With this, new sound landscapes are created, not only from the interaction among the fish, but also from unveiling the intimate music archives, which are “submersed” underneath the MP3 player devices.

The visitor can connect his audio device to the interface, and chose a song of his preference. It is also possible for the user to record the track in the system in order to let the song be modified during the next visitor’s interactions. The visitor can listen to the previous visitors’ songs as well, as the system juxtaposes the previous visitors’ tracks with the current visitor’s song. Accordingly, the piece is always meshing up two different songs.

Submersed Songs | Canções Submersas from ∆LEX on Vimeo.

Submersed Songs is the winner of the Rumos Arte Cibernetica Prize (Itau Cultural Institute - São Paulo).

Vivian Caccuri is an artist born in 1986 in São Paulo, Brazil; currently working with performance, sound-art and beyond. Her work establishes reactive systems between sound and the physical realm, within themes that comprehend everyday-life issues, gender and social group behaviors. From 2006 to 2007, Vivian was granted a scholarship at FAPESP (Foundation for the Research of São Paulo State), to develop software tools for sound-art installations and performances, under the advisory of Prof. Dr. Milton Terumitsu Sogabe. In 2007 she developed the first project of FILE Labo (the medialab managed by FILE International Festival of Electronic Language); the sound-performance “Memorabilia”. In the same year, Vivian Caccuri won the Rumos Arte Cibernetica prize (Instituto Itau Cultural) for the sound-installation “Submersed Songs”, with which has collaborated with artists and musicians like Scanner (UK), Vitor Joaquim (PT), Kassin (BR), Hal Rammel (USA), and others. She also works as a content coordinator and technical consultant of FILE (International Festival of Electronic Language), having already taken part in eight editions of the event.

Timo Kahlen is also currently at MANIFESTA 7 with SWARM. Swarm is an eight-channel sound installation based on the manipulated sound of bees in a large scale steel structure. It is located at Fortezza / Franzensfeste fortress until November 2, 2008.

Among the awarded prizes for acoustic creation, the Phonurgia Nova competition has, since 1986, occupied a special place by virtue of its recognition of artists whose work exploits sound as a medium for expressing the real and the imaginary. In 2007, 152 productions and projects from 15 different countries, entered the competition. The winners were Gilles Aubry (Suisse), Antje Wowinckel (Germany), Bernadette Johnson (Suisse), Léonore Mercier (France), Jean-Philippe Scellier (France).

This year’s contest will once again distinguish authors whose work manifests a keen sense of sound and listening as means of expression, in two areas :

A) Radio Arts, will privilige all forms of inventive radiophonic creation : feature, new documentary, fiction, essay, radio mix, hörspiel, soundscapes, experimental forms, etc…

B) InterMedia awards will go both to “sound installations” and to sonic works which have been specially created for “new media” or a new combination of media, and to bring new sound experiences to listeners.

In each category the jury will deliberate on two types of work : 1) completed/finished productions; 2) projects/works in progress

The deadline for submission is the 15th of October, 2008. The Jury is chaired this year by the French sound director Daniel Deshays. The preselection of the candidates will be communicated at the beginning of November. The jury will deliberate the 14th and 15th of December in the Reattu Museum - Arles (France) - during two days of listening, open to all applicants.

To get more information go to : http://www.phonurgia.org (in english, german and french)
More sounds : www.transradio.org (texts in french)

Creating sound works is a lighter task than making a feature film. Sound as an endless territory for evocative power and transporting oneself over the rainbow. Give it a go

Vessel is a spatial composition consisting of field recordings of cargo ships, drifting on sound waves. The piece will be presented at Diapason as a site-specific multi-channel sound installation.

Esther Venrooy (1974, Rosmalen, The Netherlands) is a composer and sound artist working in the field of electronic music. After completing studies in classical saxophone, Venrooy attended the European Dance Development Center (Arnhem) as a composer in residence, where she began employing electronic and digital techniques in pieces aimed at choreography and stage performance. Gradually her music evolved into an independent means of expression and she continued her work with electronica at the IPEM (Institute for Psycho-acoustics and Electronic Music) in Ghent, Belgium where she still resides. At this time she started utilizing film editing paradigms as a foundation for her personal composition methods. Her works range from purely electronic composed music to improvised combinations of electronica with traditional instrumentation such as piano, flute and satsuma-biwa. She has created site-specific works as well as multimedia performances and installations. Much of her music has been released on CD or vinyl and has received good critical acclaim.

Esther Venrooy has performed her music extensively for audiences in cities such as Antwerp, Amsterdam, Brussels, Berlin, Madrid, Hamburg, Cologne Washington DC and The Hague. Upcoming concert destinations include New York, Dusseldorf, Berlin and Rotterdam. Apart from her artistic activities, Venrooy is a lecturer on 20th century music and experimental arts at the Ghent school of fine arts, where she also runs the audio workshop. Together with her husband she runs Odradek - an organization that curates events, releases and concerts dedicated to sound art and innovative or experimental music. Venrooy also presides the board of (k-raa-k)3 organization.

Diapason gallery for sound and intermedia presents is a non-profit performance and exhibition space that invites the public, artists and composers to engage with contemporary music and sound practices. Established in 2001 by composer Michael J. Schumacher and choreographer Liz Gerring, Diapason has built on his efforts at Studio Five Beekman, a sound gallery he founded in1996. With two high-quality multi-channel sound systems Diapason’s listening environment draws a regular audience, and Diapason continues to be the sole venue in New York City (and one of few internationally) that is dedicated to both presenting multichannel sound installations and providing space for composers and sound artists to experiment, exhibit and perform. Diapason is supported by NYSCA, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Phaedrus Foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, The Trust for Mutual Understanding, Kirk Radke, and other generous individuals. Diapason is a registered 501(c)(3) organization.

New Adventures in Sound Art invites artists of all ages and nationalities to submit works on the theme Ecology: Water, Air, and/or Sound for consideration in 2009 future programming for the annual Deep Wireless, Sound Travels, and SOUNDplay festivals, produced by New Adventures in Sound Art in Toronto, Canada. Artists may submit works in one or all of the following four categories: 1) Radio Art, 2) Electroacoustic Music, 3) Videomusic and 4) Installation Art. Individual interpretations or variations on the theme - Ecology: Water, Air, Sound - are encouraged.

All submitted works must respond in some way to the theme Ecology: Water, Air, Sound in order to be considered for 2009 NAISA programming.

Galleria Mazzini, the elegant 19th Century architectural gem in the heart of Genoa, Italy, serves as the framing space for international artist Jeff Talman’s newly commissioned installation A Play of Flows. The work’s sonic environment, based on site resonance and the nearby Mediterranean Sea, initiates a meditation on the contributing currents that enliven this spectacular urban site. Recorded at a nearby Genoese beach, crashing wave sounds provide the sonic source material for the installation. Talman filtered these sounds to align them with the resonant frequencies or “tuning” of the Galleria. The sea wave sounds, shaped into a series of spatial and site-harmonic progressions, engage the architecture as the “voice” of the sea sings in the Galleria, turning it into a vast resonating instrument.

The installation features four ’sound fountains’ that create cascades of resonant sound under the four domes of the gigantic glass and iron topped space. The sea-sonic wave environment fills the space as the domes, over 80-feet high, become giant parabolic sound reflectors. The timed release of cascading and erupting vertical sound motions under the domes are sequenced across the 592-feet length of the Galleria. The highly reflective marble floor and glass superstructure provide a dense reverberation as an atmospheric sense of the Galleria’s unique resonant structure is exposed and dynamically engaged.

Rarified sound wave motion is explored as intimations of the sea fill the space in a play of flowing motions that stand in reference to the history of the Galleria, the flow of time, people and events. Choreographic fields of sonic energy laced with the maritime sense of the Italian Riviera region interact with the architecture in a program that poetically confronts aspects of site, perception and time.

A Play of Flows is a highlight of Genoa’s Festival della Scienza. Alessandra Natale is Curator of the installation for the Bogliasco Foundation, an international foundation that operates an Arts and Humanities residency program at the Liguria Study Center in nearby Bogliasco, Italy. Additional support for the installation is by the City, the Province and the Chamber of Commerce of Genoa and the Merchants Association of the Galleria Mazzini.

Following this exhibition, Galleria-Studio Ghiglione, Genoa will present Talman’s Sea–Sound–Wave, an exhibition of photography and video installation from November 3–14.

Jeff Talman has created installations in Cathedral Square, Cologne, Germany, in St. James Cathedral, Chicago, in the Bavarian Forest, for the MIT Media Lab, Eyebeam, The Kitchen, and bitforms gallery in New York City among others. Recent awards include a 2006 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in Sound Art and a 2003 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Computer Arts. His unique achievement is self-reflexive resonance in which the inherent ambient resonance of an installation site is identified, amplified and returned to the space. Born in Pennsylvania and trained as a composer and pianist, he served as conductor to numerous orchestras. His sound work leapt from concert stage to the New York City gallery scene in 1996. Today his sound and video installations, sculpture and twodimensional work are regularly featured internationally in museums, galleries and other historic and alternative sites. Upcoming installations include a massive work for the Cathedral oof Cologne in the spring of 2009. Talman lives and works in Manhattan. Read NMR’s interview with him.

Sonic Bed v2 is a purposely built portable venue which plays music that moves for the prone bodies of an audience, who can come lie in the bed alone or together. The sounds for Sound Bed, v2 are by Magali Babin, John Oswald and Georges Azzaria. Sonic Bed is a sonic and social experiment exploring our perception of sound, presenting an oversized bed as a polished wooden tank with steps to climb up to get in it. Visitors are invited to remove their shoes and come lie on and enjoy specially constructed pieces moving up and down and around their bodies. Subtle, dynamic, at times beyond hearing, Sonic Bed plays music to feel rather than just listen to.

Sonic Bed is also an instrument, to be played by anyone who is interested as well as commissioned composers to make pieces for it using the specially developed software interface, built by and being developed in collaboration with David Muth through his research with Kaffe Matthews.

This interface enables the maker to literally draw and record sounds through the 12 channel sound system hidden under the mattress and side panels whilst lying in it ; meaning that 12 independent sources of sound can be playing and moving independently at any one time.

Sonic Bed_London was conceived and directed by Kaffe Matthews in 2002, realised in November 2005 and its success has spawned the ongoing Worldwide Bed Project. Sonic Bed_London is the original sonic bed, commissioned by Electra for Her Noise 2005, supported by the Arts Council of England and Women in Music. It is a central pin in music for bodies research and was awarded a Distinction in Digital Musics at Prix Ars Electronica, 2006.

The central aim of music for bodies is to make and present new and experimental music in public spaces and to explore and make other ways to experience it.

How do we perceive music ? How does the context in which we experience it affect our understanding ? Is musical atmosphere a function of time ? Can we stimulate our nervous systems directly with its frequencies so adjusting our experience of the environment void of linearity ? How can we listen ?

The sonic furniture Kaffe Matthews has made in the past is surprisingly successful in giving all kinds of people ways in to unfamiliar music. Ten years on and a practical understanding of space, sonic design and architecture through increasingly multi speaker playgrounds is developing this essentially collaborative research in the lab and the public.

Throughout there is a vital link to other practices and thought processes through quarterly meetings with a multidisciplinary Think Tank of professionals. Please contact Kaffe Matthews at info@musicforbodies.net — if you want to get involved in any way.

Heribert Friedl is an Austrian sound/ visual /sensory artist based in Vienna. he studied sculpture at the university of applied arts in Vienna. Working with scents and its non visual phenomenons in combination with sounds. He has had exhibitions, sound performances and projects in cities of Hungary, Switzerland, Germany, England, Italy, the US, Cuba, and Austria. Sound collaborations with Bernhard Günter, Dale Lloyd and John Norman (radian). CD releases on Trente Oiseaux, and/OAR; mp3 releases on con-v and Earlabs.

Tomas Phillips (b. 1969) is a composer, novelist, and teacher whose sound work focuses on improvisational performance and minimalist through-composition. He began composing electronic music in the early 1990s. Limit (17:51 minutes), completed in 2008, is comprised of samples from the solo guitar work of Taku Sugimoto. The original intention was to isolate individual notes and construct a new “guitar” piece. What emerged in the compositional process, however, was something very different.

For the duration of the festival weekend, Dutch artist Edwin van der Heide installed a piece called The Speed of Sound in two very different acoustic locations—a granary structure with a highly reverberant metallic interior, and an open-air clearing among some trees. Both environments were wired with microphones and speakers. Ambient sounds, as well as sounds from participants, were picked up by microphones and looped via cables and processors back to both spaces. The effect was akin to a long electronic tape loop between the clearing and granary slowly building on itself. This made for a sweeping harmonic listen, inside and out…” From Tim Sweet on Electric Eclectics, NYFA Current.

China Blue will participate in the eleventh edition of OPEN, the international exhibition of sculptures and installations held yearly at the Lido and in San Servolo, Venice, Italy. China Blue is an internationally exhibiting artist who creates sound based installations.

Aqua Alta is an immersive sound experience created using specialized audio equipment to capture the unique sounds of the waters of Venice via the gondolas that glide through them. This work was inspired by the effects global warming have on the environment, both underwater and above.

The sound of Venice is water. Every minute of every day and every night the sound of water is splashing on the stairs, lapping at the doorways and rising in waves as gondolas breeze across it. From the founding of Venice, to the present day, water is the source of transportation, a symbol of romance and the element that made Venice a major maritime power and a significant trading port. Water is also its problem. Global-warming has induced changes to the aquatic environment causing the waters to swell filling the piazzas and buildings and threatening the daily life and culture of Venice.

The sound installation Aqua Alta is a study of Venice’s dependence on and the threat of water. Aqua Alta submerges the listener in the sounds and the effect of the water of Venice. What is heard are the sounds from the water’s edge and underwater recordings, the structural creaks of the gondolas and sounds of water flowing around and under them as they float through the lagoon. Splashes and deep wave sounds of the gondola’s oar as it pushes the boat through the water, and the sounds of the sea life are also heard mixed with the above water search for a radio station that randomly captures songs about the ecology and water. The slow envelopment of the sounds in air of the aquatic acoustics as the waters rise become a metaphor for the dangers to Venice of global-warming induced changes to the aquatic environment.

Conceived and curated by Paolo De Grandis, co-curated by Carlotta Scarpa and held in collaboration with the Department of Culture of the Venice City Council, OPEN X1 exhibits about fifty works among sculptures, painting and environmental installations, situated outdoors, in the unique setting of Venice Lido during the Venice Film Festival.

The Island of San Servolo is a few minutes by boat from the Lido.

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