REGNSKOG

Bergen Kjøtt, Bergen NO, October 11-17 2010

REGNSKOG: a Collaborative Workshop/Performance/Installation in the Spirit of David Tudor
Produced by Piksel.no

INTRODUCTION: HANDS DIRTY ART

Over the past few years, a strong reaction against the sterile world of laptop sound and video has inspired a new interest in analog processes, or “hands dirty” art in the words of practitioner John Richards. With this renewed analog interest comes a fresh exploration of the pioneers of the electronic arts during the pre-digital era of the 1960s and 1970s. Artists and inventors such as Nam June Paik, Steina & Woody Vasulka, Don Buchla, Serge Tcherepnin, Dan Sandin and David Tudor all constructed their own unique instruments long before similar tools became commercially available or freely downloadable–and often through a long, rigorous process of self-education in electronics.

DAVID TUDOR’S RAINFOREST

David Tudor, in particular, has become the focus of intense interest (c.f. Leonardo Music Journal 14, 2004). His transformation from John Cage’s concert pianist to an electronic performer and autodidact engineer in his own right is archetypal for the contemporary media artist, who also must oscillate between the creative and the learning processes. His work Rainforest also stands out as an exemplary model of the collaborative process within a technically defined, yet socially open system.

Rainforest used a series of transducers to play prerecorded and live sounds through various resonant metal objects suspended by wires in the performance space. It was also conceived as a workshop, involving different musicians and artists in a collaborative setting, each contributing their own sounds, ideas and energies to the performances, which often lasted four or five hours! A complex mixer system allowed the sounds coming from one resonant object to be directed through another, spawning chaotic generations of new sound patterns. The sounds played could be heard through loudspeakers as well as the objects themselves, however they could also be physically felt by touching the objects. Tudor was especially interested in two audiences: children and the blind.

REGNSKOG

Regnskog is conceived as a contemporary re-interpretation of Rainforest as a workshop, performance and public installation. In the spirit of Tudor’s work, much of the equipment and materials will be built by the participants/performers themselves.

PARTICIPANTS

Harald Fetveit, Oslo
Signe Lidèn, Bergen
Ryan Jordan, London
Derek Holzer, Berlin
Julien Ottavi, Nantes
John Hegre, Bergen
Jørgen Træen, Bergen
Gisle Frøysland, Bergen

Now Playing

bitchin bajas–tones & zones lp[2010 important]
burn–burn 7″[1990 revelation]
chen santa maria–chen santa maria[2008 gssd/shit on]
drudkh–handful of stars[2010 season of mist]
eleh–repose[2010 touch]
j.d. emmanuel–wizards[1982/2010 important]
prince rama–shadow temple[2010 paw tracks]
seijiro murayama–4 pieces with a snare drum[2010 petit label]

Freshly made this evening for tomorrow’s journey to Hungary and the sound workshops that will happen there–the speaker box that is, not the little blue noise-synth, which was made in Norway last year. The reference to my Norwegian brother down South, Tore “Origami” Boe and his Acoustic Laptops is obvious. Testing with a contact mic and a distortion pedal produced amazingly rich and textured feedback possibilities!

Speaking of Boe, here’s a video from the workshop I invited him to do in Berlin in the summer of 2009 as part of the summercampworkstation project. Enjoy…

Tiny Noise showcase/TodaysArt
subject = LOUDNESS
De Vinger, Bagijnestraat 25
Den Haag 25 September 2010

Andre Goncalvez [PT]
Derek Holzer [USA/DE]
John Fanning/Massaccesi[USA]
Koray Tahiroglu [TU/FI]
Kyd Campbell [CAN/DE]
DJ Toni Dimitrov/Every Kid on Speed[MK]

Looking forward to the chance to do another chaotic synth-controlled strobe piece here. Thanks to Kyd for hooking the whole deal up!

Now Playing

g.i. gurdjieff–meetings with remarkable men book [1963]
starkweather–this sheltering night[2010 deathwish inc]
thrones–late for dinner 7″[2010 conspiracy]

Overview

This synthesizer module allows “Buchlidian” style processing of three input voltages. It can do much of what the original Buchla 257 Voltage Processor does: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The only feature of the 257 it lacks is the ability to “transfer control” (i.e. interpolate) between the two different applied voltages

It contains one section with three attenuverting/bipolar inputs, which allow the user to sweep between the original signal on the right hand side of the potentiometer and an inverted version of the signal on the left hand side, with no signal passing through at the middle position. An offset control is also present to add a fixed DC voltage to the signal.

The other section contains an analog multiplier with three inputs, X, Y and Z, each hardwired to one of the attenuverting outputs. Output is calculated as follows:

W out = ((X1 – X2)(Y1 – Y2)) / 10V + Z

The panel contains two of each section. The X and Y inputs can be switched between AC and DC coupling, with an AC breakpoint of approximately 0.2 Hz, while the Z input is always DC coupled.

Schematic

Tom Bugs described himself as a magpie to me once in regards to his circuit designs, and while working on this module I have followed his lead. The “attenuverter” sections were designed by Chris MacDonald and modified by Peter Grenader, and have been further developed by Matthias Herrmann/Fonitronik.

Likewise the analog multiplier section is really just bringing every feature of the AD633 4 quadrant multiplier chip to the front panel, with some inspiration from Roman Sowa’s Ring Modulator design, as well as Marc Bareille’s adaption of that same design.

[click schematic to enlarge]

Usage

The AD633 documentation shows different applications such as simple multiplication, squaring and division as well as more complex tasks such as a linear Voltage Controlled Amplifier as well as 6dB/Octave Voltage Controlled Filters and a Quadrature Oscillator (both not shown here). The most common sonic use of this IC is for ring modulator circuits.

However, my main application for this is the creation of different kinds of transfer functions for use in chaotic synthesis. I discovered how useful the analog multiplier is while experimenting with the Doepfer system at KHM in Cologne. Multiplying two oscillators through a ring modulator, sending the result to modulate the first oscillator and using the first to modulate the second created an amazing array of unpredictable but certainly far from random results.

In most applications shown in the datasheet, the X and Y offset pins are grounded. But while breadboarding, I discovered that the X and Y offset gave a higher level of control over the modulations, so I built them into the panel. Likewise, switching between AC and DC coupling alters the resulting sound immensely, with the best results coming from one signal being AC coupled and one being DC coupled.

Adding one of the X or Y input signals to the Z input creates a kind of VCA which strengthens the effect. Or using another signal, such as a Low Frequency Oscillator with some suitable gain and offset, adds another modulation source into the mix to provide anything from amplitude modulation to clipping.

I believe this module gets at just about any type of processing the AD633 can do, as most of the time there is no attenuation, inversion, Z input or any kind of offset available on a normal ring modulator or analog multiplier.

Sample Applications from the AD633 Datasheet

I’ve been having some great correspondence with Jason R. Butcher about Buchla synthesizers, analog computers and chaotic synthesis techniques. He reminded me of a very special version of the Buchla 200 Music Box, created by Don Buchla for an electronics and cello work by Ami Radunskaya called Sili-Con Cello in about 1978 or 1979.

One of its features was a breadboard prototyping module, seen in the upper left corner. Here, Buchla created custom circuits to respond to the performance gestures of acoustic instruments in the era before Pure Data or Max/MSP.

[Photo from The Audities Foundation]

Jason showed me his own version of the breadboard module, which just happened to look a lot like a panel I spec’ed out last night. Here’s the completed module mounted in the case this afternoon. Each panel component (potentiometers and banana jacks) is routed to the terminals (the green areas), which in turn can be jumpered anywhere on the breadboard.

My first task with this module will be to design a “Buchlidian” style control voltage processor. It will contain one section with an attenuverting/bipolar input with offset and another section with an analog multiplier. The panel will have two of each section. It can do much of what the original Buchla 257 Voltage Processor does: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division…

The only thing it won’t be able to do is the “transfer control” (i.e. interpolate) between the two different applied voltages (although this could probably be done with a pair of Voltage Controlled Amplifiers rigged up as a cross-fader).

This new processor module represents one section of a larger analog computer project I plan to use for developing new chaotic synthesis techniques. The other sections would be a set of integrators (planned), an analog logic section (completed) and a suite of tools for working with digital pulses (comparators, clock dividers, digital logic and digital noise–all planned).

Of course, this prototyping module could also be used to lay out other kinds of non-linearizing functions to stick in the chaotic feedback paths. I’ll document those as they come up.

Discussions over the last year or so with Martin Howse continue to remind me that analog computers evolved out of the V2 rocket program and were mainly designed to control the flight path of missiles. In fact, just about anything used in electronic music has some sort of seedy military past. Our art is nothing more than a byproduct of the quest to more accurately drop bombs on each other, something I’m sure both Stockhausen and Kraftwerk were acutely aware of…

As for Mr. Butcher, check out his wild, live analog synthesizer project with Don Hassler. Buchla 200 Music Box vs EMS Synthi A, highly recommended!

Hassler/Butcher, Eyedrum, Atlanta 31.03.10

Hot off the bench! Click to enlarge!

Dual Serge 1973 Voltage Controlled Filter (CGS)
Dual Active Real Ring Modulator (CGS)
Quad Joystick Controller (Macumbista)
Quad Resonant Lopass Gate 292 (Buchla/T. White)

Think I’m gonna build me a little analog computer next, something like this one. All this stuff should get put to good, chaotic feedbacking use for my ISEA Dortmund performance in a few weeks.

Now Playing

whitehouse–great white death special edition cd[1984/1997 susan lawly][iiiiiiiiii’mmm cooooommmiiiiiiiiiinnnnnggg…]

On 25 June, 2010, I played a live synthesizer improvisation in the hot, airless basement of Le Chat Noir, Paris. Accompanying me on this journey through the depths was Andreas Siagian (House of Natural Fiber, Jogjakarta), who made amazing video projections directly onto the audience from his position just behind me. Thanks to Mal Au Pixel for a fantastic time in Paris!!!!!!

All photos by Sylvie Astié (Dokidoki) except the last one of me and organizer Kevin Bartoli standing over my “busker’s suitcase” by Mathieu Margueri (Mal Au Pixel). You can see more Mal Au Pixel photos on their Flickr page,  Mathieu Margueri’s Picasa and Nathalie Aubry’s Flickr. You can also read Nathalie’s report on the festival for Pixelache.

Now Playing

belt–s/he cs[1991]
black mountain transmitter–black goat of the woods[2009 lysergic earwax]
merzbow–rainbow electronics[1990 alchemy]
peter yates–bullitt film[1968]
sam peckinpah–the getaway film[1972]
sam peckinpah–the wild bunch film[1969]
toshio matsumoto–experimental film works[1961-87 ubu.com]

We are happy to announce the first confirmed artist for APPARAT.

Those in love with the art of sounds (and noise ! ) can already count the days until Derek Holzer (US) arrives to Aalborg. HIs main profile is precisely the studies of noise and its art-tech application. Holzer will run a four-days long workshop under the title Neanderthal Electronics where the participants will construct their own personal analog synthesizers and in the end they will collaborate in a public performance. During this workshop both simple-primitive/found objects and modern devices (capacitors, transistors, LEDs, sensors and different audio inputs etc) will be applied in order to achieving the perfect and very personal sound environment.

Beside leading the noise-workshop Holzer will perform himself as well. A solo and improvised performance will be presented by him and a bunch of analog sound equipment.

Please note that pre-registering is required for the workshop. More info on this to come.

Now Playing

bee mask–canzoni dal laboratorio del silenzio cosmico cs[2010 gift tapes]
expo 70–the vanishing world within[2010 sonic meditations]
fred nipi–qanngirpalippuq lp[2009 galerie pache](merci fred!!!)
john fahey–fare forward voyagers (soldier’s choice)[1973 takoma]
lars lundehave hansen–catching fire[2010 con-v]
mika vainio & kouhei matsunaga-split lp[2010 important]
tomoko sauvage + noyade–asper #1 winter 09 split lp[2009 asper](arigato tomoko-chan!!!)
various artists–to scratch your heart: early recordings from istanbul[2010 honest jons]
zaïmph–coast to coast c40[2010 gift tapes]

Mal au Pixel, Le Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, Paris • 21h-0h • 3€

Derek Holzer | Circlemakers (Gaël Angelis, Magali Sanheira, Julien Sirjacg) | Jérôme Poret

+ Ars Longa installation by Gaël Angelis, Magali Sanheira, Julien Sirjacg & Jérôme Poret [fr]

Now Playing

alma daaé–wormwood star[2009 mars pyramid]
kevin lynam–tone cloud[2009 mars pyramid]
neun welten–destrunken[2009 prophecy records]
oranssi pazuzu–muukalainen puhuu[2009 violent journey]
paul schrader–cat people film[1982]
vikomt–twilight visions[2009 mars pyramid]
william t. vollmann–you bright and risen angels book[1987]

Macumbista Mini demo #1 by macumbista

This demo is an edit of three settings from the Macumbista Mini synthesizer: http://macumbista.net/?page_id=623 The Mac Mini uses two cross-modulated Voltage Controlled Slopes through an Analog Logic module and a pair of Polivoks Voltage Controlled Filters. Feedback from the audio mixer is returned to the control section of the VCS modules.

Now Playing

georges bataille–the story of the eye book[1928]
hans bellmer-illustrations for the story of the eye[1946]
knut–wonder[2010 hydra head]
nick cave & the bad seeds–tender prey[1988]
pan sonic–gravitoni[2010 blast first]
yellow swans+devillock–split 7″[2007 modern radio]