Sewing Machine Orchestra

Eight old Singer sewing machines in a row are the musicians of the Sewing Machine Orchestra made by one of the two men behind La Chambre des Machines, Martin Messier. The sounds we hear are all created by the sewing machines. Apart from the sound this installation makes, the image of these classic machines put in a clean, modern environment is wonderful, and triggers the viewers memory and imagination:

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La Chambre des Machines

Have you ever heard of Luigi Russolo, the writer of the manifesto The Art of Noises? He was the one who in the first half of the 20th Century introduced noise as a musical element. To create this noises he built his Intonarumori, instruments that produced noises similar to the machines that came into being during the industrial revolution. 

 

La Chambre des Machines, created by Martin Messier and Nicolas Bernier shows us a nice contemporary version of those noise makers. 

Les Souliers

It’s a weird sight, thirty pairs of shoes, stamping and scraping the floor, without anyone attached to them. I’ve seen a similar ‘shoe stamping machine’ used in a musical way when I watched BOT perform live last year in Amsterdam, but not in such a clean setting as with Les Souliers, created by Arno Fabre.

Stop/Run

Stop/Run by Ed Devane is a collection of nine strange, hand-made instruments. He asked seven composers to create a piece for this ensemble, to be performed at the opening of a week long installation in Severed Head gallery, Dublin, Ireland.

The combination of acoustic and electronic means give the composers a wide range of sonic possibilities. Listen to the pieces recorded on during the opening event:

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Cinématique

I don’t often post projects that are not directly sound related, but today I have to. Cinématique by Adrien Mondot is an impressive dance performance! Normally I feel like a video of a dance piece really does not capture the atmosphere of it in a good way, but Cinématique is so visually appealing, it is great just watching the video, and doing so makes you want to see the whole performance.

The video is used in a clever, effective way, and you can only imagine how sound could be used to add another dimension to the experience. 

More TodaysArt 2010

On Monday I wrote about the sound installation ‘!’ which I saw at the TodaysArt festival last weekend. I only had time to visit during the day program, so I had a look at different parts of the exposition. Here are some more things I would like to share with you.

The above image is Squeeeque, an igloo made of old speakers by Alexis O’Hara. Visitors can enter the unit and play around with microphones, which will result feedback trough the speakers, creating an immersive sonic environment. It’s a bit of a toy, but it does really look great.   

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Foodjob

One of the great artists answering our Five Sound Questions was Enrico Ascoli. His latest work is Foodjob, a culinary and sonic performance, presented at this year’s Interferenze festival in Bisaccia, Italy. 

For a person who loves sound and loves food (someone like me) this has to be a great performance. I almost makes me hungry again although I just had dinner. It’s like that Magnum commercial in the movie theatre, in which the chocolate breaks with such a delicious cracking sound, I want one instantly. I know it’s just a marketing trick, but if sound is used in the right way, they get me. 

Oscillare; An Interactive Dawn

Almost a year ago I posted a work-in-progress video of Oscillare as it was presented at last years Sonar festival. Oscar Sol from Electronic Performers, the creators of this project was so kind to send me an update about the completion of the project and as we can see in the video, it has become an impressive piece of work. 

Oscillare; An Interactive Dawn is an interactive multimedia dance performance. Four accelerometers, a gyroscope and a wireless video camera capture the movements of the dancer, which are used to generate and influence the sound and images on the screen. 

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Green Sound Soundwave Festival San Francisco

Inflorescence 2010 sound and performance installation - June 17, Soundwave Festival

The Soundwave Festival, organized every two years by ME’DE.ATE will have the theme ‘Green Sound’ this year and will take place from June 6 till August 13, 2010 in San Francisco. The festival combines sound art and sound installations with innovative performances, experimental, classical and popular music. 

With the Greeen Sound theme the festival will explore the natural world and environmental issues, together with over 75 artists and musicians. Looking at the list of artists it is nice to see Alyce Santoro, who was one of the first to answer the Five Sound Questions, is one of them. 

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Heart Chamber Orchestra

This is another great project with the human body as main element. The music of the Heart Chamber Orchestra literally comes “from the heart”. The heartbeats of the musicians control the composition as well as the visuals accompanying the music. The orchestra consists of 12 classical musicians and the artist duo Terminalbeach.

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