11 performances, 5 installations, 30 artistsincluding Peter Blasser [US], Gijs Gieskes [NL], Navid Navad [CA], Kamixlo [CL-UK], softcoresoft [CA]
Since 2009, Sight & Sound
Festival seeks out the best and most provocative and outstanding work of
digital art currently being made by international and local emerging artists.
Its 10th edition will be held from October 24th to 26th, at Eastern
Bloc’s Center. At the fringe of contemporary digital art and culture, the
Sight & Sound festival facts in various forms: through installations,
sound performances, DIY workshops and a public discussion.
The theme chosen for the 10th
edition of the international digital art festival Sight & Sound, “DIY OR
DIE” and the programming presented, are inspired by both the community of
artists gravitating around Eastern Bloc, and the major challenge currently
facing this center: its imminent move. Indeed, after 12 years of celebrating
digital art in all its forms, after countless performances, events,
exhibitions, workshops, Eastern Bloc is forced to move from the neighbourhood
it helped electrify, the Mile-Ex. Therefore the public is invited to “DIY OR
DIE” to pay tribute to its first home, 7240 Clark.
Evening
sound performances
Eastern Bloc is
known in the artistic field for the quality and originality of its sound
performances. The Festival Opening on Thursday October 24th, will
feature Nicolas Bernier and his ensemble (from the Faculté de musique de
l’Université de Montréal) playing around the musicalisation of the most basic
sound: the sine wave. Each musician will play on heavy oscillators from the
60s, 70s and 80s, at the crossroads of electronic, experimental, mixed and
improvised music. On Friday night, Instant Places (aka
Laura Kavanaugh and Ian Birse) will use modular synthesis and prepared guitar
to spontaneously compose a sound field evolving in parallel with a visual world
being generated in real time. Then Emily Payeur, a local artist, and Peter
Blasser, an American artist of great international renown, will present a
live collaboration performance of “something calm but full of energy at the
same time”.
The “DIE” in «
DIY OR DIE » carries with it the idea, not only the ending of one phase, but
the beginning of another. The night performances and dj sets on Saturday
October 26 will last until dawn, marking the final major event ever held by
Eastern Bloc at its uniquely memorable 7240 Clark location. Secret Secret
Girl will read an obituary as one last reverence to the space. Stephanie
Castonguay will focus on listening to electromagnetic fields of our
neglected electronics and dcoth will deliver a study on purity and sound
isolation with its modular synth. In addition, Musique Nouvelle will be
performing a Techno live set and the Chilean artist Constanza Piña, will
produce a sound performance, Corazón de Robota, consisting of
synthesizers, sequencers, drum machines, filters, and handmade distortions
using electronic trash and chocolate boxes. Then the chilean-british artist, Kamixlo,
with music lying at the riveting, emergent edge of grime, reggaeton, and
experimental bass dimensions, will make the walls shake. This festive wake will
go on until daylight, consisting of an Auto-Exorcism by /|||| (aka Milo
Reinhardt) and a dj set by softcoresoft, fusing acid, hypnotic techno,
rave musics and broken beats.
Eastern Bloc
facilities: Free admission from October 24th to 26th
In search of the
hidden mysteries of matter from the borders of table-top astrophysics and
natural fiction, three microcosms orchestrate states of sensory access to the
phenomenological emergence of order out of chaos. TangibleFlux
φ
plenumorphic ∴ chaosmosis, an
installation by Navid Navab (Quebec premiere) invites participants to
intimately encounter the ontogenesis of vital patterns through the spontaneous
formation of temporal textures that emerge from material-energy fields. Pero
sans Cimon from Sam Bourgault et Emma Forgues (emerging artists),
unveils the female body afflicted by technological transition while progress
does not not seem to move away from binary culture, heteronormativity and
gender stereotypes. SILO (Sound Interaction Light Object) is an
interactive installation by Audiotopie that explores the notion of place
and the way it is created through a sound universe activated and improvised by
the public. Then the Dutch artist, Gijs Gieskes (opening the festival),
presents for our scrutiny a complex and playful music box, composed of sounds
produced by Game Boys and machine-generated visuals created from scratch. In
addition, the artworks from the e-textile workshop taught by Mariela
Yeregui, a collaborative tapestry which collects personal secrets from
participants, will be displayed on the walls of the gallery.
Activities
around DIY: discussion, silkscreen printing, pins and e-textile!
Peter Blasser (United-States),
Gijs Gieskes (Netherlands), and Constanza Pina (Chile)will
take part in a public discussion surrounding DIY culture inspired by their
respective artistic practices moderated by the festival curators Esther
Bourdages and Martín Rodríguez. As culture integrates both
creativity and independence, the artists are invited to discuss the motivations
and ideological implications behind their experience of crafting technological
objects.
Furthermore, the
Saturday night attendees will be able to take part in the DIY concept
themselves by silkscreening their own t-shirt or tote bag featuring the
festival theme “DIY OR DIE” and by making “DIY OR DIE” pins.
The workshops will also explore the DIY concept. On Friday October 25th, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Mariela Yeregui will give an e-textile workshop through a dynamic of sharing unavowed secrets by articulating embroidery, patchwork with LEDs and small motors integrated into a collective tapestry. On Saturday morning, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., families and children of 5 years old and more are invited to build their very first oscillator with Constanza Piña. This educational, tactile, visual and audible electronic game, is for children to explore the world of sound synthesis by creating square wave oscillators. On Saturday October 26th, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., participants will make a Solar Sounder with Peter Blasser, a synthesizer played by sunlight.
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