Leervoll (Fully Empty): Leerraum’s Space for Listening with Asher Thal-Nir, Fourm, Richard Garet, Andy Graydon, Marihiko Hara, Kenneth Kirschner, Pe Lang, Mahmoud Refat, Zimoun; curated by Richard Garet and Andy Graydon :: May 9, 16 & 23, 2009; 2:00 – 8:00 pm :: Diapason gallery, 882 Third Avenue (between 32nd and 33rd Street), 10th Floor, Sunset Park, Brooklyn

This exhibition focuses on the label Leerraum [ ] as a platform for multi-channel sound releases concerned with ideas of sound in relation to space, silence, structure, and an active process of listening. Leervoll focuses on sonic constructions that explore the possibilities of environment and spatial listening, while also, drawing attention to structure, composition, and material interests. Continue reading

Natasha Barrett is a freelance composer, performer, and installation artist. The composition and manipulation of space is a central element in much of her work, and it is the focus of this interview. Barrett completed her Master’s Degree at the University of Birmingham, where she studied with Jonty Harrison and became practiced in the art of live sound diffusion using Birmingham’s renowned BEAST (Birmingham Electroacoustic Sound Theatre) system. She completed a Doctoral degree in composition at City University in London in 1998, studying with Denis Smalley. Her body of work includes large architectural installations, electroacoustic concert pieces, works for instruments and performers, and live improvisation. Barrett’s works have won international acclaim and numerous awards, including the Nordic Council Music Prize in 2006, a first prize at the Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition (1998 and 2001), and most recently, a commission from the 2008 Giga-Hertz Award. Barrett was born in the UK, but currently lives in Oslo, Norway. She has released numerous CDs, available through her website. Continue reading

Submersed Songs (2008), by Vivian Caccuri, an artist from São Paulo, Brazil, is a sound installation that generates MP3 player remixes through the movements of four live fish. The animals’ movements and the proximity among them work as a parameter for mixing and spatializing the sound output of MP3 players (iPod’s and others) of the visitors in real time. This system constantly mashes-up two different songs recorded by different users. The two tracks are submitted to different modification processes, building a real time continuity between the swimming of the carp fish and the levels of distortion — which can vary from an intense reverberation to a simulation of hearing underwater. Continue reading

Diapason gallery for sound and intermedia presents Dead Violets (Jeff Surak, Bethany Moore, Thomas Ekelund) and dub/ber/vie, a voice & multichannel composition / concert performance by Jennifer Walshe & Bernhard Gal :: September 26, 2008; 8:00 pm :: 882 Third Avenue, 10th floor, Brooklyn (Sunset Park).

dub/ber/vie explores different points of intersection between the voice and the space in which it exists. Using two sets of binaural headphones, a series of four-channel recordings were made by Jennifer Walshe and Bernhard Gal within a variety of spaces – a pet shop, the Turkish market in Kreuzberg, a farm for children, a supermarket and an apartment. Continue reading

Spatial Sounds, by Edwin van der Heide and Marnix de Nijs from mediateletipos on Vimeo.

From the exhibition Deep Screen – Art in Digital Culture currently on view at the Stedelijk Museum CS. (via mediateletipos)

5 days off MEDIA presents optofonica: Crosswire – in search of the synesthetic effect :: Exhibition: 3 – 26 July :: Netherlands Media Art Institute :: Keizersgracht 264 -1016 EV Amsterdam :: Works by: Aernoudt Jacobs, Sagi Groner, Kaffe Matthews, Telcosystems, TeZ & Janis Pönisch :: Opening: 2 July 6:30 pm. During opening: 7:30 pm performance Avatar Metaverse Orchestra; 8:30 pm Aernoudt Jacobs.

The Netherlands Media Art Institute presents in collaboration with 5 days off MEDIA the exhibition and performance series Crosswire. Crosswire comprises sound installations and audiovisual environments enabling immersive and spatial sonic experiences through bodily and multi-sensory perception. Continue reading

CARL STONE :: HAN BAT INSTALLATION :: C-Square Gallery, Chukyo University :: 101-2 Yagoto Honmachi Showa-ku :: NAGOYA JP :: June 30 at 6:30 pm.

HAN BAT is a multi-channel sound installation work by Carl Stone that builds from slow juxtapositions of various acoustic dimensions and spatializations that were enregistered using a special 8-channel portable recording system, The Octaphone, in 2007 and 2008. The Octaphone was developed by Carl Stone in collaboration with Professor Oizumi Kazufumi, of Chukyo University, and features 8 separate microphone capsules connected to two four-channel recorders, mounted on a specially designed transport bar that is light and small enough for portability. Continue reading

[’til death do us a part] by Tobias c. van Veen (aka saibotuk) – Dead media unwinds time from its spools. Two electromagnetic machines capture the unfolding of an era in which memory encodes the loving caress of electron imprinted tape. Time out of joint falls in & out of tape sync; more inhuman than human loops the frequency. “I wanted my human experience with machinic love to have the intensity of a hands-on relationship.”

Thus, van Veen turned to reel-to-reel (RTR) tape machines and Konstantin Raudive’s experiments with blank media in which he attempted to record the ‘voices of the dead’. (Little did van Veen know that John Hudak was exploring similar terrain in Voices from the Paradise Network.) Continue reading

Stephen Vitiello creates sound installations that often feature pristine recordings of natural environments and phenomena – the Amazon rain forest or flapping moth wings for example– sonically magnified to expose their internal detail and beauty. His installation work also focuses heavily on the use and implications of space as a compositional parameter. Vitiello has released several CDs and his work has been performed at The Tate Modern, The Whitney Museum of American Art, and The Kitchen, NYC. His work was also featured in the 2006 Biennale of Sydney and the 2002 Whitney Biennial. He is currently Assistant Professor of Kinetic Imaging at Virginia Commonwealth University.

On September 21, 2007, Vitiello visited the University of Virginia. We sat and discussed his work for an hour in the university’s Jefferson Rotunda. The recording and transcript of that interview is presented below. Continue reading

[From a photo by Robert Scoble who also took the tour] Erica Naone visited Microsoft’s anechoic chamber while touring their new research building in Redmond, WA. The chamber “a room… built to suppress echoes” is used in microphone and loudspeaker research. She writes about her visit in Technology Review.

From Naone’s article: “This is a room that simulates the absence of a room,’ said Ivan Tashev, a software architect in the speech technology group at Microsoft Research. I walked in through two sets of doors, walking precariously in heels over a mesh suspended above the floor, which is covered by the same alabaster-colored triangular cushions that fill the wall and ceiling. Tashev’s voice seemed to come from far away as he went on explaining that the triangular shapes trap and dampen echoes before they can reflect from one of the surfaces in the room.” Continue reading