Open Air by Chris Caines - Artists Talk - December 3rd, 2011
I went to the Open AirArtists Talk today to hear video artist Chris Caines speak about his current exhibition at the Mosman Art Gallery, which is part of the Festival of Mosman. The work is comprised of a video installation, in The Cube at the gallery, and also a locative iphone application, "Open Air - Locative Audio Essay" which you can view and listen to whilst walking along the path at Sirius Cove, to see the views from the Artists Cove. (I've also used the app at home, so if you're not in Sydney, then you can try it remotely too, but obviously the locative parts won't be the same.)
Once you enter The Cube, the videos and audio starts playing. The videos are displayed in a gallery case, so the viewer can get an intimate view of the moving images by looking down into the case. The Light is amazing, and the colours so rich and vibrant, even with the subtle, delicate blends as Caines adjusts the video by looking forwards and backwards in Time - into the Past and into the Future - to create his video paintings. I think he has captured the light of the works of the Masters in this piece. There are twelve images displayed, which shift throughout time, traveling from the country to the city, as the viewer sees glimpses of both man-made and natural scenes being combined into a modern art work.
There's a soundtrack playing whilst you watch the videos - made from a collection of field recordings from the sites where the images and videos were originally recorded. The effect of listening to the soundscape and gazing on the video panels finding fragments of reality and images in them is quite mesmerizing and reminds me of watching shapes form whilst watching the clouds go by. I felt so relaxed after watching the videos - it's almost like waking up after a dream where you've been watching colours and shapes drift around - there's definitely a dream-like feeling to the work. Footage was recorded over a five year period, and covers the Beauty of the Australian landscape and city-scape. The overall work is stunning - the light and clarity of the video is something to behold. I took a few video clips and photos, below, which don't obviously do the work justice, but are for documentation purposes - you really need to see the work in situ to appreciate its true beauty. Thank you to the Gallery and Festival for including video art in this year's programme.
Postfolkrocktronica Picnic, with FBi's Utility Fog
thanks to the organizers and artists who played. I arrived a bit late so missed the first couple of performances. loved the venue - so many textures, such a great warehouse & view from the island. and the sound was great. nice to see Raven & Ollie Bown - I'd only heard some of Icarus' cds and music on Utility Fog so it was great to see how he makes his music. interesting to hear that he programs code for it too. and wow, Pimmon! that sounded different to other times I've seen him play. loved it. so atmospheric, and even a bit industrial in there as well. and I do believe he was even dancing a bit! :)
Hunter's new charity cd is available today "Australian Hip Hop Supports CanTeen". 100% of the money goes to CanTeen to help kids with cancer. he would have loved to have seen it released, I'm sure. I hope you can all support it. the lineup is great too, so you'll get a double cd of great music from some of Australia's best hip hop artists - it's so great to see everyone in the hip hop community pulling together to help Hunter and others with cancer.
& remember his msg: "As I depart this world with a song in my heart, I just want to say, Love each other! Love will make you happy, Love is the answer to all your questions - I got mad Love!" --HUNTER SBX.
In collaboration with places+spaces' Cockatoo Calling, Utility Fog presents a very special afternoon at Warehouse 15 on Cockatoo Island, with some of our favourite Sydney post-folk-rock-tronic artists.
Postfolkrocktronica Picnic, with FBi's Utility Fog
Saturday 26th November
1:00pm - 6:30pm
Cockatoo Island, Warehouse # 15
Artists in order of the day:
Underlapper
AFXJIM
Option Command
Thomas William (formerly Cleptoclectics)
Ollie Bown (Icarus) (solo + duo with Raven)
Pimmon
with DJing by Utility Fog's Peter Hollo and associates between acts.
The event will run from 1pm to 6:30pm and is BYO. The summer bar will be open on the island, and there is a picnic area outside the venue.
Open Air exhibition is a multimodal mediation by Chris Caines on the tradition of landscape as a subject of artists in Australia from 19th century painting to the media arts of the present day. The Open Air project includes a video installation in the Gallery space and a locative audio essay iPhone app for the Curlew Camp Artist's Trail at Little Sirius Cove.
You can find the "Open Air - Locative Audio Essay" app in the iTunes app store. Produced in partnership with the Centre for Media Arts Innovation at UTS.
Exhibition launch : Thursday 27th October 2011 @ 6:30pm by Councillor Anne Connon, Mayor of Mosman. RSVP by Tuesday 25th October - call 9978 4095
Open Air Exhibition continues from Friday 28 October – Saturday 31 December, 10:00AM – 5:00PM
Mosman Art Gallery, Corner Art Gallery Way and Myahgah Road, Mosman
Chris will create a video installation within using the romantic ideas of the Plein Air tradition as a starting point. These video and audio pieces will be aural and imagistic fictions that imagine possible Australia's and alternate histories of art and nation that spring from the crucial fulcrum of events unfolding in the late 19th century to which the images produced in these locations are central.
The video work will be linked to a site specific GPS iPhone application which can be viewed at Sirius Cove. Together, Chris' video installation and iPhone application will create a strong sense of place and form a link between the Gallery and Sirius Cove, highlighting this important part of Mosman's rich cultural heritage.
WIRED OPEN DAY is your opportunity to experience the immense range and creative applications of the 'wires' and The WIRED Lab arts initiative.
Featuring artists from our annual residency program WIRED OPEN DAY presents performances and installations in response to the wires and their immediate environment.
WIRED OPEN DAY includes 15 artists from around Australia who will realise a new composition by Alan Lamb, David Burraston and Sarah Last, with appearances by William Barton on didgeridoo and his mother Delmae Barton on vocals.
Joyce Hinterding and David Haines will expose us to the electromagnetic world(s) that surrounds us. Garry Bradbury & David Burraston present their ‘Dormative Fields’ wire music installation. Chris Watson’s installation unveils Box Gum Grassy Woodlands habitat through a 24-hour time compression of field recordings.
ALAN LAMB : DAVID BURRASTON : JOYCE HINTERDING : DAVID HAINES : GARRY BRADBURY : WILLIAM BARTON : DELMAE BARTON : SARAH LAST : CHRIS WATSON (UK)
I met Virgie in Bangkok recently on an Art Stalkers tour, and she's an amazing woman. This will be a great book - I hope you'll submit and/or grab a copy once it's published by Seal Press
:::
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS : FAT-POSITIVE ANTHOLOGY
1500-3000 words
Editor: Virgie Tovar - author, fat activist/lifetime fat girl, and MA, Human Sexuality
Deadline: November 15, 2011
I’m seeking personal essays for a fat positive anthology to be released in 2012. I’m seeking essays that either (1) focus on a specific event/experience that was truly flabulous or (2) tell the story of how you became a fierce fatty. I encourage contributors to hone in on a particular theme—like romance, parenting, family, fatshion, dating, performance—to use as a lens through which to tell your story. Fierce, sassy, thoughtful, authentic, non-fiction, previously unpublished, autobiographical stories from fatties who identify as women are welcome. The vision for this anthology is one of fun, unapologetic fat celebration and love!
Envision the book you would have wanted to read when you started out on your journey to fat positivity. This will be that book for a lot of people. So, share what you know and what you’ve learned, the way you navigate the world, your experiences, and don’t leave out the juicy parts!
GIRRL, [girrlsound & digitalgirrl], is a new Brisbane based international organization/hub/forum for women working in or around or interested in the digital and sonic arts. Its aim is to provide discussion, feedback and reviews, present research findings, offer networking, project generation, exhibition space, testing and showcasing of work in progress, initiate collaborations, support for women curating, reviewing, making, theorizing and working in the digital and sonic arts. Girrl is for artists, curators, undergrad and postgraduate students and academics from any discipline who would like to be part of a dynamic group of women, and wish to take the opportunity to discuss their ideas, present work and build international networks.
GIRRL hosts a monthly meeting event, held at The Glasshouse, Creative Industries Precinct, where artists and guest speakers meet and present their work and project proposals and projects in development are presented.
GIRRL plans to hold annual symposiums and exhibitions of women's work, their research and develop projects that engage artists at many levels. Based at The Glasshouse at the Queensland University of Technology's Creative Industries Precinct, the first GIRRL symposium will be held in May 2012.
GIRRL is part of Upgrade! International, a large network of web based and real time gatherings, focusing on art, technology and culture.
Graham St John (ed). The Local Scenes and Global Culture of Psytrance
(Routledge, 2010). OUT NOW IN PAPERBACK
Buy online from Routledge and get a *20% discount and free shipping* using the code ERJ88 http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415876964/
This lively textual symposium offers a rich harvest of formative research on the culture of global psytrance (psychedelic trance). As the first book to address the diverse transnationalism of this contemporary electronic dance music phenomenon, the collection hosts interdisciplinary research attending to psytrance as a product of intersecting local and global trajectories. With coverage of scenes in Goa, the UK, Israel, Japan, Italy, the US, Portugal, The Czech Republic and Australia, the collection features a dozen chapters from scholars researching psytrance in worldwide locations, employing various methods, within multiple disciplines.
"This stimulating collection of essays by some of the key researchers in the field provides a genuinely insightful and engaging contribution to the study of psytrance, which students, tutors, and researchers will be turning to for many years to come. I warmly and enthusiastically welcome it." --Christopher Partridge, Professor of Religious Studies, Lancaster University, UK
Dancecult: journal - special issue on the DJ, was released on 16 June 2011. Dancecult is a peer reviewed e-journal specializing on EDMC (electronic dance music culture). This issue has articles on DJs at NYC's "The Saint" nightclub, the changing roles of the DJ in Vienna, the "maleness" of drum'n'bass in London, DJs and cyborgs, psytrance DJ Goa Gil, part one of the Nomads in Sound series, a couple of articles on turntablists and hip hop DJs, the techno scene in Stockholm, a look at the EBM/Industrial DJs, as well as book reviews. A bumper issue!
DANCECULT | Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture
==================
Volume 3 * Number 1 * 2011
================== http://dj.dancecult.net/
SPECIAL ISSUE ON THE DJ
with Guest Editors Anna Gavanas and Bernardo Alexander Attias
Hunter & Mortar - Fear and Loathing—a few words with Hunter SBX about his new album with Mortar—this was originally an article for ozhiphop.com : article in forum & on http://officialozhiphop.tumblr.com. by AliaK 31/05/2011. Thanks very much to Hunter for taking the time to answer my rambling questions
:::
Hunter and Mortar released their new album "Fear and Loathing" in May 2011—the guys seem a perfect match to release an album together. Written over a few years, there's a range of styles, and fans of either of the two will not be disappointed. My personal favourites are the more introspective songs, such as Mortar's "Expecting to Fly" and Hunter's "Love and Fear" but there are also plenty of hardcore rap songs for the fans to play at parties and bars around Australia. Hunter answered a few questions and replied to comments about the new release. You can find the album in all good stores supporting Australian Hip Hop, and I'd encourage you to buy all of Hunter's and Mortar's albums, including this one—the latest chapter in the Hunter SBX story.
I was really excited to hear that Brisbane band Step It Up had a new EP, "Push", out in 2011 on Zyl Records, as I'd loved their earlier work on their self titled album released in 1996 and I'd seen them perform in Brisbane when I lived there in 2000/2001 or so. The new EP has different versions of the song "Push"—which includes a sample from their popular song "Flex" with mixes by Obese Bass Beast and Unison Sound System. There's also a new song called "Nudge" by Blunted Stylus (aka Geoff "Jigzaw" Blunted/ex Resin Dogs/Hydrofunk). The musical lineup has changed slightly over the years, but there's still a range of music styles and techniques explored on this release—from house, to jazz, to drum'n'bass, to bass-music and beats'n'squelch styles. All in all, it's a pleasure to listen to and I'm looking forward to hearing their future sounds, as well as the cache of songs yet to be released. Des Reid was kind enough to answer a few questions about the band and its future directions. Keep an ear to the ground for their live gigs in Brisbane and elsewhere—you'll be in for a treat from these talented musicians!
>> for the "borrowed moog and juno mix", song #1 on Push—what's the story here? who'd you borrow the moog and juno from and can you keep them for a while?
> The Moog Prodigy belonged to Manny, our old keys player. I should have bought it when he sold it. The Juno 60 was DJ Damage's. They're both killer synths. I've since acquired a Juno 60 and JX-3p.
>> are there any favourite gigs, or memories of them that you'd like to share?
> The "Vibes on A Summer Day" festivals were always great. They were before festivals became commercial and unaffordable. Bondi Pavilion was a great venue. It's always nice to see a thousand people jumping up and down to your music in the sun from the stage.
>> for your live set: "Their new show has wide variety from instrumental hip-hop through Asian and Arabic influences to banging house". can you talk about some of these influences? particularly, the Asian and Arabic ones
> I have been learning some Arabic music and playing with some great oud players. We have an unreleased track called "Ïntefada" and a new one called "Free Gaza". I've always been interested in Indian music since seeing the Mahavishnu Orchestra, although I haven't studied it thoroughly and authentically. One of our best new tunes is an Indian groove tune called "Only One I know". That's partly because it's the only raga I know properly! Rohan plays in proper Indian ensembles in recitals at the Hindu temple in Virginia up here in Brisbane.
>> who are the band members of Step It Up?
> We've had some fantastic players in the past who have left town like Craig Hanicek, Darren MacPherson and Gavin Manikus on sax, Godoy and Steve Falk on percussion and DJ Frenzie. Terepai recorded the drums on "Flex" for us too.
The current line up is :
Steve Francis—drums
Steve is a great drummer and is in great demand in Brisbane. He tours with James Morrison too.
Neil Wickham is our great new sax player. He has a brilliant fusion type sound. The sax can't be too mellow in this type of music or it loses the edge and blands it out a bit.
Rohan Somasekaran is on keys. He is an awesome piano player and leads his own straight-ahead jazz outfit too. We're adding more synth to the live sound too.
I [Des Reid] play bass mostly live, but also a bit of guitar and guitar synth. I want to start contributing to the percussion too, but only in a support role—I'm only a simple player.
DJ Damage does the cuts on the EP. He's also in Terntable Jediz and The Optimen. He's one of the best turntablists I've ever seen.
Roger Gonzalez is our percussionist. He is a conga and cahon specialist, and a fantastic groove player. Marcelo, who played on the "Push" EP moved to Canberra unfortunately. We have loads of percussion recorded by him in the vaults though. Also heaps by his brother, Luis Schiavi—a killer timbales player.
Overall we have a giant backlog of tracks which we will be finishing and releasing soon. Although we haven't been playing out as often over the last few years, we never stopped writing and recording. We're sitting on a few albums really. The new label—Zyl Records will be our outlet now that we're organized.
>> do you improvise during the live sets too?
> There is a lot of improvising live. We follow the jazz tradition of arranged head—improvisation—head. We try to keep some tightly arranged sections too. One big feature of our sets is the breakdowns. We don't just have horn or keys solos—we have big sections where the drums, percussion and DJ are improvising together, feeding off each other. According to Cuban tradition, when two or more percussive players are resonating, that's when the spirits come. We're a bit tribal really.
some links on Bangkok sound art and digital art and other interesting blogs / media
art BAM - Bangkok Art Map - BAM is a printed art map available at galleries, hotels, art-cafes and various other places around the city. there seems to be a different issue each month. I found a copy of the 05.2011 version at the Kathmandu Photo Gallery off Silom Rd in Bangrak. the website has art listings and information also and is definitely worth checking out - you can even download a pdf version of the current BAM if you don't find one on the soi
Kathmandu Photo Gallery - there's books, art prints, and a gallery upstairs. it's a great old pre-war building, painted pale green - which reminds me of the smaller rooms in the old RSL halls in Brisbane in the 1970s where we did ballet classes - even the same pale green paint on the wall boards - it's very fresh and colourful. owned by well-known Thai photographer Manit Sriwanichpoom and artist/filmaker Ing K.
Reflections on Hunter's first three albums:
::: "Done DL" ::: Hunter and Dazastah (2002)
::: "Going Back to Yokine" ::: Hunter (2006)
::: "Monster House" ::: Hunter and DJ Vame (2010)
When Walter Benjamin stated in 1936 that, “the art of storytelling is coming to an end" due to the rise of the printed novel and the lowering value of experience, he hadn't anticipated the rise of the hip hop emcee to revive this craft in our modern world. In all his albums, Hunter shows his skills as a wonderful storyteller. There are tales of growing up, getting into trouble and later returning to his hometown of Yokine, Perth, in the songs "Adolescence", "Going Back To Yokine" and "Yokine (Drugs + Crime)". These are stories of self-discovery, and of changing his life, and of hope — giving up old ways that were not working for him to focus on music, rapping and living a hip hop-infused life instead. "What I Do Best" has the feeling of homecoming to a community of supportive people and finding his place in the world. There are stories of mateship and the value of community with his Syllabolix (SBX) family and crew. There are stories of having children and the specialness that can bring to one's life in "Ultrasound" and "Kids of the Future". Littering his rhymes in "Kids of the Future", "The Big Issue" and "Me Old Man" are stories based on his Dad’s advice, as he contemplates being a father himself.
In collaboration with places+spaces' 
WIRED OPEN DAY
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