One of my favorite peices from Siggraph this year was Wearable Forrest by Hiroki Kobayashi, Ryoko Ueoka and Michitaka Hirose, University of Tokyo, Japan.

This dress has LED lights embedded throughout that are audio responsive; they glow in response to the loudness of audio piped in from a remote forrest in Japan. There is a speaker in the dress where you can hear the sound of the forrest, and particularly the sound of the birds. There is also a button on the dress that plays a recording of a bird call in the forrest so that the birds will respond to it, and thus activate the dress.

There are some nice concepts in this work about connecting you to the environment, and feeling at one with nature, but I really just like the idea of there being a microphone and speaker just standing somewhere in the middle of a forrest. Even if you came across it, which would be an amazing enough visual in itself, the ignorance you would have of not knowing what was on the other end is a pretty powerful thing for me. Just so happens, its a dress.

My friend Luke DuBois has a fantastic lightbox version of his piece Hind Sight is Always 20/20 up at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this week. The work creates eye charts out of the State of the Union speeches from every President. The most frequently used words are at the top of the chart in large type, progressing down to the less frequent. A good indicator of the attitudes and pressing issues of the time can be seen in the patterns of the words.

This is one of the better examples of data visualization artwork I have seen lately. Luke is wise enough not to turn the frequency of the words into abstract blips or scrolling 3d letters, and he has found a good metaphor for the presentation in the eye chart. I saw him at Maker Faire a few months back, and he was lamenting that it was “impossible to find a mid range light box…they are either crap, or obscenely expensive”. It looks great though..If anyone is in Denver this week, they should definitely check it out.

Here is an overview of the work and an interview with Luke.

Hive Twilight City 3: The Spectacular Suburb

Saturday 13 September 2008

Matthew Herbert

Chris Watson

Hive DJs + VJs

the Bluecoat
School Lane
Liverpool L1 3BX
8pm - 11pm
£5/£7

The Hive Collective has commissioned to sonic pioneers Matthew Herbert and Chris Watson, to collaborate on a unique composition constructed entirely out of recordings from Crosby Beach – the site of Antony Gormley’s Another Place installation.

A one-off event at a specially prepared performance space within the Bluecoat will see Watson explore Another Place through a series of source recordings, followed by Herbert’s presentation of a brand new musical composition based on those recordings.

About the Artists

Matthew Herbert
Restless innovator, sampling wizard, classically trained pianist and superstar collaborator, Matthew Herbert is one of electronic music's most versatile and prolific figureheads. Herbert has produced and remixed artists as diverse as Björk, REM, John Cale, Roisin Murphy, Yoko Ono and Serge Gainsbourg. An alchemist of avant-garde sound in the tradition stretching from Stockhausen to the Aphex Twin, Herbert combines playful pop sensibility with a strictly imposed experimental agenda.

Chris Watson
Chris Watson is a world renowned sound recordist and one of the pioneers of UK electronic music. Chris has travelled the world exploring the wildlife sounds of animals, habitats and atmospheres for some of the BBC’s most popular natural history programmes, such as Life in the Undergrowth, Talking with Animals, Big Cat Diary and The Life of Birds for which he won a BAFTA . Beginning his career as a musician in the Sheffield band Cabaret Voltaire, he has released three solo CDs through Touch.

[read more - via thehivecollective.co.uk]

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Unidentified Sound Object

U.S.O.'s friend Domenico Sciajno will perform a new piece called Phadora for the opening of the Ars Electronica 2008.

Phadora is an electroacoustic piece designed for a very special 4+4 speaker setup at the open air and it has been specifically composed for this occasion.

SoUNdSET, the work of Italian artists Domenico Sciajno and TeZ (aka Maurizio Martinucci), is a sound performance that was conceived especially for this location: the Pöstlingberg terrace, the perfect spot for panoramic cityscape viewing. This piece works with the natural sunset and features audience interaction. As the sun begins to go down (at 7:38 PM on September 4, 2008), visitors can take a seat on the viewing terrace, focus their attention on the diminishing natural sunlight and simultaneously influence via directional loudspeakers the live soundscape being generated in relation to it. As the natural light increasingly gives way to the darkness of night, the more these acoustic experiences are transformed.

The complete schedule of the opening for the Ars Electronica 2008 Festival is available here.

[myspace.com/sciajno]
[sciajno.net]

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Unidentified Sound Object

The Festival Paris Quartier d’Eté is a summer festival in Ile-de-France from the 14th July till the 15th August.
On occasion of its 19th edition, the festival invites you to share the intimacy of Pierre Henry’s house, the place where he lives and creates, for an hour of unique musical experience. After a monumental concert offered at the Parvis de la Défense in 2007 for Paris Quartier d’Eté, this summer Pierre Henry will open the doors of his house to the audience. Every day, thirteen people will enter in his “House of Sounds” to listen to his music and discover his pictorial universe. A new way to listen to the electronic music of Pierre Henry in a multitude of acoustics. It is a privilege to accept this invitation. More than that, a unique experience.

Monday, August 4 - Friday, August 15 (except on Sunday, August 10), 4:30 pm & 6:30 pm At Pierre Henry’s house (Paris 12e) The venue will be communicated upon purchase of your ticket – Reservation required Price: 15 € / 12 € Running time : 1h

[pqe2008_brochure_en.pdf]

A couple of nights ago I attended the release party for the new book on the San Francisco Tape Music Center, edited by David Bernstein. There was a fantastic panel including Morton Subotnick, Ramon Sender, Bill Maginnis, Don Buchla, and David Bernstein, and the event was incredibly well attended. So well in fact, that the venue reached capacity and they had to kick many people out on threats of shutting down the event. That left many of us outside peering in through the windows.

I picked up the book and although I haven’t had time to go through it completely, it looks fantastic. If David Bernstein’s previous writing is any indication, this is a must have for anyone who wants a full picture of American electronic music history. It contains interviews with the entire core group of the TMC, including Don Buchla, who doesn’t like interviews very much. The book is accompanied by a DVD with recordings of compositions originating at the Tape Music Center, along with visuals by Tony Martin.

Speaking of Don, he had a hard time getting in too…you can see his head near the wall, mysteriously surrounded by a glowing halo…

One of the nice things on display at the event was the Tape Music Center’s Buchla Box, the first (? at least large scale) Buchla modular synthesizer. It normally lives at Mills College in Oakland, CA.

[Randy generating flying saucer sounds from a bicycle tyre]

Double Oscar-winning Hollywood sound designer Randy Thom has received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Music from Edinburgh University today.
Mr Thom, who has worked on classic movies like Return of the Jedi, Apocalypse Now and Forrest Gump, won Oscars for his work for space drama The Right Stuff in 1983 and animated film The Incredibles in 2004 and is described as a pioneer of "sound design".

A University of Edinburgh spokesperson said: "Randy Thom is one of those special people who have succeeded in changing the way a whole art form is conceived. The University is very pleased to be recognizing the significant contribution that he has made."

[via The University of Edinburgh]

This Festival, in its third year, explores the versatility of ISSUE Project Room's innovative house speaker system, designed by Stephan Moore.
In the hands of these diverse performers and sound artist, this fifteen-channel installation of hemisphere loudspeakers radically changes the concert experience for both performer and audience.

Each of the hemispheres radiates sound in all directions, activating the acoustics of this unique concert space. Immersive sonic environments are generated, electronic sounds take on the characteristic intimacy of acoustic instruments, and location is liberated as a musical dimension.


Wednesday, June 18
Sawako Kato will premiere new compositions for the Issue Project Room. Sawako weaves the intimate sound scape with fragments from her recent trips + sine tone + subtle voice.

Tristan Perch will show his new work with 5 voices and 15-channel 1-bit electronics + a short piece for 3 violins.

Saturday, June 14

Phil Niblock

Saturday, June 28

Francisco López

All performances 8:00pm, $15

For more information:
718-330-0313
info@issueprojectroom.org

ISSUE Project Room
232 Third Street, 3rd Floor, Brooklyn
at the Old American Can Factory

[issueprojectroom.org]

Turin - Italy
Rai Auditorium Arturo Toscanini
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
19 pm- Award Ceremony
21 pm - Concert

The manuscript of the original version of Metastaseis by composer and architect Iannis Xenakis now becomes music to listen to, in first execution at the RAI Turin, dedicated to the participants of the XXIII World Congress of Architects Uia in their evening gala.
In addition to Metastaseis, the programme provides Shaar for string orchestra and two compositions by Edgar Varése : Offrandes for soprano and chamber orchestra and Amériques for large orchestra.

Arturo Tamayo director

Carole Louis soprano

Iannis Xenakis
Shaar for large string orchestra

Edgar Varèse
Offrandes for soprano and chamber orchestra

Iannis Xenakis
Metastaseis
(absolute first execution of the original version)

Edgar Varèse
Amériques for large orchestra

[orchestrasinfonica.rai.it]
[uia2008torino.org]