bloviatingmusically

Thursday, April 7, 2011

luminokinetika /// trailer

Davor Sanvincenti / b.1979 / is a International multimedia artist from Croatia, also known by monikers such asMessmatik and Gurtjo Ningmor

International multimedia artist from Croatia, specifically interested in a field of audiovisual research and anthropology of visual culture, particularly focused on the conditions and forms of human senses and perceptions.
His work plays with the concept of illusion, exploring the possible boundaries of perception and the construction of experience.
He is recipient of the Radoslav Putar Award 2010 for the best Croatian artist under 35.

Website: http://www.messmatik.net/

Hauntingly Beautiful Piece

luminokinetika /// trailer from messmatik on Vimeo.

see also:
http://www.messmatik.net/

Monday, April 4, 2011

Rectangle & Rectangles (1984) - Réné Jodoin

This is a didactic film in disguise. A progression of brilliant geometric shapes bombard the screen to the insistent beat of drums. The filmmaker programmed a computer to coordinate a highly complex operation involving an electronic beam of light, color filters and a camera. This animation film, without words, is designed to expose the power of the cinematic medium, and to illustrate the abstract nature of time.

-- DESCRIPTION FROM THE NATIONAL FILM BOARD OF CANADA

website url: http://www.onf.ca/film/rectangle_et_rectangles

More information on the filmmaker on the NFB website

http://www3.nfb.ca/animation/objanim/en/filmmakers/Rene-Jodoin/overview.php

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Silk Chroma - Visual Music Piece

I was lucky to be involved in the creation of the visual music visuals for a collaborative work entitled "Silk Chroma". Working as a collaborative team to create this work was a wonderful experience. The Irish composer Linda Buckley was a pleasure to work with and the electro-acoustic composition that she composed is beautiful. Linda and I worked closely together to realise the ideas for the work, interestingly Linda described much of the music she would like to create in visual terms that really appealed to me and inspired the visuals. Similarly some visuals and still images that I created inspired sounds and timbres for Linda. Good stuff.

Silk Chroma is an audio-visual work that is inspired by the novella Silk by Alessandro Baricco as a conceptual framework for the creation of a Visual Music colour presentation, with an accompanying electro-acoustic musical composition using synthesized timbres and a surround sound presentation.

Silk Chroma was created by staff teaching on the Music and Media Technologies (MMT) postgraduate programme at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland and University of York, UK. MMT silk chroma team: Dr. Dermot Furlong, Dr. Linda Buckley, Maura McDonnell and University of York: Dr. Gavin Kearney.

screengrab from scene 1 - Silk Chroma

The premiere presentation of Silk Chroma as audio-visual installation took place in the Printing House in Trinity College, Dublin as part of the Innovation Dublin 2010 on November 11th and 12th, 2010.

Visual Music: Maura McDonnell
Music Composition: Linda Buckley
Surround Sound Composition: Gavin Kearney
Concept: Dermot Furlong

Website Links:
MMT music and media technologies course, TCD, Dublin - Link
vimeo website - Link

VIEW ON VIMEO
The video is for viewing on vimeo in three sections.

Section 1 - Water flow over his body

Silk Chroma - Section 1 - Water Flow Over His Body from Silk Chroma on Vimeo.

Section 2 - Silk threads stopped time

Silk Chroma - Section 2 - Silk Threads Stopped Time from Silk Chroma on Vimeo.

Section 3 - Birds in flight

Silk Chroma - Section 3 - Birds in Flight from Silk Chroma on Vimeo.

Purform - WHITE BOX | Excerpts

"A/V performance for a tryptic of HD video screens and quadraphonic audio White Box is a work based on a new way of generating A/V compositions in real time and is a new piece in a cycle that began in 2003 with Black Box."

VIEW ON VIMEO

WHITE BOX | Excerpts from Purform on Vimeo.

http://www.vimeo.com/21573910

Monday, March 21, 2011

Sensorium 1 - Dublin - March 11th, 2011

S E N S O R I U M was a weeklong festival of new music from Irish and international artists featuring workshops, talks and a series of concerts. It included everything from electro-acoustic works and audio visual displays to improvisation, performance art and contemporary dance. The goal of Sensorium "is to show co-creative musical works in a structured curation intended to stimulate multiple senses and challenge the audience’s attention through changing aesthetics and perceptions".
see: http://www.projectartscentre.ie/programme/whats-on/1191-sensorium for the programme for the week

Sensorium was curated by Judith Ring, Angie Atmadjaja and Emily Kalies

I attended the Sensorium 1 night on friday, March 11th and really enjoyed the variety of works that were presented. This was a really well produced show. It was a show that did indeed challenge ones attention as the works were adventurous in content and in placement in the performance space. I was really looking forward to this show, as I was very taken with the aims of the festival to present to audiences works that stimulated multiple senses and with works that challenged aesthetics and perception. I was not dissapointed.

The placement of the musicians in the middle of the space and the audience on each side was great. The space was for the musicians and it meant the audience had a more intimate view of the musicians at work. There were a variety of music works and audio visual works and each work tied really well thematically with the next. From body percussion, performance, audio visual works to electroacoustic tape pieces and interactive electronic improvisation, there were many flavours of pieces presented.

There appeared to be a common thread amongst some pieces as they pushed the boundaries of a music instruments timbre (MATT POSTLE – Extended A440 improvisation (10min, circular breathing) + Saliva Piece – Trumpet improvisation) or where electronic music competed and blended with real instruments (Judith Ring – “My one’s bigger than yours” for double bass (Malachy Robinson) and cello (Kate Ellis) was as visually interesting as it was aurally, an interesting diagonal placement of the two musicians, the piece was really absorbing as cello and double bass timbres merged with samples of the instruments to create a riveting electronic track . A piece that I really liked was ENDA BATES – new piece for Hexaphonic guitar + two percussionists (Enrico Bertelli and Simon Roth) - the placement of guitartist in the middle of the space and the drummers to each end meant the music and musician fully filled the space. I enjoyed the repetitive rock riff as it played out in time. I was struck that I like to repeat pieces of a tune I like and listen again and again - so to hear a rhythmic riff play out for a long duration I enjoyed. The incredible composition that was created via interactive technology and live improvisation by Jonathan Nangle was beautiful (JONATHAN NANGLE – ipad interactive electronic improvisation), hard to believe that this piece is crafted in real-time and each time he plays the system he built with the ipad, the piece will be different and never be the same. To create such beauty with such chance procedures is incredible.

My visual music work, a collaboration with composer Linda Buckley - Silk Chroma was presented as an audio visual work - it was great to see it played out in this concert, even though there were no live performances, I felt strangely nervous as the visuals played out on screen to Linda's incredible evocative sound track. Two other video works were shown - EMILY KALIES – “noitcelfeRReflection” - voice (Suzanne Fatta) and visuals. The impact of closeup shots of the singers face in various poses was striking. A really beautiful section about that is not a flattering angle with cut ups of shots of leg poses was really clever. Theo Burt's “Colour Projections” – a live interactive audio-visual piece was a treat. The structure of the work was clever as was the interaction of sound with events taking place on the screen. The simple use of orange and white was really refreshing.

My husband Cyril and daughter Bébhinn really enjoyed the show too, they came with me. Even though, this would have been a quite challenging show for them, we talked about some of the pieces for days after - and Bébhinn in particular was very taken with how one can play sound from an instrument that is not what you would expect. For me this was nothing new but for her it was a revelation. Cyril had some interesting philosophical observations, that I meant to write down, but should get him to write down for me. He discussed the composing of time and how at work with most of the pieces was this grapple or fight with time. Interesting!

I came away from the concert thoroughly refreshed and looking forward to the next sensorium next year!!!

The full list of artists works shown on the friday Sensorium 1performance can be seen at:
http://www.projectartscentre.ie/programme/whats-on/1216-sensorium-1 and at
http://www.the-link-project.com/