Synchronator by Gert-Jan Prins + Bas van Koolwijk :: December 20, 2010; 7:30 – 10:00 pm :: Nivell Zero, Fundació Suñol. Rosselló, 240, Barcelona.

Since the early years of video art, works have been made which do not actually produce a standard TV signal waveform and therefore cannot be directly recorded. To overcome this problem Bas van Koolwijk and Gert-Jan Prins have created their own hardware to get non-video signals accepted by regular video equipment.

Aided by current digital and analogue means and drawing from the tradition of experimental video pioneers such as Nam June Paik and Woody and Steina Vasulka, Koolwijk and Prins shared their technical know-how and with their Synchronator project set out to tackle the difficulties concerning the recording of complicated, merged and distorted video and audio signals. Continue reading

Army of Darkness. A Generative Sound Installation by Gullibloon :: December 16-18, 2010 :: Nivell Zero / Fundació Suñol, Rosselló, 240, Barcelona.

Army of Darkness is a generative sound installation, in which four custom-programmed minirobots act as instrumentalists, playing electric guitars and basses. The robots move freely in a room with a network of black lines laid out on the floor. They are programmed to follow the lines and to find their way back on course in case of going off track. On some special points of interest, guitars and basses are placed upside down so that the robots, prepared with a kind of plectrum, are able to play the instruments by driving underneath them. Sensors monitor these points and initiate a plucking algorithm. Each robot tries to play a guitar or bass for a certain amount of time and moves on afterwards. Continue reading

Algorithmic and Systems Music. An Introductory Seminar to Generative Systems as Applied to Art and Music in Particular :: December 17-19, 2010 :: Hangar, Passatge del Marquès de Santa Isabel, 40, Barcelona.

Over the past 30 years, and especially during the past decade, several environments and programming languages have been developed leading to a greater interest in that which is often called generative art, which – among other things – proposes an approach to the algorithm as a tool of creation. These generative practices often raise interesting questions about the nature of the creative act, blurring the essence of apparently clear concepts such as authorship, tool, work or process.

This seminar will provide a historical overview, from antiquity to the computer age, on the use of algorithms and rules to generate sound and musical pieces. Continue reading

Composing with Process: Perspectives on Generative and Systems Music 2.2: Marcus Schmickler and EVOL:

Generative music is a term used to describe music which has been composed using a set of rules or system. This series of six episodes explores — written and edited by Mark Fell and Joe Gilmore for Radio Web MACBA (RWM) — generative approaches (including algorithmic, systems-based, formalised and procedural) to composition and performance primarily in the context of experimental technologies and music practices of the latter part of the 20th Century and examines the use of determinacy and indeterminacy in music and how these relate to issues around control, automation and artistic intention. Each episode of the series is accompanied by an additional programme, entitled ‘Exclusives’, featuring exclusive or unpublished sound pieces by leading sound artists and composers working in the field.

This show presents two contrasting generative works by German composer Marcus Schmickler and Catalan collective EVOL.

Continue reading

Inventoriana: Annotation and Sharing of Marked-Up Manuscripts and Digital Images with Drew Massey :: December 8, 2010; 5:00 -7:00 p.m. :: Davison Room, Music Department, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.

Inventoriana is a cloud-based digital image annotation package. In this talk, Drew Massey provides an overview of its functionality, and considers the opportunities and obstacles present in projects of this nature.

Drew Massey was educated at Harvard University and Indiana University-Bloomington. A recipient of a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship and an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship, he is currently writing a book about the practice of music editing in the twentieth century. Continue reading

4TH Media Art Biennale :: WRO 2011 Alternative Now :: Call for works ::

The WRO Media Art Biennale is the leading international forum for new media art in Poland and Central Europe. Since its inception in 1989, WRO has been presenting art forms created using new media for artistic expression and communication, exploring current creative territories and building a critical perspective toward emerging issues in art and society.

Over the years, the WRO Biennales have raised a variety of questions about creative approaches to new technologies and the expanding technosphere of social media – about the creative crossover realms that arise where art and science, economics and social activism intersect. Continue reading

Aram Sinnreich :: Music in the Networked Age :: December 6, 2010; 3:30 – 4:45 pm :: Warren Weaver Hall, NYU Rm 109, 251 Mercer Street, New York City .

The Internet Society’s New York Chapter is happy to co-sponsor Aram Sinnreich addressing the topic ‘Music in the Networked Age’ as part of Evan Korth’s Computers & Society Speaker Series at NYU. The event will be videotaped for later webcast.

Music has always served as a map for social organization, and vice versa. Today, new networked communications technologies are changing the way we connect, and changing our musical patterns, as well. Yet Continue reading

Rethink Music Conference :: Call for Papers — Deadline: January 24, 2011.

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, in collaboration with Harvard Law School’s Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law (“JSEL”), is pleased to announce a CALL FOR PAPERS, seeking policy proposals that advance the interests of music creators, consumers, and entrepreneurs through changes in existing law. The Call for Papers coincides with Berklee College of Music’s upcoming conference, “Rethink Music: Creativity, Commerce and Policy in the 21st Century,” scheduled to be held in Boston and Cambridge, MA in April 2011.

Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution empowers Congress “to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” In response, Congress created copyright, patent, and trademark law and thus established a framework to govern the protection and exploitation of creative works. Continue reading

Picturing Science – a new open exhibition which examines the collision between two harmonious and contrasting fields of symbolic representation, Art and Science :: starting on December 4, 2010 and continuing until February 26, 2010 :: at the Riverside Gallery, Richmond, UK :: Free admission ::

Scientists use an abstract language of signs to visualise and explain the invisible forces, relationships and processes which make up our world. Artists similarly create images to transmit and analyse meaning. What happens when these two systems of representation collide, intersect and contaminate one another? Continue reading

Kunstradio-Radiokunst :: ON SITE / ON LINE / ON SAT :: “Vapor Trails of Europe” by alien productions (Martin Breindl, Norbert Math, Andrea Sodomka) :: December 7, 2010 :: Studio 3, ORF Funkhaus Vienna, Argentinierstr. 30a, A – 1040 Vienna :: on line: http://kunstradio.at :: Free Entrance at 7.30 p.m. :: Start: 8:00 p.m. (sharp) ::

Playing with satellites: Kunstradio presents alien productions’ radio live performance “Vapor Trails of Europe” on 7th of December at the ORF Funkhaus in Vienna as a EBU Euroradio Performance / Concert.

Within a few years, global data traffic has exploded on all levels and in all forms of media. The “cultural heritage” of Europe increasingly becomes a fiction and dissolves in networks, on circuit paths and traffic routes. It reappears elsewhere, connected with foreign data and other traditions, as a new life form. Continue reading