whats new ?

hey hey hey.. so the installtion is runnig fine i heard from marcus. me, i had a flu
these days : ) a week after the opening i played a small gig of a kind of experimental music here in weimar with four musicians (trombone, voice, bass and guitar) at an andy warhol tribute night.. if i ever come across some pics in time i shall put them up here.. it was a lot of fun and a great night out...after which i fell ill.. i am happy to realize an opening of an exhibtion in one weekend and then play a gig at the next and still keep a decent level of quality if i pay attention to the feedback of people at both events.. the gig was paid as well, so that helped me finish the month : ))) so whats next ? my focus is slowly shifting to the project here in weimar: " Weimar West - (un)erhört".. yesterday we all met with the board of trustees who generously support the project and it went quite well.. it was great to be able to talk to people in that kind of position about the art of listening and to bring it to their attention.. they are only small regional board who grants money from the european social funds to projects in their region, but still it was quite a new experience and i was slightly nervous about it.. afterwards i noticed that there was not a singel need for this. the people from the board were actually quite human and friendly and curious about the work that i am doing.. they were also a bit impressed to find this kind of thing a part of their thing.. it was important for me to learn that its always best to speak straight up and not try to impress, but stick to whats the facts.. also there is no need to be shy about anything in front of these kind of people, but rather openness helps a lot and putting any prejudice aside.. i think that this way at least you will not get paranoid about them seeing you as weird....i will post a link to the project but bear in mind it is all going to be written in german, since it is project here in weimar and it communicates mainly to the people involved locally .. then also up next is one or two gigs in berlin at the end
of march... tell you more about it later ! bad news is.. merete and me did not get the residency at da kunsthaus kloster gravenhorst.. oh well.. we still have one more application out and will get together to send new ones out.. i also applied for a masters in fine arts in oslo and for a paid voluntary position at the zkm in karlsruhe.. just to have a go : )) at the minute i am very happy with freelance live, although its very tough some times.. anyways.. thanks for listening, blog !

best

alexandre

"Town Country House - a virtually real Soundwalk"

so here is a photo diary of the events..

i arrived in berlin on thursday. this is me on the way to takt..



the whole day i spent at takt.. so i had a picknick with neil mcintee,
who was a fellow artist from scotland..


this is how far i came on the first day, after i went
to stay at betty & joe's in prenzlberg (by the way, the
laptop shows meretes hand performing her everyday
wish on her sculpture "wishing well"..)..


this is joe, learning some image magic:


after a short night's sleep :


the next day i worked the whole day in takt again and was almost done
with the piece...here it is on the night of the second day..

...in the night i went to visit my old flatmate sarah and
her boyfriend patrick and their little son robin.. robin convinced me
to stay for the night so the next day so in the morning we took pictures together:




its amazing.. he said he wanted to take picures of light.. so i did the first one that
has the disco mirror ball in it.. the other one robin took himself.. it was so amazing
to see how unintentionally and through playing around with the flash he had actually
created exactly what he said he wanted to photograph.....

the next day i finished the piece of and merete came to berlin..
this is the piece, ready before the exhibiton.. pictures taken by merete.

you can see the sensor on the shelf, together with the laptop and the transmitter.
closer by are the headphones hanging next to a sheet of paper that had a
brief explanation written on it. you can also see on the floor that i had
an area defined that people could use to wander throught he four individual
soundscapes that i had composed for the installtion.

this is a closer view of the shelf and the components that partially
make up "town country house - a virtually real soundwalk" ..


and another one:


i was overwhelmed by the amount of people who turned up... this
is a picure taken shortly after peak time:


...lots of friends turned up.. wonderful surprises.. this is rainer heesch,
who i lived with in england... i had not seen him since 3 years..


and this is me with uli bentele, who i went to school with from 1st til
7th grade and who i had not seen since 1999..


me and betty, who i stayed with on thursday, who i have known
for 10 years at least..

after all this self-related issues.. here is an image of the piece of
miguel and stefan.. a device that listens to your breath and
controls a database of sounds, all related to sex, masturbation and
intercourse..


and last but not least some impressions from people listening to the piece:




on the last image you see elke, who together with her boyfriend
phillipe put merete and me up for the night : )

the piece is still up until the 31st of march.. you can drop by takt
gallery every thursday and sunday.. have a listen and tell me what
you think .. : )


thanks blog for listening and watching !!!

alexandre

Opening at takt.

i cant believe.. its done. i call the piece "town country house - a virtually
real soundwalk" .. it came to me while working in the workshop in coudraystr..
the presentation was ace and it gave me great confidence that robin minard
really liked the piece and said i should not worry.. then i went to berlin on thursday to install the piece. i thought it would take little time but actually it was a lot more time consuming
than i thought. when it was done i felt quite good. i also proved mzself right by giving myself
enough time that it is important to make sure ou have enough time when you set something
up that has to work and look right... tomorrow i shall post some lovely images of the different
stages and also some pictures of the piece in action and the opening itself.. this was a little
crazy for me, since all of a sudden i met people that i hadnt seen in years !! anyways.. i shall
leave you with me as a happy man for now.. this picture was taken by merete in front of
the gallery just after i finished the piece and we went out for a meal

.. thanks for listening, blog !
alexandre

A day in Q3

these are some images of today:


this was the initial set up.. you can see the soundbeam sensor and on the floor is the soundbeam box and the laptop and further back is the transmitter for the wireless headphones..



this is the frontal view.. same stuff ..



hello.. this is me checking with headphones on .. "merete can you see me ?"



in the end i rearranged everything for a presentation tomorrow.. i will show the piece to colleges at the colloqium of composers at the Studio for Electroacoustic Music Weimar..



...and a final close up of the sensor ... you cant see him on these
images , but thanks a lot to hanns holger rutz for being a genius on implementing
more realistic algorithms in this installation and for generally
having a very productive day ... thanks for watching, blog !!!!

alexandre

installation at takt berlin

hey.. this week is all about the installation in berlin.. last week i was taking some pretty good recordings which i worked into a pure data patch.. means i developped a software application in an open source audio tool for the installation. .. what is the piece about ? as you can imagine it is
a piece about listening.. very very simple.. the idea is to project four phongraphic images into space.. you can hear these images through wireless headphones and walk throught them, slowly listening how the images change into one another.. this is done with a soundbeam sensor, a wireless headphone and a laptop computer.. this is the flyer for the show:


today im moving into a space kindly provided by the SeaM Weimar to test the sensor.. exciting.. while my enthusiasm for my work grows my bank account gets smaller and sometimes i wonder how everything will turn out and when i can stop thinking about how
it is possible to survive.. once the project in weimar west gets going i will be busier doing more
paid work again, which will do me good... for now this is purely for the love of it and that is exciting, but i also love getting paid for what i do : ) best not to worry, there are projects coming, applications pending and life to be lived !!! just have to be good with where i put the monkeys.. sorry if i bothered you with this, just had to get it off my chest .. : ) so. thats it for now.. for all the other listeneners who are in berlin, come to the show !!!!
thanks blog for listening !!

alexandre

hey blog,

things are starting to roll slowly.. i started the first phase of a project called weimar west
(un)erhört.. basically its a project that i came up with and developped it together with an urban planning office and a kind of neighbourhood centre and includes several
local institutions (e.g. youth club, box club etx... ) and a local school to create an
audio/listening book about this part of weimar called weimar west... it is amazing that this is possible and about to happen ! im so happy.. also about the support i get from everybody in weimar west. amazing ..

all the applications are sent...now its looking forward to an answer and develop new ones soon !
first though i have to concentrate on an exhibition i will be taking part in on the 17th of february..
in berlin.. yes ! it is happening. i got the eflyer today, so it is definetely going to happen..
will update some pics soon, if i understand how to do this with this blog.. more in the pipeline..
ah, before i forget.. roger hill and i were turned down by the arts council.. there was not a
public benefit and wide enough appeal in our application.. also the financial planning was not
sufficient enough.. maybe it helps somebody who writes an application for them.. i have one
successful one, if youre interested in reading it.. well .. have to do boring things now..
thanks blog for listening !!!

alexandre