SoundCulture 96 April 3-13, 1996, the San Francisco Bay Area will host SoundCulture 96, the third transpacific festival of contemporary sound practices. It follows two highly successful SoundCulture events presented in Sydney in 1991 and Tokyo in 1993. Participants will include artists, researchers, cultural theorists, presenting organizations, academic institutions, and others working with sound. Events will include performances, exhibitions, symposia, radio transmissions, experimental and indigenous musics, and new media arts. As well, listening rooms will provide an opportunity to hear a wide variety of recorded sound works in an informal setting. SoundCulture 96 will bring together local and international sound practitioners of the Pacific to explore the varieties of culture that are perceived through our ears.
SoundCulture is the only festival of its kind to be held in the United States; no other art or music festival in this country has focused on the sonic arts with this kind of scope and format. Due to its ephemeral nature, sonic art work does not fit well into the structures that support the presentation and discussion of either visual art or music. While the influence of sound work can be found in everything from film to installation to the media arts, the form itself has not been accorded the kind of attention its influence warrants. SoundCulture's unique focus on this kind of activity presents an opportunity to expose experimental sound work well beyond Eurocentric cultural boundaries, and to demonstrate links, crosscurrents, and diversity in the sonic arts of the Pacific Region.
History SoundCulture was initiated by artists and arts organizers in Australia working with the Performance Space, the Listening Room at the Australia Broadcast Corporation, and the Sound Studies Program at the University of Technology-Sydney. A festival composed of exhibitions, performances, radio broadcasts, and symposia was held in October, 1991 under the name of Invisible Cities/Impossible Objects. Representatives from Japan, New Zealand, and the United States were invited to attend. Events included installations by Paul DeMarinis (USA), Minoru Sato (Japan), performances by Anna Sabiel (Australia), Rodney Berry (Australia), a sonic taxi ride through Sydney, and a piece by Alvin Curran (USA) for ship horns in Sydney Harbor.
This was followed in November, 1993 by the second festival, SoundCulture Japan '93, held in Tokyo. Events took place at several sites including Theatre X, Kiryu Yurin-kan, the Kawasaki City Museum, Art Forum Yanaka, and the Tokyo Bunka Kakikan. It included works by Mamoru Fujieda (Japan), Douglas Kahn and Frances Dyson (USA/Australia), Chris Mann (Australia), Phil Dadson (NZ), and Mineko Grimmer (Japan/USA).
Institutions At this writing there are over two dozen institutions involved in SoundCulture 96. The central organizing institutions involved in the core work and planning for the festival include KPFA-FM (Berkeley), The LAB (San Francisco), Mills College Center for Contemporary Music (Oakland), New Langton Arts (San Francisco), San Francisco Art Institute (San Francisco), Secession Gallery (San Francisco), and 23-5 Inc. (San Francisco).
Other participating institutions include the Asian Art Museum (San Francisco), the Bay Area Discovery Museum (Sausalito), the Bedford Gallery at the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts (Walnut Creek), blasthaus (San Francisco), Center for New Music and Audio Technologies at UC Berkeley (Berkeley), Center for the Arts at Yerba Buena Gardens (San Francisco), Charnel House (San Francisco), Experimental Musical Instruments (Nicasio), the Exploratorium (San Francisco), Fairfield Center Gallery (Fairfield), Falkirk Cultural Center (San Rafael), Goethe Institute (San Francisco), Headlands Center for the Arts (Sausalito), Intersection for the Arts (San Francisco), Morphos Gallery (San Francisco), Nature Sound Society (Oakland), Oakland Museum of California (Oakland), Pacific Film Archive (Berkeley), Pro Arts Gallery (Oakland), Public Art Works (San Rafael), Richmond Art Center (Richmond), San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery (San Francisco), San Francisco Cinematheque (San Francisco), and Works/San Jose (San Jose).
Host Committee The Host Committee consists of representatives from the Organizing Institutions, the International SoundCulture Committee, and others. Members of the Host Committee include Steve Anker (SF Cinematheque), John Bischoff (Mills College), Mark Brest Van Kempen (Secession Gallery), Laura Brun (The LAB), Joe Catalano, Mitchell Clark, Paul DeMarinis, Larnie Fox (23-5, Inc.), Rich Gold (Xerox PARC), Brenda Hutchinson, Scot Jenerik (23-5, Inc.), Miya Masaoka, Natalie Jereimijenko, Susan Miller (New Langton Arts), Ed Osborn (SC96 Director), Tim Perkis, Jason Reinier, Susan Stone (KPFA), Jeannie Weiffenbach (San Francisco Art Institute), Pamela Z, and Victor Zaballa.
Participants Participants in SoundCulture 96 include Ted Apel, Ellen Band, Craig Baldwin, John Bischoff & K. Atchley, Elizabeth Bloc, Krystyna Bobrowski, Jim Brashear, Chris Brown, Bill & Mary Buchen, Bureau of Inverse Technology, Richard Busch, C.C.C.C., Barbara Campbell, Jim Campbell, Bruce Cannon, Citizen Band, Mitchell Clark, Crawl Unit, Tracey Cockrell, Beth Custer, Phil Dadson, The Dactyls of Phrygia, Deer Hoof, Paul DeMarinis, Oliver DiCicco, Eiko Do-Espirito Santo, Frances Dyson, Skozey Fetisch, Larnie Fox, Nicholas Gebhardt, Robert Gitt, Robert Gluck, Rich Gold, Cathy Greenblatt, Steve Harrison, Gerry Hartnett, R.I.P. Hayman, Nigel Helyer, Bernard Hibbitts, Fran Holland, W.M. Houck, Kent Howie, Brenda Hutchinson, Scot Jenerik, Valerie Jeremijenko, Douglas Kahn, Hijo Kaidan, Kathy Kennedy, Ron Kuivila, Richard Lerman, Cheryl Leonard & Anna Hallin, Bernie Lubell, Tony MacGregor, Chico MacMurtrie, Virginia Madsen, Miya Masaoka, Paul Matzner, Daniel Menche, Kazue Mizushima, Ikue Mori, John Mowitt, Yuzo Nakano, Negativland, Norie Neumark, Timothy North, Tom Nunn, Ed Osborn, Jack Ox, Maggi Payne, Phil Perkins, Tim Perkis, Ian Pollock & Janet Silk, John Potts, Douglas Quin, John Randolph, Key Ransone, Wendy Reid, Jason Reinier, Don Rhine, Steve Roden, Marina Rosenfeld, Brad Rosenstein, Kathy Lou Schultz, Dann Senn, Laetitia Sonami, Yuji Sone, Speculum Fight, Tom Stanton, Paul Steffler, Julaine Stephenson, Susan Stone, Bill Thibault, Barbara L Tischler, Bruce Tomb, Csaba Toth, Landa Townsend, Trance, Trimpin, Steven Vitiello, Wang Po Shu, Robert Walser, Hildegard Westerkamp, Wet Gate, Ann Wettrich, Don Wherry, Gregory Whitehead, Peter Whitehead, Pamela Z, Nick Zurbrugg, and more.
Events Calendar Admission to all events is free unless otherwise noted. For reservations and information about particular events, please contact host the venues.
Exhibitions:
Hidden Music of the Golden Gate Bridge, by Wang Po Shu Bay Area Discovery Museum Tues - Thurs 9am - 4pm, Fri - Sun 10am - 5pm, ongoing Admission: Free when SoundCulture is mentioned. An installation based on the resonant frequencies of the Golden Gate Bridge, Wang Po Shu's (Hong Kong/USA) work is placed in sight and sound of the bridge itself.
Acoustic Mirage, by Ellen Band Bedford Gallery at the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts Tues - Sun 12-5pm, April 2 - 14. Reception: Tuesday, April 2, 5:30- 7:30pm. A piece of psychoacoustic trickery, a slight of ear, a field of pink noise shifting and undulating along with discrete sounds which subtly appear and disappear leaving an acoustic memory trace and creating the illusion of present sounds. Band's (Canada/USA) work is presented in conjunction with the Natural Phenomena exhibition.
Ultrasound blasthaus Tues - Sat 12 - 5pm, March 21 - April 27. Reception: Thursday, April 4, 7 - 10pm. New work from Bureau of Inverse Technology, Jim Campbell (USA) and Wang Po Shu (Hong Kong/USA).
Parabolica, by Ed Osborn Center for Arts at Yerba Buena Gardens Wed-Sun 11-6, March 14 - June 2. Admission: $4.00 Built from a sounding model train that travels in uncertain circles, Parabolica illustrates themes of perpetual containment and loss of control. Ed Osborn (USA) has performed and exhibited throughout the US, Canada, and Europe, and is the director of SoundCulture 96.
Fire Organ by Trimpin Exploratorium 1 - 5pm Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, 1 - 9:30pm Wednesdays, 10 - 5pm Saturdays and Sundays, March 5 - June 2. Thermodynamic workshops, Saturdays, March 9 and 30, 1:00 pm in the McBean Theater. Admission: Adults $9.00, Students, seniors $7.00, People w/Disabilities $5.00, Youth (6-17) $5.00, Children (3-5) $2.50 As part of "What About AIDS" the Exploratorium presents the premier of Trimpin's (USA) FireOrgan, a contemplative sanctuary of fire and sound.
Bruce Cannon Fairfield Center Gallery Wed - Fri 1 - 5pm, April 1 - May 1. Reception: Friday, April 5, 6 - 8pm. Interactive electronic sculpture that entertains and occasionally insults the viewer, Emeryville artist Cannon's work has been shown widely in the Bay Area.
Krystyna Bobrowski, Dan Senn, Landa Townsend, and Homemade Instruments Falkirk Cultural Center Tues - Fri 10 - 5, Sat 10- 1, April 3 - 27; reception Tuesday, April 2, 5:30 - 7:30pm. Donation: 2.00 Krystyna Bobrowski's (USA) Rock On"draws oral histories from rocking chairs, and Tacoma native Dan Senn brings his whimsical sound sculptures to the Bay Area. An exhibit of local homemade instrument builders organized in conjunction with Experimental Musical Instruments magazine features work by Oliver Di Cicco, Fran Holland, Tom Nunn, and Peter Whitehead. Outside, in a co-presentation with Public Art Works, Landa Townsend (USA) turns a greenhouse into an audible garden.
Parsable, by Ron Kuivila The LAB Wed - Fri 12 - 5pm, April 3 - 5, performance: April 5, 8:00pm. Keys jangle, foil moves about under its own power, sparks fly; it's the latest from a fast-moving New York-based visionary of sound and electronic media. Parsable concerns the quest for meaning in sound and takes the form of both an installation and a concert work. A dozen servo controlled sunglasses create a locus of focus by following the same imaginary point as it perambulates through the space. However, the glasses are easily distracted by passersby and completely suspicious of audiences. Sheets of foil hiss and rustle as they enjoy the benefits of a 12000 volt potential difference with their environment. A set of keys shake in five beat patterns, trying to summon the ghost of Josef Bueys. Occasional interlocutions are heard from a varied cast of characters including Rose Subotnik, David Zicarelli, Nambath Balanchandran, and an Acura Integra. At concert time, this maze of material is navigated, interrogated, and desecrated by a batch of homemade DSP's snuffling like pregnant pigs at the very roots of live electronics.
Ursonate, by Jack Ox and Spinnet, Rebound, and Thunder, by Tom Stanton Morphos Gallery Tues - Sat, 10 - 5:30, April 4 - 13. Reception Thursday, April 4, 5:30 - 7:30pm. The West Coast premiere of Jack Ox's graphic representation of Kurt Schwitters' influencial work Ursonate - it's a spectacular melding of musical structure, language, and sound in a visual medium. Ox (USA) is also the producer of a recent Wergo CD reissue of the original Schwitters' performance of the piece. Tom Stanton (USA) presents Spinnet, Rebound, and Thunder, an installation based on a portion of Onan in the Tropics, a book documenting fictionalized travel in Central America.
PHFFFT by Trimpin New Langton Arts Wed - Sat 11-5, March 13 - April 27. Reception Thursday, March 14, 6 -8pm. Performances with Beth Custer Thursday March 14, 7pm (free) and Saturday, April 13 ($8/6) PHFFFT is Seattle sound artist Trimpin's installation of nearly two hundred tuned wind instruments organized in a mechanized choreography of movement and sound. An interactive sound sculpture activated by computer, PHFFFT contains no synthesized or sampled sound. It produces acoustic sound through the computer's automated control of forced air. Playing with rapidity and synchronization beyond the capability of human players PHFFFT creates a unique visual, aural, and spatial experience.
Tracey Cockrell, Eiko DoEspirito-Santo, and Julaine Stephenson Pro Arts Wed Th 12 -6 - Fri Sat 11 - 5pm, March 13 - April 20. Reception: Friday, April 12, 6 - 9pm. Discussion with the artists, Saturday, March 30, 11:30am. Tracey Cockrell (USA) makes sculptures which examine the relationship between words, language, sound, and objects. In Traquitanas Musicais, Eiko DoEsprito-Santo (Japan/Brazil) creates an installation designed for people with and without physical disabilities. And Julaine Stephenson (Australia) reconfigures a washing machine into a mutant turntable in Pre- Soak.
Guernica Code and Hanging Sky Garden, by Larnie Fox Richmond Art Center Tues - Fri 10 - 4:30pm, Sat 12 - 4:30pm, April 3 - July 6. Reception: Friday, April 19, 6 - 8pm. Two interactive installations using friendly motorized devices and bamboo from Larnie Fox (USA)
Silent Forest by Nigel Helyer San Francisco Art Institute, Walter/MacBean Gallery Tues - Sat 10 - 5pm, March 27 - April 27. Reception: Wednesday, April 3, 5:30 - 7:30pm From Australia Higel Helyer brings Silent Forest an installation that links the the ecological voids caused by the use of dioxin defoliants in the Vietnam conflict with the high culture of Western opera. A co-founder of SoundCulture and a Senior Lecturer at the Sydney College of the Arts, Helyer has created architectural sculptures for sites in Thailand, Korea, Mexico, and Germany.
SoundCulture 96 Listening Room and works by Paul DeMarinis, Bill & Mary Buchen, and more San Francisco Art Commission Gallery Presented in conjunction with 23-5, Inc. Tues - Sat 11 - 5:30, Thurs 11 - 7, March 29 - April 13. Reception: Friday April 5, 5:30 - 7:30pm The Listening Room showcases recorded works from throughout the Pacific Region. Also on view are videos and sculptures by Paul DeMarinis (USA), Bill & Mary Buchen (USA), and others, and a showcase of innovative audio art packaging. A special live sound mix will be made by Skozey Fetich at the opening reception. Several artists will be featured at the specific times during the course of SoundCulture including Masami Akita (Japan), Thursday, April 4th, 4-5pm; John Waterman (Australia), Friday, April 5th, 4-5pm; Kim Cascone (USA), Tuesday, April 9th, 4-5pm; and Alvin Curran (USA), Thursday, April 11th, 4-5pm.
Ted Apel, Cheryl Leonard & Anna Hallin, and Yuzo Nakano Works/San Jose Tues - Sat 10 - 5, April 11 - May 17. Reception: Thursday, April 11, 7- 9pm Ted Apel (USA) shows his electromagnetic steel plates, heavy metal structures that resonate with sound. The Making Smashing Machine by Leonard & Hallin (USA / Sweden) is an individualized sound performance experience that takes place inside a pod-like sculpture. Nakano (USA / Japan) exhibits paintings that are both scores for and interpretations of sound works.
The Museum of the Future, by Ian Pollack & Janet Silk 415.522.0605 24 hours a day, April 3 - 13. San Francisco's foremost telephonic artists, Pollack & Silk present a new work specially made for SoundCulture. Antiquarian exploration, colonization of the "New World," and scientific and technological innovations have influenced our notion of the future. Listeners are asked to explore these concepts of the future by means of a voice-mail system entitled Museum of the Future. Narratives, interviews, theories, information and sound bites related to the meaning of the future help the listener survey the conceptual shifts in the perception of the future.
NETFIELD, by Tim Perkis, Philip Perkins & Bill Thibault http://www.suntebo.org/~timper/netfield/ 24 hours a day, April 3-13 A collaboration between three Bay Area sound & computer artists, the piece will create a spatial sonic environment accessible to users of the World Wide Web. Twenty five continuous environmental recordings made by Perkins from a diverse range of environments around the globe are organized into a two dimensional world ranging from wet to dry along one dimension and urban to rural along the other. Listeners at internet-connected computers anywhere can move through this spatialized sound field, using software they download from the piece's server site.
Performances and Events
Saturday, March 30
11:30 AM Discussion with Tracey Cockrell, Eiko DoEspirito-Santo, and Julaine Stephenson Pro Arts
Tuesday April 2
5:30 -7:30 PM Preview Reception, Falkirk Cultural Center Installations by Krystyna Bobrowski, Dan Senn, and Landa Townsend; homemade instruments by Oliver Di Cicco, Fran Holland, Tom Nunn, and Peter Whitehead.
5:30 - 7:30PM Opening Reception, Bedford Gallery at the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts. Acoustic Mirage, by Ellen Band, in conjunction with the Natural Phenomena exhibition.
Wednesday April 3rd
12:00 Noon Harbor Symphony by Don Wherry and Paul Steffler Jack London Square, Oakland, presented by the Secession Gallery A large work utilizing the horns of ships moored in the Port of Oakland, Harbor Symphony is an expansive sound work that will resonate across the entire bay. Wherry (Canada) and Steffler (Canada) have been working with ship horn ensembles for over a dozen years and this work follows pieces they have done in St. John's and Montreal.
2:00 PM Lectures by Eiko DoEspirito-Santo and Kazue Mizushima Asian Art Museum Eiko DoEspirito-Santo and Kazue Mizushima will discuss their perspectives on developing interactive and performative sound works.
5:30 - 7:30 PM SoundCulture Kickoff Reception, Walter/MacBean Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute Silent Forest, by Nigel Helyer
7:30 PM Ear to the Image: Soundtracks by Steven Vitiello Pacific Film Archive Admission: $5.50 for one screening or $7.00 for both. New York-based guitarist/composer exhibits experimental videoworks for which he has contributed musical scores. Among them will be works by Peter Callas, Scoungho Cho, Jem Cohen, Tony Oursler & Constance Dejong, and Eder Santos. Vitiello will perform the soundtrack to one of the works.
This is followed at 9:00 PM by the Bay Area premiere of Intriguing People, the first feature by Brazilian experimentalist Eder Santos. This parable follows the mystical journey of an image-prophet who can project his visions into the world. Soundtrack by Steven Vitiello.
8:30 PM Brenda Hutchinson, Laetitia Sonami, and Beth Custer New Langton Arts co-presented with San Francisco Cinematheque Admission: $8 general/$6 members, students, and seniors Three Bay Area musicians perform short solo pieces followed by a new composition written by Hutchinson, Sonami, and Custer specifically for SoundCulture 96.
11:00 PM The Eleventh Hour KPFA, 94.1 FM Cantata of Fire by Tony MacGregor and Virginia Madsen (Australia), and Rip, Rift, and Panic by Susan Stone.
Thursday, April 4
12:00 - 5:00 PM Symposia on Sound Art and Aural Culture Center for the Arts at Yerba Buena Gardens Media Screening Room
12:00 noon Locating with Sound: Situated Sound Practices, Parochial Politics and Native Noises These papers undo the distinctions between culture and politics, art and daily life to think the sounds and their inexorable connection to situation. Panelists include Nicholas Gebhardt (Australia), Gerry Hartnett (USA), Kent Howie (USA), and Don Rhine (USA). Moderated by Ron Kuivila (USA).
Instruments of Sound: Thinking Culture with Devices and Vice Versa Presentations concerned with the material conditions of sound production, storage and reproduction and the fidelity with which they trace cultural transformation. Panelists include Frances Dyson (Australia), Ron Kuivila (USA), John Potts (Australia). Moderated by Natalie Jeremijenko (Australia) and Rich Gold (USA).
Architectured Sound, Urbanity and Paranoid Space These papers examine spaces defined by sounds and this relationship to corporeal space of the body. Panelists include Lewis DeSoto (USA), Nigel Helyer (Australia), Norie Neumark (Australia), John Randolph (USA), and Bruce Tomb (USA). Moderated by Steve Harrison.
5:30 - 7:30 PM Reception for Jack Ox's Ursonate and Tom Stanton's Spinnet, Rebound, and Thunder Morphos Gallery Live performance of a part of Ursonate by Miguel Frasconi begins at 6:30.
7:00 - 10:00 PM Reception for the Ultrasound exhibition featuring works by the Bureau of Inverse Technology, Jim Campbell, and Wang Po Shu. blasthaus
11:00 PM The Eleventh Hour KPFA, 94.1 FM Hildegard Westerkamp's (Canada) Beneath The Forest Floor and Silent Forest by Nigel Helyer (Australia) and Tony MacGregor (Australia).
Friday, April 5
12:00 - 5:00 PM Symposia on Sound Art and Aural Culture Center for the Arts at Yerba Buena Gardens Media Screening Room
Sound Legalities: Copyrights and Legislation and Fair Use Although sound does not resemble tangible property, it is variously formed and reformed to fit legal structures. It is the shifts of legislation and the contests for ownership and definition that concern this panel. Panelists include Alan Corn (USA), Bernard Hibbitts (USA), Don Joyce (USA). Moderated by Frances Dyson (Australia).
Sound, Noise and Beating: From Affective Articulation to Critical Art Practice This panel interprets the political turmoil, resistant impulses and cultural transformation in three divergent periods and their sound practices: from post WWII musique concrete and the avant garde of the 60s, industrial noise music, and the percussive practice of the new masculinity movement. Panelists include Csaba Toth (USA), Barbara L Tischler (USA), and John Mowitt (USA). Moderated by Robert Walser (USA).
Literate Sounds: Translating the Sounds of Texts This panel explores the relationship of texts to sound and sound practice with particular attention given to the immersive audio space that texts afford and the interpretative flexibility of the work. Panelists include Mitchell Clark (USA), Douglas Kahn (USA) and Larry Wendt (USA). Moderated by Cathy Greenblatt (USA).
5:30 - 7:30 PM Reception for the SoundCulture 96 Listening Room and works by Paul DeMarinis, Bill & Mary Buchen, and others. Special live sound mix will be created for the occasion by Skozey Fetisch. San Francisco Art Commission Gallery
6:00 - 8:00 PM Reception for an exhibition of work by Bruce Cannon Fairfield Center Gallery
8:00 PM Parsable by Ron Kuivila The LAB Admission: $7-10 sliding scale, reservations recommended. A performance with installation utilizing high-voltage homemade technology by a pioneer of silicon sound and the man for whom the adage "he wears a rope for a belt" was coined.
Saturday, April 6 Audible Terrain: A Day of SoundCulture Events in the North Bay
10:15 AM Aviary Commute by Ann Wettrich Transbay Terminal, third level Admission: $2.50 bus fare.
A transitory, participatory public event, Wettrich's (USA) Aviary Commute invites you to turn an ordinary bus ride into an ornithological migration. Participants are requested to arrive promptly at 10:15 at the third level of the Transbay Terminal equipped with a concealed cassette player capable of broadcasting sound in a small area. Instructions will be given at that point in preparation for activities aboard the 10:50 Golden Gate Transit #80 bus which arrives at 11:54 in San Rafael. For more information call 415.252.2597.
11:00 AM - 1:00 PM Fran Holland and the Dactyls of Phrygia Bay Area Discovery Museum Admission: $7 adults, $6 kids. Performance geared towards kids on an air-driven set of sounding devices.
11:00 AM Falkirk Cultural Center Admission: 2.00 donation. Experience installations by Krystyna Bobrowski, Dan Senn, and Landa Townsend, and an exhibition of homemade instruments by Oliver Di Cicco, Fran Holland, Tom Nunn, and Peter Whitehead organized in conjunction with Experimental Musical Instruments.
12:00 Noon Falkirk Cultural Center Eve of the Future, by Kazue Mizushima Co-presented with Public Art Works In Eve of the Future, Mizushima (Japan) wires herself up to a network of acoustic string telephones that respond to a variety of body movements. By turns gentle, evocative, tense, and enveloping, Eve of the Future conjures a web-like image of sight and sound.
2:00 PM The Furtive Ear, by Bernie Lubell Town Center, presented by Public Art Works San Francisco artist Bernie Lubell creates a situation of voyeurism and eavesdropping within the intimate space of a pair of connected confessional booths.
2:30 PM The Counting Game, by Kathy Kennedy Town Center, presented by Public Art Works Kathy Kennedy (Canada) employs a pirate radio broadcast and a choir of boombox-armed singers to fill a public place with the sounds of harmonious vocalizations.
4:00 PM Acoustic Ecology Headlands Center for the Arts Admission: $5.00, reservations recommended A discussion of issues around the field of acoustic ecology by practitioners and critics including Hildegard Westerkamp (Canada), and Douglas Quin (USA), and Paul Matzner (USA).
6:00 PM Dinner prepared by Laurie MacKenzie Headlands Center for the Arts Admission: $10.00, reservations required by Thursday April 4, 415.331.2787
7:30 PM Soundwalk with Landa Townsend Headlands Center for the Arts Landa Townsend (USA) leads a silent night walk across the hills of the Marin Headlands.
8:00 PM The Dactyls of Phrygia Arc Tec Performance Space Admission: $5.00 The Dactlys (USA) use their festive and unique homemade gizmos to create a living sound field; sonic constructions in the spirit of Rube Goldberg.
10:00 PM Process 3+3+(3)-Building (variations on a construct), by Citizen Band Space 964 Admission: $3.00 Xopher Davidson, Thomas Day, and Gregory Lenczycki, aka Citizen Band (USA) take the tools of sound and architecture and applies them to the process of building. In construction, a series of variations unfold from acoustic, visual and physical details initiated by sets of historical and generative "blue prints". Carpentry, chamber music, and live electronics focalize to erect a supertemporal structure, sheltering audience members in the debris of this evening's performance.
Sunday April 7 Daylight Savings Time Begins
2:00 PM New Music With Birds, Frogs, and Other Creatures Oakland Museum of California, James Moore Theater Presented by the Nature Sound Society and the Oakland Museum Admission: $6 Works by Wendy Reid, Jason Reinier and Day of Sound project, and Miya Masaoka
7:00 PM Timothy North and Scot Jenerik MARX Admission: $3 donation Timothy North (USA) performs on his HOVERDRUM and Scot Jenerik (USA) plays a flaming sculpture wired for sound.
8:00 - 11:00 PM KPFA, 94.1 FM SoundCulture artists in discussion with Carl Stone on "Ears Wide Open" and Nothing But Fog by Gregory Whitehead and Richard Busch.
Monday April 8
8:00 PM Richard Lerman New Langton Arts co-presented with Cinematheque Admission: $8 general/$6 members, students, and seniors, reservations recommended Arizona-based master sound artist and filmmaker Richard Lerman presents his 'Transducer Series Films' which utilize 'functional microphones' as both camera subject and audio input.
8:00 PM Cyclone Presented by 23-5, Inc. and Charnel House Admission: $5 An evening of noise work from Hijo Kaidan (Japan), Daniel Menche (USA), Skozey Fetisch (USA), Crawl Unit (USA).
11:00 PM The Eleventh Hour KPFA, 94.1 FM Zero Hour by Barbara Campbell (Australia) and The Radio by Steve Roden (USA).
Tuesday April 9
12:00 Noon On The Way, by R.I.P Hayman and Surface of Sound, by Yuji Sone Center for New Music and Audio Technologies R.I.P Hayman (USA) discusses a large-scale sound and light installation based on a near-death experience. Yuji Sone (Japan) presents mocked lecture on the notion of sound carried out with slide images, sound and voices from an audio speaker at a lectern, and a typing performer.
4:00pm Audio Fictions Intersection for the Arts Admission: $5 A panel focusing on representations of sound in literature featuring panelists reading from and discussing their work. Panelists include Elizabeth Bloc (USA), Jim Brashear (USA), Robert Gluck (USA), Valerie Jeremijenko (Australia), and Kathy Lou Schultz (USA). Moderated by Nancy Peters (USA).
7:30 PM Cinema for the Ear Pacific Film Archive Admission: $5.50 An unusual evening - almost totally in the dark - reversing the movie theatre emphasis on visuals over sound, featuring a selection of audio art pieces by film and videomakers including Michel Chion, Ken Jacobs, Richard Lerman, Julie Murray, Nina Fonoroff, Peter Rose, and Stuart Sherman. Also featured will be a three-projector sound performance by the local trio Wet Gate.
11:00 PM The Eleventh Hour KPFA, 94.1 FM Day of Sound by Jason Reinier (USA) and the Nature Sound Society.
Wednesday April 10
4:00 PM Geographies of Sound: A Comparative Panel Exploratorium This panel uses geographic and cultural contrast to examine the stabilization of meaning around ephemera of sound. Panelists include Ngac Chan (USA), Steven Feld (USA), and Douglas Kahn (USA). Moderated by Mitchell Clark.
7:30 PM Siren Calls Pacific Film Archive Admission: $5.50 An evening of unusual films and videotapes that rely heavily on soundtracks for their power by Matthew Arnold, Bruce Conner, Steven Dye, Edward Rankus, and Peter Rose. From the minimalist drone in Arnold's Piece Touchee, through the processed gibberish in Peter Rose's Babel, to the beat-laden score in Bruce Conner's Television Assassination, these works show that sound and image are not mutually exclusive. The centerpiece of the program is a live performance by the Dactyls of Phrygia who will accompany Dye's animated short King Midas using a variety of homemade instruments.
8:00 PM The Archeology of Stones, by Phil Dadson New Langton Arts Tickets: $8 general/$6 members, students, and seniors, reservations recommended The Archeology of Stones focuses on the evocative and unique acoustic sound character of 'song-stones,' as well as the mythologies surrounding them. 'Song-stones' are collected from beach, river and lake locations for sonic properties. Dadson, a New Zealand composer, experimental instrument builder, and performer, has over the last 18 years collected song-stones and their accompanying stories from around the world. Phil Dadson is the founding member of the New Zealand percussion group From Scratch and has performed throughout the world.
8:00 PM Cyclone Presented by 23-5, Inc. and Charnel House Admission: $5 Noise works from C.C.C.C. (Japan), Speculum Fight (USA), Deer Hoof (USA), and Trance (USA).
11:00 PM The Eleventh Hour KPFA, 94.1 FM Voices at the End of the Rainbow by Brad Rosenstein (USA).
Thursday April 11
7:00 - 9:00 PM Reception for an exhibition by Ted Apel, Cheryl Leonard & Anna Hallin, and Yuzo Nakano. Works/San Jose
7:30 PM Ubiquitous Recording: Film Sound and Audio Arts to Mid-Century, a lecture by Douglas Kahn Pacific Film Archive Admission: $5:50 The co-editor of Wireless Imagination: Sound, Radio and the Avant- Garde will discuss the arguments begun in the '20's for the possibility of a new audiophonic art, provide an overview of what happened during these years, and offer an explanation of why things didn't happen. Audio examples will include Walter Ruttman's "Weekend," John Cage's "Imaginary Landscape No. 1" and musique concrete by Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry.
7:30 PM Ursonate, a lecture by Jack Ox San Francisco Art Institute Jack Ox discusses the history of Kurt Schwitters' influential text/sound work Ursonate and her development of a large graphic interpretation of the piece.
8:00 PM Parts of Speech, by Pamela Z New Langton Arts Tickets: $8 general/$6 members, students, and seniors, reservations recommended. Parts of Speech focuses on word and language fragments from daily conversation and media. A collage of sampled found texts, images, and Pamela Z's vocalizations and gestures, Parts of Speech is a strange, yet familiar journey through an aural environment of words as propaganda, words as mantra, words as poetry, etc.
9:00 PM Premeditated Breakdown Live performance by Negativland in collaboration with Hardkiss, Craig Baldwin, and others. Trocadero Transfer Admission: $11, All ages welcome. Tickets available at BASS outlets. Premeditated Breakdown features a live performance by Negativland in collaboration with beats and grooves provided Hardkiss and the city's most respected DJ's. The extravaganza also features live visual jamming on multiple screens by filmmaker Craig Baldwin, director and producer of Sonic Outlaws, and many surprise guests.
11:00 PM The Eleventh Hour KPFA, 94.1 FM Audio works by sound artists from the Pacific Region.
Friday April 12
12:15 PM San Francisco Art Commission Gallery Lecture/Demonstration by Phil Dadson Dadson will talk about his work and give a background and demonstration of his talking stones.
4:30 PM Mills College Ensemble Room W.M. Houck The R.I.B. Event Four players produce resonances in aluminum pan lids while a rotating baffle deflects the sound into the room.
5:00 PM Mills College Greek Theater Key Ransone The Waking of Leafy Pools Amplified objects made of glass and metal are manipulated by a solo performer in the resonant outdoor setting of the Mills' Greek Theater.
6:00 - 9:00 PM Reception for an exhibition of work by Tracey Cockrell, Eiko Do- Espirito Santo, and Julaine Stephenson Pro Arts Gallery
7:00 PM A Century of Sound For Motion Pictures, an illustrated lecture Robert Gitt Pacific Film Archive Admission: $5.50 Robert Gitt (USA), Preservation Officer at the UCLA Film and Television Archive, presents and illustrated talk on the history of sound for motion pictures, covering the past one hundred years from Edison cylinders to Dolby Stereo. Gitt's presentation is informative and entertaining both for professional and general audiences, and many fascinating film excerpts will be shown in this three hour lecture.
8:00 PM Ikue Mori, Marina Rosenfeld, & Members of the Center for Contemporary Music Mills College Concert Hall An evening of sounds mainly from the left coast. Marina Rosenfeld's "Sheer Frost Orchestra" features an ensemble of women wielding nail polish bottles to activate a set of reclining electric guitars. Maggi Payne's "Resonant Places" builds electronic soundscapes derived from urban landscapes. John Bischoff and Kenneth Atchley comprise a live electronic duo playing computer and guitar driven noise circuits. Chris Brown's "Talking Drum" is an interactive multi-computer piece that uses cyclical rhythms to explore distance and resonance effects of the installation environment. And Ikue Mori's "Soul Mechanism: Raw-Tech in Real-Time" uses multiple drum machines and effects boxes played by the composer to create a language of urban-lullabies, imaginary sound tracks, and slashing-throbbing tribal songs.
8:00 PM Chico MacMurtrie The Amorphic Evolution The LAB Admission: $7-10 sliding scale, reservations recommended. New evening-length work for human and robot performers by a San Francisco pioneer of machine art.
Saturday April 13
10:00 AM Workshop with Fran Holland Falkirk Cultural Center Admission: $5, reservations recommended. Fran Holland leads a workshop on the construction of homemade musical instruments.
1:00 PM Tectonic Anxiety The Exploratorium San Francisco is poised atop the giant rumblings of the earth. This is rich metaphor to exploit in its similarity to the cultural shocks served to the area in technological upheavals. This panel collects an eclectic selection of researchers who are using sound detection in their work and surveys some of the new big science projects. Panelists include members of the Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG), Greg Beroza (USA) of Stanford's Earthquake Research Center, and Micheal J. Buckingham of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Moderated by Natalie Jeremijenko.
7:30 PM Jazz Age Vitaphone Shorts presented by Robert Gitt Pacific Film Archive Admission: $5.50 for one screening or $7.00 for both. The Vitaphone, the first sound film technology to gain widespread acceptance, offered audiences the closest approximation possible to a live performance. Tonight's sampling of late twenties Vitaphone musical shorts, restored from the fragile original sound disks, features performers who had already established reputations in vaudeville, music halls, or as "opening acts" preceding feature films for the next thirty years (80 min).
This is followed at 8:45 pm by Paramount on Parade (U.S. 1930), the best of the revue-style musicals that helped launch sound films, with delightful numbers by Paramount's best talent of the decade, and beautifully restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive with color tints and Technicolor sections (102 min).
8:00 PM Chico MacMurtrie The LAB See Friday listing
8:00 PM Trimpin and Beth Custer perform with PHFFFT Admission: $8 general/$6 members, students, and seniors, reservations recommended Trimpin and Bay Area composer and performer Beth Custer will perform improvisations and music specifically composed for performance on and with PHFFFT.
Thursday, April 18
7:15 PM Sonic Outlaws, by Craig Baldwin Towne Theater 1433 The Alameda San Jose, CA 408.287.1433 Admission: $10
Sponsors This festival was assisted by the Government of Australia through the Embassy of Australia, Washington, D.C. Generous support for SoundCulture 96 was provided by the California Tamarack Foundation, the Goethe Institute, Late Nite Software, and Vanderbyl & Associates. Yuji Sone's Participation was made possible by support from the Australia Council for the Arts. Trimpin's exhibition at the Exploratorium was made possible by AT&T: New Experiments in Art & Technology. Ed Osborn's exhibition at the Center for the Arts at Yerba Buena Gardens was supported in part by Atlas Model Railroad Company and Builders In Scale.
Locations of Events
Arc Tec Performance Space 2025 N. Texas Fairfield, CA 94533 707.428.7430
Asian Art Museum Golden Gate Park San Francisco, CA 94118 415.668.5160
Bay Area Discovery Museum East Fort Baker Sausalito, CA 94965 415.487.4398
Bedford Gallery Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts 1601 Civic Drive Walnut Creek, CA 94596 510.295.1417
blasthaus 217 Second Street San Francisco, CA 94103 415.896.1700
Center for New Music and Audio Technologies 1750 Arch Street Berkeley CA 94709 510.643.9990
Center for the Arts at Yerba Buena Gardens 701 Mission Street San Francisco, CA 94103 415.978.2700
Cyclone 3rd and Marin San Francisco, CA 415.285.6003
Exploratorium 3601 Lyon Street San Francisco CA 94123 415.561.0423
Fairfield Center Gallery 1035 Texas Street Fairfield CA 94533 707.428.7430
Falkirk Cultural Center 1408 Mission (at E Street) San Rafael CA 94915 415.485.3328
Headlands Center for the Arts 944 Fort Barry Sausalito,CA 94965 415.331.2787
Intersection for the Arts 466 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94103 415.626.2787
KPFA, 94.1 FM 1929 Martin Luther King Jr. Way Berkeley CA 94704 510.848.6767
The LAB 2948 16th Street San Francisco, CA 94103 415.864.8855
MARX 1034 39th Street (btw San Pablo & Adeline) Emeryville, CA 94608 415.285.6003
Mills College Center For Contemporary Music 5000 MacArthur Boulevard Oakland, CA 94613 510.430.2296
Morphos Gallery 49 Geary Street, 2nd Floor San Francisco, CA 94108 415.399.1439
Nature Sound Society Oakland Museum of California 1000 Oak Street Oakland, CA 94607 510.238.7482
New Langton Arts 1246 Folsom St. San Francisco, CA 94103 415.626.5416
Pacific Film Archive 2625 Durant Avenue Berkeley, CA 94720 510.642.1412
Pro Arts 941 9th Street (at Broadway) Oakland, CA 94607 510.763.4361
Public Art Works P.O. Box 150435 San Rafael, CA 94915 415.457.9744
Richmond Art Center 25th Street & Barrett Avenue Richmond, CA 94804 510.620.6772
San Francisco Art Institute Walter/McBean Gallery 800 Chestnut St. San Francisco, CA 94133 415.749.4564
San Francisco Art Commission Gallery 401 Van Ness Avenue San Francisco, CA 94102 415.252.2569
San Francisco Cinematheque 480 Potrero Ave San Francisco CA 94110 415.558.8129
Secession Gallery 4301 20th Street San Francisco, CA 94114 415.641.4967
Space 964 964 Natoma Street (between 10th & 11th) San Francisco, CA 94103 415.642.1592
Town Center at Corte Madera West Side of Route 101 @ Tamalpias Drive
Towne Theater 1433 The Alameda San Jose, CA 408.287.1433
Transbay Terminal 1st and Mission Streets San Francisco, CA 94102
Trocadero Transfer 520 4th Street (at Bryant) San Francisco, CA 94107 415.995.4600
Works/San Jose 260 Jackson Street San Jose, CA 95112 408.295.8378
For more information contact:
SoundCulture 96 Box 731 Oakland, CA 94604 Tel: 510.848.0124 x623 Fax: 510.430.3314 Email: sc96@kumr.lns.com http://www.lns.com/sc96.html
Media Inquiries should be directed to:
Weis Public Relations 2819 Tenth Street Berkeley, CA 94710 Tel: 510.841.9347 Fax: 510.548.6636 Email: weispr@aol.com