Organum at New Langton Arts April 19-23

New Langton Arts, San Franciso presents:

Organum
Greg Niemeyer, Dan Perkel and Ryan Shaw

Installation & Video Game
April 19 - April 23, 2005
12-6 pm, Admission Free

Closing Day Events and Concert
April 23, noon to midnight

New Langton Arts presents Organum, a week of interactive programming exploring the human voice through sound, image and technology, April 19 - 23, 2005. A week-long installation premieres Organum: The Game (2005), a video game by digital media artists Greg Niemeyer, Dan Perkel and Ryan Shaw, in which gamers navigate through the human voice box using their own voices as game controls.

Organum culminates in a day of activities on Saturday April 23, from noon to midnight, including: an informal brown bag lunch with the artists (noon to 3 pm); an evening reception celebration (6 to 8 pm); and a finale concert, The Human Voice Explored (8 pm). The concert
is a showcase of the vast potential of the human voice with Tuvan-style throat singer Seth Augustus, experimental vocalist Aurora Josephson, and human beatboxer Kid Beyond. The space remains open until midnight for after-hours video game play. Organum is part of NetWork, Langton’s ongoing digital and net art exhibition program.

Tickets for The Human Voice Explored performance are $8 general admission, $6 Langton members, students and seniors. Admission to all other events is free.

The Installation
Organum: The Game is a collaborative video game in which three or more
players sing into different microphones to control the three axes of
movement (x, y, and z) on the three-dimensional game screen. Together, the
players represent a grey sphere “character,” which they must navigate
through an increasingly complicated path, hitting a series of flashing
spherical targets as they travel through a luminous digital representation
of the inside of the voice box. In order to succeed, players must find ways
to work together, often requiring them to break social norms and behavior.

Organum: The Game continues the designers’ exploration of sound and
animation initiated with the creation of Organum the short animated film
(2003), screened continuously as part of the installation. First released
as part of the exhibition Gene(sis) at the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film
Archive (2003), the film features a cast of singing, social creatures forced
to adapt and survive with the introduction of strange new technology into
their world. Modeled after lungs and voice boxes, these creatures move by
drawing on the sound waves contained in air. The film is designed such that
the programming mirrors the plot - movement in the animation drives the
sound that in turn drives the animation in a mutually-reinforcing loop.

Organum Events
The week-long Organum installation culminates in a celebratory day of
events, from noon to midnight on Saturday April 23. Niemeyer, Perkel and
Shaw are on hand to discuss interactive game design and programming from
noon to 3 pm during an informal brown bag lunch. Then a reception kicks off
the evening festivities, from 6 to 8 pm.

The Human Voice Explored
The finale is The Human Voice Explored, a performance by three vocalists
from wildly different genres and styles, who each explore the farthest
reaches of vocal techniques and sonic possibilities in their work.
Singer-songwriter Seth Augustus sings in the style of Tuvan throat singers,
singing two or three tones at once, conjuring low rumbling drones from the
depths of his vibrating chest along with flute-like, ethereal overtones from
sound resonating in his head and throat.

Aurora Josephson explores sounds and textures in her vocal improvisations
that seek to extend her range of expressive and interactive possibilities.
Rather than singing melodies or clear, unaltered pitches, she develops an
arsenal of sounds that mimic electronic bleeps, blips and fizzes, overtones
and pointillistic textures that sound as if they could be produced by a
string or woodwind instrument. Kid Beyond (Andrew Chaikin) loops and
multitracks his voice live onstage to create his own backing accompaniment
tracks, layering sung lyrics over his own rhythmic beatboxing that conjures
the sound of drum kits, hip-hop loops, techno beats, turntable scratches and
synthesizers. The vocalists close the evening by collaborating as players
in the Organum video game. After the performance, the Downstairs space is
open until midnight for after-hours game play.


The Artists

Greg Niemeyer's projects include Gravity (Cooper Union, NYC, 1997), PING (SFMOMA, 2001), and Oxygen Flute (SJMA, 2002). Niemeyer founded the Stanford University Digital Art Center, which he directed until 2001, when he was appointed at UC Berkeley as Assistant Professor for New Media. He received a BFA (1990) from Ecole d'Arts Appliques, Vevey, Switzerland and an MFA from Stanford University (1997).

Dan Perkel is a graduate student at UC Berkeley's School of Information Management and Systems (SIMS). His professional and academic focus is in interaction design, seeking out projects that come at the intersection of art, technology, design, and creativity. Currently, Perkel is developing tools and games to enable youth to collaboratively construct video and picture narratives.

Ryan Shaw's current and past projects include Media Streams MetaData eXchange (2004-05), Unmediated (2004-05) and Trace (2004). Shaw is currently a researcher at Garage Cinema Research, UC Berkeley. He received a BS from Stanford University (1998) and is a graduate student in UC Berkeley's School of Information Management and Systems.


Venue Info:
New Langton Arts
1246 Folsom Street, San Francisco
www.newlangtonarts.org
415 626 5416

Contact: Lisa Mezzacappa
[email protected]