# 012

RGB
Audiovisual Live Performance

Bas van Koolwijk and Christian Toonk

The live performance RGB is based on the video channels red, green and blue. By direct transposition of the video signal to audio, Bas van Koolwijk creates a real time soundtrack using colour fields only. The sound environment is completed by Christian Toonk. Toonk uses audio feedback derived from amplified internal computer processes.
RGB was conceived and first performed at the Umatic Improv Session, March 2004. Other performances include Garage festival, Netmage 05 and Dissonanze.

 

# 011

FDBCK/AV
Audiovisual Live Performance

Bas van Koolwijk

Solo live performance in which Van Koolwijk generates a feedback control circuit between the audio and the video signals, making audio and video become two facets of a self-sustaining data stream. When connected and switched on, FDBCK/AV becomes a cybernetic entity feeding on numerical values. External control is established by injecting extra data into the system to manipulate parameters for the algorithmic interpretation of image>sound and sound>image. The application with which this is done, makes no use of camera or movie input. All sound and image data are generated real-time within the feedback system using digital video basics.

FDBCK/AV has been performed at Mutek [Montreal], Club Transmediale [Berlin], Re:visie/Dutch Film Festival [Utrecht], Garage Festival [Stralsund],
and on several other occasions.

# 010

Berlin.Soundscape-FM
Project on location

Berlin.Soundscape-FM

Sara Kolster, Derek Holzer and Marc Boon

[BASEMENT, Transmediale 05 Festival, Berlin, DE - Feb 4-8, 2005]

Berlin.Soundscape-FM is a collaborative soundwork in the city of Berlin from 4-8 of February 2005. Inspired by the successfull Soundscape Fm project which took place during the Garage Festival in Stralsund of this year, it takes the form of a FM radio broadcast and a user-uploadable data-base with fieldrecordings taken from the city of Berlin.

During four days, sound artists, amateur sound hunters, phonographers among other interested participants will collaborate on gathering sounds from different places within the city of Berlin. A physical workspace will be created in the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, and is meant to be a post-production booth for the gathered sounds which can be uploaded immediately in a database-system. The uploaded sounds are online-accessible - as well as the user uploadable interface - and are broadcasted via several local fm-radio-stations within Berlin.

# 009

resonanCITY
Live Cinema Audiovisual performance

Derek Holzer and Sara Kolster

Many sounds and images in our everyday lives slip past our notice simply because they are too small, or because we lack the proper receivers to pick them up. resonanCITY is an ongoing project to gather these microscopic sights and sounds from various cities, and to amplify and transform them. The goal is to build a new city inside the old one, and to inspire curiosity and exploration of one's own environment. resonanCITY has been performed in Karosta, Daugavpils and Riga [LV], Tartu and Mooste [EE], Bergen [NO], Sao Paulo [BR], Ljubljana [SI], Bratislava [SK] and Novi Sad [YU], among other locations.

# 008

PD.Zilla
Workshop series


Derek Holzer

Workshops and Demos on Free + Open Source Software [FOSS] for artists.

While many tools exist for sound, multimedia and VJ purposes, few of them are designed with an open architecture which allows artists to configure the tools they use themselves. Fewer still are free to use, share and rebuild. This workshop introduces the software combination of Pure Data, GEM and PDP, running on the Linux or OSX operating systems, as a platform for audio, video and multimedia artists to explore.

The series was hosted by YourMachines/CCA-Glasgow, Waygood Gallery-Newcastle and MUTE-London, and is available to interested organizations during the Summer and Fall 2005 seasons.

# 007

VisibleSound/AudibleImage
Workshops, Screenings and Performances

VisibleSound.nl, Workshop Details

Sara Kolster and Derek Holzer

Sara Kolster and Derek Holzer recently completed their VisibleSound/AudibleImage tour of the Baltics during the months of August to October, 2004. Along the way, they gave screenings, workshops and performances in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, and participated in the festivals PostsovkhoZ4: ISOLATSIOON [Mooste], RAM 6 [Vilnius], Arts+Communications 7: TransCultural Mapping [Riga] and Pushing the Medium [Tartu, Mooste].

The first section presents video works from Holland and other locations which show direct relations between sound and vision. These video works have been selected from the collection of Montevideo - Netherlands Instituut voor Mediakunst, Amsterdam.

The workshop section follows up with an introduction to various methods of sound and video production using common hardware and freely available, open source softwares.

The project ends with a performance which shows these tools, mentioned in de workshop section, in use. Sound artist Derek Holzer and video artist Sara Kolster will make a location-specific audiovisual live mix called "resonanCITY", which uses found objects, sounds and images gathered in each city of the tour.

# 006

panDEV
work in progress

Derek Holzer, Sara Kolster and Marc Boon

[with support from STEIM, Garage Festival and Gemente Utrecht.]

panDEV is intended to be an sound-gathering and processing application written for PDAs and palmtop computers running Linux. Its purpose is to assist psychogeographers, phonographers and sound artists in the collection and arrangement of environmental sound material for research and creative purposes. When activated, panDEV will take random sound samples at random lengths and intervals via a set of binaural microphones hidden inside quite normal-appearing walkman headphones connected to the PDA. The collected samples can be stored for later listening, uploaded via available wireless internet to a searchable database, plotted out in various types of cartographic representations for collective soundmapping, or algorithmically remixed to create new sonic environments. The resulting sounds may be as banal as they are sublime or exciting, but they are absolutely guaranteed to provide a unique insight into the user's acoustic environment.

Derek Holzer will be in working in residence at STEIM during the month of March 2005, developing the software for panDev.

http://www.umatic.nl/projects_pandev.html

# 005

SOUNDSCAPE_FM phonographic migrations #03
Project on location

Soundscape_FM

Sara Kolster, Derek Holzer and Yannick Dauby

[Garage Festival, Strahlsund, DE - July 23-August 16]

"Soundscape FM" is intended to be a several-weeks-long event, held in conjunction with other Umatic activities during the Garage Festival. In the months before Garage, the members of the Phonography, microsound, lowercase sound, Xchange and other such lists will be invited to contribute content, along with material already gathered by Derek Holzer, Yannick Dauby and others. All sound material will be held on a server which is installed at Garage Festival, and which will create an algorithmic mix of all tracks submitted. New tracks can be continuously added via a website or uploaded locally by festival visitors, resulting in a wider range of possible new soundscapes which can develop. The audio output of this server will be broadcast locally with an FM transmitter, and will be streamed to the internet for remote enjoyment.

# 004

GARAGE FESTIVAL
Work in progress_installation_performance[s]

PanDev_Soundscape FM_Performances
Umatic.nl artists

[Garage Festival, Strahlsund, DE - July 23-August 16]

Umatic has been invited to take part in the Garage Festival 2004 'White box - Black Cube'. On the 5th of August, a feedback sound-performance will be given by Christian Toonk. In the same evening program, Bas van Koolwijk will give a live-audiovisual performance. During the Garage Festival, Derek Holzer and Sara Kolster will work on the two projects [in progress], Soundscape_FM and PanDev, which will be presented in the beginning of August.

# 003

URBAN[ISM]
Installation + Performance

Impakt Event
Umatic.nl artists, Alejandro & Aeron / Lucky Kitchen [SP]

[BAK, Utrecht, NL - June 12-24 04]

"How did the city change through the development of highways, the growth of the city and the use of cars? How were neigborhhoods divided, mutated or destroyed, the exodus of certain people, and gentrification? How did the construction of wide roads over rivers, and the damage of the historical centre changed the city? Bad urban planning of the 70s, vs. planning in the present."

In collaboration with Lucky Kitchen, Umatic will research this subject concerning the cities Utrecht and Detroit and develop an audiovisual installation, during a given working period of 6 days.

Opening: June 18 2004 [Museumnacht]

# 002

OZONE
Performance/Installation

Derek Holzer + Bas van Koolwijk

OZONE is an immersive electromagnetic environment created by video artist Bas van Koolwijk [NL] and sound artist Derek Holzer [NL/US] in order to address the issue of the constant shifting tide of signals, frequencies and codes we are literally awash in during our daily lives.

Four video monitors display an ever-changing array of video signal disturbances. The electromagnetic waves created by the monitors are captured by a series of specially-constructed antennae, and then converted to sound which is processed and spatialized over a 4.1 channel loudspeaker system. The sound, in turn, goes on to create further video signal disturbances, and an ongoing chain reaction ensues. This installation functions algorithmically in real-time, meaning that no two moments can ever be repeated.

OZONE was originally commissioned as an installation by the Medienturm, Graz [AT], and has been realized as a radio broadcast by Kunstradio, Vienna [AT] as a performance by the Earational Festival, Den Bosch [NL], and as an installation for the European Media Art Festival, Osnabrueck [DE].

# 001

FLUID DATA IMPROV SESSION
Umatic-performance

[Moira, Utrecht, NL - March 6 04]

Featuring

Umatic Artist-in Residence:
---- Yannick Dauby [Tours, FR]
-- shared soundscapes


Special Guests:
---- 87Central [A'dam]
-- feedback systems + cut ups
---- Gerard van Dongen [R'dam]
-- digital machine improv


Umatic Members:
---- Derek Holzer
-- field recordings + manipulations
---- Sara Kolster
-- cinematic video explorations
---- Bas van Koolwijk
-- digital disturbances
---- Christian Toonk
-- live sound performance