Each year, 23five curates Activating The Medium around a specific theme that seeks to underscore the connectivity between artists working with various methods and materials. Previously, Activating The Medium has explored sound ecology, audio mimesis, and the relationship between sound and architecture. For the 2010 festival, 23five presents a theme of ice -- the physical, geographic, metaphoric, and mythological attributes to ice as manifested through sound. Featured performers this evening include G*Park, Joshua Churchill, Adam Sonderberg, and panel / lecture hosted by Cheryl Leonard.
A member of the Swiss Aktionist collective Schimpfluch-Gruppe, G*Park (aka Marc Zeier) has quietly produced an oblique catalogue of recordings and performances dating back to the early '80s. His strategies of sound production involve abstruse studies in musique concrete, clinical electronics, prepared piano, and manipulated field recordings. In his debut performance in California, G*Park will render his composition through the sound of frozen lakes and ice caves, various hydrophone recordings, and the audio from what Zeier qualifies as "microscopic creatures."
Joshua Churchill is a San Francisco based cross-disciplinary artist whose site-specific sound and light work takes the form of both installation and performance, very often blurring the line between the two. Utilizing resonant frequency drones, field recordings, induced feedback, and reactive lighting, Churchill’s dynamic works compel one to become critically aware of their surroundings by exploring the aesthetic, emotive, and structural qualities of the environments in which they are situated.
Adam Sonderberg is a composer working predominantly with concrète-based composition, operating for many years out of Chicago in the projects Haptic and The Dropp Ensemble. For Activating The Medium, Sonderberg proposes a composition for real and imagined ice. He states, "Having recently moved to the Bay Area from Chicago, my only contact with ice has been in the domestic sphere – more specifically in our freezer. This contrasts sharply with the profusion of snow and ice on the ground during a typical Chicago winter. I find this contrast quite jarring and will seek to assemble an aural environment that will hopefully mitigate my disquiet."
Cost: $10