eArts Performance Guide Update!

by Ben

OK, big apology to everyone; while the Final Cut portion of eArts as described below seems sound (kicking off tonight with a vengeance as Aaajiao and B6 present their “Patience for the Man”), the “Streaming Objects” schedule I posted was pretty far off, but has now been updated. Also, I didn’t realize you need an invitation to get in to “Streaming Objects,” and I’m not quite sure how you’re supposed to aquire one.

Last night’s show seemed fraught with more than its fair share of technical problems. Sound cut out a few times during Sulumi’s set (which expanded beyond 8-bit to encompass his whole career, including some early chestnuts; perhaps he doesn’t want to be pigeonholed as “that 8-bit guy,” and it’s good to see him stretching out). The collaborative piece Ferry (attributed to Zeng Duo, Yi Lian, Feng Chen, Cao Shu, Zhang Ruyu, Lu Yang, Guo Huilan, and Li Wen) culminated with the Microsoft Blue Screen of Death splayed across a huge digital cube floating in the Zhangjiabang River, mirrored on five massive screens in the background. Laetitia Sonami’s set was a bit of a snore (not sure if that was a technical or aesthetic issue), a bit of a let down after years of hearing about her pioneering work; ideas were brought in and dropped, some particularly ugly sounds went on for way too long, and other chunks seemed canned, leaving me skeptical about how much was actually being controlled in real-time, though for a few delicate minutes in the middle I was quite transfixed. And in general, transitions between sets were awkward, with bumper music (which veered disappointingly towards the pop) ending early, leaving long, dark silences, while title slides with dense descriptions whizzed by too fast to parse.

But three pieces more than compensated for these mishaps; Wang Changcun’s algorithmic piano improvisations (moved to Saturday from Sunday) were captivating, rendered acoustically on a Yamaha Disclavier. A piece involving speech synthesis from internet chat (I’m guessing that was 2510, but maybe it was 4×4x4) was similarly fresh in its careful exploration of a limited range of sounds. And Ryoichi Kurokawa’s Parallel Head was a sublime and masterful final flourish for the evening, an extremely satisfying symbiosis of sound and image.

Anyway, pushing the boundaries of technology inevitably leads to technical snafus from time to time, and if some experiments come off less successfully than others, I am willing to accept this as the price of progress! Looking forward to more experiences like this throughout the festival.




Ben’s eArts 2008 performance guide

by Ben

Since people seem to be wondering what’s up with live performances at this year’s eArts Festival, I’ve taken the liberty of posting the information as best I can parse it here, along with my colorfully biased commentary. Note: all shows start at 7:30. And they’re all free (although the “Streaming Objects” shows seem to require invitations)!

If you’re only going to check out two events, first go to Pudong on Sunday, Oct. 19, to see laptop elder statesman Carl Stone and Wang Changcun’s real-time algorithmic music for acoustic piano [Whoops, Wang Changcun got scooted to Oct. 18]. Then on Wednesday, Oct. 22, come see me and Yan Jun 颜峻 and Bruce Gremo and Elliott Sharp and Top Floor Circus 顶楼的马戏团 perform Christian Marclay’s Screen Play in Xujiahui Park.

But if you want to dig deeper (and there’s lots more cool stuff), read on…

Final Cut, Xujiahui
First let me blatantly plug the part of the show I’m personally involved with, “Final Cut,” going down in Xujiahui Park. This part of the show was organized by the indefatiguable Defne Ayas and Davide Quadrio, of ArtHub, and in addition to the five nights of live shows below, they’re running wild with videos and installations, even taking over Xujiahui’s huge digital displays for artistic ends; check out the ArtHub site for details. The “Final Cut” performances are happening on a specially constructed stage in Xujiahui park.

Saturday, Oct. 18, 40+4 screening
Ok, not a live performance, but a screening of ArtHub’s 40+4 interview project, in which artists answer fundamental questions about their art and practice.

Sunday, Oct. 19, Patience for the Man
A “live performance within a musicscape,” featuring live performances by B6 and Aaajiao, with dancers, on a stage created by the architect duo Wang Zhenfei and Wang Luming.

Monday, Oct. 20, Dead J + Chen Xiongwei
Dead J’s a minimalist electronic musician from Beijing with two ablums out on Modern Sky, and these days I understand he performs in a spacesuit. He’s also a pal and a good guy, and you can listen to his stuff on NeoCha! I don’t know Chen Xiongwei, but he’s going to be doing live video stuff.

Tuesday, Oct. 21, Feng Mengbo’s 冯梦波 Q2008
I don’t know this guy’s work first hand, but he’s got a reputation as the leading practitioner of game art in China, which seems to stem largely from a Quake mod that incorporated the image of Mao Zedong. Personally, coming from 12 years in the game industry, and knowing just how easy it is to make a Quake mod (games are designed to let you do this, for community building), I’m bringing a healthy dose of skepticism to this show, but I’ll definitely be there.

Wednesday, Oct. 22, Christian Marclay’s Screen Play
This should be a very cool show, and not just because I’m performing in it. Christian Marclay is one of the truest definitions of “sound artist” around, active in the downtown New York experimental music scene since the early 80’s, whose work plays with sound and suggestions of sound and objects associated with sound in consistently delightful ways. Screen Play is a ~25 min. video score that cuts together old black and white film footage with a computer graphic overlay of simple, abstract shapes in bright colors. The score is “to be interpreted by a small group of musicians,” and at this show 3 groups of musicians will take a crack, in succession: me, veteran Beijing-based sound artist Yan Jun, and Beijing-based American musician Bruce Gremo (playing his custom digital flute, the Cilia); Marclay’s pal the guitarist Elliott Sharp, over from NY for the occassion, performing with Wang Li Chuan 王力川 and Wu Na 巫娜; and Shanghai’s beloved punk ensemble Top Floor Circus.

“Streaming Objects,” Breath, Pudong
This is the official opening gala for eArts 2008, taking place in Pudong at the Zhangjiabang riverfront over the course of three nights, behind the Science and Technology Center. There’s a huge stage going up, and from the renderings I was sent, it looks like it’s going to be quite a spectacle. “Streaming Objects” is being put together by Yao Dajuin 姚大钧, composer and longtime advocate for new media in the Chinese diaspora, the man behind the Chinese New Ear web site and the Post-Concrete record label (which you doubtless know already, if you’re reading this on GNO).

Saturday, Oct. 18
Sun Dawei 孙大崴 (Beijing), aka Sulumi, proprietor of the revered Shanshui record label, performing 8-bit/chiptune music on a pair of modified GameBoys (see this article
I wrote on the subject a while back)
2510
Wang Changcun 王长存 (Harbin, now living in Hangzhou), real-time algorithmic compositions for acoustic piano, rendered on a Yamaha Disklavier; he is to eArts was Lang Lang was to the opening ceremony of the Olympics
Laetitia Sonami (France), “A Historical Moment on a Line Between A and B;” Sonami has developed a custom “Lady’s Glove” that she uses as a performance interface, a pioneer in the field
4×4x4
Masayuki Akamatsu 赤松正行 (Japan), Snowflakes, seems to consist of folks jamming on stage with an iPhone app he wrote
Ferry
Ryoichi Kurokawa 黑川良一 (Japan), Parallel Head, integration of real-time computer graphics with music

Sunday, Oct. 19
Skoltz_Kolgen (Canada), ASKAA
Masayuki Akamatsu 赤松正行 (Japan), Snowflakes, reprised from previous evening
Carl Stone (USA and Tokyo), “L’Os a Moelle,” from his great new album “Al Noor;” Carl is on my top ten list of favorite musicians ever; his album “Mom’s” is a desert island disc for me
Ulf Langheinrich (Australia)
Li Jianhong 李剑鸿 and VAVABOND (Hangzhou), Cosmic Sexy Junk; I just translated a big chunk of noise guitarist Li Jianhong’s blog on this very site, which should provide ample introduction to his oeuvre.

[Note: Autechre, originally scheduled to close this evening’s performance, has cancelled.
Also, it looks like Shen Ligong’s 沈立功 Second Life thing and Wu Baohui 吴珏辉 have also been cut.]

Monday, Oct. 20
8GG (China), The Air Being Broken, very curious to find out more about this outfit, who I know primarily for inclusion in a VJ book I picked up in Tokyo last February (also represented in B6 and Yang Lei’s adjacent installation)
Brian O’Reilly (Santa Barbara, USA), Weather Mechanics; a former associate of Xenakis, Eliane Radigue, and Naut Humon (Asphodel)
Wu Wei 吴巍 and Carl Stone (USA), Shanghai Rhythm; Carl Stone takes the stage again to collaborate with sheng virtuoso Wu Wei
Frank Bretschneider (USA), Rhythm

Around the corner from the big riverfront gala performances is an “outdoor interdisciplinary performance” put together by B6 and Yang Lei 杨磊. I don’t know a lot of details about this, but it seems to be more about immersive installations than specific live performances. I’m sure it will be worth checking out. Yang Lei was one of the organizers of the very successful Notch Festival at the beginning of this month, and he’s got close ties to the Nordic music scene, so expect solid Nordic representation.

Ancillary Shows
One of my favorite bands, 10, has the misfortune of landing in Shanghai on Oct. 18, the same night that things are getting going in Xujiahui and Pudong for eArts. 10 is the duo of Marqido (laptop, from Japan) and itta (vocals and toys, from Korea), and they just released a CD called Nomad on Wangba records. I attended their CD release party in Beijing last week, and now they’re touring China in support of the album. So if you can’t decide between Streaming Objects and Final Cut on Oct 18 and don’t want to slight either party, head up to Live Bar and be assured a great seat.

Also, while the Christian Marclay show moves up to Beijing’s D-22 on the 24th, with Bruce and Elliott reprising their roles with a new roster of sidemen, stay tuned for Yan Jun performing at NOIShanghai 20 with Torturing Nurse, here in Shanghai on the Oct 25, Live Bar, 2:30pm, as usual.

In Closing
This information is based on my research for a That’s Shanghai article I wrote over a month ago, so some details may have changed since then. I welcome all corrections.

The biggest change, of course, is that Autechre has cancelled; it seems they were demanding someone to open their beer and wine for them in their rider. That’s pretty stupid prima dona stuff; they should be advised that outside a small circle of hardcore music geeks, everyone to whom I gushed, “…and Autechre is coming!” responded with a blank, “Who?”

Another cancellation, or postponement, happened a while ago, but you may have seen in early press info that there was supposed to be some big digital opera thing at the Shanghai Grand Theater, with Tan Dun among the participants; last official word I heard was that it’s been pushed back to December.

It’s really too bad that, even though the festival is about a month long, all the performances are front-loaded to happen during the first weekend, which means lots of unfortunate overlaps. The only rationale I can think of is to have the ability to brag later on about the size of the festival and all the simultaneous events all over the city. But it really does a disservice to the artists and organizers (and Defne and Dajuin have each put together an amazing line-up that could stand on its own as an independent festival) as well as the adventuresome public who would like to absorb as much of this new media bounty as they possibly can.

Anyway, enjoy the festival!

OK, and let me also add, as a final plug, that you have until 5pm on Tuesday, Oct. 21, to check out my ambient sound installation that’s running every day from 9am to 5pm in the 100% Design display at Shanghai International Creative Industry Week, in support of MÜ Furniture designer Jutta Friedrichs’ furniture installation.




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