Ars Electronica 2002 - Performances

CODE - The Language of Our Time
Code=Law, Code=Art, Code=Life
Ars Electronica 2003
September 6-11
Linz, Austria
<http://www.aec.at/code


You are reading the fifth issue of the Ars Electronica 2003 newsletter, providing information about the program of exhibitions at this year's festival, CODE - The Language of Our Time.
Ars Electronica 2003 - 5th Announcement: Performances


1. Messa die Voce
A totally novel and innovative concert experience will be offered by "Messa di Voce." Two extraordinary vocal artists, Jaap Blonk and Joan La Barbara, will be playing an instrument that transforms every sound they make into 3-D objects that are then projected into the stage space, where they retain their form while floating above, beside and around the vocalists. Furthermore, the objects are interactive; this means, for instance, that the artists can shift or compress them, which, in turn, modifies the sound each represents. This interplay of vocal artistry and 3-D visualization gives rise to new expressive possibilities during the course of a highly interesting and entertaining evening offering a preview of the future of live performance.


2. Principles of Indeterminism
One of the absolute highlights of this year's Ars Electronica will be "Principles of Indeterminism," a musical performance staged in and around the Brucknerhaus and accompanied by impressive visualizations including large-scale projections on the facade of the adjacent Arcotel. This will be a musical feast for the senses and, at the same time, a musical journey through time from traditional forms of composition to digital live performance. In this ensemble extravaganza featuring the Bruckner Orchestra, digital music and dramatic visualizations, the greats of minimal music, electronic music and media art including Dennis Russel Davis, Rupert Huber, Lia and Ryoji Ikeda will get together to perform works by Steve Reich, Edgar Varese, Iannis Xenakis and Marco Stroppa. This evening of epic dimensions is based upon the artistic credo of Iannis Xenakis, who remained committed throughout his career to an interdisciplinary and multimedial approach to art.


3. POL - Mechatronic Performance
In "POL - Mechatronic Performance," we encounter a classic fable. POL, a toothless rabbit, careens through this piece driven by the Forces of Darkness that are attempting to get him to renounce his beloved Princepollu. Each time he successfully completes an assigned task, he gets back one tooth, and thus recovers his lost potency step by step. This fable is brought to the screen via two exoskeletons, and its plot driven with the support of five robots; random elements are strewn into the mix, plot twists and turns are invented and freely adapted depending on spontaneous control mechanisms.


4. Additional Features
As part of a full program of musical events, ARS ELECTRONICA will present Digital Musics in Concert featuring this year's winners in the Prix ARS ELECTRONICA's Digital Musics category performing live on stage at the Brucknerhaus, as well as a 96-hour real-time soundtrack composed by the generative tonal algorithms of KOAN music software and propagated in the OMV Klangpark. Another concert highlight: DJ Spooky - That Subliminal Kid with "Errata Erratum," a remix of Marcel Duchamp's "Errata Musicale" dating from 1913 and the 1957 speech "The Creative Act." MARX provides a synthesis of language and electronic sounds; musical theater as a work-in-progress played out at an unusual venue.


The detailed Ars Electronica 2003 festival program is online now at http://www.aec.at/en/festival/index.asp

The website www.aec.at/code is providing regular and detailed updates on the festival theme, program details, news and background features as well as information about artists, speakers and performances until the festival in September.

Ars Electronica 2003
Organization:
Ars Electronica Center Linz and ORF - Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, Upper Austria Regional Studio
Co-organizers: Brucknerhaus Linz, O.K - Center for Contemporary Art
Concept & Artistic Direction: Gerfried Stocker, Christine Schoepf
Curatorial Staff: Christiane Paul, Casey Reas, Iris Mayr, Ingrid Fischer-Schreiber
Contact:
Ars Electronica Center
Hauptstrasse 2
4040 Linz, Austria
[email protected]
www.aec.at/code
Sponsors of Ars Electronica 2003:
SAP AG, Gericom, Telekom Austria, Bank Austria Creditanstalt, Quelle AG, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, Oesterreichische Brauunion, voestalpine, FESTO, Sony DADC, Siemens AG, Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa, Spring, Opel Guenther
Sponsors of Prix Ars Electronica 2003:
The Prix Ars Electronica 2003 is sponsored by Telekom Austria and supported by BAWAG/P.S.K. Group, voestalpine, SONY DADC, Gericom, the City of Linz and the Province of Upper Austria.
Additional support provided by Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa, Casinos Austria, Poestlingberg Schloessl, Oesterreichischer Kulturservice