist IMOGEN STIDWORTHY 
Radio producer PIERS PLOWRIGHT
Performance artist DICKIE BEAU 
Sound/music composer GERHARD ECKEL
Filmmaker and composer NADIM MISHLAWI 
Sound designer RANA EID
Interactive games sound designers MARTIN STIG ANDERSEN, JOANNA ORLAND with composer, audio director and consultant JOHN BROOMHALL
and yoiker ÁNDE SOMBY …
with more participants to be announced in the coming weeks.

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NICOLAS BECKER
The renowned Foley artist (Gravity, Wuthering Heights) who has now turned to more abstract, space-based sound work, describes his techniques and methods.

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SIOBHAN DAVIES and MATTEO FARGION
Hearing Movement
The relationship between sound, movement and performance is the focus of this conversation between Davies, one of Europe’s leading choreographers, and collaborator Fargion, a composer and performer whose works have been performed around the world. Looking and listening to excerpts of their own work, they examine the process by which movement comes out of audio and, specifically, the differences between working with music and soundscapes. And following from that, they will question the varying effects of recorded or live music, analogue or synthesised, acoustics and the influence of an audience’s proximity to the performance.

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JOHN AKOMFRAH
Director, writer and theorist, Akomfrah’s body of work embraces documentaries, feature films and exhibitions that have garnered international critical acclaim. In this presentation he explores how sound adapts to the requirements of different media and content.

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JOHN BROOMHALL, composer and sound creative (Forza Motorsport 5, X-Com, Transport Tycoon) and founder of the Games Music Connect conference, brings together two leading sound designers in  this session exploring the ways sound is evolving across the range of interactive entertainment. WithMARTIN STIG ANDERSEN
Sound designer for the acclaimed Limbo, by Playdead, Andersen analyses his techniques for creating soundtracks in the indie-game environment, looking forward to his next release, Inside.

JOANNA ORLAND
Having worked at EA Criterion (Black, Burnout) and currently Senior Sound Designer at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe with credits that include Wonderbook, Diggs Nightcrawler and Project Morpheus, Joanna describes the level of research and conceptualising required for AAA games.

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PIERS PLOWRIGHT
The Tallatchie Bridge and Other Mysteries
Broadcaster and writer Piers Plowright explores the pictures that sound creates and considers the silence that surrounds the best music and words. His starting point is Bobby Gentry’s 1967 hit, Ode to Billie Joe.

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GERHARD ECKEL
The Choreography of Sound
Eckel presents his work, Zeitraum (German for ‘timespan’, literally ‘time space’), a sound environment exposing the interrelation of time and space in acoustic communication. “A central finding of the project was, that sound can also be understood as a choreographic device. The project started out with the idea that sound would be the object of choreography, composers would move ‘bodies of sound’ around in space. Towards the end I discovered this other reading, where sound choreographs the audience, especially in installation situations.”

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DICKIE BEAU
Memory and Lip-sync
Dickie has gained notoriety as a pioneer of “playback” performance: the uncanny embodiment (or “re-memberment”) of found sound – a style of performance that emerges from the drag tradition of lip synching. He positions the body as an archive, especially of the “missing” – re-visioning and playing back voices from the margins: voices of figures we might not normally hear in the mainstream, in ways that we might not be accustomed to hearing them.

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RANA EID and NADIM MISHLAWI
The Soundscape of Conflict
Images of car bombs, assassinations, armed conflict, protests and fiery politicians are the world’s postcards from Beirut. And over time, these images have come to trigger hatred, superiority, racism and, most importantly – fear. It is through listening to Beirut, or any city for that matter, that one can overcome the prejudice of these images and create a subjective affinity. And it is through sounds that we can identify and empathize with events that at first seem strangely alien to us.

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IMOGEN STIDWORTHY
Stidworthy will be discussing the voice at the borders of language through her most recent project, Balayer – A Map of Sweeping (2014) – a three-screen installation with ambisonic sound (see Speakers’ Biographies for more details), and a number of related works.

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PETER SELLARS
Opera, theater, and festival director Peter Sellars has gained renown worldwide for his groundbreaking and transformative interpretations of artistic masterpieces and collaborative projects with an extraordinary range of creative artists across three decades. Whether it is Bach, Mozart, Handel, Shakespeare, Sophocles, or the 16th century Chinese playwright Tang Xianzu, Peter Sellars strikes a universal chord with audiences, engaging and illuminating contemporary social and political issues.

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ÁNDE SONBY
The animals inside the man and the man outside the animals
Are we simply humans? Or are there animals inside of us? Plants? Landscapes?
This is the underlying question in Ánde Sombys preformance. During the performance there will be given “yoik-impersonations” of birds, insects and animals.
This is influenced by the idea of transformation in the pre-Christian Sámi religion – that a human could transform into an animal and back to a human again. And the inspiration is that in our modern day many birds and animals are threatened. How would they feel about pollution, for example?

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The SOS 2015 programme is subject to change. The School of Sound reserves the right to make changes to the content, schedule, list of speakers, topics or venue. All updates will be listed on this website.

BEYOND TINTED – 19-23 NOVEMBER MODERN ART MUSEUM YEREVAN

Beyond Tinted – Մգեցված ապակիներից այն կողմ

Beyond Tinted
Dickie Webb

A new body of work by artist Dickie Webb brings together intermedia works that investigate our current connection to the Yerevan landscape and beyond. These experimental works draw from liminal sites and objects that are used to manage space. Webbs’ process abstracts and subverts these findings, utilizing photography, sculptural elements and new media technologies; it is the anthropomorphic qualities that underscore the works. Just like liminal space these works exist in an unknown state, straddling both real and virtual, Webb does not imply directly what they mean rather he suggest they are a means to reflect on the potential of what could be. These works challenge especially that part of local people that have to reconsider their present landscape and gain some form of clarity out from behind their tinted view (tinted glasses of the big cars of nоuveau riche). The final works vary in fabrication and are part of a wide palette that enables Webb to present intimate moments, to view our present existence from an altered perspective and reflect on our own being.

Artist Statement:

Dickie Webb operates his art practice from the position of a wanderer, moving consistently over the years, dislocating himself from societal norms. With few constants Webb’s peripatetic lifestyle means he has had to adapt and rethink our connection to landscape, altering his comprehension of what is considered home and the role of society’s expectations.
Examining our existence Webb questions that which is real and what is otherwise virtual within our landscape, utilising Marc Auges’ “non-places” and Michel Foucaults’ “heterotopias” as initial starting points. Webb uses these imaginary and transient sites as a means to reveal anomalies, inaccuracies similar to those displayed within human personalities.
This connection to space through its anthropomorphic qualities prompts Webb to consider space as representational of current issues experienced within both the individual and collective. Using space as a metaphor and as a medium Webb looks past the architectural structure and explores the liminal qualities, discovering this blurred arena from an outsider’s perspective.

Processes:
Interactive installations, Arduino, photography, site-specific installation, sculpture, print, sensory based media light, sound and scents, interventions, casting, drawing, constructive and destructive processes.
Materials:
Paint, plaster, bronze, aluminium, soap, salt, concrete, sugar, ice, glass, steel, wood, resin, ink, milk and wax.
Objects:
Cardboard boxes, furniture, envelopes and car windscreens.

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Born in 1979, in Oxford, United Kingdom. Dickie Webb currently divides his time between New Zealand, USA and the UK. Webb studied for a BA Honours in Intermedia at Edinburgh College of Art; part of his degree was spent at the State University of New York, Purchase College. Prior to his degree Webb studied at Oxford Brookes University, UK. Since graduating Webb has continued travelling working in Japan, New Zealand and Chile whilst also undertaking artist residencies in Athens, Greece (SNEHTA) and currently here in Yerevan (ACSL). He has exhibited works in the UK, USA and Greece.

Recent Exhibitions:
2014 THINGS ARE DIFFERENT NOW – Art Athina, Athens, Greece
2014 Boundaries – Artscapes, Athens, Greece
2013 Unsettled Certainties – Aghias Zonis 1 Space, Athens, Greece.
2013 One Action, Ones Actions – Cultybraggan POW Camp, Perthshire, UK
2013 Newhaven Station – Edinburgh, UK

The exhibition is organized by the Art and Cultural Studies Laboratory (ACSL). This project is realized at the [Art Commune] International Artist-in-Residence Program (ACSL)

This project is funded by European Cultural Foundation

Special thanks to the Yerevan Modern Art Museum, director of the Museum Nune Avetisyan and its staff.

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Մգեցված ապակիներից այն կողմ
Դիքի Վեբբ (Անգլիա)

Արվեստագետ Դիքի Վեբբի Հայաստանում իրականցված այս նոր նախագիծը քննության է առնում Երեւանի շրջակա միջավայրի, դրանում առկա այլ քաղաքատեղերի հետ հընթացս կապերը: Բազմամեդիական եւ փորձարարական ոգով տոգորված աշխատանքները մտորումներ են քաղաքի կազմավորման շուրջ, սակայն իրերն ու դեպքերն այստեղ լիմինալ նշանակություն ունեն՝ նրանք գտնվում են իրականության նմանակումի եւ վիրտուալի, վերացականի սահմանin: Արվեստագետի մոտեցմանը բնորոշ է քաղաքային տարածքներում ամեն հայտնաբերվածի աբստրահումը, կամ տրոհումը՝ հիմքում պահելով մարդակերպական (անտրոպոմորֆական) որակները՝ դա է հոդավորում աշխատանքների շարքը. իսկ այս նախագծի իմացաբանական ըմբռնումը ամբողջությամբ թողնված է հանդիսատեսին:
Նախագծում տեղ գտած առանցքային աշխատանքներից մեկը՝ վիդեո-սլայդ-ձայնային ինստալացիան առաջին հայացքից “անշառ” քաղաքային դրվագների հերթափոխ է, որը սակայն գաղափարաբանական դասավորություն ունի՝ տեղի (տոպոսի) կարեւորությունը կապվում է “ու-տոպիական” մտածողությանը, եւ վերջինիս հետ սերտ առընչվող երկու այլ մոդուսների՝ դիս-տոպիային եւ հետեռոտոպիային: Վիդեոշարքի պատկերները, ըստ արվեստագետի, դասավորված են վերը նշված մոդուսների եւ ամեն մոդուսին ներհատուկ ձայնային կոմպոզիացիայի համաձայն: Այստեղ էլ հանդիսատեսը պիտի փորձի “ընթեռնել” ներկայացված տոպո-գրաֆիայի “փիլիսոփայությունը”:
Վեբբի պնդմամբ՝ նախագիծը մարտահրավեր է հատկապես ետ-խորհրդային տարածքներում գոյացած նոր հարուստների խավին, ում hամար շուրջ կյանքը երանգավորված եւ սահմանափակված է սեփական մեքենաների մգեցված ապակիներով՝ նրանք անհաղորդ են հանրային կարիքների նկատմամբ, եւ քանի որ նախագիծը հղում է կյանքի ավելի լայն “ներկապնակին”՝ Վեբբն իրավունք է վերապահում բռնվել հանդիստաեսի հետ մտերմիկ խոսակցության մեջ՝ ներքաշելով նրան գոյության շուրջ խորը մտորումների:

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Դիքի Վեբբի արվեստագիտական պրակտիկաներում ներկա է թափառականի հայացքը՝ երկար տարիների հետեւողական տեղարշարժերի ընթացքը մղել են նրան հասարակական նորմերից դուրս: Գտնվելով ապրելակերպի պերիպաթեթիկական (արիստոտելյան) մի քանի ձեւերի մեջ՝ նա հետազոտում է շրջակա միջավայրի հետ մարդկանց կապերը՝ ձգտելով փոխել պատկերուցումները “տուն” եւ “հասարակության սպասումներ” եզրերի մասին: Քննելով այժմյա գոյության խնդիրները, Վեբբը հարցի է դնում քաղաքային լանդշաֆթների իրական եւ դրան հակադիր վիրտուալ գոյությունը՝ հիմնվելով Մարկ Օժեի “ոչ-տեղերի” եւ Միշել ֆուկոյի “հետերոտոպիաների” տեսական պնդումների վրա: Երեւակայված, կամ
չ-անձնավորված, անցողիկ տեղերը նրա համար անոմալիաների եւ անճշտությունների բացահայտման միջոցներ են: Տարածության գաղափարը՝ օժտված մարդակերպային հատկանիշներով, դրթում է Վեբբին դիտարկել այն որպես ընթացիկ խնդիրների ներկայացման հարթակ՝ թե՛ անհատականի, թե՛ հավաքականի դիտանկյուններից: Վեբբը օգտագործում է տարածության գաղափարը “միջավայրի” ասածի տեսանկյունից՝ հաճախ ներկայացնելով այն փոխաբերական լիցքերով լի: Նա բնավ տարված չէ ճարտարապետական կառույցներով, այլ հետազոտում է տարածքների անցումային, լիմինալ որակները՝ բացահայտելով այդ մշուշոտ արենան աութսայդերի հայացքով:

Դիքի Վեբբը աշխատանքները հիմնականում վերածվում են ինտերակտիվ կամ տեղին հատուկ ինստալացիաներ, թվային աուդիո մանիպուլացիաների, լուսանկարների, քանդակի, տպագրության, սենսորային լույսի միջամտության, ձայնի, բույր, գծանկարի, կազմման եւ ապակզմման ընթացքների եւ քաղաքային տարածքներում ներխուժումների
Օգտագործվող նյութերն են՝
ներկ, բրոնզ, ալյումինիում, սապոն, բետոն, աղ, շաքար, սառույց, ապակի, մետաղ, փայտ, բլեկնախեժ, թանաք, կաթ, մոմ
Օգտագործվող օբյեկտներն են՝ ստվարաթղթե արկղեր, կահույք, ծրարներ, ավտոմեքենայի առջեւապակիներ

Դիքի Վեբբը ծնվել է 1979թ. բրիտանական Օքսֆորդ քաղաքում: Մի երկրից մյուսը հաճախակի տեղաշարժերի հետեւանքով՝ նա բնակվում է ներկայում Նոր Զելանդիայի, Միացյալ Նահանգների եւ Միացյալ Թագավորության միջեւ: Վեբբը բակալվրի կոչում է ստացել Էդինբուրգի Արվեստի քոլեջում՝ համատեղելով ուսումը Նյու-Յորքի Պետական համալսարանին կից գործող Փրչեյզ (Purchase) քոլեջում՝ մինչ այդ նա Բրիտանիայի Օքսֆորդ Բրուքս (Oxford Brooks) համալսարանի շրջանավարտներից էր: Վերը նշված ուսումնառության տարիներից հետո նա սկիզբ է դնում շարունակական ճամփորդությունների եւ աշխատանքային այցերի դեպի Ճապոնիա, Նոր Զելանդիա եւ Չիլի՝ հընթացս ներգրավվելով արվեստագետների կացարանների ծրագրերի մեջ Աթենքում (SNEHTA կացարան, Հունսատան), այժմ էլ Հայաստանում գործող “Արտ կոմունա” արվեստագետների միջազգային կացարանում (ԱՄՀԼ):

Վերջերս նա մասնակցել է մի շարք ցուցահանդեսներում ԱՄՆ-ում, Միացյալ Թագավորությունում եւ Հունաստանում, որոնց թվում են՝
(2014) ՀԻՄԱ ԲԱՆԵՐՆ ԱՅԼ ԵՆ, Արտ Աֆինա, Հունաստան
(2014) Սահմաններ-Արվեստատեղեր, Աթենք, Հունաստան
(2013)Չամրագրված փաստեր, Aghias Zonis 1 Space, Աթենք, Հունաստան
(2013) Մեկ հայտարար, միանվագ հայտարարներ, Cultybraggan POW ճամբար, Փերթշիր, Միացյալ Թագավորություն
(2013) Կանգառ Նյուհեվանում, Էդինբուրգ, Միացյալ Թագավորությւոն

Ցուցահանդեսի կազմակերպիչն է
Արվեստի եւ մշակութային հետազոտությունների լաբորատորիան (ԱՄՀԼ)
Նախագիծը իրականացվել է [Արտ Կոմունա] Արվեստագետների միջազգային կացարանի ծրագրերի շրջանակում (ԱՄՀԼ)

Նախագծի հովանավորն է Եվրոպական Մշակութային հիմնադրամը

Աջակցության համար հատուկ շնորհակալություն ենք հայտնում Երեւանի Ժամանակակից արվեստի թանգարանին, թանգարանի տնօրեն Նունե Ավետիսյանին եւ անձնակազմին