Locustream Promenade is a sound art installation composed of sonic beams ( 10 parabolic dishes equipped with sound speakers and small computers). The parabolas are suspended in the public space in such a way that a visitor only hears the sound from the beam when he or she is directly underneath it. Each beam plays a different stream from the Locustream project. The live streamed sounds are soundscapes coming from remote locations through the Internet. The space where the paraboles are hung is virtually connected to geo-distant spaces. By moving from one beam to another the audience walks through audio windows opening out onto a worldwide soundscape. Invited to take part in this experience the listener becomes conscious his or her immediate surroundings in a new way, perception of the local audio environment is modified.

Locus Sonus Lab: Julien Clauss, Stéphane Cousot, Alejo Duque, Scott Fitzgerald, Jérôme Joy, Anne Laforet, Grégoire Lauvin, Anne Roquigny, Peter Sinclair.

Concept & production: Nicolas Bralet, Julien Clauss, Alejo Duque, Scott Fitzgerald, Sabrina Issa, Jérôme Joy, Nicolas Maigret, Anne Roquigny, Esther Salmona, Peter Sinclair, Lydwine Van der Hulst.

Production team: Etienne Fortin, Stéphane Cousot, Grégoire Louvain, Lorenz Schori, entreprise APPLES Marseille, Chabaud et cie.

Partners: Délégation aux Arts Plastiques and Mission Recherche et Technologie from the French Minister of Culture and Communication, CNRS and Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche and in co-production with Transcultures/City Sonics, Mons, Belgium, l’Ecole Supérieure d’art de Aix and Seconde Nature

Streams from: Alejo Duque and Jean-Pierre Dautricourt (CASSIS - camargo), Miguel Eduardo Venegas Monroy (ENSENADA - ksa), Avatar, association de création et de diffusion sonores et électroniques (QUEBEC - avatar), Björn Eriksson, sound artist (SOLLEFTEA - miulew), Marc McNulty (BOSTON - boston), Nicolas_Bralet compositeur d’espace sonore, micro- paysagiste d’intérieur… (PARIS - gouttedor), peter sinclair for locus sonus (MARSEILLE - cap15), daniel schorno (AMSTERDAM - jordaan), KRN (incident.net) (DAKAR - amitie), cyrille henry (PARIS - home), Ragnar Helgi Olafsson [Lorna] (REYKJAVIK - komplex), cedric maridet // (HONGKONG - sw), Jerome Joy (Locus Sonus) (NICE - mouans), Esther Salmona (MARSEILLE - pasdufaon), Eric Leonardson, artist, Director of World Listening Project, founding member of Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology, faculty at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (CHICAGO - westside), marieheuln (VESINET - cerceris), Kristian Paul (BUGA - valle), Mikhail Iliatov (BROOKLYN - brooklyn), Timothy Nohe (BALTIMORE - nohe), Chad Clark (CHICAGO - rogerspark), Alain Renaud (BOURNEMOUTH - dec), emeka ogboh (LAGOS - ikoyi), John Kannenberg artist and curator of Stasisfield.com —– (ANN ARBOR - AnnArbor), brett ian balogh (CHICAGO - wicker_park), Koganecho Area Management Center (YOKOHAMA - koganecho), The Fibers (YOGYAKARTA - honf), max and julian stein (MONTREAL - cote-des-neiges), Rhizome Lijiang Art Center (LIJIANG - rhizome), john grzinich, moks.ee (non-profit artist run organization) (MOOSTE - moks), un/locker (MAMM - medellin), Timothy Nohe (BALTIMORE - Baltimore), un/loquer, jardincosmico (MEDELLIN - san_lucas), Cimatics (BRUSSELS - cimatics), Vijayendra Sekhon (MUMBAI – currentfrequency), (MUMBAI – currentfrequency), P&D Audio Productions, Inc. (GREENSBORO - Greensboro_NC), london soho (LONDON - soho), Grégoire Lauvin http://gregorth.net (AIX_PROVENCE - st_jerome), Locus Sonus (AIX_EN_PROVENCE - Ecole_art_Aix), alejo duque + dock18 (CH - roambox), Phil Edelstein (PORT WASHINGTON - philed), udo noll radio aporee (COLOGNE - aporee), august black (SANTA_BARBARA - california)

Locus Sonus is at http://locusonus.org

Speakers have been installed along the passageway between the Lexington Financial Center, the city’s blue high-rise, and an adjacent parking garage. Microphones dip beneath to pick up the sounds of Town Branch rushing by. Most people would never know the Town Branch of Elkhorn Creek runs under downtown Lexington if they were not told. There has long been no visual or audible evidence of the rushing water that runs just below the high-rise buildings and busy streets of the city — until this week.

The project will be on permanent exhibit after Thursday afternoon.

For more information, here. With thanks to Rich Copley [rcopley@herald-leader.com]

For a description of the work: http://www.lexarts.org/participate/public-art/Bill%20Fontana/

The UrbanRemix platform consists of a mobile phone system and web interface for recording, browsing, and mixing audio. It allows users to document and explore the obvious, neglected, private or public, even secret sounds of the urban environment. Participants become active creators of shared soundscapes as they search the city for interesting sound cues. The collected sounds, voices, and noises provide the original tracks for musical remixes that reflect the specific nature and acoustic identity of the community.

In collaboration with the Times Square Alliance Public Art Program, UrbanRemix will host a series of events in Times Square. Throughout April and May 2011, the public is invited to capture and contribute sounds from Times Square using the free UrbanRemix apps for iPhone/iOS and Android. Then, using the web site, anyone-anywhere can explore the contributed sounds online, view them on a virtual map of Times Square, and mix and share their own soundscapes. On May 12, New York-based electronic musicians Travis Thatcher and Damon Holzborn will perform live remixes of the collected sounds in a free performance in Times Square.

We look forward to your participation!

Urban Remix from Matt Gilbert on Vimeo.

1. DOWNLOAD the free mobile app:

iOS App: http://bit.ly/gWxGoO

Android App: http://bit.ly/esEuIe

2. LAUNCH the app and sign-in

(username: TimesSquare and password: TimesSquare)

or create your personal user account at http://urbanremix.gatech.edu

3. GO TO TIMES SQUARE, record sounds and take photos, then hit “upload” to share them.

4. Visit http://urbanremix.gatech.edu to see what others have shared and to make your own remixes online.

IF YOU CAN’T GET TO TIMES SQUARE, you can still use our web site to explore and remix the sounds that have been contributed: http://urbanremix.gatech.edu/content/times-square

Nancy Garcia’s interdisciplinary practice incorporates choreography, music/sound, video, performance, image making, and new media. Often slinging the viewer to the edges of performative events, Garcia draws attention to the exultant body, considering it as a site as well as a vehicle for sound and movement. For her first solo exhibition in Miami, Garcia shows a new body of work incorporating photography, a new video entitled Power Trio, and a concept audio compilation, Lover’s Alarm Clock, for which she asked artist friends to “create a sound you want your lover/s to wake up to.” Each track will be downloadable and sharable as a smartphone ringtone at www.loversalarmclock.com, and be available for listening in the gallery.

To coincide with O, Miami Poetry Festival, Garcia is creating an audio walk, an experiential sound journey guiding listeners through a select Miami location. The audio file will be playable on most smartphones and portable media players, and will be available along with a walking guide at www.omiami.org, www.basfisherinvitational.com and www.nancygarcia.org on April 15.

Nancy Garcia was born and raised in Miami, and has been based in New York since 2000. Her work has been shown at the Sculpture Center, Long Island City; Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; Roulette, NY; D’Amelio Terras Gallery, NY; De La Cruz Collection Project Room, Miami; New Langton Arts Center, San Franscico; Greene Naftali Gallery, New York; Movement Research at Judson Church. She has also been featured in festivals such as Images, Toronto; All Tomorrow’s Parties, United Kingdom; and No Fun Fest, New York. As a musician she has performed in the US and abroad with noise band Monotract, toured as a solo performer, collaborated with various artists including Thurston Moore, and released a solo album entitled “Be the Climb” on the Ecstatic Peace record label. In 2009 Garcia produced an epic interdisciplinary performance combining online video, and music from her album with choreography for the proscenium stage, commissioned by the Kitchen, NY. She holds a a Master’s degree from the Interactive Telecommunications program within New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

Streams from: Barcelona (Spain), Dakar (Senegal), Boston (US), Ann Arbor (US), Greensboro (US), Amsterdam (Holland), Reykjavik (Iceland), New-York (US), Solleftea (Sueden), Paris (France), Chicago (US), Belfast (Irland), Lagos (Nigeria), Medellin (Colombia), Buga – Valle (Colombia), Quebec (Canada), Montréal (Canada), Mumbai (India), Lijiang (China), Montréal (Canada), Baltimore (US), Yogyakarta (Indonesia), Honk Kong (China), Yokohama (Japan) Marseille (France), Nice (France), Vesinet (France)…

Locus Sonus Lab: Julien Clauss, Alejo Duque, Scott Fitzgerald, Jérôme Joy, Anne Roquigny, Peter Sinclair.

Production team: Etienne Fortin, Stéphane Cousot, Grégoire Louvain, APPLES Marseille, Chabaud et cie.

Partners: Délégation aux Arts Plastiques and Mission Recherche et Technologie from the French Minister of Culture and Communication, CNRS and Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche and in co-production with Transcultures/City Sonics, Mons, Belgium, l’Ecole Supérieure d’art de Aix et Seconde Nature

LOCUS SONUS: http://locusonus.org/
SOUND MAP: http://locusonus.org/soundmap/
FESTIVAL MIMI: http://mimi2010.amicentre.biz/wordpress/

A Bell for Every Minute will fill the 14th Street Passage, a semi-enclosed tunnel between West 13th and West 14th Streets, with sound recordings of bells taken from all over New York City and beyond. Sounds range from the iconic rings of the New York Stock Exchange bell, the historic Dreamland bell days after it was discovered in the water off Coney Island, the United Nation’s Peace Bell, and more everyday and personal sounds of bike bells, diner bells, and neighborhood church bells. Bells are used in our culture to mark the passing of time, act as warnings and alerts, mark celebrations, and memorialize those lost. While there are numerous conditions under which bells are heard in our city, they are universal sounds that all of us can appreciate as part of the auditory landscape of our lives.

During park hours an individual bell will ring each minute from speakers placed throughout the tunnel, the overtones fading out as the next bell begins. A chorus of the selected bells will play at the top of each hour, filling the space. The sounds will be represented on a physical sound map that identifies the location of each bell, allowing the listener to follow the geographic journey of the recordings. Collectively, the bells are a microcosm of the urban landscape as they relate to the sounds captured throughout the daily life in New York City. The site, much like a bell tower, becomes activated by the composition, inviting the passerby to engage with the High Line and its connection to the city around it.

Following 2009’s The River That Flows Both Ways, by Spencer Finch, this project marks the second of two projects commissioned for the High Line, presented in partnership by Creative Time, Friends of the High Line, and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Vitiello’s work also marks the first sound project on the High Line, and the first large public art commission in New York City for the artist. Sound has the ability to shape our perception of physical space, and our navigation of the environment around us. As a key figure in the worlds of sound art and experimental music, Vitiello’s work has helped shape the field of sound in New York and globally. By exploring his native city through an auditory map in A Bell for Every Minute, Vitiello provides a unique take on the New York experience from both the communal and intensely personal perspectives that only sound can provide.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Stephen Vitiello was born in New York City in 1964, and now lives and works in Richmond Virginia, where he is currently an Associate Professor of Kinetic Imaging at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU).

Vitiello’s electronic music and sound installations transform atmospheric noises from the everyday environment into mesmerizing soundscapes. In addition to his solo musical releases and artistic endeavors, he has composed music for numerous film scores and dance productions. Over the last 20 years he has collaborated with such musicians as Scanner, Pauline Oliveros, Frances-Marie Uitti, Andrew Deutsch and Yasunao Tone and visual artists including Nam June Paik, Tony Oursler, Julie Mehretu and Eder Santos. CD releases include Stephen Vitiello with eighth blackbird, 2008 (Magic If), Four Color Sound, 2008 (Texas Gallery), The Gorilla Variations, a collaboration with Molly Berg (12k), Box Music, a collaboration with Machinefabriek (12k), Listening to Donald Judd (Sub Rosa), Scanner/Vitiello (Audiosphere/Sub Rosa), and 17:48 from the Texas Gallery (Texas Gallery).

Recent solo exhibitions include Museum 52, London; The Project NY; and Smallest of Wings at the Broadgate Arena, London, England. Group exhibitions include the Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, TX; the 2006 Bienale of Sydney; and the 2002 Whitney Biennial. As a Media Curator, he curated the Sound Art component to the Whitney Museum’s exhibition The American Century: Art and Culture 1950-2000, Young and Restless a video program for the Museum of Modern Art and New York, and New Sounds, New Spaces at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Lyon.

Chico MacMurtie’s Red Hook studio, otherwise known as Amorphic Robot Works, was formerly a church used by Norwegian sailors at the turn of the century, when this section of South Brooklyn was a vital fishing industry. Filled now with plywood boxes, plastic coils, various machines, works in progress, and the remnants of his previous projects, MacMurtries’ studio initially appears to be the messy, albeit inspired, interior of a garage monkey. Since founding Amorphic Robot Works in 1992, MacMurtrie has collaborated with over 20 artists and scientists in making over 100 robots to populate his elaborate performances and interactive environments. Most recently his work has shifted away from literal robotic depictions for which he became known into more abstract sculptures which when inflated with air directly interact with humans. While giving me a tour of the space he showed me the makings of Inflatable Architectural Growth, comprised of various plastic tubes suggesting intestines, which he was prepping to be shown at the San Francisco Art Fair.

The Times Square Alliance seeks letters of interest from arts organizations and artists across disciplines to present contemporary art projects and art events in the public spaces in and around Times Square. In a one-page letter, applicants can propose a single project or series for anytime between September 2010 and December 2012. Artists and arts organizations are encouraged to propose projects that address the unique nature and rich history of Times Square. Projects should be able to have an impact in a space defined by dynamic activity and continuous, competing visual stimuli. Organizations, curators and artists are encouraged to consider how their projects will change or effect the space during the presentation and how the 350,000 people here every day (as well millions of virtual viewers) will interact with the presentation. Public spaces to consider as locations for art projects and events include the new Broadway plazas and Duffy Square in Times Square and other public and private spaces throughout the Theater District, 42nd Street and 8th Avenue. Through its Public Art Program, the Times Square Alliance brings temporary high-quality, cutting-edge art and performance to Times Square’s public spaces, so that it is known globally as a place where ordinary people encounter authentic, ever-changing urban art in multiple forms and media.

Letters of Interest are due on July 15, 2010 and should not exceed 500 words. Organization history or artist resume plus five images of relevant past work should be attached, along with an image list of titled and descriptions. Applicants with accepted proposals will be invited to enter a dialogue with the Times Square Alliance.

For complete details on the Times Square Public Art Program, visit www.timessquarenyc.org/arts

GRRR JAMMING SQUEAK is a new public artwork by the Italian artist Paola Pivi (1971, Milan) created for the city of Rotterdam. Located at the Coolsingel-the city’s heart and most important street, GRRR JAMMING SQUEAK is a fully functional music recording studio, attended by sound engineers, available to everyone, for free, to play music along with the sounds of animals. This new work by Pivi is not only a joyous and generous gift to the city, its inhabitants and its visitors; it is also an engaging, publicly operating machine that redefines the idea of public art.

GRRR JAMMING SQUEAK is housed in a two-storey building with a glass facade to the street. The studio is technically advanced, managed by sound engineers and equipped with a complete set of instruments-from a saxophone and a synthesizer to a drum set, and so forth. The large and double soundproof room accommodates groups and individuals; professional musicians as well as amateurs. There is one single rule that each studio-user must obey: to play along with the recorded sounds of animals.

A wide collection of recordings (made available by the Macaulay Library at The Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, NY) offers visitors the animal sound of their choice, whether it be a squeak of a mouse; a humming bee; the roar of a tiger or a bear-to name a few of your options. Visitors are invited to play, compose, improvise and jam; to record, mix and master the music. The music belongs to the person who played and recorded it and not to the studio. The studio is free of charge. You can learn or teach how to play an instrument, or simply listen to others playing along with the sound of animals. GRRR JAMMING SQUEAK will furthermore showcase a selection of animal photo portraits by Vincent J. Musi, author of Animal Minds (National Geographic, 2008).

GRRR JAMMING SQUEAK offers a wide range of ongoing activities: On a monthly basis, GRRR JAMMING SQUEAK will turn itself inside-out, offering a free concert to the public featuring renowned musicians of every imaginable music genre. On these occasions, loudspeakers will be installed on the street, ‘calling out’ for the pedestrians of the Coolsingel and Stadhuisplein. The first concert of this series, on the opening day, is by Spinvis, the renowned Dutch musician.

On a weekly basis, the studio will organize free events inside the studio (concerts; lectures; workshops, etc.), invite Rotterdam groups (such as a club or a school class) to perform as a band, broadcast a radio show with the most remarkable sound recordings of the previous week.

Additionally, GRRR JAMMING SQUEAK activities will be kept in our collective sound memory, through its permanent and growing archive of recorded sounds; in a monthly radio show about the studio’s various activities, hosted by web art radio RAM (www.radioartemobile.it), and on an annual compilation album, Best of Grrr, containing the most remarkable studio recordings of the year.

Paola Pivi (1971, Milan) has lived and worked in unusual places around the world, such as small islands, deserts and faraway countries. Currently she is based in Anchorage, Alaska. With her sculptures, installations and performances Pivi builds a personal universe ruled by the laws of irony and absurdity. Pivi’s works originate from colossal operations yet appear light, spontaneous and agile-like the movements of an athlete. Through changes of scale, duplications of objects or alterations of context, Pivi transforms impossible actions into simple and disarming gestures. Among other feats, she has photographed alligators covered in whipped cream, and brought together dozens of white animals to construct a monochrome zoo in an exhibition space. Her work, much like its cheerful and strange titles (’My religion is kindness, thank you. See you in the future,’ ‘One cup of cappuccino then I go,’ as well as the title of this new work) is an open invitation to the public, to interact and play.

CONTEXT: Long-term plan for Coolsingel Axis:
GRR JAMMING SQUEAK is part of SIR’s long-term plan for the Coolsingel axis (2009-2012). In preparation of the major redevelopments of this urban boulevard, SIR offers a program of temporary and permanent art projects, focusing on the past, present, and-above all-unpredictable future of the Coolsingel. Various possibilities are examined for a new generation of art works for Rotterdam’s most important street. Within this framework, SIR opened the SIR Cinema in November 2009 and Taneda’s Coolsingel Cube in January 2010, during the IFFR.

GRRR JAMMING SQUEAK has been made possible with the generous support of: Yamaha, Peter Verspuy Muziekinstrumenten, Flos, Moroso, dS+V, MAB Development, ******* *********F Bouwinvest BV, Stichting De Werkmij, The Macaulay Library at The Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Sculpture International Rotterdam
SIR is an advisory body of the Municipal Executive. It manages and develops the international artworks for Rotterdam’s metropolitan locations and assists the city in achieving its international and cultural ambitions (SIR is affiliated with the Rotterdam Centre for Visual Art).

For further information and visual materials, please contact the PR and Communications Department of Sculpture International Rotterdam: telephone +31 (0)10 22 50 854 or pr@sculptureinternationalrotterdam.nl