By and large I spent little time at the conference of this festival. It was just too much to do the conference, see films, exhibitions, and then manage to see all the acts of the night concerts without feeling completely exhausted. So I tended to skip the conference and come in for the night-time. I would have liked to see Jeffrey Shaw’s talk, hopefully there’ll be a podcast online.
I managed to pick up quite a few items along the way: the Touch records 25th compilation, a bunch of free Gonzo mag cd’s, last years Sonic Acts publication, poster, and double DVD of video and computer art (@ 5 Euro it was a score), also picked up this years Sonic Axe text, filled with lots of cool interviews and such. Also found Autechre and Amon Tobin posters along the way. So I’ve come away with quite a bit.
FILM SCREENING:
Mika Taanila’s “The Future Is Not What It Used To Be”, (2002)
Tonight I saw a fantastic film by Mika Taanila called “The Future Is Not What It Used To Be”, (2002). The film documents the life of an ‘unsung pioneer’ of electronic art, Erkki Kurenniemi. His idea’s, illuminating thoughts and projects are vast, and the film gives you a direct insight into the mind and work of a great scientist, artist, instrument builder and archiver. This guy should make any collector or archiver feel sane. Kurenniemi was way ahead of his time, anyone interested in electronic art should check this film out ~ brings to light an individual whose work should stand alongside Cage, Moog, Stockhausen and Brakhage.
excerpts:
GRM ACOUSMONIUM
Also today was a concert projected through the GRM’s ‘Acousmonium’ speaker configuration, an intricate set-up of 80 speakers of various shapes and sizes. Earlier in the day they played some pieces by Luc Ferrari and Bernard Parmegiani to illustrate the differences from stereo playback. The louder, more ‘frontal’ performances toward the end of the evening however I found didn’t really make use of the spatial possibilities, however they nonetheless sounded great through the array on stage.
Christian Zanesi (& translater) explaining the setup :
Hans Joachim Roedelius – LIVE on the Acousmonium, Paradiso
Fennesz LIVE on ‘Acousmonium’, Paradiso:
ENDE
