12Abc3d Ef4ghi5j Kl6mno7 Pqrs8tu V9wxyz
PROGRAMME 12ABC3D EF4GHI5J KL6MNO7 PQRS8TU V9WXYZ unsorted, SonicActsX Many new art forms have emerged The information arts are the theme in recent years (from business art to of unsorted, SonicActsX. The festi- genomic art and from computer art val takes place from Thursday 23rd to neo-conceptualism) which in form until Saturday September 25th and content are rooted in the infor- at Paradiso, Amsterdam. It consists mation society: the information arts. of three consecutive afternoons and These information arts defy several nights of live performances, a film paradigms on which traditional art programme, a two-day conference, forms are based. and an exhibition.
PROGRAMME, 23rd September PROGRAMME, 24th September unsorted am/pm am/pm doors open ...... from 20:00–04:00 tobias c. van Veen ...... CONFERENCE . . .S ...... 16:00–16:45 MIMEO ...... SPECIALS ...... M ...... 20:30–00:15 CM von Hausswolff ...... CONFERENCE . . .S ...... 16:45–17:30 The Story of Computer Graphics ...... FILM ...... S ...... 20.30–22:00 Jon Wozencroft ...... CONFERENCE . . .S ...... 17:30–18:15 Meta ...... LIVE CINEMA . . . .S ...... 22.45–23.30 Tom Betts & Joe Gilmore ...... CONFERENCE . . .S ...... 18:15–19:00 GAS DVD Night part 1 ...... FILM ...... S ...... 23.30–00:00 Abstract Cinema ...... FILM ...... S ...... 20:30–21:30 mise-en-trôpes ...... LIVE CINEMA . . . .S ...... 00:00–00:45 CM von Hausswolff ...... RASTER-NOTON . .M ...... 21:00–21:45 Radian & Jade ...... LIVE CINEMA . . . .M ...... 00:15–01:00 Pixel ...... RASTER-NOTON . .M ...... 21:45–22:30 GAS DVD Night part 2 ...... FILM ...... S ...... 00:45–01:15 Codespace ...... LIVE CINEMA . . . .S ...... 22:15–23:00 Battery Operated ...... LIVE CINEMA . . . .S ...... 01:15–02:00 Byetone ...... RASTER-NOTON . .M ...... 22:30–23:15 GAS DVD Night part 3 ...... FILM ...... S ...... 02:00–04:00 Audio Visionen 2 part 1 ...... FILM ...... S ...... 23:00–23:30 Komet ...... RASTER-NOTON . .M ...... 23:15–00:00 Noizebleed ...... LIVE CINEMA . . . .S ...... 23:30–00:15 COH ...... RASTER-NOTON . .M ...... 00:00–00:45 Audio Visionen 2 part 2 ...... FILM ...... S ...... 00:15–00:45 DJ /rupture ...... BREAKCORE . . . .M ...... 00:45–01:30 Solu ...... BREAKCORE . . . .M ...... 00:45–01:30 Jan Jelinek & Karl Kliem ...... LIVE CINEMA . . . .S ...... 00:45–01:30 Venetian Snares ...... BREAKCORE . . . .M ...... 01:30–02:30 Videotroopers ...... BREAKCORE . . . .M ...... 01:30–02:30 Errorsmith & visomat inc...... LIVE CINEMA . . . .S ...... 02:00–02:45 Bong-Ra ...... BREAKCORE . . . .M ...... 02:30–03:15 Sickboy ...... BREAKCORE . . . .M ...... 03:15–04:00
S=small, M=main hall S=small, M=main hall
THURSDAY FRIDAY
PROGRAMME, 25th September PROGRAMME am/pm P unsorted Performances From Thursday evening Specials Impossible to categorise are the till early Sunday morning the main hall and two special concerts. On Thursday evening Rutger Wolfson ...... CONFERENCE . . .S ...... 16:00–16:35 the small hall of Paradiso will be filled with the renowned ensemble MIMEO, that gathers performances that combine sound with video some of the best European improvisation Casey Reas ...... CONFERENCE . . .S ...... 16:35–17:10 visuals, DJ's with VJ's, computer generated musicians, plays a set of improvised electronic music with algorithmic images. Special empha- music. On Saturday night star producer Arthur Elsenaar & Remko Scha ...... CONFERENCE . . .S ...... 17:10–17:45 sis is given to artist from the labels Raster- Speedy J presents a brand new audio-visual set. Noton and Touch and to the breakcore-scene. André Platteel ...... CONFERENCE . . .S ...... 17:45–18:20 Impossible to categorize are two long sets of Live Cinema Live Cinema is a form respectively MIMEO and Speedy J. of performance art in which a human perfor- Driessens & Verstappen ...... CONFERENCE . . .S ...... 18:20–18:55 mer manipulates sound and image in synergy Raster-Noton On Friday night Sonic through movement, for an audience. In the John Whitney Sr. Documentary ...... FILM ...... S ...... 20:30–21:00 Acts focusses on the label Raster-Noton: CM rapidly advancing field of Live Cinema there von Hauswolff, Pixel, Byetone, Komet and are a number of distinct movements, e.g. Vanderbeekiana! ...... FILM ...... S ...... 21:00–21:30 COH will perform in the main hall. Rastermu- abstract synthetic cinema, graphic cinema and sic/Noton is a label co-operation for electronic camera-based cinema. In three packed evenings Chris Watson ...... TOUCH ...... M ...... 21:00–21:45 music based in Germany. In 1999 the labels Sonic Acts presents renowned performers from Rastermusic and Noton – archiv für ton und these areas in the small hall at the Paradiso. BJNilsen / Hazard ...... TOUCH ...... M ...... 21:45–22:30 nichtton – merged, uniting sound and art design with strong attention to scientific Films Every evening a film and video pro- Dyad ...... LIVE CINEMA . . . .S ...... 22:15–23:00 sequences. CM von Hausswolff will also be gramme intermingles with the programme interviewed by Jan Hiddink at the conference. in the small hall, showing the history and Philip Jeck ...... TOUCH ...... M ...... 22:30–23:15 The exhibition will show a range of artwork use of computer graphics in film. and publications Raster-Noton realised over Input part 1 ...... FILM ...... S ...... 23:00–23:30 the last 8 years. Conference A mix of presentations, inter- views and lectures will give an insight into Fennesz ...... TOUCH ...... M ...... 23:15–00:00 Touch On Saturday night Sonic Acts fea- the art of algorithmic sounds and images. tures artists from the British label Touch: The conference deals with the emergence Jon Wozencroft ...... TOUCH ...... M ...... 23:15–00:00 Chris Watson, BJ Nilsen/Hazard, Philip Jeck of the information arts, and the consequences and Fennesz. Since its first release in 1982, thereof for the arts in general. Optical Machines ...... LIVE CINEMA . . . .S ...... 23:30–00:15 Touch has created sonic and visual productions that combine innovation with a level of care Exhibition The exhibition in the base- Skoltz_kolgen ...... LIVE CINEMA . . . .M ...... 00:00–00:45 and attention that has made it the most endur- ment of Paradiso brings together different art ing of any independent music company of its works, from different backgrounds. Autono- Input part 2 ...... FILM ...... S ...... 00:15–00:45 time. Touch has been at the forefront of the mous art, interactive works and algorithmic changes of the past two decades: from ana- images. File under: information arts. Open JODI ...... LIVE CINEMA . . . .S ...... 00:45–01:30 logue to digital, from camera-ready artwork from the beginning till the end of the festival. to broadband file-sharing and from 1/4" Speedy J ...... SPECIALS ...... M ...... 00:45–04:00 masters to website downloads. John Wozen- Publication The book Unsorted, Thoughts croft, who directs Touch, will be interviewed in on the Information Arts, an AtoZ for SonicActsX, PureDeKam ...... LIVE CINEMA . . . .S ...... 02:00–02:45 the conference, and artwork of Jon Wozencroft accompanies the festival. It is for sale at a and others will be shown in the exhibition. reduced price during Sonic Acts X, and will be available in bookshops. Edited by Arie Breakcore On Friday night and early Altena the book gathers interviews and articles Saturday morning the chaotic and exciting pertinent to this years theme. The introduction sounds of Breakcore will rule the main hall of is written by Taco Stolk. Published by Paradiso. SonicActs Press / The Balie. S=small, M=main hall
SATURDAY
PROGRAMME PROGRAMME unsorted P electro- acoustic equipment; Gert- Jan Prins NL – electronics/radio /TV; Peter Rehberg AT – laptop; 23 Marcus Schmickler GE – comput- er/synthesizer; Rafael Toral PT – EVENING guitar/electronics.
Meta US 22:45–23:30 LIVE CINEMA mise-en-trôpes BE 00:00–00:45 Computer Graphics SMALL HALL Meta is an American LIVE CINEMA SMALL HALL The proj- is a cure for no artist working with the digital ect of mise-en-trôpes are a fusion known disease manipulation and synthesis of software and performance. of audio-visual data. They deal with feedback: image and sound are produced in unison Carl Machover, 1973 MIMEO AT/FR/UK/NL/PT by a network of audio-visual datas- 20:30–00:15 SPECIALS MAIN HALL The Story of Computer Graphics treams. The system behaves as an Mimeo stands for ‘Music in move- US 20:30–22:00 FILM SMALL HALL instrument which can be played in ment electronic orchestra’. This From the first discoveries in a highly a completely intuitive manner. eleven-man international Euro- obscure field of research to a gener- Everything you hear and see is gen- pean ensemble was brought togeth- ally accepted means of communi- GAS DVD Night JP Part 1 erated live on stage. There is no pre- er almost eight years ago by the cation. The Story of Computer Graphics 23:30–00:00 FILM SMALL HALL recorded material, only live video British guitarist and improviser, aims to provide some insight into GAS is a Japanese publisher of which is injected into the network. Keith Rowe. The members of the development of computer books and DVD’s. They put out MIMEO are, without exception, graphics and documents them. In work from artists from such as amongst the most interesting inter- this film a group of artists, scientists Tomato. Their DVD series provides preters of electronic and impro- and visionaries all have a ‘human’ a platform for designers to release vised music. During Sonic Acts tale to tell about the revolution their works on DVD in the same way MIMEO will do a four hour per- behind modern visual communica- as musicians releasing their works formance. The ensemble consists tion. Interviews with: Robert Abel, on CD albums. A selection from of Phil Durrant UK – violin/elec- John Whitney, Lillian Schwartz, the D-Fuse DVD Retrospective will Radian & Jade AT 00:15–01:00 tronics; Christian Fennesz AT – lap- Dennis Muren, George Lucas be shown alongside the work of LIVE CINEMA MAIN HALL The Austrian top; Cor Fuhler NL – piano, analogue and others. Richard Fendwick, Power Graphics, band Radian comprises keyboard electronics; Kaffe Matthews UK – Tomato, Light Surgeons and others. player Stefan Nemeth, bass player laptop; Jérôme Noetinger FR – John Norman and drummer/
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PROGRAMME PROGRAMME, conference unsorted P keyboard player Martin Brandl- mayr. Radian has made spine-tin- gling instrumentals in which elec- tronic and acoustic instruments are 24 used separately and together, to create a compelling and captivating GAS DVD Night JP part 3 CONFERENCE small hall sound. Radian will be performing 02:00–04:00 FILM SMALL HALL with supporting images from jade. END CM von Hausswolff SE 16:45–17:30 The Swedish musician / artist Carl Michael von Hausswolff makes audio-visual installations and appears as a performer. His concep- tually designed work is characterised GAS DVD Night JP part 2 tobias c. van Veen CA by an idiosyncratic approach, in 00:45–01:15 FILM SMALL HALL 16:00–16:45 tobias c. van Veen which the music is stripped down describes himself as a renegade to basic phenomena such as elec- theorist & pirate with strong addic- tricity and frequencies. Von Haus- tions to techno-turntablism and wolff has worked with sound since absynthe martinis. He creates as the 1970s. His audio-visual work a concept engineer for La Société was also presented at Documenta X des arts et technologiques (SAT) in Kassel, where he worked with the and thinks as a doctoral student German label Raster-Noton, that at McGill University (Philosophy later released his CD Ström. He will Battery Operated UK 01:15–02:00 and Communication). He keeps be interviewed by Jan Hiddink. LIVE CINEMA SMALL HALL Battery a blog at quadrantcrossing.org Operated consist of three people, /blog and performs as a DJ, two doing sound and one doing turntablist and lecturer. The title video. Working together since for his lecture at Sonic Acts is The 2000, they have put out four albums Reverb Engine: Echoes of Futurism in the with sound and video. Their next 21C. sound and video project – re.CORD will be released in late 2004. Jon Wozencroft UK17:30–18:15 The British graphic designer and
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PROGRAMME, conference PROGRAMME unsorted P photographer Jon Wozencroft set designer currently living in the UK. EVENING artist makes audio-visual installa- up the London label Touch togeth- Their collaborative project is tions and appears as a performer. er with the historian Mike Harding. rand()%, a generative net.radio His conceptually designed work Since the early 1980s, Touch has station. It is an entirely automated is characterised by an idiosyncratic provided a solid basis for ground- radio station, where every pro- approach, in which the music is breaking music. Jon Wozencroft gramme transmitted is composed stripped down to basic phenomena is also author of The Graphic Lan- in real-time by a computer. such as electricity and frequencies. guage of Neville Brody, a tribute to Von Hauswolff has worked with the most influential British graphic Abstract Cinema UK 20:30–21:30 sound since the 1970s. His audio- designer in the 1980s. Wozencroft FILM SMALL HALL Abstract Cinema is a visual work was also presented is one of the most outspoken critics unique document about a film genre at Documenta X in Kassel, where he of contemporary digital informa- developing independently through- worked with the German label tion arts. He will be interviewed out the history of film. Abstract cin- Raster-Noton, that later released by Jan Hiddink. ema is not just a movement in which his CD Ström. the medium of film is continually tested, but also a vital genre which has been revived by modern digital video artists and made part of the contemporary VJ and Live Cinema culture. Interviews with: Len Lye, Oskar Fischinger, Larry Cuba, John Whitney and Stan Brakhage. Pixel DK 21:45–22:30 RASTER- Tom Betts & Joe Gilmore UK NOTON MAIN HALL Jon Egeskov, 18:15–19:00 Tom Betts, a.k.a. Null- a.k.a. Pixel, started making elec- pointer, is an artist, programmer, tronic music three years ago and composer and performer. He works last year released his debut Display with digital media on many different on Raster-Noton. In his music Pixel levels, deconstructing systems by uses complex polyrhythmical struc- modifying software as well as writ- tures that don’t sound complex. At ing new software to create audio- times Display is like a refinement visual tools and environments. CM von Hausswolff SE of the brilliant rhythmic intensity Joe Gilmore, also known as Jozepf 21:00–21:45 RASTER-NOTON MAIN in such essential Raster-Noton Plank, is a sound artist and graphic HALL This Swedish musician / releases as Nicolai and Ikeda’s Cyclo.
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PROGRAMME PROGRAMME unsorted P abstract pieces of music. Byetone con- wonderfully minimal dance groove trols these animations in real-time. aesthetic that relies on sharp snaps, subtle basslines, and red-hot breaks. Bretschneider has always been interested in the interaction between graphics and music.
Codespace CH 22:15–23:00 LIVE COH SE 23:45–00:30 RASTER- CINEMA SMALL HALL Codespace is NOTON MAIN HALL COH is the a double-bass player, composer Audio Visionen 2 AT part 1 name under which the Russian and digital artist active in the fields 23:00–23:30 FILM SMALL HALL musician Ivan Pavlov issues his of electronic and improvised music, Audio Visionen 2 is a fine collection digital electronic music. Pavlov performance art, jazz and contem- of Austrian digital video art. studied mathematics and physics porary music. He focusses on works The blending of graphic design Noizebleed NL 23:30–00:15 LIVE with a specialisation in acoustics that combine digital sound and and video art and the connection CINEMA SMALL HALL Noizebleed at the University of Gorki in Russia. images, abstract graphics and between image and sound are typi- are Ference Teglas and Renzo van He lives in Sweden where he works live improvisation. cal. Audio-Visionen 2 is a true specta- Steenbergen. Ference Teglas is an as a software programmer. Pavlov cle of contemporary minimalist electronic music composer, heads makes both abstract sound art as and high quality graphic work. the cyberfarts record label, and well as playful, melodious composi- SOUND was founder and active member tions which provide a blueprint I create my music with a modular computer-aided synthesizer system, un- der the use of various synthesis te chniques. Using two of the most basic sou n d - so u r ces, sine waves and white noise, I create short (one to four bar) of projects like Hoi Lul!, Poopa for digital pop music. parts; all motions and pro g ressions come into being from the (often un- con ventional) con n e c ted modules (lfo’s, osz i l l a tors, fil ters, envelope gene- ra tors, logic modules). This (partly chaotic) sequences I re cord to a hard- and Scattor Minox. Renzo van disk system for further treatment (cutting, looping, fil tering). The result are minimal, flowing, inte r woven stru c tu res, determined by experiment and chance; representing my idea of a contemporary music. Steenbergen has been investigating the relationship between sound Byetone DE 22:30–23:15 RASTER- and image according to the rules NOTON MAIN HALL Olaf Bender, of improvised electronic experi- a.k.a. Byetone, founded Rastermu- FrankKomet BretschneiderDE 23:15–00:00 RASTER- mental music. Since 2001 he has born and raised up in East Germany... after childhood and school in Karl- Ma r x-Stadt (now Chemnitz), graphic and painting studies... first ele c t ro n i c musicNOT experimentsON in 1984MAIN with a strong inteHALL rest in the inte raction bet- sic together with Frank Bretschnei- ween graphic and music... in 1996 co- founding the label Ras termusik K (nowomet a.k.a. been a member of Rec/Play and raster-noton)... lives as freelance musician and composer in Berlin. der. Byetone assembles sine tones Frank Bretschneider, one of the Feedbacksociety. Audio Visionen 2 AT part 2 to generate complex sound fabrics. co-founders of Rastermusik, has 00:15–00:45 FILM SMALL HALL Digital clicks and effect plug-ins are been making electronic music for essential for him to create rhythms. over twenty years now. Bretschnei- Abstract animations support his der has created and perfected a
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VISUALS
I always tried to ex p l o re the possibilities of an exchange between visual art and music by various means such as computer graphics, video or gra- phic composition. To add another dimension I create visualizations which I show during my live perfo r m a n ces. Actu a l ly they are n’t films or videos , but visual realizations of freq u e n cy- and amplitude behavior of the music.
PROGRAMME PROGRAMME unsorted P minimal abstractions and strongly processed material to multilayered ambient landscapes. She organises events and workshops about audio- visual and hacker culture. Recently she launched dorkbot.org in Barcelona. DJ /rupture ES 00:45–01:30 Venetian Snares CA 01:30–02:30 Errorsmith & visomat inc. DE BREAKCORE MAIN HALL DJ /rup- BREAKCORE MAIN HALL Aaron Funk 02:00–02:45 LIVE CINEMA SMALL ture (real name: Jace Clayton) is (a.k.a. Venetian Snares) comes from HALL Errorsmith is deeply rooted a producer and DJ born in America Winnipeg in Canada. He has risen in club orientated electronic music. and based in Barcelona, Spain. out of the drill’n’bass/breakcore His work is also very much based Rupture is best known for techni- mire to become one of the most on research into new forms of digi- cally flawless, endlessly creative 3- astonishing (and popular) musi- tal sound synthesis. Errorsmith turntable mixing that the British Jan Jelinek & Karl Kliem DE cians working in the experimental builds his own instruments using magazine NME described as a 00:45–01:30 LIVE CINEMA SMALL HALL electronic sphere. He never repeats a modular software synthesizer. Not ‘dynamic bootytronic mix n’ mash Jan Jelinek still sees technology as what’s done before. positioning itself in a specific genre, session... high-minded confronta- a simple means to an end: his music Errorsmith’s music has its own tions between hiphop, Afrobeat, cites the sampling source, not unique characteristics and is locat- noise, ragga, digitals and chart the production platform employed. ed somewhere in the no man’s land R&B’. Whether as Gramm, Farben between so called serious and popu- or under his own name, he always lar music. blends fresh approaches and sources visomat inc. was formed in the into a distinctly new, very personal Videotroopers NL01:30–02:30 mid-1990s as a part of the typically sound. BREAKCORE MAIN HALL Experimen- Berlin crossover of media art and Karl Kliem is a founding member tal livesets. Errorised and modulat- club culture; its aim: to visualise of Frankfurt based media lab ed imagery. Realtime manipulated music. visomat inc. also design MESO. He develops realtime electronic incoherence. ambient interiors, and thus add Solu FI 00:45–01:30 BREAKCORE audio and video systems. He is also Videotroopers have previously analysis and commentary to the MAIN HALL Solu’s experimental a member of Involving-Systems worked with artists like Arovane, time and place of their perform- music videos have been widely and founder of the label Dienststelle. Gescom, Nanospeed, Andy Vaz, ance: reality remixed. exhibited in festivals around the Legowelt, Funckarma and Twine. world. Her style ranges from
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PROGRAMME PROGRAMME, conference unsorted P acceptability and grimy flavoured kinetic systems through diverse dig- cynism. Gonna clear rooms quicker ital media including software, ani- than a megaton fire alert , and sure mation, and digital prints. He is co- to leave the patriotic-minded 25 initiator of the programming-proj- behind with a hammer smashed CONFERENCE small hall ect Processing. Reas has exhibited face. Music that’ll stir up any god- and lectured in Europe, Asia, and forsaken industrial pigeonhole the United States. He is currently Bong-Ra NL 02:30–03:15 BREAK- with a whirlwind. a Visiting Assistant Professor in CORE MAIN HALL Bong-Ra started END UCLA’s Design | Media Arts producing and DJ-ing in 1997. Department. The title of his Around 2001 Bong-Ra was seen presentation is {Software} Structures. as one of the leaders in the rapidly emerging breakcore-scene which Rutger Wolfson NL 16:00–16:35 evolved out of jungle and digital Director of the Vleeshal in Middel- hardcore. His John Peel Session burg (museum and exhibition cen- paved the pathway for a total of tre). Last year he edited the book 15 releases in 2 years between Kunst in Crisis (Art in Crisis) in which 2002 and 2004. he raised the question: ‘What is the state of contemporary art?’ Is the Arthur Elsenaar & Remko blurring of boundaries the future Scha NL 17:10–17:45 Arthur Else- of art, or will it be its demise? How naar is a Dutch artist. His most should museums respond to this recent projects are the video instal- new development? lation The Varieties of Human Facial Expression. (12 bit version) and BuBL- Space. At the IAAA, the The Insti- Sickboy BE 03:15–04:00 BREAK- tute of Artificial Art, he is involved CORE MAIN HALL Sickboy has more with the Department of Artifacial than upped the ante of in-your-face Expressions. breakcore with his hairsplitting slab Remko Scha is well-known for of digitized breakestral chaos. Nev- his research into the area of er suggesting melodies or functional artificial art. He runs the IAAA, rhythms, it juggles without remorse Casey Reas US 16:35–17:10 Artist an ‘independent organisation on the dividing line between and educator exploring abstract consisting of machines, computers,
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PROGRAMME, conference PROGRAMME unsorted P algorithms and human persons, from innovative inventions to gen- EVENING be said about Stan Vanderbeek. In who work together toward the erative art projects. Natural Processes this documentary piece Vander- complete automatization of art and Artificial Procedures is the title of beek discusses a wide range of top- production’. Scha also teaches at their presentation. ics: his films, found-footage, toys, the Institute for Logic, Language inventions, et cetera. Also included and Computation of the Universi- are clips from several films like:Will, ty of Amsterdam. The conference See Saw Seams, Image after Image after features Huge Harry (president), Image and Poemfield #1. Remko Scha and Arthur Elsenaar (human collaborators) on the Institute of Artificial John Whitney Sr. Documentary Art Amsterdam. US 20:30–21:00 FILM SMALL HALL John Whitney can certainly be André Platteel NL 17:45–18:20 described as a pioneer in the field André Platteel is the author of Mar- of computer technology and its geting: Inventing a Different Marketing influence on cinema. His work Language. He is the founder of could be seen in many films and Chris Watson UK 21:00–21:45 Somanydynamos, a company that his theories about the use of the TOUCH MAIN HALL Up until the advises on the emerging culture computer as a machine for the mid-’80s Chris Watson was part and its consumer behaviour, simultaneous generation of image of experimental groups such as media use and brands. and sound still appeal to today’s Cabaret Voltaire and the Hafler young computer artists. This docu- Trio. After this he concentrated mentary from 1975 was recorded at on his skills as a sound recordist Whitney’s home in California and and became an expert in making includes several clips from various field recordings. Watson concen- films he made. trated on wildlife recordings and
The computer does not make man obsolete. It makes him fail-safe. locations with special meteorologi- The computer does not replace man. It liberates him from specializa- tion. The transition from a culture that considers leisure a “problem” to a cal conditions, including storms culture that demands leisure as a prerequisite of civilized behavior is a Driessens & Verstappen NL metamorphosis of the first magnitude. And it has begun. The computer and melting glacier ice. Watson is the arbiter of radical evolution: it changes the meaning of life. It makes 17:45–18:20 Erwin Driessens and us children. We must learn how to live all over again. presents a new piece entitled Maria Verstappen investigate the Vanderbeekiana!: Stan Vander- The Ghost Train. relationship between art, technolo- beek’s Vision US 21:00–21:30 gy and science. This has resulted in FILM SMALL HALL film-maker, a wide range of projects, varying video-artist and inventor: much can
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PROGRAMME PROGRAMME unsorted P Input VA part 1 23:00–23:30 FILM SMALL HALL The work and influence of John Whitney and Stan Vanderbeek is wrapped up in every facet of the video arts. Not just the technological discover- ies and the application of new tech- Jon Wozencroft UK 23:15–00:00 BJNilsen / Hazard SE 21:45– Philip Jeck UK 22:30–23:15 niques in the area of audio-visual TOUCH MAIN HALL The British 22:30 TOUCH MAIN HALL Benny TOUCH MAIN HALL Philip Jeck is best developments, but also the visual graphic designer, photographer Jon Jonas Nilsen – lives and works in known for his highly subversive language and insight which this Wozencroft set up the London label Stockholm, Sweden – began Haz- work Vinyl Requiem (1993) with Lol brought are inescapably bound Touch together with the historian ard eight years ago. Nilsen is mainly Sargent: a performance for 180 up with them both. Input shows Mike Harding. Since the early ’80s, interested in how a soundscape dansette record players, 12 slide- a variety of short videos which all Touch has provided a solid basis for runs away with our sense of time projectors and 2 movie-projectors. make reference to the work of ground-breaking music. Wozencroft and space, as he demonstrates in his Many of the samples, loops and Whitney & Vanderbeek. is one of the most outspoken critics captivating live performances. scratches that Jeck works with of contemporary digital informa- nowadays are taken from old vinyl tion arts. His visual work will be records. Against nostalgia, Jeck shown during the set of Fennesz. shows the vast potential in analogue recording processes. Utilising seem- ingly outmoded sources, he also proves that you don’t need a 24 track digital console and an enor- Fennesz AT 23:15–00:00 TOUCH DYAD US 22:15–23:00 LIVE CINE- mous hard disk to make music that MAIN HALL The Austrian musician MA SMALL HALL With their project is both innovative and involving. Christian Fennesz gained unex- DYAD, jasch and deKam explore pected renown two years ago Optical Machines NL 23:30–00:15 the symbiotic relationship between with the issue of his third CD LIVE CINEMA SMALL HALL Optical sound and image in a live, improvi- Endless Summer. The instrumental, Machines are Rikkert Brok (projec- sational context. Their sonic and digitally created compositions on tions) and Maarten Halmans visual expressions are based on a the CD are full of melodious (sound). They work with self-made unified logical structure, their allusions. This has, in an entirely projectors, especially designed for processes influencing each other as unprecedented manner, popu- playing loops. The different image- a pair of vectors juxtaposed. larised Fennesz’s music. rolls are mixed together while the
25-09-2004, 21:45–23:15 25-09-2004, 23:00–00:15
PROGRAMME PROGRAMME unsorted P image material and lightsources On the brink of the acid house are manipulated live on stage. explosion, Paap had a worldwide The built-in sensors control an hit with Pullover. He chose, never- array of analogue synthesizers to theless, not to become a pop chart manipulate the sound in real-time. JODI NL/BE 00:45–01:30 LIVE artist and in the latter half of the CINEMA SMALL HALL JODI consists ’90s brought out some ground- of Joan Heemskerk and Dirk Paes- breaking, experimental CDs. mans. They make anarcho-com- At SonicActsX he presents a puter art. By manipulating the brand new audio-visual set. computer code of various electron- ic media (e.g. websites, games, oper- ating systems), they expose the nor- Skoltz_kolgen CA 00:00–00:45 mally invisible workings of comput- LIVE CINEMA MAIN HALL Skoltz_kol- er systems in a playful but at the gen is a plurimedia work cell based same time thought-provoking man- in Montreal, comprising Domi- ner. This method of working also nique t Skoltz and Herman W Kol- generates poetic forms, texts and PureDeKam AT LIVE CINEMA gen. Rigorous and raucous creators, sounds. JODI has developed a SMALL HALL 02:00–02:45 Johnny their artistic pursuits plumb the performance for Sonic Acts with deKam is a video artist based in integral linkages between sound %20Desktop. upstate New York. He is a member and image. Their works include of DYAD, the critically acclaimed installations, performances, kinetic live project with Swiss artist jasch. pieces and photographic, pictorial He frequently performs both solo and sound objects. and as a VJ for major acts and is the principal architect behind the video software of VIDVOX. Pure is currently living in Vienna. Speedy J NL 00:45–04:00 Besides caring for his own label SPECIALS MAIN HALL Rotterdam- dOc, he has released works on based Jochem Paap, who makes several other labels like Mego, music as Speedy J, is considered Staalplaat and Praxis. Input VA part 2 23:00–23:30 FILM to be among the international van- SMALL HALL guard of electronic dance music. END
25-09-2004, 00:00–04:00 25-09-2004, 02:00–04:00
PROGRAMME, exhibition PROGRAMME, exhibition unsorted P EXHIBITION JODI NL/BE consists of Joan Heemskerk and Dirk Paesmans. JODI make anarcho-computer art. By manipulating the computer code of various electronic media (e.g. websites, games, operating systems), they expose the normally Driessens & Verstappen NL invisible workings of computer sys- Erwin Driessens and Maria Ver- tems in a playful but at the same stappen investigate the relationship time thought-provoking manner. between art, technology and sci- This method of working also ence. This has resulted in a wide generates poetic forms, texts range of projects, varying from and sounds. In the exhibition innovative inventions to generative their work AllWrongsReversed will Benjamin Gaulon RES (Recycling Entertainment System) art projects. be shown.
BENTM, Benjamin Gaulon FR French artist and designer, now studying at the Frank Mohr Insti- tute IME in Groningen, who deals with the issues of trash and recy- cling. On the website digitalrecy- cling.com he recycles and shares Dextro NL active as an audio- free digital trash. Sonic Acts shows visual programmer for almost a his strangely addictive RES, short decade. The websites dextro.org for Recycling Entertainment System: and turux.org (a cooperation with up to six players can make music Lia) serve as his main channel of together playing with obsolete distribution. Last year he released Nintendo controllers. Dextro: A/turux-b an interactive CD-rom, containing 110 anima- tions that generate pictures, movements and sounds. JODI AllWrongsReversed
23-09–25-09-2004 23-09–25-09-2004
PROGRAMME, exhibition PROGRAMME, exhibition unsorted P
Lia AT graphic designer and maker Geert Mul NL Mul uses self- of interactive applets for the web designed software to store and and for live performances. She retrieve audiovisual material, and has a very pure and organic style. to generate structures underlying Recently Lia did visuals for the expression and the meaning Ryuichi Sakamoto at Sónar 2004. of the work. In his extensive instal- lations the process of structuring imagery and the creation of com- positions is automated. During Sonic Acts Mul shows Match of the Day, which is part of the project Split Representation. Television images are recorded at random from satel- Meta US American artist working lite television and compared with with digital manipulation and each other. Some 1000 billion synthesis of audio-visual data. equations are computed daily. In the exhibition Meta shows his work Panorama, an application rand()% UK a generative net.radio rand()% image fromrand()%, www.r4nd.org which uses webcam feeds from station, a collaborative project of Rastermusic/Noton is a label all over the world as input. Tom Betts, a.k.a. Nullpointer, and cooperation for electronic music Joe Gilmore, also known as Jozepf based in Germany. In 1999 the Plank. It is a radio station that is labels Rastermusic and Noton - entirely automated, where every archiv für ton und nichtton, programme transmitted is com- merged, uniting sound and art posed in real-time by a computer. design with strong attention to Raster-Noton DE scientific sequences. Raster-Noton
23-09–25-09-2004 23-09–25-09-2004
GENERATING ART A AA What about the computer do you create it in such a way that as models? Did you immediately start much as possible is left up to the working with genetic algorithms – computer? PROGRAMME, exhibition PUBLICATION, Unsortedcomputer algorithms which grow ED You try to let the computer and change constantly? workP out the details itself. You do unsorted MV We were busy developing not programme an image pixel by will exhibit a range of artwork care and attention that has made PUBLICATION COLLECTIVES AND ARTthings mathematically, of some pixel. You just write a number of and publications they realized over it the most enduring of any inde- The book Unsorted, Thoughts on the things you could say, withC hindsight, general things, for example: you the last eight years. pendent music company of its Informationmaking aArts, work An of A artto Zwhich for SonicActsX is then distribute, partsthat perhaps[of] the it wascreation a generative sys- want a 2D-image which changes tem, but they weren’t genetic algo- with time. You can setup a reper- time. The transitions from ana- accompaniesshown to the the public festival. in a gallery, It is art for process over the environment in space or museum. The image is a which the artworkrithms. emerges: rang- toire of basic functions and a mech- logue to digital, from camera- sale cliché,at a reduced but one whichprice stillduring haunts Sonicing from computerED In theprograms beginning (algo- it was just fid- anism to link these functions to one ready artwork to broadband file- ActsX,our imagination.and will be The available artists in inthe rithmic art) dlingto social about. communities We were mainly trying another. The computer is then information arts work together, are (neo-conceptualto find art).’ out whatHere the too, scope of a par- capable of creating short pro- sharing and from 1/4” masters bookshops. Edited by Arie Altena Driessens & Verstappen NL part of a team and mobilize their there is a reasonticular for theprogrammed preponder- system was. grammes for itself, which then leave to website downloads are only the the booknetworks gathers to realize interviews projects. They and ance ofErwin collectives.When Driessens you’re Artists just and havestarting Maria out youVer- their mark on the screen. surface manifestations of the great articlesoften pertinent stand (to some to extent)this year’s outside becomestappen directorsthink it’sinvestigateand fairly researchers. straightforward. the relationship We MV But we definitely want the the art world and its institutions. Although nottested evident formulas. from We the wrote some- images generated to intrigue you as Tomato UK London based changes that have taken place in theme: the information arts. The between art, technology and sci- They make use of the publication term, this thingimplies down a andcollective then looked to see a person. You must want to keep art- and design collective that recorded music over the last twen- introductionmodels provided is written by music by (issuing Taco process.ence. Directorswhat This came are has producers, out resulted of it. toThe in formulas a wide looking. We once wrote a pro- became world famous with their ty years. Touch has always been Stolk.CDs Published and DVDs), byshow Sonic their work Acts at Pressdirect therange ‘play’were of you projects,fairly need primitive others. varying functions from gramme in which every pixel on festivals or academic conferences, Research is basedalmost on always circles done and linesin which we screen changed colour at random. campagnes for companies like at the forefront of these changes. / The Balie, ISBN 90 6617 313 0 innovativemade combinations inventionsABSTRACTION of. to We generative were ANDBut COMPLEXITYthis simply resulted in noise. If make use of the internet and teams. Research cannot take place A MTV, Nike and Adidas; titles arrange exhibitions.3 withoutart sharing projects.still insighttoo much They and infor-involved were interviewed in the you want to make something that design.development Now we replayedare at a stage from where the resultsceptual in ora coherentmental experience. form or style, For for the feature film Trainspotting The myth of the artist in his studio mation.by Ariebeginning Altena. to the end within a single instance, in 1896 E.B. Titchener (a is being transformed into that of It is characteristicwe leave of theeven visual the artscomposition of then there needs to be a feedback and their videoclips for Underworld. thedecade formulas – such to as the in the computer. paintings To by mechanismformer student in the of software. Wilhelm Wundt the artist at the hub of a network. that the ‘collective’a tree can created be applied by Mondriaan who brought experimental psycho- Less known are their books, CD- What is changing is the importance conceptually.reach It can that become level you a game need to be thor- ED There has to be growth in it, a oughlybetween familiar 1908 withand programming.1914. Mondri- genesis.logy to the United States) proposed roms and exhibitions. Sonic Acts that is attached to collaboration, with the ‘collective’.aan starts You with are a detailedthe realistic that there are 32,800 visual sensati- the mobilization of the contacts. artist, you profileAA In yourself the type as of a generativebusi- system MV We let go of control over the presents a new work by Tomato: whichimage youof a bothtree. Bymake, the timesurely he you has creationons and process 11,600 to auditory give the sensoryemer- This is also affecting the content of ness and in sofinished doing you his are remarkable playing compressi- elements, each just slightly distinct WORDIMAGESOUNDPLAY Jon Wozencroft UK The British Arie Altena NL editor of SonicActs decide the parameters? What gence a chance. We deliberately the artwork: what a work of art does a conceptualon game. operation, What onlydoes the it essence, the from the others. Titchener summa- in the world can be considered as give you? Whenexactly is it dojust you a business? determine and how allow unpredictability in the (WISP), a collection of graphic designer and photogra- X. He writes about new media and 41idea, the law, the genotype of a tree rised his research programme as experiences for the PS2 console. pher Jon Wozencroft set up the art forthe variousmobilization magazines, of connections, including it When does isa left.name stand for an follows: ‘Give me my elements, and creates contexts for itself, from artistic standpoint,This visual an art-collec- reduction that took let me bring them together under London label Touch together with Mediamatic and Metropolis M. Until Lev Manovich RU/US associate which the work derives its cultural tive, and whenplace does in moderit standn artfor perfectly a paral- the psychophysical conditions of the historian Mike Harding. He is recentlysignificance. he was final editor of productionprofessor house?lels with inConversely, thethe Vdominantisuals the Arts scientific Departmentality- at large, and I will gua- also author of The Graphic Language MetrInopolis his introductionM, the Dutctoh Sonic mag Actsazinename ofment, a labelparadigm Univ (e.g. a musicer ofsity thelabel) of nineteenthSan – Diego and, rantee to show you the adult mind, X Taco Stolk states that artists ‘pose once nothing more than a (small) 6 of Neville Brody, a tribute to the for contemporary arts. He teaches whereare hely twentiethteaches courcentury.ses inPh ysics,new as a structure, with no omissions themselves as directors, mediators business publishingchemistry, music experimental – can psycholo- and no superfluity.’7 most influential British graphic at theor Interactivresearchers. eBy Media doing so,and they Envibecome- media a brand,gy, artand or eandotherven the theorsciences sign yof. were He allis enga-the It can be easily seen that the 29 designer in the 1980s. Wozencroft, ronments department of the Frank authorged of inT thehe Languadeconstructionge of Ne ofw theMediamove, towards pure abstraction in one of the most outspoken critics Mohr Institute in Groningen. (MITinanimate, Press, Cambridge the biological, Mass.and the art during the same period follows psychological realms into simple, exactly the same logic. Similarly to Touch UK Since its first release in of contemporary digital informa- 2001),further and indivisible of Tekstur elements,a: Russian gover- Essaysphysicists, chemists, biologists, and 1982, Touch has created sonic tion art, will exhibit a selection of on Visualned byCultur simplee, (Chicagoand universal Univ laws.ersipsychologists,- the visual artists have and visual productions that com- works from the Listening Eye project. ty PrChemistryess, 1993) and as wellphysics as postulated many arti-focused on the most basic pictorial the levels of molecules and atoms. elements: pure colours, straight bine innovation with a level of cles. BiologyHe is currently saw the emergence working of on the a lines, and simple geometric shapes. concepts of cell and chromosome. For instance, Kandinsky in Point and 23-09–25-09-2004 Experimental psychology applied Line93 to Plane advocated ‘microsco- the same reductive logic to the pic’ analysis of three basic elements human mind by postulating the of form (point, line, and plane) existence of indivisible sensorial claims that there exist reliable emo- elements, the combination of tional responses to simple visual which would account for the per- configurations.8 Equally telling of 11
ART AS RESEARCH A artist and professor of Conceptual Design artists as consumers of the new at San Francisco State University: Infor- tools, using them to create new mation Arts, Intersections of Art, images, sounds, and video; another Science, and Technology. This book response sees artists emphasising is the fruit of twenty years of research in the critical functions of art to com- different new fields of art that have evol- ment on the developments from the ved in connection with technological and distance; a final approach urges scientific developments like, to name only a artists to enter into the heart of few, microbiology, genetics, nanotechnolo- research as core participants.1 It is a gy, artificial life, programming, GPS, critical error to conceive of con- REVERB ENGINE ORGANIC AND CONCEPTUAL SYSTEMS robotics, radio, virtual reality and the temporary research as merely a unsorted A internet. Information Arts is an ency- technical enterprise; it has pro- machines to do so, of course, which of synth-pop, also opened a strategy unique qualities. in the form and motion. clopaedia of the new fields of technologi- found practical and philosophical is why the modernist element never of non-representational affect BB Your visual language is abstract; BB How does the traditional art cal arts. It is also a sign of the heightened implications for the culture. The quite left its futurist past behind. through music. Attention was direc- there isn’t any direct representati- world relate to media artists like importance of what could be called artis- shaping of research and develop- Andrew Hewitt, in his reassessment ted to the experiential rather than to on. However, your recent works all you? tic research. According to Wilson contem- ment agendas could benefit from Fascist Modernism, Futurism, and ‘Post- the performer. Electronic music was have an organic, living feeling. CR There are a few ways to think porary artists engage with science and the involvement of a wider range of Modernity’ writes that ‘we must meant to be felt – as motion, as What’s the motive for this? about it and there are very different HEARING PURE DATA technology, not to adopt the vocabulary, participants including artists. repress the cultural impulse repre- rhythm, in the dance, as high volta- CR I love representational and nar- communities of ‘traditional artists’ A but to explore and comment on the agenda, Scientific and technological sented by futurism – because it is ge waves of sound to be absorbed. rative painting and film, but when I and ‘media artists’. The communi- idea that all data inside the compu- itself pours through. As in other content and possibilities. He convincingly research is not as ‘objective’ as politically volatile and unpredicta- This called for organisational tactics make my own work, abstraction ties I’m a part of are converging. In ter are essentially the same, and that inframedia aesthetics, the physicali- these fields is created when artist work many of its practitioners would like ble,’ because it is ‘fascistic to the that were capable of producing the comes naturally. I don’t think of the past, there have been cross-over it just takes someone to “peel the ty of sound is significant: we feel alongside scientists on developing techno- to believe. While some of its practi- end,’ an end which operates under space and time for these events, abstraction as devoid ofPUBLICATION represen- artists and, Unsorted both domains share skin”, and peer inside, either with and sense the data, ratherPUBLICATION than rea- , Unsortedlogy. Although the paper that we republish ces strive toward objectivity, the the logic of the ‘at one and the same which led to orchestrated social P tation, but there are different levels6 some heroes including Nam June ears or eyes, or whatever senses we ding or understanding a message. here was originally written in 1996 it is whole enterprise is subject to larger unsorted time,’ of duplicity. Hewitt argues, movements that echoed punk’s DIY of abstraction along the path from Paik and John Cage. There were care to translate the switching of 1s Data bending is a form of anti-con- still an insightful introduction to the most political, economical, and social new book Info-Aestheticsdespite the ,attempts which ofwill art histori-Tacoethic Stolk ratherNL thanconceptual a characteristic the novel of J. D. Salinger, at De pure representation to pure many events and exhibitions in the and 0s into. … To me, the most tent – especially considering its ten- important questions regarding the relati- forces. Historians of science and ans such as Poggioli, that futurism, audience-performer relation. The publishedabstraction. in 2005. For example, Unsorted, there Thoughts are late 1960’sresearcher where many and pioneers editor of of SonicActsinteresting thing about “data-ben- dencies to self-referentiality (using Appel,onship Amsterdam. between art and scientific research. technology have documented the specifically in its Italian incarnati- operant of the fluid collective, the abstractions of landscape found media art were engaged in the same ding”… is letting the data speak for audio applications and plugins as winds that determine what research on the Informationon, Arts cannotpublishes be disassociated his fromX. Sincealongside 1993 a heready is formulating adoption of in the work of Diebenkorn and the communities as traditional artists. itself, trying to listen to the data stre- sound sources). It makes a (doom- The arts are perplexed about ends up getting supported, promo- essay ‘Abstractionthe theory and Complexity’.of the avant-garde andWLFR,mobile which technologies can be (such described as the as abstractions of Rothko which make This7 diminished and has diffused am with as little interference as pos- ed) attempt to resist the production what to do in response to the gro- ted, and accepted and what pro- the project of modernism. Most cellphone and voicemail), kept the no reference to our physical envi- but contemporarythe abstraction art magazines of an artist.sible.’ He is of yet more arbitrary media con- wing importance of scientific and ducts win in the marketplace. Tho- would agree today that such a disas- warehouse and the field one step ronment. In my work I create and newspapers publish reviews of 8 In part this notion of rawness, and tent, and instead reveal what is technological research in shaping mas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific sociation is impossible. However,also headahead ofof the the authorities. ExtraFaculty of abstractions of the systems of the media art exhibitions alongside of ‘peeling the skin’ from digital ‘true' (about itself). This raw data culture. One response positions Revolutions2 showed how paradigms what is also impossible is Hewitt’sthe Royalits polar Academy opposite: what of Kim Arts Casco- in natural world, rather than the exhibitions of painting and sculptu- media, is related to the recent wave signifies (by a kind of metonymy) 19 imperative to repress the ‘futurist’ ne identifies as the ‘lack of gestural appearance of the natural world. re. I thinkThe I’ll seeHague. a complete conver- of media errors, glitches and clicksMitchellthe digital Whitelaw in general, asAU a sphereauthor or of Stephen Wilson US professor impulse: the logic of duplicity is not theatre’ in laptop performance at The fact that people see recogniza- gence in my lifetime, the same way9 that has swept through electronic space; what Lev Manovich refers to inherent to futurism per se, it is the the turn of the 21C. Metacreation, Art and Artificial Life, of conceptual design at San Fran- ble forms in my work is symptoma- that video is now entirely integrated music. Elsewhere I have described as ‘the computer’s own cosmogo- basis upon which repression, as well The laptop performer’s apparent (MIT Press, Cambridge Mass., 2004), cisco State University, and author tic of how our brains work, but is into the world of traditional art. such work in terms of ‘inframedia’ ny’.8 It also signifies the cultural sta- as its antithesis, re-turns – what lack of the face, and thus performa- inconsequential in understanding BB Processing is an open project – the technological underside aor detailedtus of this and cosmogony. critical Ifaccount power and of the influential Information Arts, Hecker calls the ‘trace’. tive stage presence, has been cause the work. The works Tissue and initiated by Ben Fry and yourself. substrate of media technologies.7 agency subsist, now, in the sphere of The cyborg offered an aesthetic for intriguing debate as to the vali- of the creative practice of a-life art Intersections of Art, Science, and Technol- REVERB ENGINEMicroImage, THEare based on writings of Can you describe it? From record cracks, to CD-skips, the digital, then to hear raw data is Casey Reas thatUS artistwasn’t necessarilyand educator self-referenti- dity (as well as value) of the ‘live’ in and science. He teaches new media ogy (MIT Press, Cambridge Mass., unsorted neuroanatomist Valentino Braiten- CR Processing is a programming digital10 glitches and crashing and to hear some trace of that. al. The creation of pseudonyms, the electronic music performance. is challenging to find ways to com-exploringberg.positioned Because abstract outside this softwarekineticthe current issystems deri- cate- language and environment built for malfunctioning hardware, this aes-at theThe University deliberate of misreading Canberra.of 2002). His article ‘The Cultural ‘facelessness’ of electronic music Cascone’s strategy aims to combat pare these new art forms. In gene- vedgorisation from natural models. systems, someti- the electronic arts and visual designCA thetic points to the physical infra- data bending leads us to a basic through diversethr oughoutdigital themedia ‘90s, after the deathtobiasthe basisc. van of thisVeen critique describesby ques- ‘Hearing Pure Data: Aesthetics Importance of Scientific Research ral, the information arts defy sever- mesOr takenatural genomic visual patterns art: ‘living appear art- communities. It was created to including software, animation, himself as a renegade theoriststructure76 & which underpins electro-and Idealsopposition, of Data-Sound’and a crucial tool is for & Technology Development’ is al paradigms on which traditional 67works’ created by artists using gene- nic media. It is a reminder of mate- pursuing an analysis of data-sound art forms are based. and digitaltic modification prints. He technologies.is co-initiator pirate with strong addictions to his contribution to Sonic Acts.A re-published in Unsorted, Thoughts on riality, a collapsing of representa- practices.THOUGHTS Just ONALas THETENA INFORMATIONdata, ARIE bending ARTS is An important traditional para-of theWorks programming-project like these are usually labelled Pro- techno-turntablism and absynthetional transparency. Data bending anti-content, it is anti-information. the Information Arts . digm is the familiar distinction as visual art, while this is in fact irre- cessing. Reas has exhibited and martinis. He creates as a conceptand related practices are an expan- InformationABCDEFG is a formatted messa- between art disciplines such as visu- levant. A living creature is (whether sion of the ‘clicks ‘n’ cuts’ aesthetic: ge; significantHIJKLMN difference, as oppo- al arts, music, dance, theatre andlecturedit could in beEurope, called a Asia,work of and art theor engineer for La Société deshere arts the et momentary error, skip or sed to randomness; it has a sender literature. Usually, the differentUnitednot) States.as much Hea visual is currently ‘object’ as it ais technologiques (SAT) andcrack, thinks opens up, and the substrate and receiver.OPQRSTU Information techno- works of information art are forced ‘performing’ sound and motion. It 51 to fit within this classical categorisaVisiting- could Assistant even be seen Professor as ‘literature’, in as a doctoral student at McGill VWXYZ12 tion model. This, however, providesUCLA’ssince Designit is the r esult| Media of a composed Arts University (Philosophy and Com- 34567890 us with a misleading image of Dethe partment.string of data He (DNA). was Here interview also, theed munication). He keeps a blog at unsorted, nature of the new arts. For instance, focus on the ‘visual’ aspect blurs the to imagine two works of computer art,by Bertmor Balcaene intrinsic .qualities of the work quadrantcrossing.org/blog and Will UK AmsterAnAdam-basedZ for graphic generated using largely similar and the methods of creating it. performs as a DJ, turntablist and designer andSonicActsX artist, responsible for
DE BALIE algorithms. The first work has an Once we conclude that the tradi- lecturer. ‘The Reverb Engine’ is the graphic design of SonicActsX.3 aural output, the second results in tional distinction between visual visual forms. Then the first one will arts, music, et cetera does not work his contribution to the publication. As Will Stuart, Will and Stuart Bai- be labelled as music while the effectively for the information arts, ley design Metropolis M, the Dutch second will be called visual art. This we have to pose the question if the- contemporary art magazine. In might seem to be an arbitrary pro- re are any other categorisation blem, but it becomes relevant when models thinkable to provide us with August 2004 Will Stuart directed we realise that the infrastructures a deeper and wider insight in the and produced Franny and Zooey, a of, in this case, the musical world field of the newest arts. The discus- theatre piece and exhibition after and the visual arts world operate in sion about these potential alternati- rather separated areas (art educati- ves seems to gain more attention on, exhibition and performance94 lately. Several recent publications 95 spaces, criticism and analysis). propose new categorisation models Many of the interesting issues of – such as Information Arts. Intersections (and between) artworks like these of Art, Science and Technology by Ste- are being missed because they are phen Wilson and The Language of 58
PUBLICATION, Unsorted unsorted, SonicActsX SonicActsX is kindly supported by:
23–25 September 2004 Mondriaan Stichting Paradiso Weteringschans 6–8 1017 SG Amsterdam Fonds voor Podiumprogrammering the Netherlands en Marketing www.sonicacts.com Fonds voor Amateurkunst en Podiumkunsten www.paradiso.nl [email protected]
P Paradiso Amsterdam Tickets Quentin Hotels is official hotel partner Day ticket: €12,50 of Sonic Acts (valid for the conference, Beam Systems is official media partner performances, exhibition & films). of Sonic Acts
Evening ticket: €12,50 SonicActsX was produced in association with (valid for the conference, Paradiso, GAS AS I/F,
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