World Science reports that musical genes may be coming to light. In their April 30, 2008 Special to World Science, they report on a first small study that suggests that musical ability is partly genetic and may share evolutionary roots with language. Finnish scientists say they’ve found “approximate locations in our genome where genes affecting musical talent may lie.” The study was made on 254 individuals from 15 Finnish families, all with some musical talent. It was published in the April 18 advance online issue of the Journal of Medical Genetics.

STATION HOUSE OPERA: WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE WORLD? :: Until Sunday 4 May 2008 :: Tues - Sat 11pm (8pm Sunday) :: Soho Theatre Bar, London W1 :: Tickets 0870 429 6883 or book online :: Tickets £5

From Soho to Rio: What’s wrong with the world? is a unique event performed in real time across two continents.

Combining live performance in Soho’s theatre bar with real time video links from both London and Rio, What’s wrong with the world? takes the distance between the two cities and uses it to create a third, surprisingly intimate location where performers in London mingle, merge and collide with their counterparts in Rio. Continue reading

April ReSiDeNt Show: New Works, New Instruments, New Artists :: Featuring new works by Dafna Naphtali, Andrew Schneider and Simon Morris :: at LEMURplex, 461 3rd Avenue, Brooklyn, between 9th & 10th Streets :: Friday, May 2nd :: 8 pm - 11 pm :: $5 at the door

Dafna Naphtali is a sound-artist and improviser-composer from an eclectic musical background. As singer/guitarist/electronic-musician she performs and composes using custom sound processing of voice and other instruments. Besides her composing and improvised projects, she co-leads the digital chamber punk ensemble What is it Like to be a Bat? with Kitty Brazelton (http://www.whatbat.org) and has collaborated/performed with Lukas Ligeti, David First, Joshua Fried, Continue reading

Seth Cluett:: Doleros (audio tourism at ringing rocks) :: MAY 10, 17, 24, 31 Saturdays 2-8 PM :: Opening Reception: MAY 10, 6-8 PM :: Free :: Diapason gallery for sound and intermedia :: 882 Third Avenue (between 32nd and 33rd Street), Brooklyn, NY 11232 :: subway: D, M, N, R to 36th St/4th Avenue :: 718.499.5070 ::

Ringing Rocks Park, PA

Doleros is an 8-channel surround sound installation that reconstructs the experience of audio tourism at Ringing Rocks Park, a popular boulder field in rural Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Featuring the largest diabase (dolerite) deposit in North America, Ringing Rocks Park offers visitors the opportunity to explore the sonic qualities of the geologic detritus, which produces different ringing qualities when struck. Continue reading

Listening Post :: Tuesday 13th May 6.00-9.00pm :: at the 3rd Takeway festival :: The Dana Centre, 165 Queen’s Gate, South Kensington. London SW7 5HD :: talk@danacentre.org.uk :: if you are interested please book your place as numbers are limited

A Special Viewing and Question and Answer session via Satellite link with Mark Hansen and Ben Rubin the artists behind the Listening Post installed for one year in the Science Museum. The session will provide valuable access to the artists and help visitors to the festival to engage with the theoretical discourses that have grown up around this important piece. Continue reading

In a typical neural network application, layers of simulated neurons are used to compute an output based on some input. The Ecstacy of Communication explodes the network to a human scale, both in terms of space and in terms of time. The result is a spatially-situated conflation of neural network and swarm intelligence, a population of sound-making devices interacting with each other and the sounds in their environment. Our focus shifts to the very activity of the network; the generative process itself becomes the art.

See movie: http://machinatus.net/tec/tec_240.mov Continue reading

RASTER-NOTON SHOWCASE :: Thursday, May 15, 2008 :: SIGNAL + solo sets by Alva Noto, Frank Bretschneider, and Byetone :: Presented by Non-Event, Basstown, and the Goethe-Institut, Boston ::Middlesex Lounge :: 315 Massachusetts Avenue :: Cambridge, MA :: (617) 868-MSEX :: Doors: 9pm, Show: 10pm :: 21+ Admission: $10

SIGNAL is a Raster-Noton supergroup, featuring Carsten Nicolai (aka Alva Noto), Olaf Bender (aka Byetone), and Frank Bretschneider. The trio performs intense, hypnotic music to a spectacular backdrop of graphical information that reveals the complex geometry of the sounds in play. Most of their sound sources are taken from a huge memory bank of music from long jamming sessions dating from the earlydays of Raster-Noton. These are processed and folded into a taut and energetic web of rhythmic clicks, bristling static, and deep bass pulses that are unexpectedly sensuous and undeniably funky. Their most recent album, Robotron, was released in 2007 on Raster-Noton. This will be SIGNAL’s Boston debut.

mp3 of Signal, Robotron: http://www.raster-noton.net/download/rn-69_robotron/02_Ermafa.mp3 Continue reading

TONEWHEELS:: Workshop with Derek Holzer (USA) :: HMKV in the PHOENIX Halle, Dortmund ::Hochofenstr. / Ecke Rombergstr. Dortmund-Hoerde
May 29 - June 1, 2008 (Thu - Sun) :: Max. 15 participants, in English :: Registration until May 22, 2008 at info@hmkv.de or Tel +49 - 231 - 823 106

In the framework of “Waves -The Art of the Electromagnetic Society”, HMKV in the PHOENIX Halle Dortmund, May 10 - June 29, 2008, opening: Friday, May 9, 2008, 19:00, www.hmkv.de

Tonewheels is an experiment in converting graphical imagery to sound, inspired by some of the pioneering twentieth-century electronic music inventions. Continue reading

Sound:Space - Call for Submissions:An exciting opportunity has risen to exhibit at Atrium and the Atrium Projection Space at South Hill Park (Ringmead, Bracknell RG12 7PA, United Kingdom) as part of the Sound:Space season on 20 September – 9 November 2008. We invite proposals from visual and digital artists exploring the field of sound art and the representation of sound. We welcome proposals for both moving image/sound and wall-based work.

The Atrium is one of our busiest exhibition spaces and is used by a wide range of South Hill Park visitors. The space also combines a café and a lounge area and we are particularly interested in site-specific works for the space.
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[Image: Garrett Phelan] Garrett Phelan works and lives in Dublin, Ireland. In recent years Phelan has focussed his practice on extensive explorations into the formation of opinion and the absolute present, particularly manifested through independent FM radio transmission projects, drawing, video, photography and web based projects in both gallery and non gallery environments.

At what point will common sense prevail, 26 sound works to be presented for a 5 year period, was commissioned by the Lewis Glucksman Gallery and curated by René Zechlin. It marks the second phase of a series of projects exploring the formation of opinion; it deals with how cognition occurs in conversation, discussion or debate. Continue reading