Multiplace is a network of people and independent organizations interested in the interaction between media, technology, the arts, culture and society. The activities of this network culminate each year in this festival that simultaneously takes place within various independent organizations internationally. There are workshops, installations, discussions, concerts, performances, exhibitions, presentations, screenings and live streaming.

Multiplace is distinguished from other similar European festivals not only by content, but by its informal structure. It attracts visitors through its support of unexpected and creative connections between art, culture and new media as well as by its decentralized character and openness to participation. This year, it includes around 40 independent galleries, art schools, art centers, clubs and many unaffiliated individuals. Visitors can enjoy more than 100 events, some of them taking place at several locations at the same time.

Program selection: An unconventional music / internet performance; Ping Melody by Pawel Janicki from Wroclaw, and the premiere of the new local electronic group Bulkladung, will open the festival in Bratislava. A4 Zero Space prepares a dance / motion / kinetic dance performance working with the electromagnetic field of performers also in Bratislava, while an opportunity to listen to an LP made of neon light will be available in the former synagogue in Trnava. On the top of Iceland’s Blafjoll Hill with a view of the Atlantic Ocean, the First May Manifestation by Movement Freedom Sound group will take place. In the House of Art in Brno, online archives and new media education will be discussed. Brno will also offer the installation, Expogeneca, plastic figures which will melt if they do not get enough visitor’s attention. Additionally, this city will be the location for a survey of contemporary music-visual culture and communication called Uchoko and the! Faculty of Fine Arts in Brno will be the host of a virtual cafe that will connect favorite cafes in Brno, Praha, Hradec Kralove and Budapest through streaming. Nomad Space’s Soundbus, the nomad gallery, will wander around various festival locations to present a selection of contemporary Austrian sound art.

Performance Beer Barrel Polka Accordion Theremin Reunion will mediate through the internet a collective play on accordion and theremin in several other cities at the same time. Through skype you will be able to train a parrot to talk at FreeDom in Bahon. At this location as well, Ursula Endlicher will discuss new media art in the USA and introduce her project html_butoh, bringing the human body into the technical world of the Internet.

Organisers:

Bahon: FreeDom
Banska Bystrica: Tvor
Berlin: Lady Gabi
Bratislava: Multiplace, A4 - asociacia zdruzeni pre sucasnu kulturu (A4 ? Associations for contemporary culture), Atrakt Art, 13 kubikov, SPACE projects | residency lab | store, Film club 35 mm, Open Design Studio, Urbsounds Collective, Polish Institute, Goethe-Institut Bratislava, Itchy bit, Jurgen Rendl, Urban Flow
Brno: Hucot, Dum umeni mesta Brna (The Brno House of Arts), Dum panu z Kunstatu (House of the Lords of Kunstat), Kavarna Kunstatska trojka, FaVU VUT (Brno University of Technology, Faculty of Fine Arts), Chernobylmusick, Anymade, Fiume initiative, Galerie G99, Jan Zalesak, Ars Publica, Lenka Dolanova and Michal Kindernay, klub Desert, club Fleda
Budapest: Transformers Hacklab, PsyShip Medialab
Glasgow: Glasgow School of Art
Kosice: IC Culture Train
Nitra: Nitra gallery (Bunker)
Novi Sad: Open Design Studio
Ostrava: Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Ostrava
Praha: Mlok, Institut Intermedii, Circle of Curators and Critics, CIANT ? International Centre for Art and New Technologies
Reykjavik: The Lost Horse Gallery
Trnava: Galeria Jana Koniarka
Wroclaw: WRO Center Sztuki
Zilina: Stanica Zilina - Zariecie

This show will feature new and experimental works in dance, music, and video art. Each artist/team came up with a work based on meditations on the word “SPACE.” The artists with works being shown are:

Nina Barnett & Robyn Nesbitt, Jessica Feldman, David Jensenius, Hiram Navarrete, Jessica Noe & Kate March, Blithe Riley, Kathleen Stanard, Carl Testa.

Participants: Andrew Beck, Jason Freeman, Mark T. Godfrey, Sawako Kato, Zach Layton, LoVid, Adam Nash, Helen Thorington, Peter Traub, Dan Trueman, Tobias C. Van Veen. Bios here.

Based on the rapidly expanding archive of music/sound experiments to be found on Networked Music Review and the fifteen short works recently commissioned for it, the symposium aims to stimulate critical and far-ranging discussion on emerging music and sound art practice. Program here.

“One man, vocals, maracas and a stripped pulsating showcase of obscure sounds and visuals.”

Major B cuts up analogue, obscure audio samples from all over the world and merges them in his own audio visual recordings or found footage. This shuffle results in rhythmic, surreal pieces that tell about people, animals and their bizarre encounters. These sounds and visuals form basis and background for his vocals and maraca on stage, where the projection works alternately as a spotlight or camouflage kit.

Based on the rapidly expanding archive of music/sound experiments to be found on Networked Music Review and the fifteen short works recently commissioned for it, the symposium aims to stimulate critical and far-ranging discussion on emerging music and sound art practice.

To register, email turbulence at turbulence dot org with “Programmable Media II” as the subject.

Symposium Program

Date: April 11, 2008
Venue: The Multipurpose Room, 1 Pace Plaza, Pace University

10:00 am – 10:45 am: Introduction by Helen Thorington and Peter Traub

Thorington and Traub will set the groundwork for the conference by introducing a variety of recent works from Networked Music Review and discussing the history, ideas, tools, and theory behind today’s creative practice.

11:00 am – 1:00 pm: Round-table discussion

Panelists: Dan Trueman, Peter Traub, Zach Layton, Sawako Kato, Jason Freeman (moderator)

Panelists will be given 5-10 minutes to make a basic statement about their work. The discussion will center on the significance of networks and whether they – and the collective behaviors of their machine or human nodes – can form the basis of compelling musical experiences.

1:00 pm – 2:30 pm: LUNCH

2:30 pm – 4:30 pm: Round Table discussion

Panelists: LoVid, Tobias C. Van Veen, Adam Nash, Helen Thorington (moderator)

Panelists will be given 5-10 minutes to make a basic statement about their work. Discussion will continue with emphasis on cross-over works (music w/images, text, video, video games etc.). Nash will speak to the symposium from Second Life, which he calls a “post-convergent medium.”

Short performances by Jason Freeman with Andrew Beck and Mark T. Godfrey and Tobias C. Van Veen will be given during the course of the symposium.

Flou (pronounced “flew”) is not exactly a game; you do fly a ship through space, but you cannot shoot anything, score points, or win or lose. The focus, rather, is on the soundtrack: as you navigate through a 3D world and zoom through objects in space, you add loops and apply effects to an ever-evolving musical mix. You can also design your own worlds to fly through and share them with other Flou users.

Flou is a 2007 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. for Networked_Music_Review. It was made possible with funding from the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

BIOGRAPHIES

Jason Freeman uses new technology and unconventional notation to break down barriers between composers, performers, and listeners, creating music that “stands as an example of the Web’s mind-expanding possibilities” (Billboard) and helps to “bring composition into the Xbox age” (Wired). Recent projects include “Flock”, a full-evening performance for saxophone quartet, dancers, and audience participation commissioned by Carnival Center for the Performing Arts in Miami; Graph Theory, a solo violin and web-based work commissioned by Turbulence; “iTunes Signature Maker”, a software artwork commissioned by Rhizome; and “Glimmer”, an audience-participation piece commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra. Freeman received his B.A. in music from Yale University and his M.A. and D.M.A. in composition from Columbia University. He is currently an assistant professor at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, where he teaches in the Music Department in the College of Architecture. [Read an interview with Jason]

The students in Freeman’s Networked Music course at Georgia Tech (Andrew Beck, Xiang Cao, Mark Godfrey, Jagadeeswaran Jayaprakash, Al Matthews, Rachel Ponder, Alex Rae, and Sriram Viswanathan) are currently pursuing M.S. degrees in music technology, digital media, and human-computer interaction, and they have diverse backgrounds as composers and performers of experimental and popular music, as computer scientists, and as engineers. Over the course of the fall 2007 semester, they collaborated to develop the concept for “Flou”, to design its user interface, visual components, and sound worlds, and to write, test, and deploy the software. They are currently creating a live-performance version of the work for presentation in spring 2008.

For more Networked_Music_Review Commissions go here.

Concrete Daisies is a site-specific performance / installation of dance, sound, and live-feed video projection. A stellar ensemble of dancers, musicians, and video artists will explore the interior and exterior spaces of the Velaslavasay Panorama, an historic exhibition hall, theatre and garden dedicated to the production and presentation of unusual visual experiences. The garden of concrete daisies will play foil to the theater’s own “garden of carnivorous plants and sinister foliage“. Opportunity for a bird’s eye view pointed to an investigation of that which can only be understood from above, thus introducing the concept of the labyrinth.

This performance assumes a hybrid form that collapses the boundaries between installation / live-feed video shoot / live dance / live music / and live video projection. The viewer is invited to roam through this immersive environment and grapple with the simultaneity of the live performers and how they are mediated into the visual and audio spatial mix. It is ultimately a structured improvisation where the viewer witnesses the instantaneous, responsive dialogue between dancer, cameraperson, video artist and musician.

ENSEMBLE OF PERFORMERS:

CAROLE KIM direction/video installation

dance
OGURI
ROXANNE STEINBERG
MICHAEL SAKAMOTO
SHURIU LO
JESSKE HUME

sound
ELLEN BURR flute
MARK DRESSER electro-acoustic bass
JESSE GILBERT sound spatialization
MOTOKO HONDA piano
JOE BERARDI percussion
JESSICA CATRON cello
KADET KUHNE electronics

visuals
ASTRA PRICE live video mix
BO SUL KIM live video mix
CHRISTINE MARIE shadow play
MAILE COLBERT live-feed video
MIRABELLE ANG live-feed video
ANN KANEKO live-feed video

SPECIAL THANKS TO: SASSAS for generously providing technical assistance in this production, BILL BALLOU-technical direction, JORGE MARTIN and CHAUNCY GODWIN-sound engineers:, BITA SHARIF-production assistant:, JIHYUN SONG, YOUNG-MIN SON-video documentation.

Please note: As this is an indoor/outdoor performance comfortable footwear and appropriately warm clothing are suggested. In the event of rain, the performance will be condensed primarily into the indoor spaces.

Picture here, single white android.

The ‘Is our machines learning?’ machines 2.0
The ‘Is our machines learning?’ machines is a networked art installation in which test-taking robots behave according to how users engage with a website composed of questions from real U.S. standardized tests. The physical installation consists of machines that are mechanically capable of making marks on standardized test forms with a pencil. These machines rest on top of antique school desks, ready to pencil in multiple-choice bubbles on SCANTRON test forms. In a separate online space, visitors coming to a website determine which multiple-choice answers the machines in the installation select to fill in. At this website, users can watch the machines respond to their input via a streaming video feed from the installation - Link & more.

• Project listing - Link.
• ITP winter show photos here - Link.
• More about the ITP winter show - Link.

If you attended the show and have others you enjoy, post up in the comments! [posted by Phillip Torrone on MAKE]

“My Space Sound is the result of my fieldwork about MySpace, with some help from my friends. It is just a tiny point or node in a huge social network, and it is a starting point rather than an accomplishment. This is just my story, and I am curious to know your story. My Space Sound is the artistic observations and everyday sketches of the imperfect processor named sawako about the state of networks and individuals.”

My Space Sound is a 2007 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. for Networked_Music_Review. It was made possible with funding from the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

BIOGRAPHY

As a musician, Sawako Kato has recently made a name for herself with her own unique combination of field recordings and DSP combined with a noticeably feminine touch. As a new media artist, she created “2.4GHz Scape,” which explores the urban WiFi signal scape; “ishi ~ listening stone,” a sound art piece that uses a crystal radio and stones, and an ephemeral timeline drawing with Max/MSP/Jitter.

Sawako has solo releases from 12k, and/OAR and Anticipate, She has collaborated with a wide range of musicians such as Taylor Deupree, Andrew Deutsch, Kenneth Kirschner, Taku Sugimoto, Toshimaru Nakamura, asuna, Ryan Francesconi and Jacob Kirkegaard; and has performed in Tonic, Diapason, Roulette, Issue Project Room, Monkey Town (NYC); MUTEK Festival (Canada), Corcoran Gallery (Washington DC), UCLA Hammer Museum (LA), Batofar (Paris), Kunstraum Walcheturm (Zurich), offsite, Apple Store Sinsaibashi (Japan); m12 (Berlin), Glade Festival, Resonance FM, ICA (UK); and other venues in the US, Europe and Japan.

In this session, Second Life avatars will dance with improvised music from Real Life at ISIM. Real Life performers are Pauline Oliveros - electronics, harmonica & small instruments with spoken word artist Ione & dancer Heloise Gold. Second Life performance will feature animations and choreography by Josephine Dorado, John D. Mitchell, Edo Paulus, Christine Benham, Lauren Watson and Sean Nevin - performing from Arizona, New York, and Amsterdam. Images and sounds of the performers from Real Life will be projected into Second Life and vice versa, creating a mashup of real and virtual improv for both audiences.

Spoken word: Ione
RL dancer: Heloise Gold
Electronics/harmonica/small instruments: Pauline Oliveros
Animations / Second Life dancers: Josephine Dorado, Edo Paulus and members of ADaPT (Association for Dance and Performance Telematics). ADaPT includes Arizona State University, Herberger College Dance: John D. Mitchell, Christine Benham, Lauren Watson; Virginia Piper School of Creative Writing: Sean Nevin
Tech Asst: Zevin Polzin

International Society of Improvised Music (ISIM) is an interdisciplinary conference that brings together performers, educators, researchers, students and community members from across the world, in an effort to recognize improvisation as a powerful tool for achieving this integration.