[spectre] OptoSonic Tea @ Diapason NYC - Thursday, April 19th, 8:30pm

[Katherine Liberovskaya]

Diapason, gallery for sound and intermedia presents...

Thursday, April 19
8:30pm

OptoSonic Tea @ Diapason

Live sets by:
- Andy Guhl (visuals and sound)
- Kurt Ralske (visuals and sound)

Invited artist:
- Michael J. Schumacher

Suggested donation:
$ 7


OptoSonic Tea is a new regular series of meetings dedicated to the
convergence of live visuals with live sound which focuses on the visual
component. These presentation-and-discussion meetings aim to explore
different forms of live visuals (live video, live film, live slide
projection and their variations and combinations) and the different ways
they can come into interaction with live audio. Each evening features two
different live visual artists or groups of artists who each perform a set
with the live sound artists of their choice. The presentations are followed
by an informal discussion about the artists' practices over a cup of green
tea. A third artist, from  previous generations of visualists or related
fields, is invited specifically to participate in this discussion so as to
create a dialogue between current and past practices and provide different
perspectives on the present and the future.

Organized by Katherine Liberovskaya and Ursula Scherrer



About the artists:

Andy Guhl's main instrument is electronics: "Geknackte Alltagselektronik"
transformations of elements surrounding us, in special magnet and light
waves as well as their feedbacks.
2003-2005:
Sound and multimedia projects with Charlotte Hug, Frederick Quennoz &
Otomo Yosihide.
1972-2002: Member of the formations: Voice Crack, Poire_Z & Metamkin.
Projects with Norbert Möslang, Kunstbiennale Venedig
2001: Sound shifting/Canale Visuale (San Staë). Collaboration with
Günter Müller, Borbetomagus, Phil Minton, Jim O'Rourke, Erik M & Carlos
Zingaro.
1968: Double bass, improvisations with friends.
1952: Born March 18th, 1952
for more information: http://andy.guhl.net

Voice Crack, formed in late 1972 by Andy Guhl and Norbert Möslang were
initially a free jazz duo. They began incorporating pre-recorded tape
effects and live sound processing, and by 1983 they eliminated any normal
instrumentation in favor of what they call "cracked everyday electronics:"
Mundane objects such as "radios, turntables, transmitters, dictating
machines" and other items are cracked open and manipulated to produce "new
sounds using magnetic and radio waves in a complex system controlled by
movements of their hands and by light." In his solo work Guhl combines
cracked electronics with visual phenomena to create a whole that sweeps one
away. Light and flickering have an effect on optical scanners and give rise
to electronic music. New picture information is generated by the
audio-visual signal. The direct interplay with this audio-visual feedback in
an analogue electronic system makes up this "Instrument².

Kurt Ralske is a NYC-based video artist, composer, and programmer. He works
in a variety of practices, including improvised audio-visual performance, in
installations, in digital print media, and in software art. His work is
created exclusively with his own custom software, written in C/C++ and Java.
He has performed and exhibited at museums, galleries, and theaters
throughout Europe, Canada, and the US, including the Guggenheim Bilbao, Los
Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and the Montreal Museum of Contemporary
Art. The New York Times has praised his "compelling, ingenious alliance of
sound and motion" and "technological wizardry". Kurt's work received First
Prize at the 2003 Transmediale International Media Art Festival in Berlin,
as a member of the real-time video improvisation ensemble 242.pilots. He is
also the author/programmer of Auvi (http://auv-i.de), a software environment
for creating custom real-time video programs that is in use by video artists
in over 22 countries. Kurt is the recipient of a 2004 National Science
Foundation Scholarship Award. Kurt resides in New York City. He teaches at
the School of Visual Arts in the MFA Computer Art Department.

Michael J. Schumacher is a composer of electronic sound installations
using 2 - 16 speakers, computer-controlled random structures, of
acoustic music realizing advanced formal schemes, of taped and live
music (also improvised) for prepared electric guitar, synthesizer, etc.
He has composed works for piano solo, chamber ensemble, voice, and
orchestra. He studied music at Indiana University and the Juillard
School of Music. Born in Washington, D.C., he has lived in New York
City since 1983.
Schumacher¹s works have been presented in the United States, Europe and
Asia. He has presented sound installations at The Kitchen, Experimental
Intermedia and Roulette, at the Queens Museum and PS 1, at the Museum
of Contemporary Art in Lyon and Triskel Intermedia in Cork, at La Monte
Young and Marian Zazeela¹s Dream House, and at his own sound and
intermedia galleries, Studio Five Beekman and Diapason. He has received
grants from NYFA, iEAR, The Foundation for Contemporary Performance
Arts, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Meet the Composer, and
Harvestworks. He has collaborated with the cellist Charles Curtis,
guitarist Donald Miller, with David First, Ben Manley, Stephen Tunney
and Tim Barnes, with dancers and choreographers including Liz Gerring,
and with the video artist Ursula Scherrer. As director of Studio Five
Beekman and Diapason Gallery, he has produced exhibitions by David
Behrman, Ron Kuivila, Alvin Lucier, Phill Niblock, Steve Roden, Marina
Rosenfeld, Stephen Vitiello, La Monte Young and many others. His
discography includes five solo CDs, including a double CD set on the XI
label.



Diapason
1026 6th Avenue, 2S
New York NY 10018
(212) 719-4393
http://www.diapasongallery.org

Avenue of the Americas between 38th and 39th Streets,
two blocks south of Bryant Park.
Subways: 1, 2, 3, 9, B, D, F, Q, N, R, W to Times Square/42nd Street