Arjen Mulder & Joke Brouwer’s Interact or Die! has been awarded the media art research award of the Prix Ars Electronica: http://www.aec.at/de/prix/winners_lbi.asp. Nice. Congrats to Arjen and Joke. The descriptions of the artworks in the book were edited/assembled/written by yours truly. So I guess a tiny bit of the light of the award shines on me too…
Gonzo Circus (http://www.gonzocircus.com) will publish my 700 words review of George Lewis’s A Power Stronger than Itself - a history of the AACM: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/etc. Nice!
Meanwhile I find excellent stuff at Steve Coleman’s new (?) M-Base site, uhm, all music available for free…: http://m-base.com/. That’ll keep me listening to his work for while. Also check out his blog-posts: http://mbase.wordpress.com/. That is, if you’d like a thorough explanation of his musical theories.
This friday, May 30th: We Love STEIM Party at the Mediamatic Garagebox. With performances of DJ Sniff, Toktek, music played by your DNK-deejays Andre, Harm and Koen, and much more: http://www.mediamatic.net/artefact-38024-en.html. Come and party to show how much we love STEIM.
Altijd fijn: een dichter die zijn werk lees- en luisterbaar maakt op het wereldomspannend web: http://www.hanvandervegt.com.
Just published: McLuhan Neu Lesen. Contains a text by your truly on the works of Esther Polak. Mind you: in German. More here: http://www.transcript-verlag.de.
Online exhibtion: http://www.clubinternet.org/. (Refreshing the page = new work). This first ‘issue’ is carefully curated by Harm van den Dorpel.
Net uitgelezen: Dirk van Hulle’s De Kladbewaarders. Prachtboek over tekstgenese – het ontstaan van literaire teksten, gereconstrueerd vanuit onderzoek van manuscripten, drukgeschiedenis et cetera. Niet alleen een uitstekende inleiding op tekstgenetica en een duidelijke positionering van dit type onderzoek, maar ook nog eens een stel essays die vanuit zulk onderzoek iets zinnigs melden over de literaire teksten in kwestie, en die je meteen doen verlangen zelf de besproken teksten (weer) ter hand te nemen en onmiddellijk te (her)lezen: Finnegans Wake en Ulysses natuurlijk, maar ook ‘alles’ van Beckett, Proust’s Recherche, Thomas Mann’s Doktor Faustus.
Ah, gewoon een superboek!
(… dit is een blog, geen recensierubriek).
Bestel hier: http://www.vantilt.nl/detboek.aspx?Boek_ID=150.
Tomorrow I will be in Genk, in Belgian Limburg. Speaking here: http://www.experiency.be, about story-networks and locative art.
The DNK-concert yesterday was a fitting goodbye to the OT301-space. DNK moves next week to the new concert space of the Smart Project Space a little further on in Amsterdam-West, a little more luxurious, and larger: it seats 120 people.
As a goodbye sound artist Mark Bain made the whole building vibrate: using seismic sensors to detect the natural resonance of the building, he played that frequency back into the building. The result is amazing, you hear and feel the vibrations, your muscles and organs are massaged (depending a bit on how you’re build, it seems to work much better with other people than with me). And it creates a happening in the space: the audience sits, stands, experiences in silence, there is nothing to look at (no musical performance), only something to hear and feel. One concentrates on the sound and one’s own body. It is a ‘heavy’ contemplative experience, and a enjoyable one too.
Before that, we already had had much time to listen to all the sounds in the building and to the space itself. Four compositions of the very young composers Taylan Susam and Joseph Kudirka (two each), brought together under the banner of Boredom and Danger, left more space for silence than for musical events. (Which is not completely correct, as the silence can also be a musical event). It is very interesting to see how deeply these young composers (and performers) have been influenced by the Wandelweiser-group. Isolating sounds, small sounds, almost inaudible sounds, and creating space to make sure that we can listen to those sounds. (Apart from the first piece in which someone in the audience got the giggles, there was abolutely no sound from the audience, no coughing, or whatever). There are simply many more minutes of silence, in which you become aware of your own listening attitude, that moments with sound. (Although ’silence’ is never silent). You become aware of the space (the building and its acoustic situation), of each and every sound – there is not any bit of the sound which is less important than any other bit. You hear everything, Everything counts. In that sense this minimalism is an absolute maximalism: every tiny change in the sound, in the breath, in the hairs on the bow of the cello, is equally important.
On the other hand there is also a conceptualist tendency going in their work. It was maybe strongest in the first two pieces. Seven Minutes or Trombonist by Kubirka simply consisted of a repeating of the same tone, held for about 10 seconds, followed by a much longer silence. The quite high tone was played in different positions each time, which made it a pretty virtuoso piece, though it didn’t nor looked virtuoso at all. Rather the opposite.
schoorel by Taylan Susam is a piece for one speaker, who over a period of a few minutes speakes the following words: It. Was. The. Most. Was. and then 3 words that I do not remember.
The high point for me was Solidarity by Joe Kudirka, subtitled ‘A Quilt for Christian Wolff’ – of all the four pieces this was the one with the most musical events. I think it was a score that could go in different directions, interpreted by clarinet (Taylan), ukulele (Kudirka), cello (Nia Hitz) and trombone (Daniel Ploeger), but also using tapping with the foot, whistling, and hand clapping.
Finally Taylan’s piece for anthony fiumara (2006) was again on the brink of audibility, and very very silent.
The total seriousness of these pieces makes them radical, and amazing, I find – though one might say that not all of them worked equally well. Maybe it still is the mark of really good ‘new’ art that it is at first difficult to accept, difficult to get, because it seems nothing, or too easy to do. The seriousness convinces me. And it makes you listen in a different way. It creates its own world, in which everything is relevant – that is a statement in itself, also ‘against’ the world. I would almost say that such music states “This is Our Music” (after Ornette Coleman).
Maybe I am reading too much in it. Who knows. Nevertheless, more than a hundred listeners came out on a monday night to experience it.
Next week DNK continues at the Smart Project Space.
http://www.myspace.com/taylansusam
Another strange little video by Oorbeek: http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=0AT1kBE1ePU
Next week, thursday March 13th I will be doing a presentation in Groningen, at Sign (Winschoterkade 10, 20.00 - 22.30h), as part of Aymeric Mansoux’ and Marloes de Valk’s project Hello Process, in rand() we trust. Also speaking: Florian Cramer, Adger Stokvisch and Dave Griffiths. See: http://no.systmz.goto10.org/.
My first German-language publication will soon be available. It’s a text on locative art and the work of Esther Polak in McLuhan Neu Lesen edited by Martina Leeker, Kerstin Schmidt and Derrick de Kerckhove: http://www.transcript-verlag.de/ts762/ts762.htm.
One of the reasons for not blogging too much is that I’ve been working on Sonic Acts XII The Cinematic Experience. The festival takes place from 21 - 24 February. Most of my time went into editing the book. Yesterday the book was delivered at the Sonic Acts office – I have not even seen it myself (will pick up a copy later today).
The book will be available during the festival, and can also already be ordered online at: http://www.sim-central.nl/detail.php?id=5757.
More info on the book and the festival at the Sonic Acts XII site: http://www.sonicacts.com/.
It’s the book from which I learned to play chess: Bobby Fischer, Schaaklessen, geprogrammeerde cursus voor beginners en gevorderden (1974). It was a present for my 9th or 10th birthday. I still remember so much of it that I suspect it had a big influence on my strategic/logical thinking. (In so far as I am able to think logically/strategically…) Bobby Fischer – who became worldchampion in 1972, never lost the title according to himself – died this week. The most controversial chess champion.
The book, I now see, is originally from 1966, entitled Bobby Fischer teaches chess, the co-authors are Stuart Margulies, of Basic Systems Inc. (? Basic the computer language?) and Donn Mosenfelder, a leading figure in ‘programmed instruction’. It was published by Xerox. It’s still available at Amazon.ca: http://www.amazon.ca/Bobby-Fischer-Teaches-Chess/.
On the 25th of January (ah), Loudthings, the first 35mm film of Telcosystems will premiere at the Rotterdam Film Festival: http://www.telcosystems.net/index.php/projects/2008-loudthings/.
Screenings are scheduled on friday January 25 at 16:15 in Pathe 6 and sunday January 27 at 22:30 in Venster 2, both times as part of the programme Science and Beauty. Furthermore it will be screened saturday February 2 in the Short Marathon programme.
Tonight we expect a packed OT301 (Overtoom 301, Amsterdam) for the DNK-concert of Ultralyd and KTL. Ultralyd is Anders Hana, Kjetil Moster, Kjetil Brandsdal and Morton Olsen. KTL is Stephen O’Malley (Khanate, Sun O))), Lotus Eaters) with Pita (Peter Rehberg). I’t going to be wonderful immersive and really loud drones/noise and exquisite electro-acoustic dark freerock. Or something like that.
Stephen O’Malley: http://www.ideologic.org
Ultralyd: http://www.n-collective.com/index.cgi?article=14&dept=groups & http://www.myspace.com/ultralydh.
DNK: http://www.dnk-amsterdam.com/
Monday 19th, 21.30h, Overtoom 301, Amsterdam. (I guess it’s 5 euro’s).
Aankondiging:
Een vrolijke avond met Onno Kosters, Han van der Vegt, Arnoud van Adrichem, Joost Zwagerman, Fabian Stolk en Arie Altena
Waar: in Perdu, Kloveniersburgwal 86, 1012 CZ Amsterdam, 020 4220542
Hoe laat: 20.30 uur. Zaal open: 20.00 uur.
Datum: woensdag 21 november
We beleven opnieuw een bloeitijd in de Nederlandse epische poëzie. Er worden weer meeslepende verhalen verteld in een dichtvorm die zich uitstekend leent voor voordracht en commentaar. Vandaar deze avond, die door literair-cultureel tijdschrift De Gids wordt georganiseerd ter viering van het verschijnen van haar themanummer met en over epische gedichten.
Poëzie:
Onno Kosters leest Lonely Planet, een hellevaart op een soms ondraaglijk lichte toon.
Han van der Vegt draagt een halfuur voor uit zijn in Homerische versmaat geschreven, meeslepende epos De Paladijnen, dat integraal en verticaal is afgedrukt in De Gids.
Arnoud van Adrichem komt met een aantal gedichtencycli uit zijn debuutbundel Vis.
Commentaar:
Joost Zwagerman licht wat achtergronden toe bij Roeshoofd Hemelt, zijn eerste proeve van epiek.
Fabian Stolk legt uit waarom nu juist de epiek het zo goed doet in de Nederlandse poëzie.
Arie Altena plaatst de epische poëzie in het tijdperk van internet en andere communicatienetwerken.
U wordt door de avond geleid door Dirk van Weelden en Arjen Mulder, beide redacteuren van De Gids.
Het nummer van De Gids is inmiddels uit, en te koop “bij de betere boekhandel”.
If you’re in or nearby Groningen: there’s an Audio Office Audio Art Event running from the 9th till the 11th of november (at the Steenhouwerskade 9). Sound art, deejays, installations. With a.o. Steven Jouwersma, Jobbe Holtes, Sjanet Bijker and Pascal Petzinger. More info: http://www.audiooffice.nl/.
Available in december in Dutch, and in spring 2008 also in an English translation: De Monografie, a complete overview of the works of Dutch avant-gardist, conceptualist, theatermaker, composer and pioneer of electronic music Dick Raaijmakers.
Arjen Mulder and Joke Brouwer of V2_ have worked by now almost three years on the book, and have gone through Dick Raaijmakers papers and other archived ’stuff’ for it. (I’ve seen quite a few originals pass by here in the V2_ office…).
If you order the Dutch version now, you’ll get a discount. More info: http://www.dickraaijmakers.nl/
A new work from the German (new media) artist Ralf Baeker: Rechnender Raum. He describes it as follows: “”Rechnender Raum” (calculating space) is a contemplative machine. Strings, weights, leavers and motors are connected to circular neural network. Touching one leaver will release an impulse that runs through the whole system; it will compute its possible states to infinity.” The term ‘Rechnender Raum’ comes from Konrad Zuse, one of the ‘fathers’ of the computer.
Take a look here (also video documentation): http://www.no-surprises.de/rechnender_raum/