(Video stills from previous workshops in Bergen and Belfast)

Pikselache, Ptarmigan and Koelse have cooperated to present the Neanderthal Electronics workshop at Ptarmigan in Helsinki, 13-15 March 2010. On the last evening, Monday 15 March, the workshop participants will present their new instruments. I’ll also be playing a solo set for the Macumbista Mini along with sets by members of the Association of experimental electronics / kokeellisen elektroniikan seura (Koelse).

Ptarmigan is located at Nilsiänkatu 10, in the Vallila area of Helsinki. The workshop begins at noon each day and goes late. The concert will be at 20:00 on Monday 15 March. There might be a couple places left for this, contact info (at) ptarmigan.fi to check.

Info for the participants

Each participant is encouraged to find their own unique container, enclosure or interface to put their circuit inside of. An ideal enclosure is one which is both visually interesting and has some functional or performative aspects. You will have the chance to add sensors, switches, buttons and knobs to your enclosure, or perhaps some other, unforeseen method of control. Past workshops have seen synthesizers made from film cans, coconuts, children’s toys, super 8 cameras, cigar boxes, knaackebrod, books and hand-sewn masks. The choice is yours, but please try to locate one (or more) objects before the start of the workshop.

A few links to get your minds moving:

Neanderthal Electronics videos
Yoshi Akai
Gijs Gieskes
Arius Blaze
Ben Houston
Ciat-Lonbarde

For the promising young socialite…

I will actually be in HEL the week before as well, doing a David Tudor’s Rainforest-inspired Pure Data/physical computing workshop at the Media Lab Helsinki. Feel free to get in touch if you want to meet someplace where the drinks don’t cost EUR 10 and I don’t have to spend an equal amount to “check my coat”…

The 2010 Bent Festival will take place at The Tank April 22-24, 2010…

…and I’m invited. I’ll be performing my TONEWHEELS set as well as giving a workshop to teach people how to build their own opto-electronic synthesizers.

FEATURING ::vtol::, Action Potential:Interact, Adachi Tomomi, Alpha-Bit, Brendan O’Connell, Derek Holzer/TONEWHEELS, Dr. Bleep and Handmade Music Austin, Dr. Rek, Eric Archer, Gannon, homeless of the sea and sky, Iain Sharp, Joe Mariglio + Steven Litt, KBD, LCDD, Paulo R. C. Barros, Philip White, Phillip Stearns, Stefan Jankus, Threep, Travis Thatcher…and others…

I’m in the process of hooking up other workshops, lectures and performances in Buffalo, Syracuse, New York City, Providence and Boston over the dates 14 April – 1 May. Please get in touch if interested or if you can help out (particularly with a room in NYC over 19-28 April!!!) Further dates will be posted here when confirmed.

Financial circumstances compel me to re-list this mic, which I previously decided to keep. It’s a Sennheiser MK40 Cardioid Condenser Microphone + mic clip + nice wooden case. Click to enlarge the photos.

SOLD!!!

Newsflash: I’ll be taking part in the Tuned City panel discussion at Club Transmediale next Friday with Carsten Stabenow, John Grzinich and Sam Auinger. FRI 05.02. 19:00, HBC-Berlin.

Besides that, here’s my scorecard for the upcoming Transmediale/Club Transmediale events this week. Accept my advice at your own risk…

TRANSMEDIALE EXHIBITION

Haus der Kulturen der Welt, 2-7 Feb

White Noise–Žilvinas Kempinas: floating bands of unspooled video tape

Optofonica Capsule–TeZ: unique viewing and listening environment for synaesthtic works

A Parallel Image–Gebhard Sengmüller: speculative media archaeology

Chernobyl Project – The Invisible Stain–Alice Miceli: photographing the lingering radiation

Artvertiser–Julian Oliver: playful urban intervention to replace public advertising with artworks

Coincidence Engines–[The User]: homage to Ligeti from the creators of the Symphony for Dot Matrix Printers and the Silophone (Transmediale award nominee)

OTHER EXHIBITIONS

Agnes Meyer-Brandis–Cloud Core Scanner: Inside the Tropospheric Laboratory: Schering Stiftung Berlin, Unter den Linden 32-34 15 Jan-27 Feb 11:00-16:00

Julius von Bismarck & Benjamin Maus–Perpetual Storytelling Apparatus: Gallerie Art Claims Impulse, Lübbener Str. 5, 20 Jan – 13 Mar, Wed–Sat, 16:00 – 21:00

ESEMPLASTICISM: THE TRUTH IS A COMPROMISE
Exhibition curated by Hicham Khalidi, produced by Den Haag art space <TAG>.  CLUB TRANSMEDIALE: Spandauer Strasse 2, 30/01 – 06/02, 15–21:00

UDK PULSE LAB: FLÄCHEN UND LINIEN
Exhibition with works by students of the Sound Studies program of the Berlin University of Arts, curated by Professor Robert Henke. CLUB TRANSMEDIALE: Spandauer Strasse 2, 30/01 – 06/02, 15–21:00

WORKSHOPS

radio aporee ::: sound/tracks
Workshop by Udo Noll [DE] 31/01–02/02 > CLUB TRANSMEDIALE .HBC > 14–18:00

Spectroscopy
Constructivist DIY workshop series, by NK, Martin Kuentz & Jo FRGMNT Grys [DE] 01–06/02 CLUB TRANSMEDIALE > SPA > 14–21:00

PERFORMANCES, PANELS & SCREENINGS

SUN 31 JAN

ARCHITONE – YOKOMONO PRO CLUB TRANSMEDIALE: Großer Stern / Siegessäule 15:00
Yokomono-Pro (Staalplaat Soundsystem, Ilpo Väisänen, Mika Vainio)

ENSTATIR SUNGHIFE CLUB TRANSMEDIALE: WMF Floor 1 22:00
Keiji Haino (JP)

MON 1.2.2010

OUTPUT STATIC CLUB TRANSMEDIALE: WMF Floor 1 22:00
Keiji Haino  / Ilpo Väisänen / Mika Vainio (JP / FI)

TUES 2 FEB

Charlemagne Palestine (US) –Tintinnabulations For Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Charlemagne Palestine: a concert for the outdoor carillon tower in the Tiergarten from a composer who needs no introduction (TRANSMEDIALE, Tue, 2.2.2010 – 19:00-20:00 Tiergarten carillon, next to the House of World Cultures)

WEDS 3 FEB

Interface and Instrument-Design – How Technology Affects Music–Takuro Mizuta Lippit [JP] / Robert Henke [DE] / Yutaka Makino [JP] / Christopher Salter [CA/US] / Moderation: Tony Herrington [UK] (CLUB TRANSMEDIALE 19:00 HBC)

Pe Lang–cl_loop: audio improvisation based on the manipulation of an electromagnetic field (TRANSMEDIALE, Wed, 3.2.2010 – 22:00, Haus der Kulturen der Welt)

MONADIC ZERO CLUB TRANSMEDIALE: WMF Floor 1 22:00
OM (US)
Habsyll (FR)
Hildur Gudnadottir (IS)

THURS 4 FEB

artificiel–POWEr: audiovisual performance for Tesla coil (Thu, 4.2.2010 – 20:30, Haus der Kulturen der Welt)

EXTENDED ECLECTICS CLUB TRANSMEDIALE: WMF Floor 2 – STEIM 22:00
Alex Nowitz (DE)
dj sniff (JP)
Justin Bennett (NL)
Tok Tek (NL)

FRI 5 FEB

Presentation: See This Sound: Sound–Image Relations in Art and Media Sandra Naumann [DE] / Dieter Daniels [DE] (CLUB TRANSMEDIALE HBC 18:00)

19:00 Talk: “Put Your Ear on the Wall – Tuned City: Platform for Examinations in the Field Between Architecture and Sound“, Carsten Stabenow (DE), John Grzinich (US/EE), Sam Auinger (AT/DE), Derek Holzer (US/DE) (CLUB TRANSMEDIALE HBC)

Studies in Light and Space screening
Studies in Transfalumination, Peter Rose, us 2008, 5min
Black Rain, Semiconductor, uk 2009, 3min
The Moon Goose Experiment, Agnes Meyer-Brandis, de 2008, 5min
Ascension (Woschosdenije), Pavel Medvedev, ru 2008, 50min
(TRANSMEDIALE, Fri, 5.2.2010 – 18:30-20:30, Haus der Kulturen der Welt)

Charlemagne Palestine–SPECTRAL CONTINUUM BERLIN 2010–CLUB TRANSMEDIALE, FRANZÖSISCHER DOM, Gendarmenmarkt 20:00

SAT 6 FEB

“Spectroscopy” – Open Studio Installation: Sound art lab NK, Jo FRGMNT Grys, Martin Kuentz and the participants of the “Spectroscopy” workshop invite visitors into their scientific laboratory of experimentation and present the various devices conceived and constructed during the workshop days. (CLUB TRANSMEDIALE SPANDAUER STRASSE 2 15:00 – 21:00)

Agnes Meyer-Brandis–Making Clouds or On the Abscence of Weight: Sophiensaele 18:30

radio aporee ::: sound/tracks: Presentation by Udo Noll [DE], John Grzinich [US/EE] and participants. (CLUB TRANSMEDIALE HBC 19:00)

Spectroscopy II: Presentation and Performance by Jo FRGMNT Grys [DE], Martin Kuentz [DE] and participants. (CLUB TRANSMEDIALE HBC 20:00)

RASTER.NOTON.UNUN CLUB TRANSMEDIALE: WMF Floor 2 – in collaboration with Raster-Noton and transmediale 22:00
Atom TM (DE)
Aoki Takamasa (JP)
Senking (DE)
Grischa Lichtenberger (DE)
Ulf Eriksson (SE)

SUN 7.2.2010

Invisible Cities Salon–Verena Kuni (de), Julian Oliver (nz), Martin Howse (uk), Oswald Berthold (de), Danja Vasiliev (de/ru), Bengt Sjölén (se), Julius von Bismarck (de) TRANSMEDIALE Sun, 7.2.2010 – 12:00 House of World Cultures

MYTHS OF THE NEAR FUTURE CLUB TRANSMEDIALE: HKW Auditorium – in collaboration with transmediale 22:00
eARTS Shanghai Showcase
FM3_Zhang (CN)
Xu Wenkai (AKA Aaaijiao, CN)
Feng Mengbo (CN)
Ben Huang (CN)

MON 8 FEB

Ulver: DISK/CTM: Volksbuhne 20:00

Pure Data Workshop + FLOSS Manuals Book Sprint
Tusday 23 – Friday 26 February 2010, 17.00-22.00 [GMT +1]
NK Elsenstr. 52 2HH 2 Etage 12059 Berlin, Germany
Contact Derek Holzer: derek AT THE DOMAIN umatic.nl mob: +49(0)176 2812 5845
Or contribute online!
http://en.flossmanuals.net/puredata
irc.freenode.net #flossmanuals

Pure Data (or Pd) is a free + open source, real-time graphical programming environment for audio, video, and graphical processing. Because all of these types of media are handled as data in the program, many fascinating opportunities for cross-synthesis between them exist. Pd is commonly used for live music performance, VeeJaying, sound effects composition, interfacing with sensors, cameras and robots or even interacting with websites.

A book sprint brings together a group of writers, editors and artists to produce a published book within several days. This sprint will combine a workshop within it, where new users will learn to create basic patches in Pd, documenting them along the way for the FLOSS Manual. This is an exciting opportunity both to acquire new skills as well as share them with others in the form of a book!

This sprint is a long-distance collaboration between FLOSS Manuals, the Berlin Pure Data users group and ITP/Tisch School of the Arts, New York.

Please bring your own laptop with Pure Data Extended installed. The workshop is free, with the expectation that participants will contribute to the FLOSS Manual.

Sveta Troitsa (or the Church of the Holy Trinity) was built in Bansko, Bulgaria, between 1810 and 1850. During this time, the Blagoevgrad Province remained under Turkish rule, and the founders of the church could only build it through a combination of diplomacy and heavy fees payed to the Turks. The four bells heard in these recordings were cast in 1855 by the Veleganovi brothers, who inscribed the name of the Turkish sultan on them so that they would not be thrown from the tower.

Reading through R. Murray Schafer’s The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World (1977, Destiny Books) the other night, I came across his discussion of church bells. He describes the church bell as a signal delineating the boundaries of a human habitation, as well as bringing its occupants together:

The most salient sound in the Christian community is the church bell. In a very real sense it defines the community, for the parish is an acoustic space, circumscribed by the range of the church bell. The church bell is a centripetal sound; it attracts and unifies the community in a social sense…

These bells were recorded on the rainy morning of 27 December, 2009–a setting which somehow reminds me of Yasushi Utsunomia’s incredible recordings of the concerts he organized in the Koukiji temple in Japan during a damp summer afternoon (Kougezan Koukiji – The Live [11th] Final Hyakusenmansyuuraku, 2002 Horen Records). And true to Schafer’s words, these bells reside directly in the middle of the acoustic space of the town–no efforts were made (or were even possible) to separate the sounds of the bells from the life both within the church and outside its walls. Why should life stop just because I want to record something?

In the first track, we hear two klepalo (solid idiophones) played by Ivan Todorov Hadjipopov (wood) and George Lazarov Pitsin (metal). Ivan Hadjipopov then plays a solo on the four church bells in the second track, followed by George Pitsin in the third. The overtones heard during these solos defy description, and only the sounds of the town and the church-goers sporadically remind you that what you are listening to actually occurred on Earth. The final track is a solo played by Boris Ivanov Hadjipopov, and then we return to the rain…

The entire session was recorded in a single, continuous take, using two DPA 4060 capsules (mounted in my trusty Latvian mink-fur ushanka) and a Sound Devices 722 recorder, standing in the courtyard below the bell tower. My gratitude goes to Boris “Bobi” Hadjipopov, who organized the occasion, and to Elena Kaludova for her translation (and so much more). Photo by lite.

The entire collection can be downloaded as high-quality MP3s at: http://macumbista.net/files/sveta_troitsa.zip

These recordings can be shared and reused under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.

The Bells of Sveta Troitsa

01.i.hadjipopov+g.pitsin-klepalo by macumbista

02.i.hadjipopov-bells by macumbista

03.g.pitsin-bells by macumbista

04.b.hadjipopov-bells by macumbista

Just back from the beautiful (and internet-less) mountains of southern Bulgaria, loved every second of it. Found some small sound treasures there that I will post later on. In the meantime, I decided to pimp my Schoolofeverything.com page to see if it can generate some new interest in the workshops that I do.

For those who don’t know, the School of Everything is a website that got started a couple years ago in the UK as an alternative educational resource. The idea is simply to use the same kinds of social networking platform that others use to…um, well, uh, “tweet” and whatever it is they do with it, to hook up people who want to learn specific skills with those who can teach them.

In general, I find this self-education idea much closer to my own way of thinking than the traditional academic model. In fact, I’ve always maintained that the only thing that separates artists using technology now from David Tudor and the other electronic art pioneers of the 60s and 70s is the internet. Whereas Tudor, the Vasulkas, Buchla, Paik, Sandin and the rest had much more limited channels to find the information they needed, we have an almost limitless supply. Which is of course the other half of the problem–trying to get the signal out of the noise.

As a result of all this, the models of teaching and learning that I use have become quite tuned towards self-initiation and self-discovery. Having someone hand over all the answers to you doesn’t really stimulate the brain, and in fact could hardly be called learning at all. So most every lesson or workshop that I do is project-oriented, to encourage that process of teaching people to teach themselves.

You can check my teacher profile at:

http://schoolofeverything.com/teacher/derekholzer

And I have listed the following as one-on-one lessons:

Circuit Bending & DIY Electronics

Field Recording Techniques

Audio Recording & Post-Production with Ardour

Introduction to Pure Data

Sound Art Technologies

I’ll be back in Cologne next week for my fellowship at KHM. Two lecture/workshops have been planned…

Tuned City:Sound+Architecture lecture

(Will Schrimshaw’s “Little Helpers”, photo by poportis)

11.00-13.00, Monday 14 December 2009
Klanglabor, KHM, Cologne

“Tuned City – Between sound and space speculation” was an exhibition and conference project taking place from July 01.-05. 2008 in Berlin which proposed a new evaluation of architectural spaces from the perspective of the acoustic. In this lecture, we will see and hear some of the projects from the Tuned City event, as well as related projects covering the themes of Temporary Architecture for Sound, Buildings as Instruments and Composing the Cityscape. Following the lecture, from 14.00-18.00 the participants of the Materialize ISEA/Tuned City project will meet in a working group to discuss the projects and concepts shown.

The lecture is open to the public, however the working group is by arrangement with Materialize participants only.

Analog Synthesizer Workshop: Vocal Processing

(Frequency plot of Doepfer Vocoder module)

14.00-17.00 Thursday 17 December 2009
Klanglabor, KHM, Cologne

Building on the basic introductory workshop given in November, this special topic workshop will investigate using the Doepfer A-100 analog modular synthesizer for processing an external input–in this case the human voice. Modules such as the vocoder, ring modulator, envelope follower and various filters (voltage controlled & fixed frequency/equalizer) will be used to analyze and transform the sounds from a microphone. Previous knowledge of analog synthesizers, either from my earlier workshop or personal experience, is helpful since we will not spend much time explaining what was covered last time (voltage controlled oscillators, voltage controlled amplifiers, envelope generators, keyboards/sequencers, triggers/gates, etc etc).

Workshop instruction will be in English, and will be limited to 12 people. Preregistration required! Contact: derek AT THE DOMAIN umatic.nl

Practice your Italiano!

Nu Fest 2010 Padova, IT

Venerdì 19 febbraio

Palazzo Liviano
ore 14.00 (durata 6 ore circa)
Workshop: TONEWHEELS

Teatro MPX
ore 21.00
MIRA CALIX live set (Warp Records – Joahnnesburg.Londra SOUTH AFRICA/UK)
+ opening act by DEREK HOLZER live set (Umatic NL/USA)

Tonewheels è un esperimento che consiste nella conversione di un immaginario grafico in suono. Il workshop si ispira ad alcune invenzioni basilari come l’ANS Synth (Murzin USSR 1937-57), il Variophone (Sholpo USSR 1930) e il sistema Oramics(Oram UK 1957) sviluppate da importanti musicisti e ricercatori sin dall’inizio del secolo scorso.
Fogli di plastica trasparente e colorata verranno illuminati per poter interagire con dei circuiti elettronici sensibili alla luce che così produrranno suoni e strutture ritmiche. I partecipanti impareranno come costruire due tipi di circuiti che sono due mattoni fondamentali per la costruzione di un sintetizzatore ottico: un semplice convertitore luce-suono controllato da un motore e inoltre come disegnare e stampare dei pattern personali usando il materiale disponibile in internet gratuitamente.

Ardour is a full-featured, free and open-source hard disk recorder and digital audio workstation program suitable for professional use. It features unlimited audio tracks and buses, non-destructive, non-linear editing with unlimited undo, and anything-to-anywhere signal routing. It supports standard file formats, such as BWF, WAV, WAV64, AIFF and CAF, and it can use LADSPA, LV2, VST and AudioUnit plugin formats.

The “Introduction to Ardour” FLOSS Manual is a free (gratis/libre) tutorial-style book, which introduces the program without expecting a vast knowledge of computers or sound editing from the reader.

This FLOSS Manual can be read online at:
http://en.flossmanuals.net/ardour/

The Ardour FLOSS Manual was largely written by workshop participants learning the software themselves, over a one week period during a session led by Derek Holzer at the moddr_lab/WORM in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Non-profit, print-on-demand paper copies can be ordered from Lulu.com soon. Please check back with the main FLOSS Manuals page in several days for ordering information:
http://en.flossmanuals.net/

The manual is free to use, distribute and remix according to the GNU General Public License. FLOSS Manuals volunteers are currently working on French and Portuguese translations, and anyone is free to add contributions and edits for future versions of the manual at
http://en.flossmanuals.net/bin/view/Ardour/WebHome

Thanks to Adam Hyde, Walter Langelaar, the workshop participants in Rotterdam as well as those who helped online from the FLOSS Manuals, Ardour and Linux Audio communities, and to all the folks at the moddr_lab and WORM!

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isis + circle-live at postbahnhof last monday (isis encore with circle vocalist!)
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