SOUNDCHECK: A sound and multimedia art exhibition by four interdisciplinary artists

SOUNDCHECK
A sound and multimedia art exhibition by four interdisciplinary artists

In cooperation with the Adamson University - Gallery

Opening Reception: 7 July 2009, Tuesday at 2:00 P.M.
Exhibit runs until July 30, 2009

This exhibition aims to show an equal blend of both visual and sound as means of access to the artist's art making process. With an objective to intercalate experimental sound as an interdisciplinary art form, notably extending art practices by developing unique mediums in parallel with new technologies. The exhibit aspires to burgeon the audience's understanding of art to this day. The constant development of art having its own language and fresh approach to aesthetics is continuously developing its own methodology. It shatters the tradition, disrupts the order, repels, invigorates, brings out a different perspective... and disrupts it again.


Participating artists in alphabetical order are:

Sherwin Carrillo is a musician by profession, Carillo plays rhythmic sounds with his djembe, a West African musical instrument assembled locally and popularly used for world music. With this instrument, he strives to investigate the nature of communication in a global sense, knowing that music is fundamentally a universal language that expresses the emotional faculties of humankind. Sherwin experiments with deconstructing primal sound and reconstructing it, combining modern influences and merging them into sound art that can be characterized as unified diversity. As a sessionist specializing in percussions, he has participated in numerous bands, performance art events and painting exhibitions.

Marlon Magbanua is an avid musician and abstractionist, who uses various musical instruments and accessories for his performances. Having come from a musical background, much of Magbanua’s work has involved an interplay of aural and visual constructs. The past few years, however, have seen an increased fascination with translating sound into color and form—literally, assigning both numerical and visual equivalents to the elements of sound. Given the functional quantification of visual elements (most familiar in digital imaging software), sound, Magbanua exerts, may very well find direct translation in images, given the right set of values and equations.
Magbanua is a graduate of Fine Arts at the Technological University of the Philippines. He has been an active participant in paintings and performance art festivals and exhibits across Asia, including two major art events in Taiwan and Japan, and has been distinguished in several abstract art competitions.

Lirio Salvador is a sculptor, inventor, instrument builder and the prime mover of E.X.I.S.T. One of the Philippines’ pioneer in experimental music. Salvador has been doing Sound Art and Experimental Music since the late 80's and early 90's with his punk band Publiko, then the interdisciplinary art group Intermidya. Eventually, he formed Elemento; a multi-disciplinary experimental and sound art collective, where he creates his music using his assemblage of musical instruments made out of bicycle parts, stainless steel tubes and other industrialized materials which he commonly called 'Sandata'.

Mannet Villariba is a grand prize winner of the NCCA’s Websining Digital Art competition in 2007. Villariba explores his medium with an enthusiasm for electronics as it relates to the realm of sound and visuals. After a fine arts education, corporate environment, and with a self-confessed anti-synth ideology in his garage-band days, Villariba's exposure on new media led to an advantageous and favorable understanding of these unforeseen forces underlying electronic sound with its mystical, ambient and chaotic appeal, eventually shifting his ideals, which in turn rejuvenates his expression in visual art as well. Interactive visual interpretations of these forces are increasingly the main focus of his work. He actively participates in various performance art events locally as well as several festivals abroad, such as the Tupada Xing, Wunderspaze, Singapore 2006 / Nippon International Performance Art Festival, Japan, Summer 2007 / Asean Contemporary Art Exchange, Yangon Myanmar, January 2009 / Changwon Art Festival, South Korea, April 2009 / Gwangju International Performance Art Festival, South Korea, May 2009.

Adamson University Art Gallery
900 San Marcelino Street, Ermita, 1000 Manila
Tel. nos. 524-20-11 loc 255 and 383-37-35
Exhibit runs until July 30, 2009
Open Mondays to Fridays, 9:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M.

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Drunken Revelry by Poklong Anading at Ateneo Gallery

an opening exhibit by poklong anading's "drunken revelry",
a sound project with inconnu ictu, pow martinez
and
common room bandung artists
at ateneo gallery on thursday july 2, 6:00 pm.

POKLONG ANADING’S DRUNKEN REVELRY
Ramona Rivera

Around 30 km north of Bandung in Indonesia, there is a popular volcano that looks like a boat from afar. Called Tangkuban Perahu, its name translates to an ‘upturned boat’ and recalls a legend of a beautiful woman who lived in West Java. One day she banished away her son for disobeying her, which caused her deep sadness. To appease her, the gods gave her eternal youth. After many years, her son returned but the two no longer recognize each other. They fell in love and planned to marry, until the mother saw a familiar birthmark on the son’s body. For the marriage to take place, she set two conditions: he must build a dam on the river and construct a large boat to cross it, both before sunrise. The son summoned the help of mythical ogres in order to complete the task. Seeing that they were almost done, the mother commanded her workers to spread red silk cloth all over the east side of the city, to give the impression of daybreak. The son was fooled, and in his frustration, kicked the dam and the unfinished boat, causing a great flood and the emergence of a volcano from the boat’s hull.

As part of his return exhibition from his residency in Bandung last December 2008, Poklong Anading’s latest installation Drunken Revelry fittingly anchors on the boat. The boat is such an elemental figure in the consciousness and history of island people. It is the manifestation of our inherent desire to explore, trade, conquer, and be lost. In Indonesia, as in the Philippines, the way of the sea is so palpable, that it seems as if we each carry a wave within our bodies that pulls in stronger as we draw closer to open water.

During Anading’s two-week stay at Common Room, he had the opportunity to meet and hang out with a community of artists and musicians. Before he left, Anading, together with Ega Lesmana, Sandy Ate, Indra Jenggot and others from Common Room did a sound project, recording the sound of the perahu in a large cauldron filled with water. The perahu is a traditional Javanese handmade tin boat, which can be easily found on the sidewalks and markets of Bandung. The shape is reminiscent of a warship, with gunners on the deck. A flame propels it; inside its hull is a wick. A charmingly crude toy, it makes a clanging rat-tat-tat sound as it crosses the water. Anading used the sound of the perahu as the initial layer, upon which the musicians instinctively responded to, adding their own particular sonority to the mélange. The resulting dissonance can be drowning but at the same time its atonality can be quite harmonious, a typical characteristic of electronic music.

For this year’s exhibition at the Ateneo Art Gallery, Anading did a new video of his friends’ children playing with the perahu he brought back from Bandung. The shot is taken from the top, and shows five colored boats – red, yellow, blue, black, and white – floating in this makeshift pool. The children are no longer seen, only their hands as they reach out for the boats. Tightly cropped, it is focused on the boats as they circle around, trapped in the water. From that angle, it’s almost like a volcano’s crater enclosing a lake.

Anading appropriately installed his video inside the gallery’s stockroom, the core of the space. It is a narrow enclosure within the gallery, where artifacts, files and precious objects lie in wait. The gallery’s lights have been turned off and the only source of light is the video. The room is empty except for the cornucopia of sounds - several layers of recordings of spontaneous jammings and other sound projects that Anading has collected over the years. Apart from the recording in Bandung, Anading incorporated sessions with Manny Migriño, Sam Kiyoumarsi and Gary-Ross Pastrana during the construction of Paul Pfeiffer’s stadium for the 2008 Sydney Biennale at the 18th Avenue compound in Cubao, wherein the artists merged their sound with the sound of building materials and other sounds happening at the time; and the most recent recording with Pow Martinez and Roger Lopez (Inconnu Ictu) at the Ateneo with the children playing with the perahu.

In Anading’s archive of sounds, traces of early experimental, avant-garde strategies and one-off happenings can be found. In an earlier project Visible Darkness, Anading also experimented with sound and the absence of light when he brought a band of blind musicians for a performance in a darkened theater in Intramuros. (NCCA, 2005) In Drunken Revelry, however, it is disentangled from the spectacle of live performance and instead, it is presented as a recording, a documentation, an abstraction of the real event. Its ephemerality is further heightened by the absence of light and objects in the space. Distance is carved out from the layers of sounds, unidentifiable already since they have all merged into one.

With Anading’s works, the social context of the work and the site are usually strong elements. As soon as we enter the gallery, we – the audience - become participants in the gesture, walk-in collaborators in the performance. In Light Suffers Where There Is No Place To Fall From (Finale Art Gallery, SM Megamall, 2007), we are enclosed in the void, the white cube gallery, with only sound and air between us. The sounds and traces of our bodies – the talk, the footsteps, the shuffling, the ruffle of our clothes, our shadows – all converge in this heady brew, this atmosphere, this moment. We packed ourselves in the gallery, and posed for a picture. For the work in Ateneo, as in Intramuros, we huddle in the dark to listen.

Anading’s earlier collaborations have posed the difficulty to bridge distance, and the forced isolation imposed by certain social situations. (Walking Distance with Ringo Bunoan, 1999, and Three Chairs with Chico Beltran and Jose Beduya, 2000) In Drunken Revelry, he uses sound as material, expression, communication, and a way to connect with others. This time, he highlights free play, spontaneity and intuition in human interaction and the ruptures that occur with each encounter. Transcendence is similar to several rounds of drinks, after which we give in to more communal, primal urges. Our dissonant barriers dissolving, like the ice in our glass.


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Open Call: ASEUM Symposium, Deadline extended until July 8

Extended Open Call for Participants: ASEUM Symposium
Deadline extended until July 8,2009, Wednesday


ASEUM is an international network of new media art practitionerspushing for cultural, educational, and technological exchange onemerging new media art practices in South East Asia and Europe. Initiated by SABAW Media Art Kitchen (Philippines) and MultimediaCenter KIBLA (Slovenia), ASEUM hopes to draw attention to artists, their work, their perspectives and the complex interrelationships between technology, art and culture through various symposia, workshops, and collaborative endeavors.

Discussions on interactive design, networked cultures, the burgeoningopen source software movements, interactivity, data visualization, bio-technology, DIY electronics, open-source hardware, computer/electronic music, and sound and video art are among the fewtopics that will be tackled by some of the most recognized artists working on new media art and technology in Europe and Asia.

This year’s symposium is slated to run from July 21-25, 2009 in Manila, Philippines and is open to all artists, software programmers, engineers, scientists, students, DIY hobbyists and art enthusiasts. The symposium will feature new media artists from Europe and Asia through a series of interactive sessions, open fora, live audio-video performances and presentations in top universities and renowned artist-run spaces in Metro Manila.

*Please note that the hands-on workshop labs on graphical programming languages Pure Data and DIY sound devices using Arduino can only accommodate a limited number of participants.

To be considered for participation, please submit a 1-2 paragraph essay (not more than 300 words) stating your purposes in joining, including how you can contribute to the symposium given your specialization or field of work. Please also submit your full contact details along with the essay on or before July 8, 2009 to sabawmediahub@gmail.com or contact 09209053421.

Complete details regarding symposium venues, speakers, performers, presentation topics, and program flow available upon request; email eisajocson@yahoo.com.


Call for Volunteers: ASEUM Symposium


The ASEUM Secretariat is looking for volunteers to help prepare for and oversee the 5-day event. Anyone is free to join and contribute in whatever way they can, regardless of their specialization or field. We need people to assist us with the following tasks:

· Logistical preparations

· PR relations

· Media planning

· Publicity/promotions for print and web

· Stage management

· Housekeeping

· Other tasks, as the need requires


Join the ASEUM team today and be a part of a growing global network of new media artists and enthusiasts. If interested, contact (+63)917-5191511 and send a short introduction about yourself, stating how you can help, along with your contact details to sabawmediahub@gmail.com on or before June 10, 2009.

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Complete details regarding symposium venues, speakers, performers, presentation topics, and program flow available upon request; email chesquita@gmail.com

ASEUM is sponsored by ASIA-EUROPE FOUNDATION as part of the Follow Up Project (FUP) of the 5th-6th Art Camp New Media and the Mini Summit on New Media Art policy & practice.

Feel free to disseminate this email to interested parties, to blogs, websites, the like.

Thank you for your time.



MORE INFO: http://aseum09.tk/



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We EXIST

We Exist (a gathering of sound and visual performances)
May 29, 2009
Mogwai Cinemateque, Cubao X

(incomplete photo documentation)

(top-bottom) - erich, jen & pj* / nyabinghi* / etniktonika*



(left-right - top) - foodtrip* / erick calilan*
(left -right - bottom) - mel araneta* / erich diolola*



(left-right - top) - mel with his machine* / jon romero of elemento*
(left-right - bottom) - lirio salvador with his sandata* / the videographer*



(top-bottom) - elemento* / pj, dyeng, jonjie & mean* / the photographer with jun sabayton



(top) - tad ermitano and jing garcia*
(bottom) - children of cathode ray minus other members*



(top) - technical problem?** / poklong anading's video**
(bottom) - tad ermitano's video**

EXIST would like to thank the following:


Mogwai Cinemateque and Cubao X
Media Arts Manila
Sabaw
Seido Toshiyuki
Mannet Villariba
Jun Sabayton
Poklong Anading
Autoceremony and Tad Ermitano
Trojan Whores (Pow Martinez, Sam Kiyoumarsi and Thomas McWalter)
Down Boy Down
Decay Transit
The Slavedrum
Dayuhan
Caliph8
Jed Escueta
Abet Esguerra
Carla Dizon
Etniktronika
Inconnu Ictu
Elemento
Nyabinghi
Edsel Abesamis
Grand Pearl Production

*

mannet villariba did a solo performance

*
**



(top) - pilipon (seido & lirio)*
(bottom) - jun sabayton and inconnu ictu*



(top-bottom) - collaboration* / noise* / pilipon with inconnu ictu, jun sabayton (performance art) and jed escueta (video)**

Seido Toshiyuki

(photo credit) - top photos *
bottom photo **



(top) - mogwai** / inconnu ictu*
(bottom) - jun sabayton as the lagarista**

cubao X**

photos by

Abet Esguerra *

and

Carla Dizon **





=========

Jed Escueta with Roger Lopez (Inconnu Ictu) at Green Papaya Art Projects

Regurgitating Rabbits / Open Sound Lab

Regurgitating Rabbits / OPEN SOUND LAB
JUNE 5 (Friday) & 6 (Saturday), Bar opens 6PM, Session starts 8PM

JUNE 5 / YANDSEN YONG (solo tenor sax), SIEW-WAI KOK (voice improvisation), TENGAL, & REPUBLIC OF PERSTUSTUNGKA

JUNE 6 / REFLEX REACTIONS (YANDSEN YONG & SIEW-WAI KOK), & GANGAN ENSEMBLE

Green Papaya Art Projects and Sabaw Media Art Kitchen welcome Malaysian experimental sound artists Yandsen Yong and Siew-wai Kok in Regurgitating Rabbits, a two-day session of improvised encounters and open sound lab. A collaborative project by Experimental Musicians and Artists Co-operative Malaysia (EMACM) and SABAW Media Art Kitchen, the open sound lab is a platform that encourages cross-border and cross-disciplinary collaborations among contemporary sound, performance and electronic media artists practicing in Asia, Europe and the U.S.



Yandsen Yong is a woodwind musician, he plays the saxophones, clarinet and flute. Yandsen was the veteran lead vocal and band leader of the explosive Malaysian Chinese rock band Moxuan in late 1990s. He then ventured into a new direction in music – free jazz, improvised music and contemporary composition. Yandsen is the woodwind player of Klangmutationen (Malaysia), where the band has released albums through Utech Records (USA) and Dream Sheep (Italy). He has collaborated with artists and musicians such as Kar-Mun Tham, Lee- Kwang Goh, Ronnie Khoo, Aziz Ali, Siew-wai Kok, Chor-Guan Ng, Sow-Yee Au, Donna Miranda, Darren Moore, Brian O’ Reily, Thierry Monnier, punk band Carburetor Dung and many more. Yandsen has played in Notthat Balai Art Festival 2007 (Malaysia), Mosaic Festival Singapore 2008 and Choppa Eclectic Improvised Music Festival 2008 (Singapore). Yandsen is a member of the Experimental Musicians & Artists Cooperative Malaysia (EMACM) and the co-founder of Studio in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur (SiCKL).

Siew-wai Kok is a voice improviser and video artist. She has studied and lived in USA for 7 years. During her stay in the States, she has studied with a few art luminaries such as Pauline Oliveros, Tony Conrad and Peer Bode, who have introduced her to a whole “new world” in the arts. Siew-wai has participated in festivals such as the Iskandar Malaysia Contemporary Art Show 2009, Nyoba Kan Butoh Festival 2008, Choppa Eclectic Improvised Music Festival 2008 (Singapore), Notthatbalai Art Festival 2007, International Film Festival Rotterdam 2007, Beyond/In Western New York Biennial 2005 and more. Siew-wai has collaborated with video artists, dancers and musicians, such as Koji Tambata, Sow-Yee Au, Donna Miranda, Lena Ang, Swee-Keong Lee, Chor-Guan Ng, Steve Baczkowski, Patrick Cain, Jax Deluca, Scott Valkwitch and more. She collaborates regularly with members of the Experimental Musicians & Artists Cooperative Malaysia (EMACM) since 2006. Siew-wai is the co-founder of Studio in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur (SiCKL).

Reflex Reactions is an improv duo made up by Yandsen Yong and Siew-wai Kok where Yandsen plays the saxophone, clarinet and flute while Siew Wai does voice improvisation. The duo creates musical conversations through attentive listening and communication with each other. “Create ‘NOW’” is the motto of this duo.

Republic of Perstustungka is an informally organized band composed of Yandsen, Siew-wai and Donna Miranda. The group performed during Notthat Balai Art Festival 2007 (Malaysia), and had gigs at SiCKL in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur also in 2007.

The Gangan Ensemble is loosely composed of improvisers who work on both sound and video formats that was created to explore the intricate and different kinds of interaction and ways of harnessing sound/energy/musicianship alongside moving images. The ever-evolving membership involves a variety of video-performance artists (VJs) and electro-acoustic musicians from the Philippines, Singapore, USA, Germany, Australia, UK, Slovenia, Malaysia, and Indonesia since it's incarnation in 2007. The ensemble has performed in various countries in South East Asia, notably in NCCA's Sinemusikalye in Manila, in Choppa 2008 in Singapore, in the Cellsbutton Media Art Festival in Indonesia, and recently with electro-acoustic composer Chris Brown in Manila. It was founded by media artist Tengal with Tad Ermitano.


GREENPAPAYA ART PROJECTS
41B T. Gener Street (corner Kamuning Rd.), Quezon City
Phone/Fax 7941628 0926 6635606 greenpapayaartprojects@gmail.com
www.greenpapayaartprojects.org / http://papayapost.blogspot.com

We Exist

May 29, 2009 (Friday)

8:00 p.m. – onwards

Mogwai Cinemateque, Cubao X, Cubao Quezon City, Philippines

Toshiyuki Seido + Lirio Salvador

A video of Seido Toshiyuki and Lirio Salvador

collaborating in a sound art/noise performance at Kaida Gallery

for the ManilaBox exhibit.

Taped by Erick Calilan

Inconnu Ictu live at A Tweekend in the City