Fwd: PARIS exhibition launch

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Jon Thomson <[email protected]>
> Date: September 20, 2004 9:20:41 AM EDT
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: PARIS exhibition launch
>
> Hello!
>
> Our new gallery work, 'Unprepared Piano' is launching tomorrow as part
> of Villette Numerique's Zone of Confluences in Parc de La Villette,
> Paris. The exhibition also features works by JODI, David Rokeby, Tom
> Betts, Jennifer & Kevin McCoy, Jonah Brucker-Cohen, and Cory Archangel
> to name a few…
>
> The exhibition is curated by Benjamin Weil and runs from 21st
> September until 3rd October.
>
> hope you can make it
>
> best wishes,
>
> Jon & Alison
>
> –>
> Villette Numerique
>
> Zone de confluences
> Parc de La Villette - Grande Halle
> 211 avenue Jean Jaures
> 75019 Paris
>
> Metro : Porte de Pantin (line 5)
> Parking: Parc de La Villette Southside
>
> In "Unprepared Piano," Thomson & Craighead connect a Yamaha MIDI grand
> piano to a database of music MIDI files which are appropriated and
> compiled from all over the world wide web. This library of "found"
> computer music files is then "performed" in the gallery by this
> automated instrument, and with the full authority one associates with
> a concert grand piano.
>
> However, because the piano does not know what notation is contained
> in any given "found" MIDI file, or more particularly what instruments
> this notation was created for in its original context, this
> "unprepared" piano ends up rendering drum parts, string sections,
> piano parts, marimbas &c. in awkward configurations and combinations.
>
> Gilberto might end up sounding like Schoenberg for example, while a
> country music track may seem more like the work of a Fluxus artist.
> "In effect," say the artists, "Unprepared Piano is both a homage to
> the tradition of John Cage's Prepared Pianos and an extension of it
> through the use of Appropriation and Manipulation within the realm of
> electronic communications networks like the world wide web."
>
> –>
> Thomson & Craighead
> http://www.thomson-craighead.net /
> –>
> Currently: http://www.copy-art.net/ ICA, London
> Currently: Intelligent Agent Exhibition, Chelsea Museum, NYC
> Currently: Unprepared Piano, Villette Numerique, Paris.
>
> Nov: Pass the Time of Day, Gasworks, London
> Nov: Algorithmic Revolution, ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany
> Nov: Database Imaginary, Walter Philips Gallery, Banff, Canada.
>
> –>
> Thomson & Craighead
> http://www.thomson-craighead.net /
> –>
> Currently: http://www.copy-art.net/ ICA, London
> Currently: Intelligent Agent Exhibition, Chelsea Museum, NYC
>
> Next week: Unprepared Piano, Villette Numerique, Paris.
> Nov: Pass the Time of Day, Gasworks, London
> Nov: Algorithmic Revolution, ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany
> Nov: Database Imaginary, Walter Philips Gallery, Banff, Canada.
>