Creative Tech Week

It is seventeen minutes past midnight, Oceanic Time. You’re sitting in a theater of sorts – a show is about to begin – there is an occasional flicker of light – a sonic shudder - an atmosphere of electronic energy - you look down at the program in your hand, black letters spell the words Why Why Always...

In this sci-fi misadventure of secret agents and seductresses, where Godard's Alphaville meets ASMR - mesmeric whispers fill the air, lighters flash, linens are folded, and a super computer is foiled. Why Why Always conjures a live cine-performance through the interplay of otherworldly video, music, sound and technology.

Created and Conceived by Shaun Irons and Lauren Petty
Performers (live): Jim Fletcher, Saori Tsukada, Laura Bartczak, Marion Spencer
Performers (video): Scott Shepherd, Madeline Best
Narration: Christina Campanella
Additional music and voices: Brian Rogers, Olivier Conan
Media and live-processing: Shaun Irons & Lauren Petty
Props & Costume Design: Amy Mascena

Shaun Irons and Lauren Petty are Brooklyn based multi-platform artists who make multidisciplinary performances, dynamic media installations, single-channel works, documentaries and interactive video scores for live performance. Recently, they created a multidisciplinary performance called Keep Your Electric Eye On Me, which was commissioned by HERE in NYC. In addition, they recently completed Standing By: Gatz Backstage a feature-length, atmospheric documentary portrait of Elevator Repair Service’s acclaimed theatrical event Gatz, and developed a self-generating, video/sound installation called Atmospheres & Accidental Ghosts. Shaun and Lauren’s work has been exhibited in diverse locations nationally and internationally including BAM’s Next Wave Festival, The Brooklyn Museum, Abrons Arts Center, The Chocolate Factory, BEAT Festival, and Anthology Film Archives in NYC, REDCAT (Los Angeles), ZSpace (San Francisco) the Center for Contemporary Art (Santa Fe) and Rencontres Paris/Berlin, Tokyo Wonder Site and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana. Their video design has been seen at St. Ann’s Warehouse, The Public Theater, The Kitchen, HERE, PS 122, EMPAC, the Pompidou Center, Prototype Festival, Holland Dance Festival, the Venice Biennale, and BAM. They have received numerous awards and creative residencies in support of their work.

Why Why Always is made in part with support from New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artists program (Film, Media, New Technology Production and Theater Commission) with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

It is seventeen minutes past midnight, Oceanic Time. You’re sitting in a theater of sorts – a show is about to begin – there is an occasional flicker of light – a sonic shudder - an atmosphere of electronic energy - you look down at the program in your hand, black letters spell the words Why Why Always... 

In this sci-fi misadventure of secret agents and seductresses, where Godard's Alphaville meets ASMR - mesmeric whispers fill the air, lighters flash, linens are folded, and a super computer is foiled. Why Why Always conjures a live cine-performance through the interplay of otherworldly video, music, sound and technology. 

Created and Conceived by Shaun Irons and Lauren Petty 
Performers (live): Jim Fletcher, Saori Tsukada, Laura Bartczak, Marion Spencer 
Performers (video): Scott Shepherd, Madeline Best 
Narration: Christina Campanella 
Additional music and voices: Brian Rogers, Olivier Conan 
Media and live-processing: Shaun Irons & Lauren Petty 
Props & Costume Design: Amy Mascena 

Shaun Irons and Lauren Petty are Brooklyn based multi-platform artists who make multidisciplinary performances, dynamic media installations, single-channel works, documentaries and interactive video scores for live performance. Recently, they created a multidisciplinary performance called Keep Your Electric Eye On Me, which was commissioned by HERE in NYC. In addition, they recently completed Standing By: Gatz Backstage a feature-length, atmospheric documentary portrait of Elevator Repair Service’s acclaimed theatrical event Gatz, and developed a self-generating, video/sound installation called Atmospheres & Accidental Ghosts. Shaun and Lauren’s work has been exhibited in diverse locations nationally and internationally including BAM’s Next Wave Festival, The Brooklyn Museum, Abrons Arts Center, The Chocolate Factory, BEAT Festival, and Anthology Film Archives in NYC, REDCAT (Los Angeles), ZSpace (San Francisco) the Center for Contemporary Art (Santa Fe) and Rencontres Paris/Berlin, Tokyo Wonder Site and the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana. Their video design has been seen at St. Ann’s Warehouse, The Public Theater, The Kitchen, HERE, PS 122, EMPAC, the Pompidou Center, Prototype Festival, Holland Dance Festival, the Venice Biennale, and BAM. They have received numerous awards and creative residencies in support of their work. 

Why Why Always is made in part with support from New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artists program (Film, Media, New Technology Production and Theater Commission) with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Standalone musical performances, demonstration of interactive 3D sound design, and the incorporation of new technologies in clothing design/production featuring Jason Akira Somma

Mind Travel is a collective journey. In his live performances and video art installations, Murray draws upon both his music and creative tech background to transport the audience on a journey that is at once expansive and transformative. His improvisational piano meditations, inspired by mystical traditions and theoretical physics, combined with his visual art installations driven by the music will leave you in a state of harmony and clarity, with the rhythm to carry it forward into your life.

We have the grandest night of Mind Travel music yet on May 5th with the Mind Travel String Orchestra, including world class musicians Ashley Bathgate, Ralph Farris, Katie Hyun, Dorothy Lawson, Cory Lee, Jessica Meyer & Pat Swoboda, We will premiere new work alongside a reflective solo piano and video art projection. Spoken word poet Max Stossel will also join the stage. This will be a night of musical exploration, a night of possibility in the 800 seat NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City.  All proceeds go to benefit cancer research and tickets are tax deductible.

WHEN: Thursday May 5th, 8:00 pm Performance / 7:00 pm Reception

Jane Rigler and Elizabeth Hoffman with video by Anna Weisling

All the more my thoughts multiply

All the more my thoughts multiply is a work for flute, electroacoustic sound, and interactive video that explores the psychology and transformation of a lone character from the Noh play “Aoi-no-ue”, taken from the massive and influential 11th c. Japanese epic “Tale of Genji.” Possessiveness marks the greatest challenge to overcome. In this mono-drama the gestural significance of both the spatialized sound and the movements of the flutist weave together textures of light and music through an ancient Japanese folk story that asks: how do we navigate through our possessions?

This work is a commentary on the concept of “possession” as seen through an ancient Noh tale “Aoi-no-ue” (Lady Aoi), thought to be written by Zeami, sometime between 1363-1443. This story is based on an episode from theTales of Genji where Prince Genji’s mistress Lady Rokujo becomes furiously jealous of his wife Lady Aoi. Her jealous rage transforms into a “possession” such that Lady Rokujo’s living phantom spirit makes Lady Aoi mortally ill. The action in the Noh play focuses on the fight between the Shaman/Priest and the phantom spirit who is eventually exorcised and transforms Lady Rokujo.

diNMachine (Michael Schumacher and Nisi Jacobs)

The Audio Visual Matrix

An Interdisciplinary performance system commissioned by the Harvestworks Artist-in-Residence TEAM (Technology, Engineering, Art and Music) Lab

 

diNMachine will perform in eight-channel sound. It will be the first performance with the Audio Visual Matrix software diNMachine developed with Tommy Martinez in residency at Harvestworks. A short Q&A will follow.

 

The Audio Visual Matrix (AVM) is an interdisciplinary performance system that enables fast and flexible interconnections of audio and video data streams to modulate content. The inspiration comes from the “pin” type matrices found on synthesizers like the EMS Synthi, where players patch any modulation source to any destination. The AVM uses a similar grid system to create paths between elements (instruments, computers, cameras, etc.) and allows for feedback loops as well as typical modulation. See: http://avm-dinmachine.tumblr.com/

Dreaming in Sound is an immersive work by cutting edge electro-acoustic violist/composer Martha Mooke.   Scored for electric viola and effects processing in multi-channel audio distribution with interactive video (created by pioneering software artist Scott Draves) Dreaming in Sound is inspired by the sleep stage REM and the concept of lucid dreaming.  Data collected from the audience prior to the performance is incorporated into a collaborative “DreamScore” that will be realized during the performance.

Dreaming in Sound is commissioned by and presented in collaboration with the Agosto Foundation, Prague, Czech Republic. 

MaxMSP programming by Tommy Martinez at Harvestworks.

This performance marks the U.S. premiere.

Additional information and tickets at http://nationalsawdust.org/event/martha-mooke-dreaming-in-sound/

Plan 23 uses a plethora of digital & analog tech: Theremin, iOS (WerkBench, Animoog, TopLap, iGendyn), modular synth, Nodal+Live, MAX/MSP, PD, Interactive Brainwave Visual Analyzer, Jitter, VDMX, Modul8. Dok Gregory, a member of the seminal group Amoeba Technology performed in US, Europe, and S. America festivals. His work was featured at the Forum Des Images in Paris, Basel Art Fair, The Kitchen & Lincoln Center. He toured with Psychic TV & Trance Pop Loops. Masahiro Kahata started PsychicLab to ship IBVA system for OS6, which won a product award at MacWorld in 1998. In 2012 he started open brain wave interface at Instructables/TechShop and launched brain-duino MetaVolutiON with Metamind Berlin in 2014. Peter Principle, known for a 30+ year association with Tuxedomoon, composed, played on, recorded or produced 100s of published works in a wide spectrum of alternative music. He was featured in productions by Maurice Bejart & films by Wim Wenders. Besides a number of critically acclaimed solo albums, he co-produced art videos presented notably at The Kitchen and the Rijksarchive. Jeremy Slater, a MFA graduate of SUNY Buffalo & SVA and multidisciplinary artist. Video work includes multi-channel videos for installations with sound & ephemeral sculpture. He received the NYFA Computer Art Fellowship in '99, attended the Experimental TV Center, and was artist-in-residence at Seoul Art Space_Geumcheon. Karl Scholz is a sound-designer, musician, programmer currently developing iOS live performance software. A resident at Rubulad he graduated from NYU in electronic music. WvS studied computer music & composition with Rihm & John Cage. He attended the 'Darmstadt Ferienkurse fuer Neue Musik', lectured at IDEA, was artist-in-residence at Harvestworks, exhibited at the Barcelona MOMA, and presented sound-installations & performances at PS1 MOMA Printshop, Spectrum, Harvestworks, Roulette, Knitting Factory & Generator. He curates the experimental series Ab Uno Pluribus.

Morton Subotnick will present SpacePiece, an evening-length, site-specific composition for the Knockdown Center, an architecturally and acoustically superior space located in Maspeth, New York. The work features live electronics by the composer diffused in the space by 3D speaker arrays created by acoustic engineer Paul Geluso and performed by Ne(x)tworks, a collaborative ensemble of seven musicians. A Harvestworks Commission.

Morton Subotnick is an American composer of electronic music, best known for his Silver Apples of the Moon, the first electronic work commissioned by a record company, Nonesuch.
Paul Geluso received support from the Rockefeller Foundation;s New York City's Cultural Innovation Fund to develop and build a 3D sound processing and speaker system that could produce complex directional sound radiation characteristics. This area of sonic exploration holds vast possibilities for artistic expression and public exhibition.

Ne(x)tworks is devoted to performing works of living composers as well as enriching understanding of the works of American experimental composers who have influenced their compositions.

The new work by Morton Subotnick, composed especially for the ensemble will focus on Ne(x)tworks improvisational skills as well as their abilities to realize fully notated scores.

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CYCLONE is a surround sound performance of the newly restored multichannel work by Joan La Barbara scored for multiple voices, percussion and Arp 2600 synthesizer sounds, for "semi-live" performance on multiple speakers with the original light panning device custom designed by Ralph Jones. The work was last performed in 1977 at PS1 in NYC (Queens) and was an award-winning sound sculpture installation/performance work (independent artist submission) at ISCM World Music Days (Weltmusiktage) in Bonn, Germany. Both installation/performances were done with analog audio tape (mixed to mono) and moved in the space using light-panning device and penlight. 

Joan La Barbara is an American vocalist and composer known for her explorations of non-conventional or extended vocal techniques.