Two New Commissioned Audio Works

Concert, June 30, 2006, 8:00 p.m.: A live stream of the June 30th concert is available at this link under SPIKED.

Guy van Belle (Bratislava): “slashtops”: The concert program “slashtops” consists of real time manipulations with sound transforming light to sound and sound to light in three parts to investigate the relationship between sound and image, audio art and the visual, a persistent tension in the arts for generations. The first part of the program is a trilogy of arrangements between synthetic and real sounds the source material and inspiration based on recordings made in Quebec based on the movement of the artbots that comprise ‘thoughts go by air’. A second source of audio content comes from Munich based on sounds from the city environment and a third from Bratislava, around Zlaty Piesky (an industrial - recreational - commercial area). The second component of the program is based on a translation of light into sound using the computer as an instrument. The third part of the program is a concert version of the installation TICS, which is a translation of light into sound and back to light, with a score based on the novel ‘istanbul’ by the Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk (2006).
Biography: Guy Van Belle (working and living on the road and in Bratislava) has been prominently involved in the use and development of media for artistic purposes since 1990. Since 2000 xgz has been working under the name of the collective digital band mxHz.org (machine cent’red humanz), creating collaborative performances, concerts, workshops, exhibitions and unexpected experimental/abstract art projects. MxHz.org is co-organizer of the umbrella organisation okno, a non-profit technological art organisation situated in Brussels.

MxHz.org are currently developing 2 sets of autonomously communicating heliumbots. The title of the project is “thoughts go by air”. Performances were set up in Brussels, Den Hague, and New York. The current new generation is being developed in Brussels (http://okno.be) and Berlin. A special focus for mxHz.org is on Balkan/Central/Eastern Europa to work towards a new sustainable kind of collaborative projects. A recent ongoing work - 2WR or two-way-radios - is a net-remake of John Cage’s Imaginary Landscapes #4 (for 12 radios and 24 performers) based on some historical texts by innovative radio artists. The project started in Prague during the FM@dia conference 2004 and was recently set up as a networked installation at Skolska Prague. With Akihiro Kubota he started the Society of Algorithm in 2001, working on netbased music performances. They participate in festivals and connected concerts. Since 2005 open workshops were added and a residency exchange between Europe and Japan to expand the concept. Recently, they contributed to the Berlin Sonambiente Exhibition.

June 30 - July 29, 2006 - Installation: Peter Courtemanche’s (Vancouver): “Preying Insect Robots”, Opening reception Friday, June 30. Work created for the commission series, “Living with artificial beings” for Soil Digital Media Suite. Preying Insect Robots c. 2006 by Absolute Value of Noise.

Preying Insect Robots is a set of autonomous creatures that move about and communicate using a wireless Internet connection. These robots are modeled after an imaginary jade-green preying mantis - a mechanical creature that is described in the “Martian Chronicles” (by Ray Bradbury). The robots are adaptable to both indoor and outdoor environments - galleries, sidewalks, parks, and performance spaces. They engage in solo and choreographed group activities. The sound of their motors, motion and engagement creates an eerie soundtrack. The piece has a number of manifestations including an installation, a public intervention (performance), a web-presence, and an audio CD based on the sounds of the robots. As the robots wander, they transmit poetry to the Internet - creating montages of found text from a number of science fiction stories, including Feersum Endjinn (1994) and Excession (1996) by Iain M. Banks; The Martian Chronicles (1946 - 1958) by Ray Bradbury; Autofac (1955), Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (1968), and The Electric Ant by Philip K. Dick; Mortal Engines (1972 - 1976) by Stanislaw Lem; and For a Breath I Tarry (1966) by Roger Zelazny.

To hear the poetry created by the preying insect bots, go to this link;
http://www.soilmedia.org/preying/

Biography: Peter Courtemanche is a contemporary sound and installation artist from Vancouver. He is the Director and Curator of the Western Front’s Media Arts Program - which supports the production and dissemination of experimental audio and electronic art. He has worked extensively in radio-art and electronic/interactive interventions. His art works often have a literary basis - inspired by narrative texts and the history of specific installation sites. As a curator, collaborator and producer he has worked with many established and emerging artists in the production and installation of video, audio, and computer/electronic based art.

Events take place at Neutral Ground
1856 Scarth Street, Regina, Saskatchewan
Curated by Brenda Cleniuk

For funding support, we thank the Canada Council for the Arts, the Saskatchewan Arts Board, Sask Lotteries Trust, the City of Regina and the Department of Canadian Heritage