White nights of the museums :: September 29, 2007 :: Museum of the City of Skopje and Open Graphic studio :: Organized by Line Initiative and movement in collaboration with Fat – Cat records (UK), Upgrade! Scotland and Upgrade! Vancouver :: Museum of the City of Skopje (screenings): 1. Semiconductor – Worlds in flux; 2. Upgrade! Vancouver – P2P outdoor art videos – video sharing in physical spaces; 3. Upgrade! Scotland - B-sides :: Open Graphic Studio (live music performances): live acts: every kid on speed, Debris and Disco Pigg.

Semiconductor - Worlds in flux: Semiconductor is the alias of Brighton-based duo Ruth Jarman and Joseph Gerhardt, who since 1999 have been making stunning, cutting-edge digital artworks in the form of sound-films, music videos and live animation. Guided by their obsessive interests in landscape, architecture, geology, geography, chaos / systems theory and artificial intelligence, they explore many varied processes of digital animation and the potential of the computer to unite sound and image. What they reveal in the process is a physical world in flux - cities in motion; shifting landscapes and systems in chaos. Central to these works is the role of sound, which becomes synonymous with the image as it creates, controls and deciphers it. Finely crafted digital work is combined with analogue processes that tailor the randomness and errors within computer systems as a co-conspirator. This DVD offers a comprehensive overview of their work over the past five years, featuring 3 music videos (including those for múm and QT?), 4 live cinema pieces, and 6 short films.

Around 2000 Semiconductor started to develop their own audiences through a series of events they curated called E.M.I. (Electro Magnetic Interference), where they brought together electronic musicians and visual artists to collaborate on image and sound based projects, creating a unique platform at this time. In 2001 they released a debut Art DVD, ‘Hi-Fi Rise’, a compilation of work by themselves and others that comprised one of the first ever independently produced DVD-Videos/ROMs. They then went on to develop a broad range of audiences by working at the intersection of music and art and through opportunities such as a series of Warp records commissions for their ‘Nesh’ club nights in London; Sound Film performances at international festivals (e.g., Avanto Festival Helsinki, Transmediale Berlin, Images Festival Toronto); international gallery installations (e.g., Venice Biennale, Prague Contemporary Arts Festival, and at the ICA in London); and also through music videos for the likes of Aco, DAT Politics, and FatCat artists, múm and QT? Increasingly recognised as vital and cutting edge practitioners, they have most recently been awarded numerous fellowships, awards and residencies.

“There’s plenty of seriousness here but Semiconductor never lose touch with their animators funny bones”, “My favorite is The Sound of Microclimates, filmed in Paris for a surround sound installation. This is animation as ambiguity - is this cloud really hovering over the building? Why is there an iceberg in the municipal pond? Semiconductor’s surly electronic soundtrack suggests a sci-fi distortion of the everyday city, till at dusk the glowing lights of the traffic detach themselves and flock like birds . In a moment of great beauty they swarm across Paris to nestle between skyscrapers, jiggling as if crammed into a discotheque for off duty tail-lights. ” Clive Bell, The Wire

Screening program:
1 Brilliant Noise, 05:57, sound film, 2006
2 The Sound of Microclimates, 08:20, surround sound DVD installation, 2004
3 múm- Green Grass of Tunnel, 04:26, 2002
4 Inaudible Cities, 06:42, Sound Film, 2002
5 Strata, 09:24, live work, 2002
6 qt-qqq, 01:00, 2001
7 Mini Epochs, 04.17, x5 7″ widescreen LCD sound films, 2003
8 Sonic Inc (extracts), 12:00, Live performance software current live work from 2004/07 documentation from 2006 shows
9 Digital Anthrax, 04:42, Live performance work, 2002
10 Earthquake Films, 09:33, sound film, 2000
11 Do You Think Science… , 6:00, Short Film, 2006
12 All the Time in the World, 04:40, surround sound DVD installation, 2005
13 Double Adaptor-200 Nanowebbers, 02:49, Audio:Double Adaptor, 2005

Approximate running time: 75 minutes.

2. Upgrade! Vancouver: P2P outdoor art videos- video sharing in physical spaces: In partnership with Upgrade! International, Upgrade! Vancouver presents a series of outdoor screenings of local and international art videos.

Appropriating the functional model of on-line video sharing sites such as YouTube, we are creating a series of exploratory events that translate social video sharing into the analogue environment of the urban street. The goal of the project is to create low-tech video sharing communities in physical spaces. Video programs are curated by individual Upgrade nodes and screened either in gallery spaces or outdoors in the built environment of cities including Vancouver, Paris, Montreal, Belgrade, Seattle, Boston, Scotland, Skopje, Chicago, Amsterdam and Istanbul. Videos travel between cities, being screened locally and internationally.

The social software aspect of these events is explored through a deliberately low-tech model in which contact information for participating artists is circulated at the screenings, with the intention of encouraging people in these cities to develop individual connections and relationships.

Upgrade! Vancouver: Upgrade! Vancouver launched in 2003 with a program of discussions and presentations at the intersection of art and technology, happening monthly and supported by social gatherings. Organized by Kate Armstrong, the series is part of the Upgrade! International network, and collaborates to produce publications, exhibitions and innovative processes of exchange between 22 cities.

Screening program:
1. Medium: Sean Arden (00:2:48)
2. Home Bathroom Hotel: Victoria Stanton (00:1:18)
3. Moving Fruit: Victoria Stanton (00:1:11)
4. Roller Disco Solo (Segue): Miriam Needoba (00:3:00)
5. Anamorphic Loop 1: Puttering in the Meltdown:
Oliver Hockenhull (00:1:59)
6. Anamorphic Loop 2: Cab Wise: Oliver Hockenhull (00:4:30)
7. Tempograph (Pink Kite): David Leith (00:00:29)
8. Hacking the Jack: Jesse Scott (00:0:11)
9. Cauliflower: Christopher Zimmermann (00:0:02)
10. Afterthoughts: Lane Last (00:2:54)
11. A Doll’s House Is…(excerpt): Henry Gwiazda (00:5:45)
12. Time Present Solo: Evann Siebens & Keith Doyle (00:1:45)
Approximate running time: 26 minutes

3. Upgrade! Scotland - B-sides: B-SIDES is a short program of artists’ film and video works that highlights one-liners, by-products of larger creative outputs, outtakes, and radical experiments. Artists all produce works which allow them to test out new techniques and ideas, and digital video is the sketch pad for many contemporary new media artists. However, these artifacts do not often make it to a public exhibition. New Media Scotland is celebrating the rough beauty in these video remnants by presenting this program.

We submitted an open call inviting practitioners based in Scotland (and elsewhere in the UK), to create or submit shorts which represent the “B-side” of their practice. We received a wide range of submissions, and our favorites are presented in this program.
The ideal format for a light-hearted program like B-SIDES is an outdoor screening, inspired by the Drive-in cinema model, strictly BYOP (Bring Your Own Popcorn), of course! Alternatively the program can also be screened in a gallery setting.

New Media Scotland’s Mission: New Media Scotland has put experimentation and the support of practitioners at the core of the organization’s work. We look forward to the future as the agency in Scotland committed to evolving and enhancing the opportunities available for artists working in art and technology. Instigating and supporting experimentation in the sector - that’s what we do.

B-SIDES program:
1. Speechless Moments – Angela Bartram (00:01:41)
2. Single Track Road – Lisa O’Brien (00:00:59)
3. Yellow Road – Jane Frazer (00:00:07)
4. Cold Breeze – Thomas Qualmann (00:00:31)
5. Madame I – Beverley Hood (00:01:17)
6. Facade – Alison Philp (00:02:21)
7. Surfbloom – Jaygo Bloom (00:01:52)
8. Zombie Lick – David Hutchison (00:01:12)
9. Intimate Klüver – Johannes Birringer (00:02:40)
10. Hologram – Jane Frazer (00:00:31)
11. A Film Found in a Dump – Alex Hetherington (00:01:37)
12. Passenger – Gillian McIver (00:01:31)
13. Arch – Louise K Fraser (00:00:48)
14. Sacred Turf – Holger Mohaupt (00:01:08)
15. Liferaft – Ryszard Lewandowski (00:00:11)
16. Railings – Jane Frazer (00:00:09)
17. 20 Games of Scrabble – Thomas Qualmann (00:00:48)
18. B-sides Triptych – Luke Collins (00:03:04)
19. Fur Kiss – Angela Bartram (00:00:51)
20. 134 Contrails – Lizzie Hughes (00:00:21)
Approximate running time: 24 minute

Debris - Dimitar Dodovski (debris) is creating electronic sound since 2003 appearing on zavisna.mk top list on alternative radio station channel 103. next year his track ‘dead tulips’ is appearing on the first compilation released by the same radio program. He is showing up on two more releases: compilatoin ‘urban drive’ and compilation released by art magazine “art republika” in march 2006. his sound oscilates between dub/house/techno/experimental territories.

Every kid on speed - every kid on speed - sound artist, street artist, dj, designer… based in skopje, macedonia. when at home and not traveling he is doing various projects, but music obviously being the main focus of his hectic lifestyle. at the moment officially studying philosophy but he has many other projects that keeps him busy: from running his label acid fake recordings, the sublabel discofake and webzine fakezine, presenting his works and sound as dj and through live acts, organizing various dj and live events/exhibitions and setting up his own installations/design works, hosting radio programs dedicated to new music and radio art, doing design with the design division ‘acid fake design’… he works sound design under name sound_00 and every kid on speed that seems to be more live active moniker with which produces glitch, minimal, cut up electronics and dj minimal electronics and techno. under these names he has released many full lengths, eps and has countless compilation and remix appearances on various labels around the world and has shared the stage with names like pita, andrey kiritchenko, massaccesi, urkuma, ran slavin, solar x, t.rumschmiere, jason forest, the bug, phon.o, modelesector, ellen alien, miss kittin… on festivals like club transmediale - berlin, progress festival - ljubljana, absurd festival - skopje, ctrl_alt_del sound-art festival - istanbul, interpretation festival - vienna, tiny noise festival - skopje/sofia/oklahoma city, radia lx 2006 - lisboa…

Disco Pigg - The project disko pigg started in 2005 by 25 years old artist from Strumica - Macedonia known as Vancheck Kkost (Vane Kostadinov). Vane has been active as a producer for the past seven years, producing under various monikers mainly electronic music, including music for short experimental movies, theater plays, radio & video commercials and jingles, dj mixes… disko pigg sound is truly inspired by deep house, disco, electro and funk music…