Mixed Grille

Myself and a group of spirited individuals will be doing some experimental sound performances on this Friday, 4th June, at Whitespace in Dundee.  It’s a chance for all those who missed previous performances of Exercise Magic!! and the new and improved Lumierophone to check them out, as well as enjoying work by Sean Williams and Noise Club.

  

 

Mixed Grille – 4th June 7pm White Space, University of Abertay Join us for a steaming hot greasy plate of experimental sound cooked up just for you. Packed full of calories and oozing with cholesterol this event is guaranteed to raise your blood pressure. Feast on performances and installations by Yann Seznec, Kristina Johansen, and Sean Williams followed by a generous helping of Noise Club. This is a meal not to be missed. 

What’s on the menu? 

Lumièrophone - Named after pioneers of cinema Auguste and Louis Lumière, the Lumièrophone is a screen which uses light to instantly create a generative soundtrack, functioning as a robotic foley system and exploring the relationship between motion, sound, and light. 

Exercise Magic!! - A performance based on “Real Results With Coronation Street’s Beverley Callard”, an aerobics video from the mid nineties. Yann Seznec will wear a custom-made outfit and exercise along with Beverley and friends…but who is controlling whom? Yann’s movements will disintegrate, remix, and re-invent the video in real-time, all whilst he’s getting fit and enjoying it too! 

The (Sound Of Music)’ – Sean Williams will present this subtle sonic picture of the unique listening history embodied in a vinyl recording of the famous musical soundtrack. 

Noise Club at Work - Noise Club will work to produce sound at their work stations. Throughout the performance we may have meetings or tea breaks. We will dress appropriately for the office environment. We will improvise using home-made regalia and other instrumentation. 

Excercise Magic!!

Following on from my previous posts last week here is a video of the first performance of Exercise Magic!! at the CCA in Glasgow on Thursday night.  As you can see the specially made costume looks great and works well.  

Exercise Magic!! is a performance by Yann Seznec based on “Real Results With Coronation Street’s Beverley Callard”, an aerobics video from the mid nineties. Yann wore a custom made outfit designed both to enable the performer to manipulate the video using wii-motes as sensors (attached with custom wii arm-straps) as well as creating the sense of character needed for the performance (with shop brought sportswear).  I was really pleased with how the costume looked and integrated into the overall performance.  Hopefully there will a chance to show it again so more people can see it.

Desperately Seeking Sportswear

The costume for Exercise Magic!! didn’t just require custom made wii straps it also needed some good old fashioned aerobics gear.  Here is a still from “Real Results with Coronation Street’s Beverley Callard” which shows you the inspiration behind the look.

The video is from the mid 90s and my first thought was to try second hand and vintage clothing shops to find something to recreate the look.  Unfortunately it was only after an epic two days of searching  that it occured to me that lycra degrades fairly quickly (especially if its been worn frequently to the gym) which is why you don’t see any second hand.  So it was back to the shops to see if I could find anything new with a retro feel.  In the end I choose Nike Dri-fit stretch shorts in black with a blue stripe detail combined with a white vest top from Marks & Spenser (kindly lent by Michael (apparently only cost 10p in a sale 5 years ago)).

You can see the finished outfit at Cryptic Nights: SuckerBallz! at the CCA in Glasgow tonight at 8pm. Or check back here later to see photos and video of the finished piece.

Constructing Magic

Here’s a sneak preview of something I have been working on for the last few weeks. 

This is a picture of one of the ‘arm straps’ which will hold wii-motes as part of a costume for a performance called Exercise Magic!! by Yann Seznec.  The wii-motes will be used as an efficient and cheap way of harvesting data from the performer so that they can control sound and visuals with their movements.

Exercise Magic!! is a performance based on “Real Results With Coronation Street’s Beverley Callard”, an aerobics video from the mid nineties. Yann will wear the custom made outfit and exercise along with Beverley and friends…but who is controlling whom? Yann’s movements will disintegrate, remix, and re-invent the video in real time, all whilst he’s getting fit and enjoying it too!

You can see the finished work (and outfit of course!) at Cryptic Nights: SuckerBallz! at the CCA in Glasgow on 5 March at 8pm. I’ll be adding more pictures and information as the outfit takes shape and hopefully some photos and video of the finished piece.