This is the second edition of stillspotting nyc, a two-year multidisciplinary project that takes the Guggenheim Museum’s programming out into the streets of New York City’s boroughs. Estonian composer Arvo Pärt and U.S. and Norway-based architecture firm Snøhetta create urban soundscapes around Lower Manhattan that explore the relationship between space and sound. To a Great City, the Manhattan edition ofstillspotting nyc, will be open to the public for two extended weekends on September 15–18 and 22–25, 2011.

While the vitality and stimulation of the urban environment can be pleasant, those living in or visiting densely populated areas such as New York are often unaware that their ears continually need time to adjust to strong differences between the sounds that surround them—just as the pupils of the eyes only gradually accommodate to the change from light to dark.

Pärt (b. 1935, Paide, Estonia) has described his music as a frame for silence and uses reduction of sound rather than augmentation to create his compositions. Pärt’s concept of tintinnabuli (”little bells” in Latin), which forms the basis of most of his work, was born from his vision for an extremely nuanced aural environment that could not be measured, so to speak, in kilometers or meters but only in millimeters. His pieces often revolve around a central tone that reappears consistently throughout the work.

The Guggenheim Museum organized a collaboration between Pärt and Snøhetta in which the architects have selected—and in some cases subtly altered—urban spaces that embody the concept of a central tone and extend the perception of sound into the realm of space. Visitors will experience this confluence of music and architecture at five separate locations downtown that quietly celebrate the city, ten years after the September 11 attacks. Traveling through sites along the periphery of Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan, participants in stillspotting nyc may encounter a green labyrinth created by the Battery Conservancy, reflect in an underground chamber at Governors Island National Monument, and enter otherwise inaccessible spaces in landmark skyscrapers. The stillness and seclusion of these spaces heightens awareness and recalibrates one’s senses. Over the course of a day, participants may visit each space multiple times at their leisure to understand how their perception changes based on circumstances such as time, stress, appetite, and sleep. Listeners become increasingly sensitized as they are drawn in and ideally will be transformed to a focused and still state.

Visiting To a Great City
To a Great City is presented around Lower Manhattan among five locations with a starting point at Castle Clinton National Monument inside Battery Park (between Battery Place and State Street, Manhattan Hours are Thursday, September 15–Sunday, September 18 and Thursday, September 22–Sunday, September 25 from 11 am–7 pm with the last tour starting at 4pm. Visitors will receive a map and directions and access for one day to each of the stillspots for a self-guided tour. A full visit including each of the sites takes approximately three hours and visitors may opt to customize their route. Advance registration is required. To register and purchase tickets, find directions, or learn more visit stillspotting.guggenheim.org.

Stillspotting nyc is organized by David van der Leer, Assistant Curator, Architecture and Urban Studies, with Sarah Malaika, Stillspotting Project Associate, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Support for stillspotting nyc is provided by the Rockefeller Foundation NYC Opportunities Fund and a MetLife Foundation Museum and Community Connections grant. The second edition of stillspotting nyc is supported in part by the Royal Norwegian Consulate General in New York. The Leadership Committee for stillspotting nyc is gratefully acknowledged.

Learn more here.

About Dan: Between studying physics and communication in college, designing haunted houses and creating innovative experiences for global brands, Dan Reus has been part a lot of fun projects. Based in St. Louis, Missouri, Dan has developed Openly Disruptive to help people think out of the box and take risks to have a voice in our world of accelerating technological, cultural and economic change.

Artist-technologist Honor Harger listens to the weird and wonderful noises of stars and planets and pulsars. In her work, she tracks the radio waves emitted by ancient celestial objects and turns them into sound, including “the oldest song you will ever hear,” the sound of cosmic rays left over from the Big Bang. Related.

Live sound from multiple sound makers is streamed from a set of wireless transmitters placed at opposing sides of an urban space. These transmitters broadcast these audio streams locally on the same radio frequency to a group of participants wearing wireless headphones tuned to this frequency. Because the transmitters broadcast on the same local frequency, a zone of interference is created where multiple audio streams compete for signal dominance.

Participants carry umbrellas made of electromagnetic field (EMF) shielding fabric that enable them to actively shape the surrounding environment of radio waves. By orienting the umbrella in different ways, one is able to filter the interfering radio signals and select a single audio stream to listen to.

The movements of the crowd are sensed by accelerometers attached to the umbrellas and this data is broadcast locally to the sound makers via an ad-hoc wireless network, who in turn use these data streams to modify the sound streams. The resultant feedback loop provides for a form of indirect communication, where the sound producers influence bodily movement of the crowd that in turn influences the sounds the producers make.

Roulette is pleased to announce that after seven years at our 20 Greene Street location in SoHo, we’ve finally found our own home - an elegant Art Deco concert hall in the heart of Downtown Brooklyn at Atlantic & Third Avenues. With 5,000 sq ft of floorspace, 25 ft ceilings, an 1,800 sq ft wraparound balcony, and a capacity of upwards of 600 people, Roulette’s new home will allow us to significantly expand Roulette’s core programs and services and enable us to offer a unique experience in New York City to perform and listen to cutting-edge music.

We have just signed a twenty-year lease and are about to start a six-month renovation of this extraordinary space.

* Capacity of over 600 people *
* Nearly 7,000 sq ft of space *
* Sound Art Gallery / Lobby *
* 25 ft ceilings *
* Ground floor and Balcony Seating *
* State-of-the-Art Sound and Theatrical Lighting System *
* Fewer sound limitations which means expanded programing *
* Expanded Children’s Program *
* Marley floor for Dance events *
* In house mixing and mastering facilities *
* Green Room for performing artists *

The design focus of our new space is to achieve superb acoustics and appropriate production infrastructure while preserving Roulette’s intimate connection between audience and artist. We are installing the finest lighting and audio/video systems available to make Roulette one of the best equipped and adaptable concert spaces in New York City.

Although things are moving fast, we’re still a long way from presenting our first Roulette concert. Before we can begin the space will need to go through a several month renovation, and in order to do this, we’re going to need your help. Please read on to find out how you can help.

In order to meet our goal of beginning our Spring 2011 concert season at the new space, the hall must undergo major renovations, including: installation of a new state of the art sound and lighting system, expansion of the current proscenium bandstand in order to accommodate larger ensembles, construction of new offices for Roulette staff, rehabilitation of the remaining historic balcony seating, complete overhaul of the electrical system, installation of an HVAC system, rebuilding and soundproofing of the ceiling, construction of a new Emergency Egress, and expansion of the current restroom facilities.
While Roulette will be receiving public funds to assist in some of the construction costs, its going to take help from our community in order to make this reality. Roulette Intermedium is a non-profit organization, so your charitable donation to Roulette is tax deductible to the fullest extent allowable by law.

We would like to thank Location One, James MacGregor, and Claire Montgomery for the generosity and support for the past seven years.

Works: Radio Silence by Zach Poff opens at 6:00 p.m. on July 2; Bike Box by Sabine Gruffat & Bill Brown opens at 6:00 p.m. on July 16; and Noospherium by Brett Baloghby opens at 6:00 p.m. on July 30.

The series consists of solo exhibitions by Zach Poff (Radio Silence), Sabine Gruffat & Bill Brown (Bike Box), and Brett Balogh (Noospherium), which span the contemporary genre of Transmission Art. The Transmission Art genre is informed by works which employ an intentional use of space — often the airwaves — and manifests in participatory live art or time-based art, including radio, video, light, installation, and performance.

Radio Silence explores the silent moments of talk-radio, combining eight AM broadcasts into a meta-conversation based on the negative spaces between words: Pauses are treated as paradoxical opportunities to probe the neighboring airwaves in search of an expanded form of conversation. Eight wire-frame radio sculptures are arranged in a circle, empty except for their speakers. Each radio corresponds to a different local AM station which is being monitored by custom software. One at a time, each radio speaks while the others play a chorus of hissing residue between words. When the speaking radio shares a simultaneous moment of silence with one of its neighbors, the conversation silently shifts to that other radio before the next word begins. Over time, Radio Silence surveys the spectrum of viewpoints currently on the air, weaving them together through the intersections of a shared linguistic device.

Art.on.Wires is an open laboratory for live and interactive art where researchers, engineers and practitioners from various fields collaborate to explore and create a new generation of media technology for artistic performances and mixed-reality spaces.

We invite choreographers, dancers, singers, actors, musicians, composers, DJs, VJs, visual artists, programmers, set designers, light engineers, sound engineers and interested researchers to join our laboratory. The four-day event will feature workshops on artistic programming tools and interactive technologies, dorkbot talks and experimental performances. Art.on.Wires takes place in an old industry hall which will be equipped with interactive technologies to serve as a space for artistic and scientific experimentation.

Our main topics are Space and Interaction. Artistically we are interested in interactions with smart performance spaces and interactions between people in remote networked performance spaces. On the engineering side issues of interest are the integration of Vision, Sound and Motion technologies into a local space to enable remote and mixed-reality interactions.

Events:
- keynote talks by Mark Coniglio and Atau Tanaka
- dorkbot presentations
- workshops on artistic programming toolkits, technology and performance
- concerts and performances

Workshops:
- OpenFrameworks, led by Arturo Castro (ES), Pierre Proske (AU)
- Motion Capture Systems and Techniques led by Alexander Refsum Jensenius, NO
- BoBo – Gadgetto, led by DAAL/DKIA (AT)
- Playful Spaces, led by DAAL/DKIA (AT)
- Isadora – Advanced Features Quick Boot, led by Mark Coniglio, US/DE
- Using Interactive Environments for Performance
– Dance Track, led by Johanna Roggan (DE)
– Visuals Track - VVVV, led by Marko Ritter (DE)
– Music Track - Ableton Live, led by Kacob Korn (DE)
- Telematic Interaction, led by Alexander Carôt (DE)
- Systematic Understanding of Music, led by Lars Graugaard (DK)

Dates
25/4 - Early Registration Ends
09/5 - Online Registration Ends
10/5 - Art.on.Wires starts

On April 7th, 2010, Peter Traub will premiere a new work performed by flutist Wayla Chambo – Passages and Recesses for solo flute and hybrid space. This is the fourth piece in his dissertation series and is the result of a technical collaboration with Eric Montgomery, a recent graduate in computer science and music from UVA. Eric will also premiere a new piece for solo piano and hybrid space, called Sound Across Grounds, performed by pianist Benjamin Yobp.

Each piece will be performed from a different space – Eric’s from cavernous the Main Lounge of Newcomb Hall, and Traub’s from the resonant upper stairwell of Old Cabell Hall. They will acoustically connect their respective spaces via the network with the Dome Room of the UVA Rotunda – a United Nations World Heritage Site and the architectural heart of the campus. The program will start at 12:50 p.m. in the stairwell. There will be a fifteen minute break in-between pieces to allow listeners to change locations for Eric’s piece.

The event is the culmination of a project funded by a Double Hoo Grant, an award given out annually by the Center for Undergraduate Excellence at UVA to encourage collaborations between graduate and undergraduate students.

Chisenhale Gallery is pleased to announce a major solo exhibition by Florian Hecker, his first in a UK public institution, comprising a new installation of sound pieces co-commissioned by Chisenhale Gallery, London and IKON Gallery, Birmingham. Hecker’s new commission continues his investigation of sound in relation to the body and space, employing idiosyncratic psychoacoustic propositions in order to examine and disrupt spatial perception.

At Chisenhale Gallery Hecker will present a series of four independent, electro-acoustic works that lead the visitor around the gallery space, where each work exposes a fault line in the traditional categorizations of auditory events, auditory objects or streams. The works range from a 5-channel piece where the perceptual organization of a sequence of tones changes according to the position of the visitor to an apparently monophonic piece in which a single, directional loudspeaker points towards a tiled section of the wall; here, the localisation of the emitted sound oscillates between the speaker and the reflective white surface.

2 x 3 Kanal (2 x 3 Channel, 2009) consists of two separate 3-channel pieces, which rotate simultaneously – one clockwise, the other counter clockwise - around the three speakers. A seemingly ever upward moving sonic structure alternates with a sequence of tones illustrating Diana Deutsch’s ‘Tritone Paradox’. The 2-channel piece, Magnitude Estimation (2010), features a voice reading the loudness values of a given sound. These same utterances are emitted synchronously from an opposing loudspeaker, creating an auditory chimera while doubling the voice, the signification and the measurement of what one hears.

The display of loudspeakers – either suspended from the ceiling or wall-mounted – creates a multimodal amalgamation of auditory and spatial components, constructing an invisible architecture within the gallery, where boundaries are demarcated by the transitions between one sound work and another.

Florian Hecker was born in 1975 in Kissing, Germany. Working in performance, studio and installation, he frequently collaborates with academic researchers in auditory perception and computer music, as well as with other artists such as Aphex Twin, Russell Haswell and Cerith Wyn Evans. He has presented his work internationally including most recently at the 53rd Venice Biennale; BAWAG Contemporary, Vienna; Evento, Bordeaux, France; The Morning Line, Youniverse, 3 Bienal Internacional de Arte Contemporáneo de Sevilla, Spain; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2009); Manifesta 7, South Tyrol, Italy, (2008); Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris, France, (2006). Forthcoming exhibitions for 2010 include MMK: Museum of Modern Art, Frankfurt, Germany. Hecker is also a regular performer and has an extensive discography including Haswell & Hecker, Blackest Ever Black, Warner Classics (2007) and his most recent release Acid in the Style of David Tudor, Editions Mego (2009).

Talks and Events

February 27 , 2pm: Independent writer and curator David Bussel leads a tour of the exhibition.

March 18, 7pm : Robin Mackay, philosopher and editor of the journal Collapse, discusses how Florian Hecker’s engineering of perception-as-hallucination invokes a fundamental philosophical question that haunts the scientific discipline of psychoacoustics: What is an (auditory) object?

With thanks to Sadie Coles HQ, London and Galerie Neu, Berlin.

SONICACTSTRAILER0608 from Sonic Acts on Vimeo.

Deep Spaces - 25 February 2010 :: The opening event Deep Spaces presents a selection of audiovisual adventures in spaces defined by sound, light, smoke and lasers. Immerse yourself in Thomas Köner’s mesmerizing spatial sound tapestries, while his colleague, Jürgen Reble, takes you on a visual journey through the darker side of his alchemical chemograms :: Haswell & Hecker will perform their radical UPIC Diffusion Session, an infinity of extreme sound and engulfing lasers :: And Monolake and Tarik Barri will transport you through their spatial audiovisual universe.

Expanded Space - 26 February 2010 :: The Expanded Space programme revisits the heyday of Expanded Cinema. The magnificent film Color Sound Frames by Paul Sharits is dusted off for the big screen :: Bruce McClure will show us a new performance he made with beautiful 16mm recordings of pelicans, from a 1950s nature documentary :: and Greg Pope en Gert-Jan Prins will join forces to bring an homage to the 70s solid light film Line Describing A Cone by Anthony McCall.

Acoustic Spaces - 27 February 2010 :: This more than four-hour-long programme is devoted to various approaches to soundscape composition and features works produced by several generations of composers and musicians. From acoustic ecology to extreme field recordings: BJ Nilsen will present his latest thunderstorm recordings :: Booming dunes from the Oman deserts by Jacob Kirkegaard :: and Gilles Aubry will take us on a sonic journey across european airports.

Beyond Space - 28 February 2010 ::An extraordinary programme in a remarkable location: the Beyond Space event in the Artis Planetarium includes the international premiere of a composition by the recently deceased innovative composer Maryanne Amacher :: a new audiovisual work by the Italian multi-talent TeZ :: Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand will explore the space with laser and soap bubbles, accompanied by live audio by Francisco López :: and the British designer Paul Prudence brings a visual spectacle specially designed for
the Planetarium dome.

New festival website with complete programme online :: As of this week the new festival website is online with the complete programme, background information, a timetable and much more.

Also now available for download the programme booklet as PDF.

Tickets for all Sonic Acts events available now ::Ticket pre-sale for all Sonic Acts events has started via de Balie, Paradiso, Ticket Service, and other regular pre-sale addresses.
For an overview of all available tickets visit the ticket page: http://2010.sonicacts.com/ticket-information/