[Nodar003] Three Years In Nodar Context-Specific Art Practices in Rural Portugal 315 pages full color catalogue Accompanying double CD with 20 sound compositions made in Nodar Price: 25 Euros + postage For orders, please contact info@binauralmedia.org The catalog includes essays, critical texts, field diaries, photographs and drawings of more than 40 artists who developed art [...]

Texts, photos and audio from the three projects developed in May 09 @ Nodar are now online:

Jason Kahn

Satoshi Morita

Melanie Velarde

An extra audio file from Melanie Velarde’s rehearsal two nights before the final presentation:

Nodar Artist Residency Center presents:

AURAL RURAL

Saturday, 23 May 09
Nodar, São Pedro do Sul (PT)
(Geo Coordinates 40° 55′ 5″ N, 8° 3′ 36″ W)

A full day dedicated to rural sounds, its active listening and creative transformation

Programme

10.00 a.m.
Sound Walk on the Banks of the Paiva River

Motivated by a different way of perceiving the landscape, the participants in this sound walk will be invited to “re-tune” their ears, to actively pay attention to the rich aural world around Nodar and the Paiva river, to listen actively and imaginatively, and not just passively hear, broadening the consciousness to the acoustical elements included in both natural and human landscapes.

Throughout the walk (around 1h30) participants will be invited to relax, concentrate and be silent, in order to better activate the acoustical experience. The visual elements of the landscape should be mostly used as landmarks for orientation purposes. In the end we will share our experiences and the soundwalk will be fully recorded to be later uploaded on Binaural’s website.

Note: Participants should register in the soundwalk by sending an email to info@binauralmedia.org. (includes lunch – cost 10 euros) and wear comfortable clothing and footwear.

3.00 p.m.
Three Site-Specific Sound Projects Developed in Nodar

Jason Kahn (USA)
Art Project: “Any Way the Wind Blows” | Sound Installation

“Any Way the Wind Blows” is an installation and recording project in interaction with Nodar’s natural environment. Through the use of amplified steel wires, self-made piezo microphones and multi-speaker systems driven by portable amplifiers the sound of wind blowing is amplified, vibrating the branches and leaves of trees, bushes, grass; and these sounds are reintroduced in the form of a sonic mirror back into the environment. On a conceptual level this installation addresses the notion of art’s place as something existing in the eye of the beholder: as in the old saying, “if a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, did it fall?”

Jason Kahn was born in New York in 1960, grew up in Los Angeles and relocated to Europe in 1990. He currently lives in Zurich. His work includes sound installation, performance and composition. He has given concerts and exhibited sound installations throughout Europe, North and South America, Japan, México, Korea, Israel, Turkey, Russia, Lebanon, Egypt, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia. Kahn performs both solo and in collaborations, using percussion, analog synthesizer or computer in different combinations. For larger groups of directed improvisation he has devised a system of graphical scores. Kahn creates his sound installations for specific spaces. The focus of these primarily non-visual works lies in the perception of a space through sound.

http://jasonkahn.net

Melanie Velarde (Australia)
Art Project: “Without Title” | Sound Performance and Installation

A platform in form of an installation and a performance, that constitutes an aleatorical process in acoustic communication across geographic, physical and emotional boarders. Acousmatic sounds, field recordings and electro acoustic works are sourced and generated through analog means from the surrounding area to participate in an improvisation and “hoerspiel” that are situated in the landscape of Nodar. The idea is to create a framework which allows for improvisation and new combinations of (visual)local residues, field recordings, electro acoustic compositions and experimental sound works. The artist is particularly interested in a compositional approach that is characterized by the participating sound’s location and heritage, bringing time and place as modulating elements into the framework and that is coloured by low-fi and analog methods.

Melanie Velarde is an Australian sound artist currently living in Berlin. She received a Master in New Media Art (Sound Studies) from RMIT, Melbourne Australia in 2001. She has been using mainly field recordings to produce audio/sensual textures that can be experienced within a defined space, usually in form of sound and video installations as well as performance. Her work has been presented in galleries and festivals throughout Australia, China, Denmark, Germany, etc. as well as in art radio broadcasts.

http://www.melanievelarde.com

Satoshi Morita (Japan)
Art Project: “Nodar Walk” | Audio-Tactile Presentation

“Transformation of walking around Nodar into sonic experience – feel the touch of the environment”. The environment in Nodar will be acoustically recorded with multiple microphones while the artist is going for a walk. The walk is also accompanied with sound by objects, which he brings with him. The audience experience the rural environment from unusual listening perspective with audio-tactile perception through his inter-sensory sonic object.

Satoshi Morita is a Japanese sound artist currently living in Berlin. He holds a graduation in Sound Studies by the Arts University of Berlin. He has been presenting his many sound installations in galleries, museums and unconventional spaces throughout Austria, England and several places in Germany. Satoshi Morita also creates radio pieces that have been broadcasted in several radio art programs (WDR3, Deutchlandradio Kultur, etc.). He was granted an honorary mention at Prix Ars Electronica 2008.

http://www.sonicspacelabs.com

The Nodar Media Arts Residency Programme for 2009 is defined and will occur throughout the year in five modules, (between March, 15th and October, 31st), with the presence of 19 artists from different geographical origins and artistic backgrounds, who will develop their art projects in the rural village of Nodar and adjacent territories.

These are the key points for this year’s selected projects:

1. Three Estonian visual artists (Peeter Laurits, Anna Hints and Svetlana Bogomolova) were invited to work in Nodar under a cooperation agreement in place with MoKs, a cultural organization and artist residency located in the village of Mooste.  Concurrently, Binaural invited four Portuguese artists to develop an art project in Mooste: Dinis Santos, Andrea Brandão, Ana Carvalho and Bruno Humberto.

2. For the first time since the inception of Nodar Artist Residency Center there will be an important presence of Portuguese artists in Nodar (Rui Silveira, Joana Nascimento, Sérgio Cruz e Marta Bernardes), which reveals, firstly, a growing interest by the Portuguese artist community in an exploratory and context-specific art practice and secondly, an increase of quality of the art projects proposed by an emergent group of Portuguese multidisciplinary artists.

3. A selection of sound art projects based on Nodar’s acoustic context that propose innovative modes of sonic capturing, composition, perception and/or projection. In this respect can be mentioned the project proposed by the Brazilians Luciana Ohira and Sérgio Bonilha, who will build a series of solar-powered lo-fi sound devices that will be scattered in the landscape, therefore mixed with the landscape’s own sounds, the Berlin based Japanese artist Satoshi Morita who will create in Nodar a series of multi-track recordings that will be later reproduced through a series of own-built sonic helmets to induce the listener in a both audible and tactile sonic perception, or the US sound artist Ben Owen who will use seismographers and geophones to capture underground vibrations and transform them into audible elements. Other internationally known sound artists to be present this year in Nodar are Jason Kahn, Melanie Velarde, Duncan Whitley and Jez riley French.

4. Projects that reflect on certain aspects of Nodar’s local reality, such as traditional architecture (Rui Silveira, Jez riley French), the animal world (Marta Bernardes / Ignacio Martínez and Sérgio Cruz), abandoned rural villages (Manuela Barile) or the passion for amateur football (Duncan Whitley).

5. Projects that involve the human voice and its sensitive connection to human and natural landscape (Marta Bernardes / Ignacio Martínez, Manuela Barile, Alice Hui-Sheng Chang / Nigel Brown and Anna Hints).

Last but not the least, it is worth mentioning that on each residency module, several parallel activities will be developed in connection with students (in cooperation with local schools and universities) and a public presentation of the art projects will be organized.

Artist residencies calendar for 2009:

15 March | 4 April 2009
Joana Nascimento (Portugal)
Peeter Laurits (Estonia)
Rui Silveira (Portugal)
Svetlana Bogomolova (Estonia)

3 May | 23 May 2009
Jason Kahn (USA)
Melanie Velarde (Australia)
Satoshi Morita (Japan)

27 June | 18 July 2009
Ben Owen (USA)
Marta Bernardes & Ignacio Martínez (Portugal / Spain)
Sérgio Bonilha & Luciana Ohira (Brazil)
Sérgio Cruz (Portugal)

1 September | 21 September 2009
Manuela Barile (Italy)
Duncan Whitley (UK)

10 October | 31 October 2009
Anna Hints (Estonia)
Jez Riley French (UK)
Nigel Brown & Alice Hui-Sheng Chang (Australia / Taiwan)

Note: Please click here to download a digital brochure with the art projects’ description and their authors’ biographies: