Train Tracked
Friday, 19 March, 2010 - 21:30
PROCESS Festival
PROCESS is a 2 day festival focusing on the sound of systems. Terms like 'process-driven' and 'generative' are expanded to include live performances based on breath, a train-yard video that generates rhythms dynamically, and a large metal 'drop machine' which emulates electronics, with no electronics. The program features two evenings of live performances and new-media works, a workshop and a special internet commission.
Both evenings start at 8:30 sharp. Live performances alternate with new-media works available on laptop.
Curated by Luke Munn and Will Gresson
Train Tracked
Ashley John Pigford (Newark, Delaware, USA)
Exploring new forms of composition, Pigford's "Train Tracked" consists of an extended shot of a local trainyard, which is analysed by custom software to create a rhythm. Pylons and powerpoles become notes, triggering drum patterns as they pan across the lens. Sophisticated code executed very organically, the piece 'sonifies' the industrial architecture of daily life - making us aware of it's rhythms, as well as inspiring new forms of sound creation.
Instrument
Jason Levis + Will Gresson
A live performance of acoustic percussion processed in real time using microphones and a laptop. This duo seeks to investigate the relationship between body and instrument; the manner in which biological systems and responses give rise to sound and music. In this performance the movements of the musician are given equal treatment, exploring the unique and primal synergy between percussionist and percussion to create a wholly different kind of work, which both accentuates and contrasts the variable soundscape.
RGB Music RENGA
Kenji Kojima (New York City, USA)
What does Central Park sound like? Kojima's piece explores this idea, taking 999 views of skyscrapers from the park's Great Lawn, and generating hundreds of mini-compositions based on the RGB (Red Green Blue) values of the photograph's pixels. Viewing the process of a composer as 'arbitrary', RGB Music attempts to systematise sound, but with a light touch: 30 second scores with instrumentation like "Tango Accordion", "Slap Bass 1", and "Chiffer".
Warten and Untitled
Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri with instruments by Pe Lang (Berlin, Germany)
Working together with Swiss sound artist Pe Lang to create augmented flutes and unique instruments such as the "drop machine", Papalexandri-Alexandri's two works collectively "explore machine-produced long sustained sounds and textures with an organic characteristic", taking inspiration from current digital and new music practices, but stressing physical objects and performance. Performed by Erik Drescher and Pe Lang.
Solilique
Fabian Levy (New York City, USA)
"Musical commentaries from a computer about a misunderstood concert" is how Levy describes his new-media work, Solilique, which creates a new 'meta-score' based on extracts of other performances. Snippets of cello phrases and string motifs become confused as the software runs - a jumble of code and classicism which uses technology while also pointing out it's fallibility.
_sealevel [cancelled]
Simon Scott + Rutger Zuydervelt (Cambridgeshire, UK)
In this project, Scott sent field recordings from areas below sea level in his area of England to collaborator Zuydervelt, who's native Holland contains similar topography. A "musical reclamation", the duo will seek hidden melodies and textures within the files, building a sound collage that they find and reclaim. An extended process which comments on sustainability and new forms of collaboration, while yielding surprising results.
Special Events
Eric Laska (New York City, USA)
Pro Remote
In this special internet-based work for Process, sound-artist Eric Laska gets at the heart of one of our most common electronic systems: the laptop. Subverting it's usual role as processor or playback device, Laska will directly capture the subtle, inner workings of the laptop and stream the result online over the festival's 2 day period. A long-form, minimal piece which subtly pulls apart notions such as narrative and physicality.
Daniel Jenatsch and Samuel Forsythe (Berlin, Germany and Frankfurt, Germany)
Breath Workshop
A free workshop for Jenatsch and Forythe's performance of the same name, where the group will explore breath as a system. Over the course of the afternoon, participants will work through the concepts, structure, and form of the piece, contributing their individual breaths to the chorus, which will perform the same evening. Don't miss this practical, engaging exploration of one of the principal rhythms of the body, and an opportunity to contribute to an exciting music work.