Lisboa

Unitygain is a performance format proposed by New York artist David Linton. The platform allows for multiple audio and video artists to perform together and to jam. In Lisbon the Unitygain was hosted by O Século club and by curator Elsa Vieira of Rogue Waves.

Last night [March 12, 2008] the Unitygain included the following artists :
David Linton
Adriana Sa [pt]
Damian Stewart aka Frey [nz]
Fadigaz [pt]
John Klima [usa]
Magenta Interior [pt]
MonkeyFish [pt/usa]
Paulo Raposo [pt]


Frey [New Zealand audio artist Damian Stewart] and Magenta Interior [Portuguese video artist].

The live performance was a first collaboration for these two artist and it was visible that both worked consciously in regards to the performance of the other. Magenta Interior's visuals were created by an elaborate setup that did not include a computer. Her setup included a video mixer and a children's turntable that she placed objects on such a snow globes, crystal balls, bits of paper, toys and metal mesh. With a hand held camera she filmed the spinning objects and with natural movements created a beautiful and incoherent kaleidoscope. The audio that Frey created for this collaboration also wove in and out of coherence and included small melodies and tangible sounds. Frey uses Pure Data.

O Século is a cultural organization with a focus on advancing new art and audio-visual culture. The space has an elaborate video setup with projections on all walls and serves great drinks, breakfasts and deserts. It's open everyday except sunday and has events almost everynight. The cultural center is a space run by a number of local organizations, Ouve, Multi Audio Cultura and Centro Des Artes .


John Kilma and Adriana Sa regular perform together and work with the same software, a complex system that recognizes pitch for the sounds of their guitar [John] and zither[Adriana] to move them through abstract 3D environments.

The evening ended in a jam with all audio and visual artists performing together. The result was really pleasant, not too aggressive or chaotic abstract sound performance with 5 different video streams and came to a close with some very night techno beats. I could not figure out who made the beats and nobody would own up to it!


This is an image of the tool that John Klima was playing in the final jam. Each branch and node represent a different sample and he used his custom software to play with and recognize pitch and move between the different samples.

Here in Lisbon developing a public installation that will be solar powered so I have been checking out the local solar devices. Like in Montreal there are electronic solar powered parking meters. Except I guess nobody cares much abut paying for parking.... because the solar panels are missing.... and so are the batteries... and the electronics... and the buttons are gone...

What I really found great is that these systems, despite the major vandalism, have not become completely useless... now they are used as sidewalk garbage cans!

The project I am developing will be about the same size as the parking meter and it should live outside in quite the same way. I guess I really have to watch out that I build it strong enough so that it won't end up like this parking meter. But since it will not be a cruel machine collecting money for everyone, maybe people will be less tempted to hurt it. In fact I hope they like it! I mean... who doesn't like RAINBOWS ?!

A bit like a video "share" session, this is happening in Lisbon, Portugal :

Tonight [March 12th] NY Artist David Linton is here in Lisbon and is coordinating a project called Unitygain that will be presented from 10pm at OSECULO. The project brings together a group of audio and digital visual artists. Each will play a solo set and then they will all perform together. The project is hosted here by curator Elsa Vieira of RogueWaves. I'll send some images and updates tomorrow after the show.

22h, Oseculo, Lisboa - free entry
RUA DE O SÉCULO, Nº80-88

David Linton
performers:
Adriana Sa [pt]
Damian Stewart aka Frey [nz]
Fadigaz [pt]
John Klima [usa]
Magenta Interior [pt]
MonkeyFish [pt/usa]
Paulo Raposo [pt]

This is what I saw yesterday in Lisbon:

I visited LISBOA20, a very beautiful commercial gallery and met with Luis Silva, the production director there. He explained to me that although the gallery is an independent commercial space, they like to do their best to foster the development of the Portuguese contemporary art scene and specifically the digital art scene here. In order to do this the gallery hosts 2 major projects : The Upgrade! Lisbon [ a regular gathering of young and old digital and media artists, curators and other interested in art and technology] and the LX 2.0 web art commissioning project [support, display and archive initiative].
I saw the most recent project, just launched in March 2008, SPACE RACE #1 by Portuguese artist André Sier.

SPACE RACE #1 is a generative work a bit similar to the problematics in MadMax. The piece consists of a 3D simulation of a space ship that travels to various mystery locations. In order to continue in its mission, the ship much fight for a green substance that is needs for fuel. In each new environment the ship competes with the "local" inhabitants [ teams of flying objets ] who of course wan to keep their fuel.

Each local team that the nomadic ship encounters has its own unique characteristics and so the traveling ship much adapt its competition tactics. This intelligent generative art work is a kind of abstract computer game.

I found it to be both aesthetically beautiful and narratively engaging. The symbols and shapes that represent the various ships move in lively and personalized ways between patterned and random interactions with one another. The game has no visible end and no way for me to interact with it. These aspects gave me the sense of having a birds-eye view on the daily life of a semi-natural and semi--disturbing society.

info and links to the project and the artist can be found on the LISBOA20 website and on his personal website.
http://www.lisboa20.pt/lx20
http://www.s373.net

Hello. I am Kyd Campbell, currently on residency in Lisbon, Portugal. I am hosted here at the HOME Residence, a project run by artist André Gonçalvez [Feltro]. Basically he hosts me in his home and amazing studio, helps me around Lisbon, introduces me to people here and assists me with my project.

I will be in Lisbon from now (March9th) to the end of April. I have just been here for 2 days so far and I have already been exposed to an enormous amount of digital art and AV works. Aside from this art scene the city seems really lovely, there are pastry shops everywhere, car are very courteous and stop for pedestrians, the food is wonderful and the people I have met are really friendly.

I am going to make a bit of a chronicle of my time here in Lisbon, focusing on the art scene I encounter, the process of developing my art work here. My entries will include both information about the city and the scene here and also some personal reflections on what I see here. I decided to work with the Elektra Blog for this chronicle because Elektra represents an interested and active community within the global digital art that seems quite open in the same that that the Lisbon scene is.

I will also write a bit about the production of a TinyNoise.com event (small nomadic sound platform) that I will host here in the beginning of April. I am currently researching artists and have already found a host venue called OSECULO.