In production
SoundscapesLandscapes
Overview
On the first weekend of April, 2012, the Koumaria Residency will host the Medea Electronique project SoundscapesLandscapes. Within this four-day microresidency, sound and video artists and performers will meet together within the Taigetos mountain range and explore the create of a new form of artistic digital cartography.
Details
The SoundscapeLandscape project is based around the use of many different innovative techniques in field recording (both passive methods of simply capturing the sounds around us and new inquisitive practices). At the same time visual investigations will both partner the sounds and add a further dimension to how we perceive and make sense of each environment.
The Landscapes/Soundscapes project starts with an initial micro-residency, which aims to explore these themes as they operate within two different physical environments: the Koumaria Estate and the Onassis Cultural Centre. What are the sound marks and shaping agents in each place? How do these elements transform themselves and their new environment when they area transferred from one place to the other? What new elements would we understanding about both places if we walked around the Onassis Cultural Centre when it was resounding on all levels and in all corners to the soundscape of Koumaria? What insights would emerge if the process were to be reversed?
The project will culminate in a site-specific installation, addressing many of the questions that arise when we listen in and to each space. Through the cartography that emerges, the new Onassis Cultural Centre (www.stg.gr) will better find its sense of place within the sonic environment around it, and its own sonic identity in terms of the sound within it.
Background
By now it is a well-established practice to listen to the sounds of the real world recontextualized as recordings and to encounter them under various guises as or within music. It was over thirty years ago that Schafer (Murray) first coined the term ‘acoustic ecology’ and set out his guidelines for a new kind of listening, with the whole world as a universal ongoing musical composition. Schaeffer (Pierre) approached sonically similar territory from a quite different perspective, but in the same way also found it vital to set down his own prescription for establishing a new way to listen, extended this to form a new musical grammar.
If we step forward to today, we find that the ideas of ‘reduced listening’ and the ‘soundscape’ are as potent as ever. They are certainly more mainstream – a consistent presence in the gallery, improvisation venue and concert hall – but beyond this their influence can be felt in everyday life to an increasing degree. We all construct our own personal sonic map that is made up of an increasingly complex amalgam of the different environments we encounter during our daily routine. Today, perhaps more than every before, we are aware of both what we hear and of when and how we are listening, and even (sometimes) of the multitude of different agents and environments that seek to intervene in our listening and shape or direct the process.
Credits
More info soon at www.soundscapeslandscapes.gr
contact info Timothy Ward timward03@gmail.com
Fragments of the Unseen
The departure point of Αθέατο (Unseen) is to experience a space that surrounds an entity, not through the eyes, but through the outermost points of a body. The use of multiple visual references suggests a set of possible bodily configurations which the viewer can use to identify not only the spatial configuration of the environment but also characteristics of the life form, that it represents and the relation it has to the space.
Fragments of the unseen is an ongoing site specific project by Medea Electronique initiated at Koumaria 2010 Residency. Next stop is Hydra at the 11th Plateau Festival in july.
for more information visit www.theunseen.gr
a sample of the work performed in koumaria can be viewed here
“Identity”
“Identity” (Overture, Manifestation)
A Live Cinema Play
Staged for
Live Electronics, VJing and the addition of four performers.
What is identity?
“one’s self-image is one’s mental picture, one’s physical appearance, and the integration of one’s experiences, desires and feelings.”
Fighting with the question of “What am I?”, “From where I have come from?” we come across the archetypes of Gender, Family, Race and Religion and their subdivisions of social and political actions surrounding identity like (sexuality, culture, class and nationality). Through the journey of exploring my “Self Identity” I struggle to break the social bonds that suppress my true self. I resist the current societal structure and I am making an emblem the holistic idea of a unified “Self” similar and equal to all.
Self-identity
“Who am I? What am I?” –
You are what you know and believe, what you hold dear and revere, what meaning your existence has.
So, is a self-identity your values? Beliefs? Image? Or who you are?
Self-concept
“ones self-identity, a schema, consisting of an organized collection of beliefs and feelings about oneself”4; as “ones sense of ‘me’ identity,5 as “I”6; and as “a cognitive appraisal of our physical, social, and academic competence.”7 So, is one’s self- concept one’s self-image? One’s self-identity? The “Me”? The “I”? Or a self- appraisal?
Self-image
“one’s self-image is one’s mental picture, one’s physical appearance, and the integration of one’s experiences, desires and feelings.”
*Joseph A. Bailey JOURNALOFTHENATIONALMEDICALASSOCIATION VOL.95,NO.5,MAY2003 386
Identity is a political and sociological issue. Consumerism, muscular and female gender prototypes, ethnic propaganda and religion all create a western “Caste System”. People of power identify them selves as archetypes of a “cultural identity” which is isolated from the true “Self”. This “global social principle” imposes a “dictatorial modeled Identity” defined by a controlled “Self-Concept”.
In this work our performers expose their “Self-Image”, through incidents based on empirical situations. The interciplinary character of the performance reveals the idea of a unified identity. The story line is made by texts gathered from an open call, improvisations, and instant synthesis with the use of live electronics and vjing. These elements make the “spinal cord” of our characters.
The story works in a circular way; the voice of character one becomes the movement of character two and visa versa. Texts are recited in a circular order with random starting points. Once more, character one becomes character two and vise a versa defining the very notion of a unified entity of societal characteristics that define us as humans
We make the following Conclusion;
There is no ownership of identity. Our century is a cosmogony of interactive and influential ids, we are becoming a cross ethnic society. We feel, we think alike, we dress alike, we walk alike, choosing from a vast “fashion show” of ids we create a new Global Self. This is unavoidable.
This play is a loud reaction and a “scream” for self-liberation.
We end up with the following questions/conclusions.
Is this work political? In a broad sense yes. What care the most is exploring each character and its universality.
Questions / Conclusions
Identity = Boarder
Define Boarders = Ethnic
Ethnic Boarders – Do they define identity?
Identity doesn’t have ownership – Ethnic Boarders Define Identity
Define Boarders = Personal
Boarders define our incapability of expression
Goya – Beethoven: The Path to Silence
Goya – Beethoven: Roads of Silence
Using video images and live piano, the performance traces parallels between the life and works of two artists, Beethoven and Goya, who never met and were probably unaware of each other’s existence. Their lives do, however, reveal a good deal in common: their being at one with the zeitgeist at the start of their careers, similarities in their social milieu, the political convictions they formed during the Napoleonic wars and, most of all, their creative response to hearing loss in the supremely personal work they produced towards the end of their lives.
Information: 213 0 178000, Tickets: 210 900 5 800
Monotonia
Monotonia is Part of the Decmber 11-12 Opening of the Onassio Cultural Center
Departure……
Cavafis’ “Monotonia” and Vainegem’s “The Revolution of Everyday Life” serve as departure points for an audiovisual sculpture that attempts to deconstruct the very meaning of monotony; lack of variety, tedious repetition and routine. Deconstruction leads us to a cycle of events whose components are: illusion, obstruction, liminality and condition. Each component has individual characteristics, it is acted out differently
and it is not bound to any specific order but is instead used to identify and create certain sets of scenarios.
Arrival……..
The combination of image, sound, light and performance is intended to increase the level of sensory stimulation of the audience in order to suggest certain emotional thematics and structures. The objective then becomes to trigger the audience with a connecting language in multiple instances in a seemingly monotonous cycle.
What If…
What if you wake up one day with the feeling that one day has become an imitation of the other, subsequently followed by yet another, identical. Imagine the realization, of something so simple, but with a striking sensation, that whatever happened has happened again, over and over again. Knowing that the only way to change it - is to break the repetitive cycle so that it happens no more.
A dialogue triggers…
Triggered by the meaning of the word ‘monotony’, a dialogue between Manolis Manousakis from Greece and Michael Larsson from Sweden was established οriginating from Kvafis’ ‘Monotonia’ and Vanegeim’s ‘The revolution of everyday life’. Τhese two writings acted as departure points for a conversation surrounding four identified thematics; liminality, condition, illusion and obstruction.
a methodology….
By utilizing the above elements a process of sequencing possible combinations was established and put in conjunction with real life experiences. Through this methodology of connecting reference points the backbone of ‘Monotonia’ was created and an audiovisual translation by MedeaElectronique was initiated.
MANIFEST
Repetitive Actions of senseless behaviors
By Medea Electronique
We live in a universal condition, forcing upon us a state of liminality. Liminal actions and thoughts define our everyday actions of apathy; “The same things will happen again, and then will happen again, the same moments will come and go”.
We have followed that condition in our own accord, choosing the easy path and limiting our self in a confined social environment. An environment based on exclusions and social definitions serving the condition we live in.
‘Fake’ illusions of achievable materialistic goals lead to a cycle of events creating a monotonous life pattern. Commercial life style, big restaurant chains, artificial goods and faux-tech hope for a better future structured on a pyramid of materials made with pain in the third world to be consumed painlessly in the west.
The condition serves the few who belong in the system; a system of social exclusions and secluded environments, The condition has a ritualistic way of defining its purpose. It takes ownership of human behavior and controls its decisions.
‘Forbidden’ illusions are the only hope we have in our society, waiting to be awakened by obstructions. These are illusions made in childhood defining our future dreams. Dreams that where oppressed by the condition we live in.
We are waiting for these obstructions of the system to take us by the hand and move us away from the condition we live in. Obstructions are loud, forceful actions of events reacting to the conditional social system we live in. Obstructions are the inner voices; Socrates demon as he describes in his Apologia; a revo- lutionary force aiming to awaken us from our condition. They appear to us as Faces; images that call us to remember our childhood illusions and restructure our path in life. An obstruction is a scream for hope, a rebellion, a fight, a reassurance that a different future exists.
“Monotonia” does not aim to set itself against the society we live in but for the people who are trapped in this condition. We aim to break our personal monotonous cycle of events. We strive to find a new hypothesis of how social environments can survive in a modern society of different behaviors, cultural backgrounds, needs and dreams.
Curators Note
Through Monotonous Paths of Revolution
By Elli-Anna Peristeraki
Monotony is a feeling that everyone has felt at some point in their life. Monotonous moments, monotonous manners, monotonous thoughts – all of these are part of our every day life and have a strong psychological affect upon us. Based on the writings of the situationists and the stimulus of Cavafy’s poem, Medea Electronique read contemporary monotony as an inner human state, and perhaps the root cause of the depression that is common amongst the average person in contemporary western society. In their own non-aggressive way, Medea Electronique seek to set a trigger that may launch internal questioning about the pursuit of happiness, which seems to lie above and beyond the consumerist habits and stereotypes of contemporary society.
‘Monotonia’ is an artwork that attempts to engage the viewer emotionally and intellectually. It underscores the conscious or unconscious monotony in the average person’s life and tries to take the audience along a journey of self-criticism and introspection, with the final aim of prompting the viewer to re-allocate his or her inner world in order to break their personal monotonous circle. In this sense the artwork does not seek to liberate the viewer from monotony but instead tries to become a critical intervention in their personal sequence of life events, provoking monotonous feelings that seek to stimulate their thoughts.
The combination of the texts of Cavafy and Vaneigem bring a revolutionary dynamic to ‘Monotonia’, ascribed by the simplicity of monotonous images and sound. Through the deconstruction of the two texts, the main motifs of the artwork – circle and repetition- arise and intertwine with the four thematic points – illusion, liminality, obstruction and condition- that get translated to images-sequences which get smashed by the montage. While viewing the artwork each viewer is called to rebuild those sequences, building this way his own story in the artwork. In this way the projection of personal experiences on the subjects that are pertained by the artwork, are facilitated.
‘Monotonia’ tries to create an experience for the audience. To achieve this it has to stimulate all senses. While image concentrates on feeding the conscious, music concentrates on awakening the unconscious. Yet sound here has another role as well; that of the narrator. It draws attention from one sequence-screen to another, within the gallery space facilitating the recital of image. In this way the relationship of the two mediums becomes parallel and supplementary, with sound amplifying the meanings of the visual while at the same time performing an individual and essential function for the reading of the artwork.
Through this structure, ‘Monotonia’ seeks to become an oblique interactive play. The goal of creating an experience in the gallery space is interaction per se – not in the classical sense of action-reaction within the gallery space but in a wider context of action in the gallery and reaction in real life – moving from the inside out.
Siggrou Avenue 107-109, Αthens 11745
information: 213 0 178000, tickets: 210 900 5 800
Email: info@sgt.gr
To enter the opening of this event it is essential to have a ticket in prior. The tickets last for two hours of stay in the Cultural Center and attendance of at least one of the productions of the opening.