Mark Vernon and Zoë Irvine work between art, music, radio and sound. The artists have been working prolifically at the forefront of their field since shifting from predominantly visual practices. They will talk about their individual practices and touch on their numerous collaborations together. Including their recent project, Hairwaves: which produced an irreverent blend of music, interviews, haircuts, dog groomers and the paranormal.

Radio, tape and found audio material creates intimate links between their practice. The dislocation of the recorded voice and the ability to manipulate, or cut up, tape creates a precursor to the limitless possibilities of digital manipulation which both artists employ with great sensitivity. Irvine ’s project MagneticMigrationMusic recomposed discarded fragments of audio cassettes collaged with location interviews. Recent works from Vernon have developed from experiments of amateur tape enthusiasts after he discovered The Derby Tape Club’s archive at a boot-sale.

Upgrade! Montreal presents Listen! Sonic Ecology & the City in collaboration with Artivistic 2007 [ un.occupied spaces ], welcoming international and local sound artists and non-musicians alike to explore the relationship between ecology, sound and politics. The collective sound jam will open with two special dance performances.

“Why is WEF still alive? I need it, I have no time to listen to music on CD and no time to go to a concert. But music and media art is part of my life so I decided that it is much easier to put art on the schedule, to organize concerts and to administrate an online library of free music, to meet artists and to be an artist; this is my way of upgrading myself.

I am influenced by technology and music - these two things push me to get busy with music, jazz and new media art. This is why I had to organize my own art: the Warsaw Electronic Festival, since 2002. The same reason pushes me to promote unknown electronic musicians on the jazz radio program called Future Shock and to work on many other projects connected to electronic culture, some of them you probably know: Future Sessions for Polish National Radio BiS with Mateusz Kwiatkowski, Dresdner Radiostadt #1, Radio Copernicus.

Since 2001 almost 200 performers were invited to participate in many small and bigger events connected to my activity e.g. representatives of Scape Records, Deadbeat and Bus, Tonne from Klitekture Records. Swedish producer Mikael Stavöstrand and Johan Skugge from the MITEK records, projects from the French M-tronic label, many Polish performers-among them Mikołaj Trzaska, GB Productions Team, Rzutnik B9, April Tone, LOF, Qriozum, Game Boyzz Orchestra Project and Kunsbande SLA, Dagiel, Eta Carinae, Zen Lu, Ko On Ten, Markus Reuter, ISAN, Syntetika, Andrey Kirychenko and many others. I am sure that anyone interested could find many interesting projects on www.wef.pl, the home website of the Warsaw Electronic Festival, my primary project. Since 2003 I was honored to cooperate with ‘Zacheta’ National Polish Gallery organizing some new media exhibitions and presentations. Great names were invited to take participation in this program: Sheldon Brown - Director of the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA) at the University of California in San Diego (UCSD); Chris Csikszentmihályi, who directs the Media Lab’s Computing Culture group, John Craig Freeman - an artist and educator exploring practices that challenge the function of art and the role of the artist, Jon Cates - an artist, but he also teaches in the Film, Video and New Media dept @ School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

I am also an electronic musician – Seed Project is my solo project, but frankly speaking, at the moment I prefer cross cooperation with other artists like TASEEE (cross project with Mikołaj Trzaska) Send /Recv (Cross project with Robert Jeszke aka Lord Of Flies).” - Jarek Grzesica

Locus Sonus is a research group specializing in audio art (École Supérieure d’Art d’Aix-en-Provence, École Nationale Supérieure d’Art de Nice Villa Arson, École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Marseille) in association with the research lab in sociology CNRS/MMSH/LAMES - University of Provence. Our objective is to experiment and evaluate the innovative and transdisciplinary nature of audio art forms in combining practical artistic experimentation and critical evaluation in a group context. Two main thematics define this research - audio in it’s relation to space and networked audio systems.
Locus Sonus Lab (2006/2007): Research direction: Jérôme Joy, Peter Sinclair :: Laboratory coordination: Anne Roquigny :: team: Nicolas Bralet, Sabrina Issa, Nicolas Maigret, Esther Salmona, Lydwine Van der Hulst.

Info and archives on: http://incident.net/theupgrade — The Upgrade! Paris sessions are organized by Incident.net. They are public and monthly. Artists, researchers, architects, theorists present during one hour their recent work. Partners: CITU, Ars Longa, Marie Daubert, Upgrade! International.

Upgrade! #11: Jérôme Joy et Peter Sinclair présentent Locus Sonus — Médiateur: Dominique Moulon — Date: Samedi 22 septembre à 18h — Lieu: Festival Seconde Nature, Fondation Vasarely - 1, Avenue Marcel Pagnol - Aix-en-Provence
Locus Sonus est un laboratoire de recherche en art audio (École Supérieure d’Artd’Aix-en- Provence, École Nationale Supérieure d’Art de Nice Villa Arson, ÉcoleSupérieure des Beaux-Arts de Marseille) associé au laboratoire de rechercheCNRS/MMSH/LAMES de l’Université de Provence. Son objectif est d’expérimenter les aspects innovateurs et transdisciplinaires des formes artistiques sonores en combinant l’expérimentation pratique et l’évaluation critique selon deux ax es : audio en espace, audio en réseau.

Locus Sonus Lab (2006/2007): Directions de recherche: Jérôme Joy, Peter Sinclair :: Coordination du laboratoire: Anne Roquigny :: équipe: Nicolas Bralet, Sabrina Issa, Nicolas Maigret, Esther Salmona, Lydwine Van der Hulst.

Jérôme Joy: Compositeur et artiste-enseignant à l’École Nationale Supérieure d’Art de Nice Villa Arson depuis 1992. Après un parcours de performances et de concerts instrumentaux et électroacoustiques, il développe depuis 1995 de nombreux projets en réseau d’envergure internationale, concerts de musique en réseau, databases sonores participatives, projets musicaux entre musique électronique et radiophonie, et des performances musicales qui mettent en jeu des technologies de programmation, systèmes en réseau, improvisation, etc.: Collective JukeBox, picNIC, nocinema.org, PacJap, pizMO, Lib_, Sobralasolas !, etc. http://jeromejoy.org/; http://nocinema.org/.

Peter Sinclair: Né en 1962 en Angleterre, Peter Sinclair enseigne à l’École Supérieure d’Art d’Aix-en-Provence où il est responsable du département son depuis 1996. Peter Sinclair est un artiste principalement connu pour ses installations sonores et ses réalisations utilisant l’audio comme principal médium. Engagé dans des pratiques artistiques liées aux technologies il manipule ces médiums avec un regard critique, parfois ironique, mettant en œuvre des rencontres entre hommes et machines pour créer des situations inédites. Son travail évolue de la mécanique burlesque, en passant par le détournement d’ordinateurs, jusqu’à la performance et des parodies du langage des media modernes via des collaborations en réseau: Soapopera, Heart Break Hotel, Shooter, Rant/Rant Back, Daisy Chain, AVAD, la Fée Électrique, Cosy Disco, etc. http://nujus.net/.

Infos et archives sur: http://incident.net/theupgrade Les sessions The Upgrade! Paris sont organisées par Incident.net. Elles sont publiques et mensuelles; les artistes, chercheurs, architectes, théoriciens présentent pendant une heure leur travail récent. Partenaires: CITU, Ars Longa, Marie Daubert, The Upgrade ! International.

The espaceSONO audio.listening.lab is a global curatorial project that reflects the diversity of approaches and practices in sound-art today. Some forty artists from ten countries are represented, each offering a unique foray into sound. The works are designed to be heard in a focused listening environment over headphones. Two installations open new ways of containing sound-art while a series of performances demonstrate the versatility of artists engaged in sound exploration as they shift from composition to performance.

Many of the artists are affiliated with a local node of the international Upgrade network, an organisation of artists and practitioners in the technology and media arts. As a global curatorial project, the audio.lab reflects the themes of self-organisation and DiY (Do-It-Yourself) that drives the Upgrade network.

As a collection of sound works, the audio.lab enters into a world of challenging listening that touches upon a multiplicity of practices, from electro-acoustic to field recordings and microsound, contact microphones to remixes, sine waves to granular synthesis, home-built turntables to circuit-bending, customized software patches to noise, explorations of the body to abstract principles, found sounds to interventions in video gaming and the political sphere….

Four Performances: The exhibition features a series of four performances, from the free events of the opening vernissage and a dedicated, deep.listening.session featuring international guests to a free soundwalk and an intimate gallery performance.

espaceSONO vernissage:
september 5th 2007. 5@7 w/ music @ 8pm.
SAT Café, FREE.
Jim Bell & Katherine Liberovskaya (NYC/Montreal)
Celine Beyond & Scant Intone (Montreal)
Esther Bourdages (Montreal)
FISHEAD (Montreal)
tobias.dj (Montreal)

deep.listening.session
september 14 th 2007, 8pm.
SAT MAIN ROOM, $10 @ door.
Martijn Tellinga / BOCA RATON (Netherlands)
o.blaat (NYC)
Mike Hansen (Toronto) & Martin Tétreault (Montreal)
Nathan McNinch (Montreal)
tobias.dj (Montreal)

sound.walk with Andra McCartney (Montreal)
20th September, 2007, 6:30pm. FREE.
rendez-vous @ SAT

gallery.performance
September 27 th , 2007, 6:30pm.
SAT [GALERIE], $5 @ door.
Anna Friz (Toronto)
Mankind (Alexis O’Hara & D. Kimm)(Montreal)
Kathy Kennedy (Montreal)

Janicki will discuss, among other works, Ping Melody, a music-net-performance. Temporary and unique state of all actions of Internet users has an influence on form of music composition. Musician (instrumentalist or singer) is playing on acoustic instrument/singing and sounds coming from instrument/voice are shared in packets of data information (granulated), then transmitted to selected Internet locations (as “ping” unix command).

The order of packet’s return, packet’s delays, transmission errors alerts are incorporated, and the information coming from these actions is controlling in the real time the transformation of played sound. Performance will be accompanying by visualisation, showing tracks of data and information of errors, etc. Dedicated software is a kind of sampler (granular synthesizer) and pitch tracker, which is using Internet to transform and create sound construction. Musician is improvising, treating software, which is transforming sound coming from his instrument, as a partner – a kind of second musician. More >>

Guests/performances: Miller Puckette - Pure Data; Amy Alexander - CyberSpaceLand; Ejival - Mix set.

[translated from the site…] Monthly meeting of artists and audiences interested in electronic culture and new media / event is free and open to the public. Organized by DreamAddictiveLab / Hosted by the Centro Cultural Tijuana / Affiliated with Upgrade! International.

James Webb is a leading South African sound artist with a growing international reputation. He will discuss the challenges of his large-scale sound installations including Prayer (2002); The Black Passage (2006) and Autohagiography (2007); his collaborative radio projects including A Compendium of Imaginary Wavelengths (2004) and works in progress such as Beau Diable (2007).

From the profile of James Webb by Carinne Zaayman on www.artthrob.co.za: “James Webb is a pioneer of sound art in South Africa. But his production extends far beyond that of gallery installations. Webb also works as a sound designer, curator and teacher. A keen collaborator, Webb is always involved in a number of projects where his expertise on sound as well as project coordination is invaluable.Highlights of his career include the co-curation of the YDETAG and YDEsire events, participation in the 2002 Ars Electronica festival, his collaboration with James Sey for ‘A Compendium of Imaginary Wavelengths’, and his two-part solo exhibition ‘Phonosynthesizer’ at the US gallery in Stellenbosch and the NSA in Durban. His sense of pop and eroticism characterise many of his works, especially in two of my favourites, thesexworks, a telephone artwork, and Wa, an elaborate spoof on our celebrity-mad pop culture and our romance with all things Japanese.

It is, however, his ingenious conception of the way in which sound permeates our world and thinking that defines Webb’s magical oeuvre. His work never simply revolves around the playback of sound files. Instead, there is always careful consideration of the physicality of context and media, whether this is the installation of large speakers, or almost invisible interventions in public spaces. Process is further of prime importance for this artist, as his manner of sourcing sound is invariably already part of the way in which meaning is generated through his work.”