ADDED ARTIST TO THE LINEUP: Xavier van Wersch
Recently showcased at both the Polish and New York editions of the Unsound Festival, Xavier van Wersch from the Netherlands will be joining the lineup for the Communikey Festival of Electronic Arts 2010.
“Comparing himself to Frankenstein, Dutchmann Xavier Van Wersch employs deceased and discontinued devices to create music, exploring the relationship between man and machine. Erratic behaviour is the principal condition for interaction. A rarity in the often too-serious world of experimental art, Van Wersch also employs humour during his live appearances, often donning a white professor’s coat as he works intensely to control the chaos that emerges from the end of his fingertips. Van Wersch has performed at major festivals across Europe, including Unsound Krakow, Club Transmediale, Dis-Patch, Ultrahang, and many others.” (from the Unsound Poland website)
Our A/Visions showcase is sponsored by the performance series of the same name at the MUTEK festival; dedicated to the exploration of cutting edge new media and audio-visual arts, A/Visions spotlights some of the best international talent in the experimental art world.
Also on the roster for the evening is Artificiel’s POWEr project, which comes courtesy of MUTEK Montreal:
Alexandre Burton and Julien Roy are two of the artists that make up Artificiel (along with Jimmy Lakatos), a group based in Montreal, Canada that operates in the new media realm. The duo will be bringing their latest project, POWEr, to the ATLAS Institute at the University of Colorado in Boulder. The world-premiere of POWEr took place at MUTEK 2009, and it was one of the most memorable audiovisual performances of that festival.
POWEr is a performance based on high-voltage electromagnetic perturbations. Using an audio-modulated Tesla coil as a live instrument, electrical arcs are generated and transformed in an ongoing, realtime audiovisual process. Electricity is used as a subtle yet intense material, manifested as an instrinsically synesthesicphenomenae . Building on a context that is halfway between a musical presentation and a media arts installation, POWEr takes its place by raising the stakes of spontaneity and working with evermore complex musical and visual structures.
On the visual side of this showcase is Lissom (aka Tana Sprague), a sound + video artist, transfixed with micro details. With focus fluctuating between digital and organic, her work creates a space where one complements the other. Inspired by the elegant complexity of organic forms, she utilizes various electronic and digital devices to synthesize a similar enveloping intricacy. A skilled producer, programmer, sound engineer, electronic hardware artist, video editor, and live visualist, she has worked closely with Recombinant Media Labs founder and Director Naut Humon, and currently she is involved with the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts (GAFFTA) in San Francisco, serving as the director of operations.
We hope you can join us for this special night of cutting edge audio-visual performances! The show will begin at 7pm at the Black Box Theater, in the ATLAS Institute @ CU Campus. Tickets for this show are $20 and are NOT INCLUDED in the festival pass! You can purchase tickets online or at the door before the show.
(As a side note, if you are planning to attend The Bunker show on Saturday night, you can catch the Basics Fund Techno Bus to Denver from the ATLAS building, after the A/Visions show. For more info on the bus party or to purchase a ticket to ride the bus, go here.)
(Both photos are of Xavier van Wersch at Unsound Festival New York, February 2010. Credit: Stephen Cardinale)
