Radio Without Boundaries 2008

Posted on May 28, 2008 by Eric

This weekend I’m attending the 7th annual Radio Without Boundaries conference on Radio & Transmission Art in Toronto.

Among the participating artists and producers are Tetsuo Kogawa (Japan), Chris Brookes (Can), Jared Weissbrot (USA), Trademark G (USA), Chantal Dumas (Can), Anna Friz (Can), Andreas Kahre (Can), Peter Courtemanche (Can), Damiano Pietropaolo, and Neil Sandell (Can).

The performances and talks begin Friday evening, May 30th and are streamed live on free103point9.org’s Transmission Art Radio. Use this for the online stream. All this continues through Sunday, June 1st. Visit the Radio Without Boundaries website for the schedule. I plan on participating in the Micro Radio and Text and Sound workshops, using the blog format of this web page to report on what I learn, so please come back and have a look and listen.

About the conference…

Radio Without Boundaries (RWB) is a part of the month-long Deep Wireless Festival, an annual event organized by New Adventures In Sound Art. The significance of the Deep Wireless Festival is in its intensity and caliber of invited artists. It is a month-long annual festival that brings together the world’s most influential artists, composers, producers, and thinkers in radio art and audio documentary. Continue reading →

Sunday, May 25, Auris, Edwards-Leonardson duo, and Vertonen live on “Something Else”

Posted on May 23, 2008 by Eric

Tune in to Something Else, Chicago’s only weekly radio program of audio art, experimental music, and live performance in Chicago, hosted by Philip von Zweck since 1995.

This Sunday’s performers are:

• AURIS
• Eric Leonardson and Blake Edwards duo
• VERTONEN

Listen in every Sunday from 10 p.m. until 2 a.m. (US CST/GMT -6) WLUW-FM 88.7

Outside the local broadcast range? Listen via webcast.

Shapes of Sound exhibition online

Posted on May 22, 2008 by Eric

Hal Rammel gave me the license to make my own instruments in 1990. Tonight I learned from Hal that a web page is up about the wonderful exhibition of experimental musical instruments he curated, “The Shapes of Sound: Musical Instruments and the Imagination in the Midwest.”

The show was held in late 1997 at Woodland Pattern Book Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I was among the 14 artist-inventors who had their instruments displayed. I also gave a brief performance in the show. Visit the page at www.woodlandpattern.org/gallery/shapes_of_sound.shtml

Many photographs from the show are on this page with Hal Rammel’s catalog essay. To learn more about his fascinating writing, visual art, and music, please visit Hal’s homepage, his MySpace page, and YouTube.

New Interviews on Gearwire

Posted on May 13, 2008 by Eric

More video interviews with students from my 2008 Instrument Construction course at SAIC have been uploaded.

SAIC Student Rob Martens: Evil Brother Of Snap, Crackle and Pop Martens?
http://www.gearwire.com/theramin-instrument-construction.html
(Part 1) SAIC Student Bethany Childs Tempts The Fury Of Neptune
http://www.gearwire.com/conchshell-instrument-construction-001.html
(Part 2) SAIC Student Bethany Childs And Playing An Interfaced Conch Shell
http://www.gearwire.com/conchshell-instrument-construction-002.html

Stuart Schmidt Is More Machine Than Man, Now
http://www.gearwire.com/glove-controller-instrument-construction.html
Cycling 74 Max: Kyle Evans’ Cigar Box Controller Controls Air Traffic Control
http://www.gearwire.com/cigarbox-controller-instrument-construction.html

And as mentioned previously…

Chris Burke’s Interactopus: One Man’s Trash Is Another Man’s Interactopus
http://www.gearwire.com/interactopus-instrument-construction.html
Jenna Caravello’s Celloharp Promotes Inter-Instrumental Hybridization
[link removed at the student's request - so sorry!]

Instruments Featured on YouTube

Posted on May 10, 2008 by Eric

One highlight from 2007′s Instrument Construction class remains the “Bubble Organ” designed and built by Aaron Wendel.

Below is a short, unedited video clip of Aaron’s instrument.

Continue reading →

Newly invented instrument videos on Gearwire

Posted on May 9, 2008 by Eric

On Friday, May 2 SAIC’s Waveforms presented videos and performances by students from the Sound Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Gretchen Hasse from Gearwire came and interviewed many of the students in my Instrument Construction course, who opened the evening with an ensemble performance on their new instruments.

The video interviews are being completed now, and the first one up in the series is with Jenna Caravello, who worked all semester on her original acoustic instrument, the Celloharp. As you might guess from its name, this is a hybrid instrument. Jenna’s persistence and resilience in the face of so many kinds of challenges during its design and construction earns my respect and admiration.

The second video is an interview with Chris Burke who took Shawn Decker’s Programming For Sound course this spring. Chris dug deep into Max/MSP and Jitter software, and Ed Bennett’s ArtBus card, to come up with the Interactopus, a hardware interface for the real-time control of sound and video housed inside a warm, flexible fabric body.

Please visit this web page again and soon, as I announce more of Gretchen’s interviews with some of my outstanding student artists and their wonderful instruments.

SAIC’s Waveforms, Looptopia

Posted on May 1, 2008 by Eric

SAIC’s Waveforms presents sound works and performances by students from the Sound Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, on Friday, May 2 at the Fine Arts Building (Curtis Hall)
7:00-10:00pm, 410 S. Michigan Avenue 10th floor, Curtis Hall, FREE ADMISSION

Students in my Instrument Construction course will open, performing as an ensemble of invented and hybrid electronic and acoustic instruments, during Looptopia.
Here are some photos of the instruments that the students will be performing on:

Eric Leonardson

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Monthly Archives: May 2008