Dorkbot Beijing 4

by lawrence

Time: 19:00 - 21:00, May 11, 2007

Location: Studio #5, Electronic Music Centre, Central Conservatory. (Go straight into the front gate for 50 metres, turn left and go to the second floor.)

People:

1. Ivo Bol (Netherlands), composer & sound artist. Topic: new media, electronic composition, softwares from STEIM.

2. EventStructure (yang2 + aaajiao). Chinese sound/visual artist on SuperCollider and Processing.

Previous participants of Dorkbot Beijing include Stephen Kovats from V2_, Wen Jingbo 温京博, Rene Stettler, and Diato Manabe.




Helmut Schäfer’s memorial service tomorrow in San Francisco

by lawrence

From Scott Arford:

We’re holding a wake to honor the memory of our friend Helmut Schäfer who’s life has touched us all and death saddened us greatly.

Sunday, April 29, 4:00 pm
Zeitgeist
199 Valencia St.
San Francisco, CA 94103
Daily 9:00am- 2:00am
Tel: (415) 255-7505

I know he had many friends in the bay area, please forward this to those whom I have missed.

Related: In Memory of Helmut Schäfer (1969 - 2007)




Change in Mini MIDI programme

by lawrence

Lin Zhiying 林志英’s performance has been re-scheduled to 19:10 of the first day (May 1). RandomK(e) - the artist that was originally assigned that time slot - will play on May 2.

[See full schedule of Mini MIDI 2007 here.]




In Memory of Helmut Schäfer (1969 - 2007)

by lawrence

In his final word to the world, titled ‘Noise as a language’, the late Austrian musician Helmut Schäfer wrote:

‘So the point is that so much words existing, and we get better and better to use them for hiding the truth. You can use sound in the same way, stimulating some nice and warm feeling in middle of chaos, but from time to time we all should stimulate strictness, clearness, intensity, directness, set free some anger to bring up the basic truth of our present. Noise can be seen as the chance to go into the back of things, as a therapy which is able to confront ourselves with others lesser good looking sides of life without getting frustrated by this. See it as a source of very special energies, it gives power to see more clear and swim against.’

Helmut Schäfer is the embodiment of that energy. My first impression of the man came from a GIF animation made with the video footage of his live performance at the Mills College Chapel. I found myself dumbfounded by the sheer power manifested: here’s a man operating a laptop in the way Rock guitarists playing their instrument. His hands were fixed steadily on the MIDI controller, serving as a pivot to support his dramatic physical gesture. Although in a sitting position, it seems that his chair has morphed from a supporting structure that holds him from falling to the ground to something dispensable that happens to attach to his constantly twisting body. Think of the twenty-something Glenn Gould playing his piano and add a portion of roughness to it and you’ll get the idea. I can’t help worrying about the poor slides and knobs on the controller.

As GIF animation - the standard of web animation in the archaic days of web 1.0 - comes with no sound, one would have to complete the audio part of the experience with imagination, a potentially damaging practice as imagination tends to transcend reality. The best music lives only in one’s head, and any attempt to materialise it only dilutes the experience.

That’s why I was so deeply moved when later listening to Isolated Irritation, the album containing the live recording of that very concert. The cover design, a highly-manipulated image of Helmut’s stage presence, gracefully captures the feverish emotional power of his music, which totally lives up to, if not surpasses, the promise of my imagination.

I guess Helmut has never been part of the ‘international sound art scene’. He was, however, very well-received in China. In November, 2003, he was invited by Dajuin Yao to play at “Sounding Beijing,” the first-ever large scale experimental music festival in mainland China. That fifteen minutes of intoxicating noise construction still ranks as one of my most mind-blowing live experiences. The professionalism demonstrated in his highly concentrated sound checking process - something not as common among sound artists as you would imagine , believe it or not - and the artistic nobleness expressed in his sublimely elegant bow to the audience (which ‘felt like a proud prince’, borrowing critic Yan Jun’s phrase) have served as a timely reminder on what does it mean to be a true artist. His legacy, I believe, will last longer in China than in any other part of the world.

May peace be with you Helmut, wherever you are.

http://www.post-concrete.com/helmutschafer

See also what others said about Helmut:




Chinese Phonography Blogs

by Dajuin

Two of the most active Chinese phonography groups have just set up their respective blogs:

PlayBackUnit
拍背有理
http://sjp.blogbus.com/
by Lin Zhiying 林志英, Zhong Minjie 鍾敏傑
Covering Guangzhou, Shenzhen and the Pearl River Delta in general.

Harbin Sound Unit
哈爾濱聲音小組
http://www.chinesenewear.com/harbin/
by Zhang Jun’gang 張君剛, Wang Changcun 王長存
Covering Harbin, Shanghai




Mini MIDI 2007: May 1 - 3

by lawrence

Mini MIDI, the offsite/experimental arm of the annual MIDI Festival in Beijing and one of the two major nationwide new music/sound art festivals in China, is coming again on May 1. Kudos to curator Yan Jun, who managed to keep it going for three years.

I’m forwarding this schedule from Super Sonic China, with a bit of format adjustment. The concerts will take place at Haidian Park.

May 1

pm2:20 Dead J
pm3:10 Zhou Risheng 周日升
pm3:50 nara + Xiao Wei
pm4:30 Tieguanyin Duo 铁观音二重奏 (Yan Jun 颜峻 + Wu Na 乌娜)
pm5:10 Justin Zhong Minjie 钟敏杰
pm5:50 Jackson Garland (USA)
pm6:30 Wu Quan 武权
pm7:10 Lin Zhiying 林志英
pm8:00 Jan Jelinek feat. Kosmischer Pitch (Germany)

May 2

pm2:20 Wu Fei 呉非
pm2:50 RandomK(e)
pm3:30 Andrew Pekler (Germany)
pm4:20 Jan Jelinek (Germany)
pm5:10 10 (Japan/Korea)
pm5:50 SULUMI
pm6:30 Portalenz (Japan)
pm7:10 Hanno Leichtmann (Germany)
pm8:00 Fish and the Bedroom Riot (Taiwan)

May 3

pm2:20 Zafka (Zhang Anding 张安定)
pm3:00 Walnut Room (Feng Hao 冯昊 + Li Zenghui 李增辉)
pm3:40 Ma Fei San 麻沸散
pm4:30 Bokusatsu Shoujo Koubou
pm5:10 iLoop
pm5:50 Wang Fan 王凡
pm6:30 Xiao He 小河
pm7:20 TronOrchestra + SAM2 + SomeMoreSams +
pm8:00 FM3 + Special guest




[Admin] Upgrade completed

by lawrence

Wordpress 2.1.3 running on GNO.




[Admin] Upgrade

by lawrence

I’m going to upgrade the back end program of GNO today and there is going to be a short period of outage.




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