Wednesday 2 December 2009

Sounding Underground





Post 1:
Sounding Underground in riders on the Train

The second and third rewarding presentations for “Sounding Underground” took place in Boston, MA, within the “Riders on the Train” exhibition curated by Nance Davies in Axiom Gallery. The Axiom Gallery is situated right on top of the Green St. station of the Bostonian metro “T” . The rumbling of the trains are heard and felt every five or ten minutes depending on the hour of the day. Cell phone pictures are the welcoming view from outside on the wall of the exhibition, divided by a video of meeting trains, go and return, created by Nance Davies. Interactive, audiovisual, video, photographic, graphic, text, and sound works bring the powerful experience of underground transport systems in one place, as perceived from artists from all over the world. On the 20th of November, I had the pleasure to participate of an artists’ talk where we had the chance to share our creation processes with the community. Personal motivations meet the political, social and symbolic contexts of these underground environments. This is a very rich and sensual exhibition that, if you have the good luck of being in Boston, and if you are or have been a commuter in public transportation… you must go!

Earlier in the day, I attended to the Studio for Interrelated Media at MASSart college to deliver a talk to students of Sound Art and Technology. I had a very enjoyable time listening to students talk about Boston’s commuting experiences, motivated by my talk about Sounding Underground and the experiences of London, Mexico DF and Paris commuters. The experience of listening to their commuting in Boston starts… and in a future it hopefully will be linked and accessed via Sounding Underground!

Thanks to Nance Davies for this amazing opportunity.


Post 2
Sounding Underground in Sound Ecologies

The first weeks of on-line life of “Sounding Underground” have been rewarding. I have had the opportunity to share the experience of its creation in three venues. The first one: Sound Ecologies: Listening to the City, event organised by Katharine Norman from the City University in London, and the independent artistic organisation Furtherfield. Sharing with other speakers, and attendants to the event was nourishing and positioned this experience as a networked experience that owes its value to the ethnographic and detail process behind it. Although the virtual Environment Sounding Underground is an important milestone there are many issues that will evolve for the contributors and audiences. It’s vital for the project to strength the networking technological options and strive for the participation of non-performers focusing amongst others, on aspects mentioned by Pedro Rebelo such as networked dramaturgia in improvisation activities on-line and off-line. Thanks to Katharine for organising such an important and enjoyable event! The work continues…

See http://soundingunderground.wordpress.com/

Friday 20 November 2009



Top: Rhys Davies, Mukesh Randhev and Joe Turner, are showcasing a stereoscopic installation called ‘Shift’ based on visualising sound waves gathered across Leicester

Bottom: Douglas Cawthorne navigates Roman Leicester

Phoenix Square Opening Images 2












































Top: Bret Battey and Cube installation cMatrix12


Middle: Phoenix Frontage with Songlines video projections http://www.vimeo.com/7754512

Bottom: Steve Gibson with EXPLODING PLASTIC & INEVITABLE REDUX (location: Screen Lounge)

Phoenix Square Opening images



Top : General exterior projection view of Songlines by Martin Rieser
Link





Middle
:
GPS Map projection and Phoenix Logo

Below:
Douglas Cawthorne and the Virtual Romans 3 reconstruction of Roman Leicester

Wednesday 18 November 2009

Launches

What better way to launch the new IOCT Blog than to celebrate the civic launch of Phoenix Square last night?! The IOCT featured heavily in a fun-packed evening in a wonderful new venue that will provide a permanent public showcase for our research. See the media coverage at:

BBC East Midlands Today (from 10' 5")
Leicester Mercury

Citizenseye

Creative Boom


The public launch is on Thursday (Nov 19th) starting around 7 pm. IOCT projects on show include:

Songlines (pictured, this week only)
De Montfort University's Professor of Digital Creativity, Martin Rieser, has created three innovative outdoor projections representing his cycling research project Songlines. The project is based on developing cyclist information on Leicester via a mobile-accessible online wiki. see also

Songlines at Phoenix Square from Martin Rieser on Vimeo.




Virtual Roman Leicester (until Dec. 18th)
A pioneering research project accurately recreating Roman Leicester in an interactive virtual world. This will enable visitors to go inside some of the 3D buildings including the forum and basilica, the Merlin works baths, the Mithraum, and the Temple of Jupiter.


cMatrix12
(until Dec. 18th)
cMatrix12, an installation by Dr. Bret Battey (Music, Technology and Innovation Research Centre), immerses participants in flowing waves of visual particles and delicate curtains of sound, using three-screen video projection and surround audio.


Exploding, Plastic & Inevitable Redux

A re-imagining of the psychedelic classic The Exploding Plastic Inevitable, created by Andy Warhol with the Velvet Underground in the late 1960s. The project immerses viewers in a total art experience and is created by Steve Gibson, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute Of Creative Technologies and Stefan Müller, a software architect and post-doctoral research scientist.


IOCT students’ work has also been selected and commissioned for Phoenix Square's launch. None of the Above collective, a group of students comprising Rhys Davies, Mukesh Randhev and Joe Turner, are showcasing a stereoscopic installation called ‘Shift’ created from sounds they recorded around Leicester.

Russell Foxton, another IOCT student, has used the latest touch-screen technology to produce coffee tables for the Screen Café and Lounge. All these students graduated from the IOCT’s Master's in Creative Technologies earlier this month (November).