John Richards Interview

Some photos by Aspasia Koulira

Koumaria, Day two, Sept. 30 Blog

We awoke to bright sunshine seeming to make the nearby mountains loom even closer. A group of residents went to a nearby river by a mountain village in order to judge its suitability for shooting video and dance in the early morning mist. They then went to visit a nearby early Greek tomb nestled in the shoulder of a nearby hill. Upon retuning to the house, there was much activity–both sound and video work-stations were abuzz with activity. Immediately after lunch there were experiments in the main studio involving vocal processing with assorted signal processing, while upstairs the assorted video artists worked on perfecting assorted ways of mapping the sound to video projections. A more general sound jam followed, and then the residents went outside in the late afternoon sun to participate in a photo project focused on the arbitrariness of our self-constructed identities. While dinner cooked small groups of residents discussed the days collaborative experiments and planned ways to build upon them. Residents hitherto unfamiliar with the art practices of each other began to find common ground, and to test ways of expanding their own art practices to enable fruitful collaborations.

An Interview of Alessio Castellacci

Photos by Aspasia Koulira

Koumaria, Day 3, Oct. 1, Blog

It is day three of the Koumaria residency. All things considered it has been a good day. I woke up with a hangover after drinking copious amounts of local wine, but the head wasn’t too bad. It was a slow, slow breakfast, followed by a walk across the olive orchard to a small church perched on a hill. I have been thinking about creating a piece for two or three performers, a choreography of the hands on a small stage the size of a table. There is a feedback network created by two microphones and speakers. As the hands explore and play-out the space they interfere and interact with the feedback. I have been speaking to Ioana Paun and Alessio Castellacci about performing the work. I have also been working closely with good friend Tim Ward. Tim went out scavenging today and came back with some heavy terracotta tiles, weathered and battered (the curved type). They stood on the table between the microphones and speakers filtering and muting the sound. We have had mixed results. I tried processing and controlling the feedback in a variety of ways, but still looking for just the right sounds this is the. There were a couple of breaks this afternoon. Tried tying some long corn leaves to a fan. Much rustling and visually stunning, but this may remain a white elephant. Eric Clarke’s fiftieth birthday today! (John Richards)

Photos by Aspasia Koulira

This morning saw the beginning of concentrated, and collaborative, work, on a number of projects. A number of residents assisted in a video shoot for a stop-time animation piece concerning some rather animate rocks, a dancer, and the evocation of Inuit spirits. There was the refinement of a piece for movement, voice synthesis, saxophone and electronics. Further progress was made on a photo-documentary featuring portraits of each resident amidst the other residents. There was continued intensive video work done on creating systems to trigger videos based on both motion-capture and audio signal processing. These systems will soon be integrated into projects involving sound and movement. Intensive and detailed experiments with feedback and assorted micro-environments involving local stones and building materials rocked the house with a earthquake of beautiful sine-waves. We had the pleasure of an overnight visit by Carras Christos, the director of the Onassis Centre who will be hosting our presentations next weekend. He both got to see the project in its early formative stages, and participated in its creation and execution. As the sun set the residency was busy with video projections being prepared, assorted photo projects being undertaken, and some serious electronic sonic clouds emanating from the main studio.

After the wonders of the Italian kitchen last night, today
John Richards took a break from soldering circuits and
hacking electronic instruments in order to inhabit the kitchen
for several hours and produce tonights meal.

However, many hours before this point – and after numerous
early activities – the day took its shape from a meeting of all
the residents, where a quick once round the circle of people
gave everyone the chance to talk about the projects underway
and find further help and ideas from the others.

The outcome of this joint session seems to mark a point where
numerous ideas and circles of creative energy are starting to
come together, and what will finally be seen and heard back
in Athens is starting to assume a broad structural form.

The evening then took on firstly a sonic character (with the ISE
ensemble playing for the first time through a chamber-scale
sound diffusion system) and then a visual character (with careful
tuning of the video tracking and mapping to ‘plug-in’ to the system
dancers Ioanna and Stavros).

The evening developed into an extended and intensive
rehearsal, which unfortunately ended suddenly when artistic tensions
from outside the circle of musicians playing at that moment exploded
into life and shut down all activities. Breakfast tomorrow may well turn
out to be a turning point of sorts for the future mood and cooperative
structure within this house.

Last night we decided to have a series of meetings today, both to explain to the collective the projects the residents have been working on, and to draw residents into each others projects. This morning, after a late breakfast (there was quite the party last night!) a large group of residents participated in an Authentic Movement workshop. In one of the lower olive groves we explored the landscape while blindfolded, moving with a sighted partner who would keep us out of danger. Forced to map our environment with our senses of hearing, smell and touch, many found themselves creating imaginary landscapes that they were navigating. Having to faith in your own body, and your partner helped create new bonds of trusts, both within ourselves, and between residents. We then reconvened in the main house to have a meeting concerning the development of the assorted projects. It rapidly became clear that much progress had been made and a good 10-12 projects were well underway. The main challenge will be to integrate them into a unified performance. We then divided into break-out groups, to discuss the details of the individual projects, and see how they could be enriched by further collaborative work. Further video work on the stop animation project took place, which saw an exciting magic realism project emerge. Moe portraits were taken. Today also saw the first fruits of the video artists development of body mapping and sound signal responsive video tools, which the ISE with dancers started to experiment with. Voice work, based on drone loops was also experimented with, along with time elapse photography and further refinement of the micro-environment feedback table. Much headway was made in figuring out precisely how the theme of identity will enter into the presentation. We are also constantly conscious of how to best use the space at the Onassis Centre so that the audience can be made to understand both the process behind our final presentation, and the meaning(s) of the presentation itself.

Koumaria Oct 3, Day 5 Blog

The collective spent a profitable day refining individual projects. So many projects have developed a full head of steam that we have had to post a schedule for the main studio space. The video project involving stop animation was completed, and viewed by the sound artists with an ear towards creating an improvised sound track. Another session of natural movement took place, this time on a different part of the surrounding countryside. The circuit makers spent much of the day, solder irons lit, making assorted sounding devices. A piece for processed voice, saxophone, live electronics and dance was further refined and practiced. We continued the portrait project of all the residents. The ISE experimented with a conduction, which succeeded in bringing the ensemble into new sonic spaces. A new meditative piece for looped chanting voice and movement was practiced, while soundtracks for a photo documentary were created. The mood today was one of concentrated work, with increasing realization that the clock is ticking towards our weekend presentation. At our daily communal meal we discussed our upcoming presentation and decided that by the end of tomorrow all the individual projects should be near completion so we can begin the difficult process of creating out of them a compelling and sensible presentation. Much work ahead!

The house wakes up without the usual sparkling ferment of the past days. The feeling is rather that of a light buzz … small flocks of different insects silently at work on their projects.

After yesterday’s meeting with all the artists, a common schedule has been laid out to coordinate the activities and rehearsals throughout the day.

After a morning session of Authentic Movement with few partecipants in the olive grove, Joana, Guido and Alessio have been rehearsing their trio with voice, dance and sax, striving to reach a clarity of gestural intention as well a balance between improvisational and compositional structure. Tim has created on the fly a remote control (out of a common play-station joystick) for Alessio to process his voice with effects in real time.

In the afternoon, while Hans, John, Tim, Nicola and Cleopatra keep working on different projects (animations, interactive video projections, analog sound installation), we go out in the nature to pose – ups, naked – for Aspasia’s potraits project.

After a convivial dinner, the ISE ensemble rehearse in the main space generating a nocturnal intricate blend of analogic textures, monotonic drones and digital corrosive distortion.

Outside the night grows and expands, unnoticed.

A sense of concentrated focus pervaded today’s work. Most projects have their overall form and shape established, and are now being critiqued and fine-tuned. Not only were residents working on their projects for the Saturday performance, but those running workshops were busy preparing materials for them. We completed the photo essay on the residency, and further refinements were made to the video technologies in use. The ISE rehearsed again, working on establishing a wider range of dynamic moods and a more refined set of timbres. A sense of ease has descended upon the residents, who now assist each other in very natural ways, understanding better what each resident needs from the others. When one stops to think about it, the range of art practices developing here is mind-boggling: hardware design and construction, software design and construction, instrument making, video mapping, video audio controllers, animation, acoustic music, electro-acoustic music, electronic music, real time audio signal processing, dance and movement, photography, sculpture, voice work, new theatre arts, curation, and of course culinary arts! The evening featured a run-through of the existing projects, with first attempts at integrating into them video processing. Our next major task is to decide how to present the emerging projects so as to best reveal, on the one hand, the sense in which they are the product of a single resident’s vision, and on the other the many ways in which each project bears the hallmarks of the input of many residents.

slide show

photos by Aspasia Koulira (Resident Profiles)

time laps animation by kleopatra korai

video by stavros apostolatos and aspasia koulira

site specific work by Ioana Paun

slide show

ISE at Onassio

Sedna Performed by Guido De Flaviis

Koumaria is a workshop-residency taking place every year since 2009, organized by the artists collective Medea Electronique. It is one of the few residencies in the world that focuses on improvisation and the “new media arts”.
For 10 days at the foothills of mount Taigetos an olive grove will be transformed into a place of creation for contemporary arts. Artists from all over the world working in a variety of media will travel to Greece and, inspired by their surroundings, will engage in an improvisational multicultural dialogue resulting in a collaborative art piece. Both well-established and younger artists from different cultures will live and work together, exchanging not only their art practices but their lived experiences. An aim of this creative meeting, besides fostering artistic experimentation, is to enable experienced and newer artists to work collaboratively, as well as to facilitate the exchange of diverse ideas and problematics between people that hold different perspectives concerning artistic creation. In this sense the presentations of the results of the residency can be judged both aesthetically and socially, for they are experiments in both domains.

This year for the first time the presentation of the workshop is going to take place at the Upper Stage of the Onassis Cultural Centre at 107-109 Syngrou Avenue, Athens on the 8th of October at 20:00 pm. The performances will be introduced by Professor of Philosophy Eric Lewis from McGill University, Montreal, Canada who will give a lecture on improvising communities. In addition Koumaria residents in collaboration with the Education Department of the OCC will lead workshops for teens and families regarding contemporary new media and the theme of identity.

Medea Electronique

This years residents were

John Richards Electroacoustic Composer / Sound Artist
Mariano Leotta Interactive Technology
Nicola Pavone Vjing / Video artist
Aspasia Koulira Photographer
Hans De Wolf Animator / Sculptor
Ioana Paun Video Artist / Performer
Alessio Castellacci Performer
Saira Sheikh Painter / Video Artist
Gaynor O Flynn Director / Cinematographer

These years Visitors were
Myrto Lavda
Kleoni Manousakis
Stefania Mizara

Medea Electronique participated with
Manolis Manousakis Electroacoustic Composer
Theodoris Zioutos Electroacoustic Composer
Yannis Lolis Video Artist
Kleopatra Korai Animator / Director
Ioanna Kabylafka Choreographer / Dancer
Eric Lewis Improviser / Philosopher
Guido De Flaviis Saxophone Player
Elli Peristeraki Curator
Panayiotis Goubouros Video Artist / Animator

ISE Ensemble

Tim Ward Electroacoustic Composer
Alexandros Drymonitis Guitar Player / Improviser
Stavros Apostolatos Dancer / Choreographer

With many of the projects taking shape, the residents spent today both fine-tuning projects, and exploring the surrounding countryside. A number of residents took the occasion to visit the sea, and a nearby abandoned village. The ISE ensemble worked with Marielle on her astronomically inspired graphic score, and true to the residency’s guiding principles soon this composition took on the character of the whole ensemble. Late that evening members of the ensemble were up on the roof of the house taking photos of the night sky to transform into scores. Come see the result of this undertaking this Thus evening at KNOT gallery.

Blog Day 7

This was an exciting day for the residents, and we had both a “show and tell” of all the sub-projects, and discussed how to integrate them into Thusday evening’s performance. We ran through the whole program and so saw the collective results of our artistic efforts. It became graphically clear just how much collaborative work has taken place, and we capped of the evening by taking turns leading the ISE with Mad Scientist. It is hard to accept that tomorrow is the last day.

Koumaria 2010 Day 6 Video from Medea Electronique on Vimeo.

Blog Day Five

The residency had some exciting developments today. During yet another beautiful morning, two dancers, two musicians and a videographer “found their way” into a semi-abandoned factory near the village, and performed an extended improvisation. Surrounded by industrial debris, agricultural effluence, and a variety of colors and qualities of light, the moment took on an exciting form and sense of drama. Much of this was due to the participation of a second dancer, Stavros Apostolatos, and so the possibilities of interactions increased both in number and complexity. The residency also greeted the arrival of Stefania Mizara, a noted photo-journalist and art photographer, who is documenting, both in stills and in video, the residency. This work will be shown as part of Electromedia Works-10 at the Knot Gallery next Thus and Fri in Athens. She is also collaborating with a number of residents on an improvised musical score to accompany an exhibit of her photos taken in Haiti, to be shown at her gallery in Athens in Feb. We have also worked on a major (as in cosmic!) graphic score by Marielle, and conducted a number of field recordings. Many have been busy editing video, and the house is fulling abuzz this evening.

Koumaria 2010 Day 5 from Medea Electronique on Vimeo.

Blog Day four

The residents awoke, yet again, to a warm, sunny day. The olive harvest began this morning, and many of the residents spent time observing, and helping with this time consuming practice. While intensive video editing took place on the ground floor, an ever-growing ensemble of musicians worked on a number of projects. Marielle Groven led the ensemble through a number of “games” for generating musical structures via collective improvisations. We also worked on integrating a wider range of electronics into our collective improvisations, and discussed ways broaden our sounds yet further. Based on suggestion made by the residents, Stefan worked on both modifying his existing software, and developing yet new software, and interfaces, for improvising. The video artists have been working with the dancers on a project the details of which are yet to be revealed, but rumor has it involve cameras attached to dancing bodies. As evening approached new residents arrived, and there is a general “buzz” amongst the participants as many projects are starting to take shape, and the mass of electronic equipment and instruments in the main studio grows.

Koumaria 2010 Day 4 from Medea Electronique on Vimeo.

Blog Day three

Today the residents awoke to sunny skies and warm temperatures. With the surrounding mountains etched clearly against a blue sky, the residents moved outside, for both social and artistic encounters. At one point Eric Lewis was playing trumpet on the balcony, while the dancer Ioanna Kabylafka joined in. Their improvisation was soon enriched by the participation of Viviane Houle, whose vocalizations and movements were both amplified and morphed by trumpet and dancer. This encounter led to a discussion of corporality, voice and movement, and was repeated in the afternoon with the addition of the saxophonist Guido De Flaviis. Watch for the results of this collaboration next week at Knot Gallery.
Resident composer Marielle Groven worked on graphic scores based on multi-color high contrast photos of deep-sky objects. We wait to see how the collective will actualize them in sound, movement and image. She also led a group of residents in one of her improvisational games, based on the collective manipulation of a finite number of musical ideas. A number of residents continued to experiment with, both as performers and as conductors, The Mad Scientist Machine. We are very quickly becoming familiar with the potential and possibilities inherent in the system, and the resultant improvisations are growing in subtly and interactivity. Much video editing took place, and, as always, every resident was well fortified by the fine food, spirits, and spirit, everywhere apparent.

Koumaria 2010 Day 3 from Medea Electronique on Vimeo.

Blog Day 2

The residents awoke this morning to light rain, with the nearby mountains deeply engaged in an improvisational dance with the threatening clouds. As shafts of light joined in, we knew it would be an interesting day. The emerging video project took further shape, with improvised scenes concerning the nature of improvisation popped up both inside the house, and in the nearby surroundings. A number of sound artists worked with “Mad Scientist,” a live improvising conduction method, involving colored lights and custom software designed by Stefan, and as familiarity with the software grew, the music produced took on a more definite shape with clearly etched transitions and dynamics. Spirits are high, and the relaxed mood is very conductive for chance encounters with fellow residents, which may very well result in collaborative projects. While no discussions have been held concerning the performances to take place next week in Athens, there is at the same time a collective confidence that the residents will present interesting and compelling work.

Koumaria Day 2 from Medea Electronique on Vimeo.

This year’s residency is developing organically, with the members free to get to know each other, and their interests and ideas, without any predetermined structure. Helped by the fine weather, the wonderful views, and the delicious cooking, members, in assorted combinations, have spent the day exchanging ideas, equipment, stories and sounds. A couple of projects, based on improvisational acting, are beginning to take shape, with the enthusiastic support of a number of local neighbors. The sound artists have been energized by the presence of Stefan Smulovitz and Viviane Houle, both the designers and creators of the improvising software Kenaxis. The afternoon was spent familiarizing the team with the software, and integrating it into the other soundscapes the residences are familiar with. By the middle of the afternoon the whole house was emanating a wide palate of both acoustic and electronic sounds. The relaxed attitude of the residences, couples with the collective desire to learn from, and with, each other, bodes will for the week to come.

Koumaria 2010 Day 1 from Medea Electronique on Vimeo.

The Process



these are some very nice photos by Olga Papakostantinou. If you use them please give her the appropriate credit for her work. Soon to come videos and more photos.

“Navigate to previous days and events at the end of the page”

ElectroMediaWorks_10 Excerpt from Medea Electronique on Vimeo.

EMW Excerpt – Video by Michael Larsson, Dancer Ioanna Kabylafka, Music by the Instant Synthesis Ensemble

Instant Quartet from Medea Electronique on Vimeo.

Αθέατο “Not Viewed” from Medea Electronique on Vimeo.

Improvisation from Medea Electronique on Vimeo.

In the context of ElectroMediaWorks_10 the collective  Medeaelectronique (www.medeaelectronique.com) will host KOUMARIA_10, an intensive 10 days Residency at the foot of Mount Taigetos. A 400 square meter residency in a huge private olive field, including a converted mixed-media art studio, will be transformed this November into a laboratory for contemporary art.

Greek and international artists, theoreticians, scientists from different disciplines and backgrounds, are invited  to work together and form the Instant Synthesis Ensemble (I.S.E) in order to develop a collective arts project. The outcome of this effort will be introduced in Athens among other productions, presentations in a two day Collective arts Meeting at KNOT gallery (http://knotarts.blogspot.com).

ElectroMediaWorks is an annual meeting for innovative media art, electronic media art, electronic music and cross-over art, aiming to revive in the future the EMW Festival (www.emw.gr).  Koumaria Residency and ElectroMediaWorks embrace a wide range of themes and techniques that promote knowledge and enhance the exchange of ideas and ‘materials’ in order to highlight and reveal the processes of collective creativity within the theory, technology, philosophy and innovative contemporary art practices of mixed media arts.

ElectroMediaWorks_10 will revolve around two broad themes: Collective Arts and Artistic Synergies. The program will feature talks led by our Guests, workshops, presentations and performances later in the day. A dialogue amongst a diverse range of independent collectives, cooperating groups, spaces, institutions etc. will give us the opportunity to explore ideas, methods and practical aspects of the collective creative process, among other issues.

Our Press Release can be Found Here English / Greek

2010 EMW Participants

• HELLENIC ELECTROACOUSTIC MUSIC COMPOSERS ASSOCIATION [H.E.L.M.C.A] (www.essim.gr)
• CENTER OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC RESEARCH [C.M.R.C] (www.ksyme.gr)
• BEFORE LIGHT www.beforelight.com
• FTOUXELEFTERIA http://omadaftouxelefteria.blogspot.com/
• M55 PROJECTS (www.m55projects.gr/ )
• OPER(O) (www.myspace.com/operoteam )
• KINITIRAS STUDIO (http://www.kinitiras.com/)

• ODC ENSEMBLE (www.myspace.com/odcensemble1)

• MAD SCIENTIST MACHINE ORCHESTRA (http://www.kenaxis.com/mad-scientist-machine/)
• Κ.S.Υ.Μ.Ε ENSEMBLE (http://www.ksyme.gr)
• INSTANT SYNTHESIS ENSEMBLE (I.S.E) (KOYMARIA_10)
• IOANNIS KALANTZIS (http://ikalantzis.free.fr/)  [H.E.L.M.C.A]
• STUDIO 19 (www.studio19st.com)
• 4+1 (www.myspace.com/tesseraena)
• HOULE_SMULOVITZ DUO (www.vivianehoule.ca)
• OPER(O)  ( www.myspace.com/operoteam )

Between 23 of October and 01 of November 2009, MedeaElectronique organizes Koumaria fall residency offering a week’s retreat for media artists in rural Sparta, Greece.
At the foot of Mount Taigetos, a huge private olive garden will be transformed into a laboratory for contemporary art. Offering a 400 square meter residency made into a modern mixed media art studio, we aim to bring together artists of different disciplines in order to develop a collective mixed media art project.
We are interested in the process itself, as a hypothesis and as an experiment in the search for an emerging work ethic, as an intense and refreshing experience that will serve as a model for future creative gatherings.
The outcomes we are looking for include: •    A public performance on 01 November in Athens, Greece •    Material and ideas for further research and processing •    Recorded improvisations and other emergent pieces of work to be shared and distributed in appropriate forms between the participants •    Documentation of the whole process to be analysed and elaborated on •    Further inspiring and productive collaborations to be initiated
The specificity of the place hints towards thematic directions relating to the ideas of creation and growth, serenity, light and the processes of natural flow, universals, as well as the journey outward and within.