Neanderthal Vocal Computer + Ring of Fire

Posted in Announcement on July 12th, 2009 by admin

Neanderthal Vocal Computer



Saturday 18 July 2009 2PM


_____-micro_research, pickledfeet, Linienstrasse 54, Berlin 10119

U2, Rosa-Luxemburg-Pl.
U8, Rosenthaler Pl.

Telephone: 3050187482.
Cost: EUR 10-15?
Please email m@1010.co.uk to reserve a place (strictly limited)

This workshop combines three of the basic building blocks of the longer Neanderthal Electronics workshop (TL072 op-amp comparator, 4093 gated oscillator & LM386 audio amplifier) to create a very crude, caveman-style analog computer for the processing of vocal input through a microphone. Participants will learn some analog and digital electronics basics to create an experimental prototype on the solderless breadboard, then recreate the circuit with permanent connections. They are also expected to bring their own box, case or other object in which to construct the final circuit. The last part of the workshop will touch on how this circuit can be expanded later on to include all kinds of mixers, modulators, distortions and filters through the use of other cheap, easily obtained parts.

For more information and videos from the Neanderthal Electronics workshops, see:

Ring of Fire

Due to popular demand, and as a way of saying “thank you” to Ingo Froelich who helped me with some woodworking for my new synthesizer, I’ll be cooking another transcendental(ly hot) chili at the amazing courtyard gallery at Torstrasse 111 for the opening of Erling TV. Klingenberg and Marcin Szydlowski. Also showing from th eprevious opening is the highly recommended “Return of the Art Zombies” video by Veronika Schumacher and the rather Texas-style paintings of Silke Thomas. Kickoff is at 19.00.

Friday 17 July 2009 19.00
Torstrasse 111 Berlin
Erling TV. Klingenberg and Marcin Szydlowski
Veronika Schumacher and Silke Thomas
http://www.tor111.de

Now Playing

anthony pateras & robin foxend of daze[2009 editions mego]
iannis xenakismetastasis pithoprakta eonta[1993]
vablack mirror:reflections in global musics 1918-1955[2007]
z’evsum things[2009 cold spring]

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Re:Discovering Sound — an Instrument-building Workshop

Posted in Announcement on June 17th, 2009 by admin
I have a new instrument-building workshop coming up 10-16 August 2009 at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin. See details below. Co-conspirators in the Sommercamp Workstation project include Martin Howse, Carsten Stabenow and Medialab Prado (Madrid).

Please also check out Martin Howse’s upcoming Breakthrough event, 27 June also here in Berlin.

Sommercamp Workstation workshop cluster B

Re:Discovering Sound — an Instrument-building Workshop

The process of instrument creation sits in direct opposition to the
that of instrument virtuosity. Rather than bend one’s artistic
expression around the rigid, predefined form of a traditional music
instrument, imagination takes flight and new possibilities are created.
Like Neanderthals or small children, we are astounded that the sounds
we have invented are actually our own.

This collection of three simultaneous workshop nodes-DEERHORNS, HALLDOROPHONES and ACOUSTIC LAPTOPS-explores
the use of radio waves, the electromagnetism of the human body, strings
under tension, the resonance of hollow structures and various found
objects to invent new types of sound instruments. Each of these deeply
personal creations is free to live in ignorance of any musical
theories, thus having the potential for both sonic and visual
excitement.

Participants may choose which node of the workshop they would like
to start with, however cross-talk and collaboration between these nodes
is encouraged. The workshop will end with a presentation/performance on
the final Saturday of the summercamp, and an “open day” on the Sunday
where the general public is invited to hands-on exploration of the
instruments which have been created.

Each workshop node is limited to 10 places, so please pre-register! (see below)

Workshop nodes:

1] DEERHORNS with Ciat Lonbarde/Peter Blasser

Without musical intention, there is still your body intention, and how
you place it in space. Firmness reflects, and so do all your other
movements. The Deerhorn project, created by electro-mystic Ciat
Lonbarde/Peter Blasser, is aimed at creating new instruments out of the
original radio Theremin concept. Participants will collaborate in the
construction of a playable, site-specific installation in the large
hall of the Haus der Kulturen der Welt.

http://www.ciat-lonbarde.net/

http://www.ciat-lonbarde.net/deerhorn/index.html

http://www.ciat-lonbarde.net/deerhornprovidence.mov

2] HALLDOROPHONES with Halldor Ulfarsson

Halldorophones are electro-acoustic string instruments which send the
sound from their pickups back into it’s body. When the sound has
traveled full-circle, it vibrates the strings again and creates an
infinite sustain which the player can affect in different ways.
Participants in this workshop will use found or constructed hollow
forms along with simple pickups, amps and loudspeakers to create their
own resonant instruments.

http://www.myspace.com/halldorophone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKMkTSENTIU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPfGKaqCwRs

3] ACOUSTIC LAPTOPS with Tore Honoré Bøe

For many years, Tore “Origami Boe” has been creating, playing and
passing on his “acoustic laptops”: a selection of wood boxes with
various tiny objects attached; springs, stones, metal, rubber, string,
needles, memorabilia – amplified by old-school contact mikes and
pick-ups. Participants with & without musical interests will be
invited to create their own unique acoustic laptop to start touching
the sounds and drawing pictures in free air.

http://kunst.no/origami/boe/2.3-010.html

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2011575&id=1591068802&l=c8e56f53b0


Facilitation by Derek Holzer

Derek Holzer’s interest in new forms of sound creation and performance
have led him from computer programming in Pure Data to Theremins,
“Neanderthal electronics”, long-string instruments and the
possibilities of visual or drawn opto-electronic sound. For this
workshop, his main concern will be the synthesis of the different
approaches to instrument creation being presented.

http://www.myspace.com/macumbista

http://www.umatic.nl/tonewheels.html

http://www.vimeo.com/album/64426

Each workshop node is limited to 10 places, so please pre-register!
This registration is a first indication or preference, cross-talk and
collaboration between these nodes is encouraged.

The workshop fee is 50 Euro for the week.

Registration Form >>>>

Now Playing

l’AcephaleMalefeasance [2009 Aurora Borealis]
Ash Ra TempleNew Age of Earth [1976]
BurmeseBurmese is Dead [1998 Death Wish]
Burmese & Cadaver EyesSplit [2008 Heart & Crossbone]
Carlos ReygadasSilent Light [2007](film)
C.G. JungThe Portable Jung (edited by Joseph Campbell)(book)
DrudkhMicrocosmos [2009 Season of Mist]
Gnaw Their Tongues & Lunar Miasma & Mrtyu! & XelaSplit CDR [2009 Insult]
Group Doueh – live at Sublime Frequencies tour (Rotterdam & Berlin)
Hail/l’Acephale & Fauna – live recordings from Northwest Folklife Festival
Herman HesseNarcissus and Goldmund [1930](book)
Hildur GudnadottirWithout Sinking [2009 Touch]
Kevin DrummSheer Hellish Miasma [2007 reissue Editions Mego]
Mircea EliadeShamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy [1964](book)
MudboyMusic for Any Speed 7″ [2009 Lexi]
Stephen HawkingA Brief History of Time [1988](book)

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Berlin gigs w/ Burial Hex, Habsyll, Pure, Column One

Posted in Announcement on April 18th, 2009 by admin

Upcoming Berlin gigs!


Now Playing

Josh Lay Heirophant (Sentient Recognition Archive)
Nicholas Szczepanik
Mi Otra Mitad 3″ CD (Basses Frequences)
Monno
Ghosts 12″ (Conspiracy)
Herman Hesse
Steppenwolf (book)
Carl Gustav Jung
Man and His Symbols (book)
Robin Hardy
The Wicker Man (1973)(film)
Daniel Higgs
Hymnprovisations for Banjo by the A.I.U. with Piano and Raindrops (iDEAL)
The Bastard Noise
Rogue Astronaut (Gravity)
Xasthur
All Reflections Drained (Hydra Head)

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Video: Live @ Die Remise, Berlin 1 Mar 2009

Posted in Documentation on March 3rd, 2009 by admin

Derek Holzer Live @ Die Remise, Berlin 1 Mar 2009 from macumbista on Vimeo.

I was once told by my Butoh teacher, Joan Laage, that there is much more life in darkness than we take for granted. Turn over any stone in the garden and you will find a million living things twisting about, crawling over one another and skittering across the earth–all driven by the basest instinct to escape the light.

An improvised exploration of self-modulating synthesizer feedback. During the soundcheck, one of my Doepfer modules actually caught fire. The first thing which the audience encountered when descending into the small basement of Die Remise was the smell of burnt plastic.

Burned Doepfer A-136 Distortion/Waveshaper module

To those in Berlin: if you haven’t had the chance to enjoy an evening of dinner+concert at Die Remise, I can highly recommend it. Excellent food and great atmosphere. A nice change from the usual smelly bars and squats or sterile white cube galleries.

Video: Pippa Buchanan/Edits: DH

My apologies for the poor audio recording quality. If someone has a small video camera with a proper line/mic input they would like to give up, please let me know!

ps…pls let me know if you get crappy framerate with this clip, I’m still working out my settings for Vimeo…

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Pure Data Basics: a Project-Oriented Workshop

Posted in Announcement on February 10th, 2009 by admin

Pure Data Basics: a Project-Oriented Workshop with Derek Holzer

Wednesday 11 March – Sunday 15 March 2009
11.00-19.00 daily with one hour lunch break
Final presentation Sunday 15 March, 19.00

Location: eNKa / ElsenStr. 52 (2.Hof) Berlin, Germany
Telephone: +49 (0)176 20626386

Course Participation fee: 100 euros
Registration is required for this workshop and can only be done via email to: eNKa_NK@gmx.de
Please register early to ensure a place. Places are limited to 12. Participants should indicate ahead of time what their background and areas of interest are (sound, video, sensors, etc) as well as give a short description of any project they might want to develop during the workshop.

Pure Data is a powerful, free and open-source software environment for producing and manipulating sound, image, data and connections to sensors, motors and other “physical computing” functions, all in real time. Because the programming is done visually, many artists find it a more intuitive tool than traditional text-oriented programming languages. This 5 day workshop will cover the basic “grammar” and “vocabulary” of the Pure Data language through a mix of lecture and demonstration in the mornings and project-based mentoring in the afternoons. This workshop is open to those with no previous computer programming experience, however basic computer literacy is assumed as well as a working familiarity with either digital audio or video. A manual-in-progress for Pure Data by Derek Holzer can be found here:

http://flossmanuals.net/puredata

5 DAY CURRICULUM

DAY ONE:
1) Meeting PD: the interface and how to play with it
2) Basic PD: participants learn to make a simple synthesizer, and learn basic PD grammar in the process
3) Workshop: discussions of examples and work on student projects

DAY TWO:
1) PD audio: more on oscillators, noise, delays, feedback, filters and signal analysis for all your sonic needs
2) Events in PD: participants explore the timing of events with sequencers, delays, messages
3) Workshop: discussions of examples and work on student projects

DAY THREE:
1) Working with soundfiles: loading audio for use in samplers, granulators and other file-based sound manipulation systems
2) Basic GEM: how to create simple 3D objects, play videos and get camera input
3) Workshop: discussions of examples and work on student projects

DAY FOUR:
1) Physical PD: an introduction to physical computing using Pure Data alongside a microcontroller-based board such as the Arduino or xxxxxAVR/HID–or even a hacked USB gamepad–to work with sensors, motors, lights, etc.
2) Workshop: discussions of examples and work on student projects

DAY FIVE:
1) Workshop: discussions of examples and work on student projects
2) The Wrap Up: public presentation of student works + closing party.

WHAT PARTICIPANTS SHOULD BRING

Essential:

1) Laptop running Linux, OS X or Windows
2) Pure Data Extended installed from: http://puredata.info/downloads (please make sure it is Extended package!)
3) Soundcard
4) Headphones

Recommended/Suggested:

1) MIDI controller/keyboard
2) Microphone/piezoelectric contact microphone
3) USB Joystick/Gamepad
4) Sensors or other input devices (please bring your own sensors if you are interested in working with them, as only a few light sensors will be provided at the workshop)
5) Small motors or motor-driven objects
6) USB webcam/Firewire camera
7) Arduino boards (Available from Segor in Berlin: www.segor.de) and/or the xxxxxAVR/HID board (http://www.1010.co.uk/avrhid.html, please inquire via the xxxxx webpage about preordering!)
8) Your own projects and ideas to realize!

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

BIOGRAPHY
Derek Holzer [USA 1972] is a sound artist with a background in radio, webstreaming and environmental recording. His work focuses on capturing and transforming small, unnoticed sounds from various natural and urban locations, networked collaboration strategies, experiments in improvisational sound and the use of free software such as Pure-Data. He has released tracks under the Nexsound, Sirr, and/OAR, Frozen Elephants Music, Mandorla and Gruenrekorder labels, and has co-initiated several internet projects for field recording and collaborative soundscapes including Soundtransit.nl. His recent projects include the opto-electronic audiovisual performance TONEWHEELS, solo performances for analog synthesizer and a manual for Pure Data. He was also co-curator of the Tuned City event for sound and architecture, which took place in Berlin during July 2008.

umatic.nl/info_derek.html
myspace.com/macumbista

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the things they carry

Posted in Documentation on February 1st, 2009 by admin

Last night, while I was packing up after the XXXXX workshop at Club Transmediale, some kid popped a snapshot of my flightcase piled up with TONEWHEELS stuff. Like nobody has ever seen an overhead projector before! I wondered what the fascination was, so I made one myself. This time, the flightcase is packed for the two upcoming Ouroboros Orchestra workshops. The first will be at the Kobenhavn Kunstakademiet, in Copenhagen, Denmark this week, and the second will be during Tartu Art Month in Tartu Estonia. Contents: hundreds of ICs, diodes, resistors and capacitors, dozens of meters of wire and cables, and a selection of my favorite guitar pedals. The matrix mixer I posted about last time gets carried on to the plane… Of course, anyone in Copenhagen or Tartu is welcome to drop me a line for spontaneous chili-cooking, mixer feedback sessions or late night beerservations.

Some music which entered my world over the last 9 days at Club Transmediale:

Wolves in the Throne RoomMalevolent Grain 12″ [Southern Lord]
BJNilsen & StilluppsteypaMan From Deep River CD [Editions Mego]
White/LightBlack Acts CD [Smells Like Records]
Waldchengarten…In Preparation of the Machines to Fall CD [KFIOG]
Sten-Olof Hellström & Ann RosénLagrad CD [Fylikingen]
MudboyHungry Ghosts 12″ (amazing laser-cut cover!!!!) [Not Not Fun]

Oren Ambarchi – Live @ CTM
Mudboy – Live @ CTM
Monno – Live @ CTM
ASVA – Live @ CTM
Pan Sonic – Live @ CTM
Mika Vaino – Live @ CTM
Martin Tétrault – Live @ CTM in various configurations. The multiple drummer one, however, was a big fail.

Unfortunately I missed Lichens, and Æthenor and Attila Csihar’s sets were both screaming disappointments. I will post on CTM at greater length later on during the week. Until then, check Pablo Sanz’s CTM pics on Flickr and keep your clothes clean…I’ve got a plane to catch!

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Workshops: xxxxx/CTM Berlin (+ Beograd, Copenhagen, Estonia)

Posted in Announcement on January 20th, 2009 by admin

I’ve just returned from an exhausting but fun Pure Data workshop in Beograd, Srbija for the last few days, and I’m currently getting ready for the next round of activities in Berlin, Copenhagen and Tartu (Estonia).

The Copenhagen/Tartu series will be the first installations of a new workshop/collaborative performance called Ouroboros Orchestra, based on the creation and performance by participants and intermodulation live by myself of simple, small electronic sound/noise circuits, all planned accrording to a graphical score. I’ll be posting more on this soon. Please get in touch if this workshop/performance sounds interesting for a venue near you!

The Berlin event is co-organized with Martin Howse for Club Transmediale as a public laboratory in the Kunstraum Bethanien over 9 days from 23-31 January 2009. Info below.There should be some actions/performances at the workshop space on the opening night, Friday 23 January from 19:30-22:00 featuring some of the artists involved. Hope you can make it! Otherwise, drop by the workshop between 12:00-22:00 the rest of the days of the festival to revel in ther chaos!

xxxxx_temporary_structure for Club Transmediale 2009

Tracing a clear line of development from both xxxxx_workshops: [in]tolerance during CTM.08 examining the material basis of technology and a series of life coding events in Norway and Germany, xxxxx hosts an experimental nine day structure widening the scope of construction and constructivism to embrace the social and economic structures of production and performance. Public interface is to be made explicit, inviting participation, visit and conversation.

xxxxx_temporary_structure presents the expansion of both known and less familiar constructive procedures and apparatus, for example software (Pure Data, Python) and hardware (waves, circuits, simulation) into novel territory. Software becomes script and social pragmatics, hardware expands into optics, architecture, graffiti, elaborate kinetics and novel interfaces to the world addressing biologic and physical processes; a play of light, resonance and transmission.

The relationship between structure and system is playfully opened, with the modelling of systems as core activity within the temporary lab space; simulation within both code and analogue electronics, the embedding of an internal observer allowing for a play with agents and agency.

A concern with materiality and construction forms the base for an energetic examination of all manner of diagrams, public interface (reading space, discussion), bio-computing (plant life, EEG), world interface (practical endophysics), everyday technologies (light, food), code, transitions and translations. Such disciplines branch out mushroom like, revealing instabilities and new structures across nine days, in one space, publicly accessible throughout.

xxxxx_temporary_structure is inherently experimental and interdisciplinary, inviting practitioners and artists who are well able to prise open the gaps between reified disciplines to actively create new social and constructive apparatus within the xxxxx space.

A playful laboratory is proposed which does not mark boundaries between forms and between disciplines – which rather exposes and opens up social and artistic structures for sublime experience.

Info: http://scrying.org/doku.php?id=xxxxx:ctm09

Participants

Oswald Berthold [AT/DE]
Berthold (web.fm) describes himself as a semi-autonomous social particle commissioned in Graz in 1976. His interests lie in media, programming, and networks. He is associated with xdv, farmersmanual,
and gullibloon.
Keywords: software-defined radio, sniffing, wide spectrum measurement of EM intensities, practical investigations of a brain equation, societal mapping.

Derek Holzer [US/DE]
Derek Holzer’s work focuses on capturing and transforming small, unnoticed sounds from various natural and urban locations, networked collaboration strategies, experiments in improvisational sound, self-made electronics and on the use of free software such as Pure-Data.
Keywords: drawn sound, optoelectronic synthesis, systems for collaboration, more open than source, life outside the box

Martin Howse [UK/DE]
Martin Howse operates within the fields of discourse, speculative hardware (environmental data in open physical systems), code (an examination of layers of abstraction), free software and the situational (performances and interventions).
Keywords: resonance, relativity and wave-length in space and architecture for varying wave phenomena, measurement and mapping of electromagnetic(EM) field strength intensities as archaeological conceit

Martin Kuentz [DE]
Martin Kuentz (Unkuentz) is a Berlin based freelance artist. He founded the Salon Bruit, a concert series on improvised, electroacoustic and noise music, and has been involved in the Dienstbar series, Transmitting Object Behaviour (T.O.B.), Berlin free radio campaign, Blind Operators, Unkuentz vs. Trodza and apostrov recordings.
Keywords: expansive kinetic constructivism, crashed kitchen sink and bath-tub chemistry, homemade fireworks, long-term transmissions

Rob Mullender [UK]
Rob Mullender is an artist and maker living and working in London, U.K. His current preoccupations mostly concern the possible inter-relationship between sound and light; in other words using one to help find out things about the other. This has proved to be an unexpectedly complicated and fertile subject, especially when seen as an artistic rather than a scientific or engineering pursuit.
Keywords: auditory cameras, photophonics, ultrasonics, Enigma machines, sonification-as-synthesis

Shintaro Miyazaki [CH/D/JP]
Shintaro Miyazaki is interested in the epistemology of software/hardware of consumer electronics. He works as a curator, media theorist or artist in Berlin and performed solo and with ensembles in Tokyo, Leipzig, Krakow, Palma de Mallorca, Frankfurt, Basel, Zürich and Berlin.
Keywords: epistemology, sonification of software/hardware processes, eavesdroping.

Julian Oliver [NZ/ES]
Julian Oliver has given numerous workshops and master classes in game-design, artistic game-development, object-oriented programming for artists, UNIX/Linux, virtual architecture, interface design,
augmented reality and open source development practices worldwide. In 1998 he established the artistic game-development collective, Select Parks.
Keywords: environmental steganography, Python code expansion, data forensics and augmented reality softwares

Yunchul Kim [KO/DE]
Yunchul Kim studied music composition in Seoul and media art in KHM Cologne, Germany. His work has been shown in Ars Electronica, Transmediale, NewYork digital salon and Medialab Madrid amongst many others. He has been living and working in Germany since 1999 and is a guest lecturer at the Merz Academy, Institute for New Media, Stuttgart.
Keywords: chaos elaboration, interface exploration, physical code trafficking, pataphysics, imaginary pathologies

Dorotha Walentynowicz [PL/NL]
Dorotha Walentynowicz is an artist and performer who works withphotography, video and sound, as well as modified game engines andother interactive media.
Keywords: exposure, manipulation and voluntary oppression in gaming,performative communications strategies, “black box” as camera obscura

Otto Roessler [DE]
Otto Roessler reveals the power and cruelty of the rationalist project as first invoked within a dream of Rene Descartes. Through elaboration of endophysics, a science of interiority, the world as interface is implemented within potential practical, scientific and artistic experiment.
Keywords: practical endophysics, discussion of mute sperm whale communication, impending technocratic disaster analysis

Danja Vassiliev [RU/NL]
From the middle of 90s, Danja Vassiliev has been actively engaged with internet, computer and digital based visual and installation art. His most recent research and works are concentrated around topics of digital networking, internet and stereotypes of the digital age.
Keywords: literal UNIX pipes, shared communications systems, terminal VJ, swarmed networks with traffic/person as information carrier

Valentina Vuksic [CH]
Valentina Vuksic explores a highly individual articulation of hard and software mediation; the processes in such intermediate space as action thus implying actors rendered audible through novel intrusion.
Keywords: exploration of computational process as actor/staged on physical substrate (audio) rendering, comparison of crash spectra

+ participants from the public selection:

Georg Holzmann
Jonathan Kemp
Lars Lundehave Hansen
Lindsay Brown
Shintaro Miyazaki
Verena Friedrich
Walter Langelaar
Will Scrimshaw

Now Playing

Brethren of the Free SpiritAll Things Are From Him, Through Him and In Him [2008]
Carlos GiffoniAdult Life [2008]
Deathspell OmegaMass Grave Aesthetics [2008]
Deathspell OmegaVeritas Diaboli Manet in Aeternum: Chaining the Katechon [2008]
Eliane RadigueKyema, Intermediate States [1992]
Ghäst tracks from split with Rape X[2008]
Hala StranaHeave the Gambrel Roof [2007]
James BlackshawLitany of Echoes [2008]
Kevin DrummComedy [2000]
KTLIV [2009]
One Tail, One HeadDemo [2008]
Paysage d’HiverKerker [2008][reiissue]
RorschachProtestant [1992]
VAGive Me Love: Songs of the Brokenhearted: Baghdad, 1925-1929 [2008 Honest jons]
VALiving is Hard: West African Music in Britain, 1927-1929 2xlp [2008 Honest Jons]
VASprigs of Time: 78s from the EMI Archive [2008 Honest Jons]
ZaimphMirror Images CDR [2005 Heavy Blossom]

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12 Meter Power Chord photos/sounds

Posted in Documentation on December 18th, 2008 by admin

The day I took down the 12 Meter Power Chord installation from Styx Project Space Berlin (03 Dec 2008):

Photos by Pipstar

A couple MP3 samples:

12 Meter Power Chord @ Styx Berlin, edit 1 (no effects)

12 Meter Power Chord @ Styx Berlin, edit 2 (wall of distortion)

New Year’s plans:

Forests, fires, vodka, saunas and….

…ice in Estonia!

See the rest of John Grzinich’s cold winter morning here.

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12 Meter Power Chord at Styx Project Space Berlin

Posted in Announcement on October 29th, 2008 by admin


Interior, Styx Project Space

12 Meter Power Chord — an installation/performance at Styx Project Space Berlin

Sound is a physical phenomenon. Three strings resonate at intervals to each other and activate the architecture they remain tensed across. But sound is also a cultural phenomenon. Three strings tuned at specific mathematical ratios create the infamous power chord–the signature sound of heavy metal guitar. “12 Meter Power Chord” walks the tightrope between the phenomenological and intellectual aspects of sound and space by sonifying the intervals found in the architectural space of the gallery using piano wire.

“12 Meter Power Chord” runs as an acoustic installation from 7-28 November 2008, with amplified live performances for the opening and finissage, 7 & 28 November, 19:00-22:00.

Other artists showing are SIX, with his “Pervateen” photo series, and Sue de Beer with stills from her “Hans und Grete” video.

STYX project space
Old Brewery Friedrichshöhe (2nd floor)
Landsberger Allee 54
10249 Berlin

Derek Holzer [USA 1972] is a sound artist working in Europe since 1999 with a background in radio, webstreaming and environmental sound recording. His installation and performance works focus on the creation of new kinds of sound-producing instruments, using digital synthesis, analog electronics and acoustic physics. These instruments work to uncover the hidden resonances in the objects and spaces around us.This approach could be considered an acoustic version of particle physics or genetics, because the idea remains the same–in the smallest details you will find a representation of the greater whole.

Now Playing

Kiss the Anus of a Black CatThe Nebulous Dreams (Conspiracy)
MachinefabriekVloed (Sentient Recognition Archive)
MonnoGhosts (Conspiracy)
NekrasovThe Form of Thought From Beast (self released)
WhenSvartedauen/The Black Death (Tatra)

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German Artist Visa

Posted in Text on September 19th, 2008 by admin

Today I secured my first one year artist visa residence permit for Germany here in Berlin. And in true, open-source spirit, I thought I would document the process. In general, the process was much easier than I expected, however you’ll have to have a few things lined up before you start…

* Application Form: download from http://www.berlin.de/formularserver/formular.php?72301

* Passport: unless you’ve been living in another EU country with a valid permit there (as I had), your passport should show a stamp of your recent entry date into Germany. Oh, and it should have two free adjacent pages, and shouldn’t run out before one year unless you want to have to go back and pay another EUR 10 get a replacement visa (like I will next May).

* 50 Euro: in cash. Their machine doesn’t take EC cards.

* Rent Contract + Anmeldungbestaetigung (address registration): you will need the Anmeldungbestaetigung for many other things like getting a bank account or even a video rental card, see here. (Legally you need one of these within the first 7 days at any new address anyways.) The Auslanderamt will see if you are in their system or not depending on if you registered for this. And they will figure out your minimum monthly income over the coming year by comparing your income + rent to the amount of money that a German citizen on Hartz IV (unemployment benefits/welfare) would be entitled to (EUR 345 + rent, as of 2009).

* 2 Pass Fotos: actually they only took one of mine.

* Artist Materials (CV + documentation): the thing they looked at the most here was my CV, although I brought several German-language catalogs from different projects I’ve done here and in Austria, which they didn’t even touch. But bring them anyways just in case.

* Letters of Reference: my impression is that these are quite important, so get some VIPs to write that they’ve known you for a long time (since…), that they are familiar with your work (such as project X, Y, Z…), that you’ve worked together on such and such a thing, and that you plan to work together in the future on some other things. Phrases like “…will make a positive contribution to the Berlin cultural scene…” can’t hurt either. I brought 5 of these puppies…

* Statement on Berlin Plans: also apparently important, as my caseworker spent the most time with this, my CV, my letters of reference and my bank statements. Promise the moon here (vaguely of course), but especially try to tie in every single person who wrote you a letter of reference, even if they made no explicit promises in their letter. Don’t indicate that they promised you anything more than what they wrote on paper, of course, but anything short of that…

* Proof of Income: current balance plus previous month’s bank statement, hopefully showing that a reasonable amount of money is coming in (See Rent Contract, above…). Apparently they’d also like to see a couple grand in there to tide you over if you don’t get any work right away. Since you will be applying as a “free artist”, showing them an employment contract will get you reclassified to another kind of non-artist visa, which could be more difficult to obtain. However, any unpaid invoices or letters of invitation with fees mentioned can help give the impression of financial “stability”.

* Proof of Health Insurance: here is the Catch 22–to stay in Germany, you need health insurance. But to get German health insurance, you need permission to stay in the country. No, unlike in years past, travel health insurance from your home country doesn’t cut it. When they say “health insurance”, they mean private German health insurance. The cheapest monthly policies I could locate started at about EUR 150 a month and went up and up and up. But at that rate, you are still liable for the first EUR 1000 in damages you might get inflicted on yourself, and every trip to the doctor for whatever reason still costs cash money up front. And don’t ask what happens if you happen to smash all your teeth out riding home drunk one night on your bike…dental coverage for this kind of all too common accident is an extra premium. But here’s the good news: for some reason they trust that you will get the insurance after you get the visa. So go get a quote from some private insurance provider, any one will do, and bring it to your meeting. Then, once you get the visa, apply to the KSK for special “artists health insurance” at half the price.

See also this page, but keep in mind they’re talking about visas for the regular working stiffs, not weirdo art nomad folks like us. Also, take note that German law has recently changed and international travel insurance DOES NOT COUNT! No matter what the people from the insurance companies tell you, the Ausländeramt will insist that you are covered by the same kind of insurance that all other Germans are covered by.

Once you’ve got all this, call up the Ausländerbehörde (030) 90269 0 and explain that you want to apply for an Artist Visa. (EDIT: you can and should book you appointment online at their website now!) I do not recommend going without one, as the entryway of this place was a zoo when I went, and you could probably wait all day there…

Homepage of the Ausländerbehörde

Appointment booking in English, German, Turkish and Russian

If you’ve played your cards right, they will give you a shiny new one year Artist Visa and instructions to get a tax number (since you are a freelancer), health insurance and a certain amount of money each month (based on the rent you showed them). They will check all this again in one year if you want to renew, and may tell you (as they did a good friend of mine) to get married, become a student or get the hell out of Deutschland if you can’t sort all this stuff out by then. No, they don’t require you to take German lessons, at least not in the first year, although they might recommend it.

Of course, what this requires still is a reasonably professional-looking CV and some established contacts in the arts scene here already. And keep in mind that you will not be able to get normal employment with your first visa, you *must* be a self-employed artist. Normal working permission could, however, come with the second visa (as it did for me). In short, I wouldn’t recommend this approach to hobby painters or street buskers… Berlin has too many cross-walk jugglers as it is!

Acknowledgments: this cheatsheet and the visa which generated it would not have been possible without the generous assistance of Carsten Stabenow, Gesine Pagels, Carsten Seiffath, Jan Rolf, Stephen Kovats, Andreas Broeckman and Brandon LaBelle. Thanks y’all!

This page is one of the most visited pages on my website, however I have no idea who reads it and if it does them any good. If this information has helped you, or if you find out something different than what I have written, please leave a comment/reply!

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