the 0kn0-series at the ice-cellars :
site-specific multimediaperformances

The okno#../series fit within a framework of collaborative performances, a programme proposed by 0kn0/LookingGlass for the historical Ice Cellars of the VUB.
The historical location consists of 2 subterranean [connected) rooms. With a width of 10 metres, a heigth of 12 metres and a total length of 60 metres the space takes the proportions of a cathedral. Due to the accoustic and spatial qualities of the location, most of the presented projects will concentrate on the perception of sound in different forms [time, space, movement, connection, interference and visualization of sound).
With our proposed programme we want to analyze the social and cultural effects of digital media an communication technologies from artistic and scientific perspectives. We will try to identify developments that promise to be the driving forces in art, technology and society in the coming years.
All interactive installations and audiovisual works will be site-specific and originally conceived and produced by 0kn0/LookingGlass for the ice cellars.
 

mxhz.org [int] : thoughts go by air : research, development and presentation
thursday 24th of march [artist presentations] and saturday 26th of march [performance]

"thoughts go by air" : the balloon-artbots is an ongoing research and development project.
The intention is to create an complete artificial environment using robots mimicking a combination of animal behaviour and to explore the possibilities of technology as a medium of artistic expression.
To prove that technologically mediated art is truly authentic and charismatic.
To built a mobile, responsive, behavioural, environmentally conscious, and essentially audio-visually perceiving, artificialist species able to create (maybe for the first time in history) a responsible art for all humans, animals and machine. [www.mxhz.org]

Round-up of the second phase of the project is set in the context of a research week [march 21-march 26], with lectures and artist presentations on technological art [see below this page] and with a public performance of the flying arbot-balloons at the ice-cellars in Brussels.

For the third phase of this R&D-project, the belgian new media collective mxhz.org will set-up an international collaboration with Tezla/Podewil Berlin.
The presentation will take place later this year, simultaneously in Brussels and in Berlin, with 2 sets of independently flying balloons, interactive and in an online connection.

 
 

spin -- by Yolande Harris and Hilary Jeffrey
may 2005

A sound and light performance for: turning trombonist [Hilary Jeffery] and turning videowalker [Yolande Harris], light sensors and phased sinewaves , conceived especially for the ice-cellars in Brussels.

"Spin" is part of a series of compositions that explore the circular motif of a lighthouse loom in its alternative forms of sound, movement and light.
It follows:
‘Light Phase’ performance for video, voice, sound and sensors, Maastricht.
‘A Collection of Circles’, interactive sound installation, Brussels.
‘HoWhere_r_u?’ sketch for turning wind quintet, lights and sensors, London.
‘Loom’ inhabitable score space, Ireland.

In this piece I am interested to add the human performer as the source of the circular sound and light. Spinning around the fixed axis of the body creates an unstable system which, unlikethe mechanised lighthouse, cannot go on indefinitely.
The performers must develop strategies to deal with their dizziness, starting, stopping, changing speed and direction. In SPIN I want these decisions to have a direct musical and visual implication by making the performers part ofa compositional loop. The trombonist, steadily turning around his own axis, breaths a continuous stream of textured sound. The trombone is a very directional instrument so by turning in an acoustically reflective space one literally hears the shape of the room. The musical parameters are partly dictated by the space, to find the best volume and reverberant pitch areas and partly by the sound of the phased sinewaves.
The videowalker is a performer that carries a video projector and source material and plays it as an instrument. In SPIN I turn steadily around my axis, projecting a stream of light. Instead of using a reflective surface or screen in order to make the image visible, here it reflects off and explores the space it finds. More like a search light the videowalker highlights the trombonist, the audience and the space.
The images, when recognisable, are related to the previous performances in this series. The normal interaction loop between two performers is extended by a technological interference. The performance space is fitted with strategically placed light sensors that are influenced when the light beam of the projector passes. Monitoring the change of light this information is converted into the sound of phased sinewaves that create their own sonic loom. These dynamic sinewaves reflect both the speed of turning and the density of light in the projected image.
Hearing this the trombonist modifies his playing to the sound of the sinewaves. As the trombone sound changes, so the videowalker modifies the images, which in turn modify the light levels, performing a loop that continually evolves.

Hilary Jeffery is a trombonist with a broad experience in multimedia performance, and is based in Amsterdam. Specialising in the interpretation, improvisation and composition of contemporary music, he has been a regular member of the Meta-Orchestra. Spin is written especially for Hilary because of his several performances based on turning, his experience of stage and movement work, and his Tromboscilator work with new technologies. [www.hiljef.com]
The VideoWalks have been developed by Yolande Harris [with Bert Bongers] since 2003 with a number of performances including ‘Forestwalk1’, ‘Beach’ and ‘Between: Two, duet for mobile video players’ [Maastricht].
A recurring element of these performances is the spinning motif that blurs light and image, real space and projected space. This now is isolated into the singular form of Spin. The piece is part of the larger research project Score Spaces. [www.janvaneyck.nl]
  mxhz.org [int] and Dominique Leroy [f]
a collaboration between mxhz.org/xgz, Dominique Leroy and dancer.

Together they will research the historical and geographical link between the ponds of Elsene from where the ice was provided and the ice cellars at the Waversesteenweg in Elsene where the ice was stored before use during de rest of the year. The research output-data will be presented in an audio-visual installation.

Dominique Leroy Dominique Leroy's soundconstructions situate the listener, giving him indications, perhaps indirectly, to stay within a defined area. Here the artist is a sound operator who designs architecture, or even reconstructs it. His interventions take place on an architectural scale, using items of furniture : partitions and various structures; or even by means of audio devices : CD players, cassette players, acoustic systems and other types of loud speakers.

Guy Van Belle [Berlin/Brussels) has been prominently involved in the use and development of multimedia for artistic purposes since 1990. As an independent art worker he cooperates with Waag Society Amsterdam on the development of collaborative creative tools for installations and performances. For that purpose he set up \An`a*tom"ic\ "Related to the structure of an organism", a weekly open studio for young and unconventional artists, linked to international partners by fiber optic wire: New York, Brussels, Reykjavik, Tokyo, Athens, Sofia, Prague, Bratislava, ... Since 2000 he has been working under the name of the collective digital band mxHz.org (machine cent'red humanz), creating collaborative performances, concerts, workshops, exhibitions and unexpected experimental/abstract/robotic art projects. With Akihiro Kubota he founded the 'Society of Algoritm' in 2001. Recently he started to work at an hommage to Arseny Avraamov, in Baku on 7 November 2022.




  the 0kn0-series at the Koolmijnenkaai 30/34 Brussels 1080:
site-specific installations
 
edo paulus [nl] : Inside-The-Oscillator
may 2005

Edo Paulus studied "Audio Design" at the art-academy in Utrecht, the Netherlands. His specialisation is using generative processes to create sound and musical textures resulting in automatical music-generating software, live music performances, sound-installations and audio for (interactive) imagery. He will develop a site-specific soundinstallation for the 0kn0 space in center Brussels, Koolmijnenkaai 30/34.

Inside-The-Oscillator is a soundinstallation consisting of eight sets of a microphone, a speaker and an aluminium plate. All eight sets are being hung together in one physical space. With each set, the speaker returns an amplified and slightly modified audiosignal from the microphone [most microphones are contactmicrophones attached to aluminium plates]. The microphone picks up, through the air and the aluminium plate, the sound of it's corresponding speaker. Thus, a feedback oscillation can occur. This oscillation is mostly defined by the frequencycharacteristics of the aluminium plate and by the physical space in which everything resides.
In this physical space everything comes together. Here, the eight feedback oscillations of the eight microphone-speaker-plate sets mix and influence eachother. Here, also, the oscillations are influenced by other factors: Environmental sounds, presence of bodies in the physical space and airmovements which alter the position of the aluminium plates, amongst others. [www.eude.nl]

 
   
 

the 0kn0-debates: lectures and artist presentations on technological-art topics
at 0kn0 Brussels - Koolmijnenkaai 30/34
  Round-Table-Debate about "ecological evolutions in technological art"
in the context of the research-project "THOUGHTS GO BY AIR" from mxhz.org 

with project-presentations by the artists/collectives:

mxhz.org [int] and Johannes Taelman [be]
mxhz.org is a collective of machinic artists, swinging on the hooks that tear apart the fabric of a recent rhetorical past to uncover an activity based future. They are working on autonomous artbots and radical visual music.
Johannes Taelman is an electronic engineer interested in psycho-acoustics, sensorsystems for interaction and machine learning.
dominique leroy [fr] is a sound-artist working on the topic of acoustic perception. In his soundinstallations he analizes and modulates common sounds from the public space.
bernard delville [be] is an artist/engineer, member of the former '70-ties art collective Mass Moving. He specializes in research and development of alternative energy sources.
edo paulus [nl] studied Arcitecture and Audio Design. His specialisation is using generative processes to create sound and musical textures resulting in automatical music-generating software, live music performances, sound-installations and audio for (interactive) imagery.

The project-presentations are followed by a debate about the topic.
Open discussion and feedback from local and remote audience is encouraged.

Round-Table-Debate: thursday 24th of march -- 8pm
Address: OKNO -- Koolmijnenkaai 30/34 Quai aux Charbonnages -- 1080 Brussel