Tuesday, January 31, 2006

death of the birth of video art

nam june paik - whose work i came across only in the mid 90s - has passed on. See: http://www.paikstudios.com/

i first discovered the fluxus movement in 1995 when starting at university, and the fascination has remained. i considered performing a piece from the fluxus manual - something for watering can, ladder and french horn - but the context wasn't the right one (not really suitable for a technical and repertoire exam).

it was only when in paris at the end of 2004 that i saw the "son et lumiere" exhibition at the pompidou. this was the first opportunity i had to see his work "in the flesh" so to speak... and i found it hard to drag myself out of the room...

nownow was now

the nownow was on in sydney a fortnight ago. this event is becoming a landmark on the international map of improvised music. the usual suspects were in attendance, but their music was far from the everyday usual.

despite being at the end of the festival, where people have usually run out of steam, i found my three most enjoyable performances. Firstly the trio of Rik Rue, Gary Butler and driven by Shannon ONeill (delving further into his own aesthetic, which brought more energy as a the whole). Followed by Clare Cooper, Xavier Charles and Chris Abrahams - and ensemble that was seemingly seamless. Finally Peter Rehburg and Martin Ng - which I would have been happy to listen to (while curled up on the couches) all night.

If you've not been before (it's been running 5 years now) then check out the site (http://www.thenownow.net) as the gigs run continuously throughout the year.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

net archiving

attended a presentation by Igor Ranitovic from the Internet Archive (www.archive.org) today. The National Library has been collaborating with the Internet Archive to crawl through the web and carry out a whole of Australia domain harvest.