X-OP night of electronically supported art media

X-OP, a three-year-old project exchange of operators and producers in the field of contemporary art, comprises over two hundred and fifty art and production units. It has been (and still is) geographically set in Berlin, Maçao, Novigrad, Rijeka, Zagreb, Istanbul, Tomar, Abrantes, Mooste, Helsinki, Prague, Vienna, Ljubljana, Talin and other locations; and is now coming to an end in Maribor with the following artistic performances:

Thursday, August 25th 2011, Glavni trg 14 (outside KIT):
x-op night of electronically supported art media

20.00
Electropera postproductions: Operabil Relocation
Irena Tomažin: voice
Marko Košnik: live manipulation of topographic imagery

Operabil Relocation is an instrumental variant of the presentation of spatially located sequences, set by Marko Košnik in KIBLA in an interactive form with Ditopia, Zaslon in autumn 2009. A round number of two thousand photos, taken by steps on the location of KIBLA and its surroundings, represent a portrait of the space, activities, workers and colleagues, and the social atmosphere of Narodni dom and its near surroundings. Two years ago, the interactive installation allowed visitors themselves to handle the images by means of a video tracking system. This time the material will be interpreted by Košnik, with the use of an interface that enables the interaction, and with an improvised singing support by Irena Tomažin. The artists have created a conceptual improvisation in accordance with topographical and sign qualities of the material, relying mostly on the bodily and spatial memory of walking in these public places. The Egon March Institute thus carries on the tradition of operabils conducted with musicians and videoinstrumental improvisations, that have formed the core of Electropera (2008–2011): Operabil Para Berlin (Germany), Operabil Para Istanbul (Turkey), Operabil Tomar (Portugal), Operabil Hexpo (Estonia) and Operabil Helsinki (Finland).

21.00
Cameron Bobro, Peter Tomaž Dobrila and Ana Pečar:
Bizantinski kadilak / Byzantine Cadillac, a vocal and electronic work of art in the making

Are we to assume that there is artistic meaning inherent in differences and audible consequences of sounds moving together, we cannot sanely maintain that most of what we call “music” is much more than culture-specific sound theater, far closer to language than to the visual arts, which is to say, music is usually “about” something, more is something. What happens if we take seriously that which is given lip-service in music, ideas such as “feeling” and “soul” and so forth, and wish to embody these things in the materials and modalities of the music itself, more than use a specific language to convey these things by “talking about them”? The first order of business is to unsnap sounds from inherited grids of rhythm and pitch. Most of us probably realize this already, even if we have not thought of things this way: in the western world, the very symbol of “expression” in music is the Blues. And what are the hallmark material features of the Blues? Why, the ragged (unsnapped) rhythms and the “blue notes”, microtonal tones not snapped to the grid of the 12-tone equal temperament. Now, what happens if we take far more material off the grid in our quest to embody more and “refer to” less? This is what Byzantine Cadillac is all about.

Kindly welcome! Admission free.
In case of rain, the entire program will be moved to MMC KIBLA.

MMC KIBLA wishes to thank the following for their support: EU-EACEA, Culture Programme, Brussels, Slovenian Ministry of Culture, Municipality of Maribor and Office of Youth. KiBela programme is part of the European X-OP project.

Marko Košnik started his polymedia career in 1980s as a writer of concepts and a musician, producing creative environments, open labs and media platforms, dealing with synchronization of authors from different backgrounds. Crossing from acoustic studies of subterranean Karst to performances and installations with sonorostatics (electro-acoustic plates) Košnik entered the field of performances with his own producting of Egon March Institute and started building interactive environments in 1993. Since 2001 Košnik' orients towards solo works: field media research, video instrumentalism, installations and performances.

Irena Tomažin is an artist of versatile renown; a singer, dancer, actor, performer. Her latest show was Splet Okoliščin / Turn of Events, performed in cooperation with the dancer Josephine Evrard. Her best known shows include Spozaba Kaprice / Caprice (Re)lapse and Kot Kaplja Dežja V Usta Molka / As a rain drop into the mouth of silence, as well as the iT music project for vocals and dictaphones. She participated in theatre and dance projects across Europe, in Japan...

Cameron Bobro was born in California, USA. Lives in Maribor, Slovenia. Studied classical voice (basso profondo), receiver of Pilsbury prize scholarship for classical voice. Has performed in a dozen countries from the US to Portugal to China, currently performing an ongoing and evolving solo work of original compositions, incorporating live singing and acoustic instruments with microtonal electronic music (Byzantine Cadillac) with Peter Tomaž Dobrila; composer and performer in the “Hallerstein” and the ongoing noise project “Prašum” with Luka Dekleva. Has done interactive sound and musical accompaniment for Berlin multimedia artists “BBM” (Maribor, Wolfsburg, Berlin), “Digitalna Komuna” performances (Maribor, Ljubljana, Belgrade) and other projects. Organizer of the annual new music Festival (Da)(Ne)s, (2007–2011), each August and September in Maribor, Slovenia.

Peter Tomaž Dobrila is an electrotechnics and computer sciences engineer, and a musician focusing on the creative use of new technologies. In 1996 he founded the Multimedia center KiberSRCeLab – KIBLA (MMC KIBLA) in Maribor, Slovenia. He ran the center and association KIBLA till 2004, when he became menthor and a consultant specialized in international projects based on the collaboration between culture and art, education and science with the use of modern information and communication technologies, mostly in Europe, but also elsewhere, particularly Asian countries.

Ana Pečar is a video artist and researcher of new approaches on the field of intermedia art. She has been active as live video performer, organizer of public events and a teacher.
Her art is based on vigorous heritage and strata of unreal realities. In editing, she follows the rhythm, the pulse of time. (www.anapecar.com)