Art.On.Wires Festival Oslo 2010 - day 3

[Johanna Roggan]

May 12th
First some pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/art-on-wires/

This day we started the interactive environment workshop with introducing the software VVVV (V4). Two rows of laptops (which have to run windows for using V4) were set in front of a screen to show each single step on it. Valerie Vogt and Marko Ritter were conducting the workshop and walking around to help out with any problem the participants might have.
It was an short and very basic introduction of how to use it and what is possible beside making 3D generated graphics.

One of the most beautiful things here at the festival is the feeling of equality with every person. Two luminaries of the media art section were holding a keynote and afterwards they just hang out, talk to who ever is having a question. There is no privileging going on. Just Sharing knowledge, interest and going for ones curiosities.
Lars Graugaard, Anders Friberg both from the Stockholm university, Alexander Refus Jensenius (Olso university) and Aki Asgeirsson from Iceland hold a keynote on „systematic understanding of music“ by presenting several projects.
Music and emotion and creating new instruments were the trigger point of their lecture.
Coming from the fact that there is a level of emotional content inside every musical piece, they disassemble the vocabulary in order to categorize it into parameters like sad, happy, angry, tenderness/love etc.
Knowing that an expert listener is able to distinguish different moods easily but not an untrained ear, every research issue comes across psychology.
Emotion perception – listeners' perception of emotional expression.
Lars Grauggard and Anders Friberg presented then a software based on MAX/MSP which works with these parameters to analyze music and/or create new music pieces.
http://www.graugaard-music.dk/
Alexander Refus Jensenius gave us a brief glimpse on his, still in germinal, SUM sensor device. A gadget like tool to measure emotions. Using the information of blood preasure (via infrared), skin conduction and movement, the small sensor device in your hand gives a lot of parameters to scale your sensitivities.
It is still under construction but could be used in performances to navigate other out/input for instance.
http://art-on-wires.org/workshops/sum
Aki Asgeirsson presented us some of his new instruments he invented. One is an impossible one but still quite impressive. He would use the tunnels of Iceland. Tunnels such as for cars, wires, water. On one side he would place a violin snail on the other end a horn looking like amplifier. For every tunnel the same set up. The audience would be sitting in the center of Icland and receive all tones from all tunnels. BUT – the tunnels have to be empty. So that is the impossible part of it.
http://slatur.is/aki/about.html


After a short break Atau Tanaka was holding his keynot about various projects he has done.
He was working on using networks as a performance space, network music and many different music-related projects and research fields.
I really recommend to read his papers or watch the recorded lecture (online soon on www.art-on-wires.org)
http://www.ataut.net/site/spip.php?page=plan
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/culturelab/people/profile/atau.tanaka


Before lunch time Alexander Eichhorn announced the open laboratory space – so who ever is interested in collaborating with one, two, three of the others at this festival, should go for it and maybe we have something to show at the end.
It is meant to be an option of crossing boarders, of overcoming the idea of this or that could never funktion together but just trying it out and having fun within it and maybe have some outcome.

There is some not so well recognized stuff going on as well. Beside two always very tasty meals (lunch and dinner (German chefs)), the crew FEM ( www.fem.tu-ilmenau.de ) is, beside managing all sound and light happenings, recording and live-streaming the whole festival all the time. All lectures, keynotes, workshops are streamed and most of them will be online soon – if you missed something.

The evening concert series is about to start. All the musicians, producers and Vj's in the hall are going to have some great fun together.
At first all is a live act and then the Dj's will finish us up..
Pierre Proske (music), Arturo Castro (visuals), Jacob Korn (music), Marko Ritter (visuals), Lars Graugraad (music), Aki Asgeirsson (music), Atau Tanaka (music) and then the two Dj's Rainer Wachtelborn and Dj Subway.
www.jacobkorn.de
www.residentadvisor.net/dj/rainerwachtelborn
www.myspace.com/_subway
www.digitalstar.net/about/

http://arturocastro.net/index.html