Material Studies @ Hackthebarbican
For the Hackthebarbican, the Material Studies group (Blanca Regina, Matthias Kispert and Andrew Riley) will conduct and play in a session/workshop of 3 hours divided in 2 explorations at the Hammerson room and at the Lake Patio, from 15:00 until 18:00. For this session we will use multiple materials as cardboard , paper, wood and plastic. Audience can became a participant in any moment. Join us and explore the sound of the materials in a playfull experience!
The Material Studies Group was formed in 2012 by Blanca
Regina, Matthias Kispert, Andrew Riley and has since created a number of workshops focused on playful collective explorations of the sounds within matter. So far, workshops have been held at Sound//Space at V22 Summer Club, at SoundFjord Gallery and Cafe Oto, with guest participants including Steve Beresford,Iris Garrelfs and Ryan Jordan among others.
Avant-garde art, be it musically, visually or performance based often appears as somewhat elitist, with a
defined hierarchy between those who create the work (the artists) and those experience it (the audience). To
people who have not had the fortune of being taught all the codes of the artform, the pieces and the settings
in which these are shown can be uncomfortable and alienating.
The Material Studies project seeks to open these experimental artforms to anyone who wishes to participate in the collective, improvised sonic exploration of various materials and objects, whether by actively working with the objects, passively absorbing the interactions of others or by expressing a response to the sonic exploration through visual or written acts.
The use of traditional instruments, terminology and tools of manipulation are avoided. Participants together develop an improvisational language based solely on the sounds that can be teased out of various everyday objects, with each session being themed around a particular material or object.
No expertise or previous experience is required, instead the sessions focus on the communicative potential of collective improvisation, where every participant needs to listen and react to everything that is happening around, where every gesture has an influence on everything else.
The underlying principle of the project is to promote a corrosion of the space between the artist-performer
and the contemplator-audience and to promote the idea that we are all valuable as artists regardless of
education or class.
Materials used to date have included wood, plastic, metal, ceramics, paper and cardboard.
More information http://www.soundfjord.org/materialstudies.htm
Hacking and Entrepreneurship at Hack The Barbican
To celebrate 2 years of community building, this event will showcase 2 projects supported by members of the Music Hackspace, and discuss the emergence of entrepreneurship within hackerspace communities.
WHERE: Barbican Free Stage, Penthouse 4C
Ground level by the lake side
Nearest Tube: Moorgate
Entrance by Silk Street
WHEN: Thursday 29th of August, 7:00pm
PROGRAM: The OWL, TouchKeys and a Panel
The OWL: a programmable guitar pedal. This project led by Martin Klang has raised over 400% of its target on Kickstarter and is now in production. Martin had previously released limited editions of modular synthesisers. The OWL allows to program and load your own effects onto a guitar pedal. Martin will present the OWL, the process that led to its Kickstarter campaign and the next steps of the project.
TouchKeys: This project led by Andrew McPherson is currently live on Kickstarter and to this day has reached 97% of its £30k target. The TouchKeys are a DIY sensor kit for adding multi-touch sensing to any piano keyboard. Andrew will demonstrate the TouchKeys and retrace 4 years of academic research leading to his Kickstarter campaign, and the next steps of the project.
PANEL
Martin Klang and Andrew McPherson will be joined by Charles Armstrong, founder of the Trampery and producer of Hack The Barbican, for a session on hacking, entrepreneurship and communities, moderated by Jean-Baptiste Thiebaut, co-founder of the Music Hackspace.
The Cave of Sounds at the Barbican 19-26 August. Private view Thursday 22nd from 7pm
The Cave of Sounds is an interactive sound installation created by artist in residence Tim Murray-Browne with members of the Music Hackspace. It’s the outcome of the Ensemble project, exploring what it means to hack new musical interfaces together.
The work will be exhibited downstairs at the Barbican as a part of Hack the Barbican, outside the stalls entrance to the concert hall and running at the following times:
Mon 19 Aug | 7pm — 10pm | |
Tue 20 Aug | 3pm — 10pm | |
Wed 21 Aug | 3pm — 10pm | |
Thu 22 Aug | 3pm — 10pm | Private view: 7pm — 10pm |
Fri 23 Aug | 3pm — 10pm | |
Sat 24 Aug | 11am — 10pm | |
Sun 25 Aug | 11am — 10pm | |
Mon 26 Aug | 11am — 4pm |
The work features eight new musical instruments, created individually by Music Hackspace members Borja Alexandre, Dom Aversano, Tim Murray-Browne, Sus Garcia, Wallace Hobbes, Daniel Lopez, Tadeo Sendon, Panagiotis Tigas and Kacper Ziemianin. You can find out more about the process behind their creation on the Ensemble project page.
Arranged in a circle facing inwards, members of the audience are invited to explore, experiment and experience improvising music with others around them. The instruments are all digital and networked together, allowing them to subtly align in terms of harmony and tempo. Projected onto the ground between them is a visualisation showing musical connections between participants that the installation has detected.
Video by Mind the Film.
The Cave of Sounds was created by Tim Murray-Browne with Borja Alexandre, Dom Aversano, Sus Garcia, Wallace Hobbes, Daniel Lopez, Tadeo Sendon, Panagiotis Tigas and Kacper Ziemianin.
Hope to see you there!
Tim
The Cave of Sounds was created through Sound and Music’s Embedded Composer in Residence programme with the Music Hackspace. Embedded is funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation with support from Arts Council England. Special thanks for support to Duncan Chapman, Atau Tanaka, Hannah Bujic, Jean-Baptiste Thiebaut, Martin Klang, Nick Sherrard, The Centre for Creative Collaboration, Troyganic, Queen Mary University of London and Mind The Film.
Musichackspace performances@Hackthebarbican 15th August, Barbican Centre
The Music Hackspace Performances@HacktheBarbican is an event curated by Blanca Regina, on the 15th of August from 19:00 till 23:00pm -Club Stage, Barbican Centre- Free entrance.
On this occasion, 6 acts by various artists showcase and perform audiovisual pieces that illustrate the diversity of practices and aesthetics of the Music Hackspace.
The event will be presented by Jean-Baptiste Thiebaut, who co-founded Music Hackspace in 2011.
Artists include in order of live acts for the event:
ʻLive voice ʼ by Iris Garrelfs
Iris Garrelfs is a sound artist and composer “generating animated dialogues between innate human expressiveness and the overt artifice of digital processing” as the Wire Magazine put it. Tonight she presents a solo processed voice improvisation.
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Blanca Regina & Leafcutter John Improvisation with special guest Steve Beresford
The duo of Blanca Regina and Leafcutter John engages improvisation, technology and live sound and video.Voices, glitches, objects and visuals are the main elements for this playful audio-visual performance.Throughout this year they’ve performed at Music Hackspace several times, developing a multi sensorial improvisation that follows the path of the unexpected, melting their identities with animalistic and other-world creatures.
“Sawbones 13.2” by raxil4, King Sara and P23
raxil4 is the alias of Andrew Page. His dark brooding dronescapes combine analogue and digital sound sources using a variety of equipment. His main instrument for this event will be his handmade sculptural guitar-like device made from driftwood and bones reclaimed from the River Thames. raxil4 will be accompanied by King Sara on musical saw and P23 on percussion.
Sharon Gal “solo performace”
Sharon Gal is a cross-disciplinary artist, performer and experimental musician. Her practice involves vocal and electronics, free improvisation, collaborative group & site specific performances, field recordings and radio broadcasts. Sharon Gal proposes a performance where she will be doing a set for voice and electronics.
cassiel “solo performance”
Nick Rothwell [aka cassiel] improvises with monomes and code with Gemma Riggs visual artist.
Darkroom “solo performance”
Andrew Ostler of Darkroom will give a solo performance combining analogue modular synthesis, digital control and processing, and a traditional acoustic instrument (in the form of bass clarinet). The ethos of Andrew’s work is that all sound sources are live and un-sampled, to allow freedom of creation in the moment. Depending on mood, this can range from exultant soundscapes to pounding noise.
TIMING& LINE UP
19:00 -19:05 Introduction
19:05 -19:25 Iris Garrelfs
19:30- 20:05 Leafcutter John and Blanca Regina
20:05-20:25 BREAK
20:25-20:30 Introduction
20:30-20:50 “Sawbones 13.2” by raxil4, King Sara and P23
20:55-21:35 Sharon Gal
21:35-21:55 BREAK
21:55-22:00 Introduction
22:00- 22: 20 cassiel
22:25- 23: 00 Darkroom
END