New media artists combine video and music at Telus World of Science
Emmedia Calgary’s hub for electronic media art is right at home on the cutting edge. Its screening room is a never-ending treasure trove of innovative and surprising work but Emmedia’s latest project has exploded beyond the confines of its 60-seat venue.
Sonic Boom! a boundary-busting presentation of western Canadian media artists will take place in the Discovery Dome Theatre at the Telus World of Science. It will feature the Calgary premières of On the Other Side by Clinker and Iron Tomahawks by Jackson 2bears as well as the world première of Fade In/Fade Out by The Electron Orchestra Withdrawal. “This is three events rolled into one for us” says Kari McQueen program and outreach co-ordinator.
Sonic Boom! had its genesis at The Banff Centre’s Interactive Screen event where McQueen met Gary James Joynes and 2bears. “I contacted them both later wanting to bring them in” says McQueen. “They came back to me with a proposal. ‘We heard that you invited us both. Can we do something together?’ It started to blossom from there and then Jackson e-mailed me about this buddy of his in Calgary who does crazy things with drums. I’m like wait a minute that sounds like my artist-in-residence this year. Do you mean Adam Tindale?”
Tindale a classically trained percussionist is one of Emmedia’s two artists in residence for 2008-09. As part of his residency he’s been developing a prototype of his E-Drumset. “His goal is to make this electronic instrument as intuitive and responsive as a regular acoustic drum set” says McQueen. “With older versions of this kind of thing it wouldn’t matter how you hit it it would produce the exact same sound. Adam has written his own software so the pads are sensitive to pressure. If you hit it softly it produces a soft sound; if you hit the rim it will sound like you hit the rim.”
With the convergence of these three like-minded artists The Electron Orchestra Withdrawal Canada’s newest electronic group was born. “I have an FTP server and they’ve been firing files back and forth between Calgary Edmonton and Victoria” says McQueen. “It’s been really amazing to watch this long-distance collaboration.” The trio along with Edmonton guitarist Les Robot will perform a 20-minute semi-improvised set with live audio and visual components. “Last week I cheated and downloaded the latest set of files to fly across” McQueen admits. “It sounds amazing and I’m dying to see the final product.”
Fade In/Fade Out will be sandwiched between the other two performances starting with On the Other Side. Joynes in his new media identity Clinker was commissioned by the 2008 International Leonard Cohen Festival to create an experimental tribute to the legendary artist.
Clinker works in live cinema which involves the simultaneous creation of sound and image in real time. “It’s a genre that’s only become available in the last few years where personal computers and laptops have become powerful enough to process live video and have become affordable to artists” says Joynes.
“Right off the bat I was struck by Cohen’s words” says Joynes. “They are so vivid and descriptive and I found a theme running through his poetry and lyrics of white and black light and dark. On top of that the sound of his voice is so rich and bass-textured. Whenever I heard that 100-hertz frequency that baritone coming out of his voice I just wanted to fall inside the speakers. I thought Wouldn’t it be interesting to bathe the audience in his low voice?”
Joynes found a recording of one of Cohen’s poetry readings and microscopically sampled the lowest tones he could find. “I time-stretched these minute sections probably more than anybody should time-stretch anything” he says.”
This “bass-scape” will be complemented by an ultra-slow-motion video. “Leonard Cohen being a Buddhist I wanted to take a meditative approach to the piece” says Joynes. “At times you’ll be looking at the screen and you won’t think anything’s moving. But if you look really really closely you’ll see the microscopic elements at play.”
On the Other Side is bookended by a selection of Cohen songs which Clinker performs with Les Robot. “The Leonard Cohen Festival is a mainstream festival that draws people who probably aren’t used to experimental work and who have never sat in a deep-listening environment for 40 minutes” says Joynes. “I thought Wow this is going to alienate a lot of people probably scare the shit out of some. I have to take the audience in and out gently.” The piece closes with an interpretation of Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” “I developed a technique for layering harmony live with my voice” says Joynes. “I stack up a six- or eight-part harmony that floats in the room and then Les Robot joins me.”
The evening ends with Jackson 2bears’ Iron Tomahawks a live video mash-up. “If you’ve ever seen people taking all kinds of YouTube videos and making a new work that’s video mashing” says McQueen. “It’s the visual version of a DJ who remixes bits and pieces of old audio. Iron Tomahawk s mixes old film footage with his own work things like a white man in makeup playing a native person picking apart the pop culture depiction of indigenous identity in a playful way. It’s a great entry point into these issues.”
Twenty per cent of the evening’s proceeds will benefit Elephant Artist Relief a non-profit organization that supports the health well-being and livelihood of artists in Calgary. “So many artists have limited income and many of them forgo health care and treatment to pay the rent or make art” says McQueen. “As an artist centre and a community I think it’s really important to support this initiative.”
