Lighthouse and Blip have joined forces to commission an innovative performance from visual artists Squint and Brittski to accompany the existing collaboration between jazz trumpeter Tom Arthurs, and laptop performer Ollie Bown. The performance will be premiered in May 2006 at the Creative Cyborgs event at the Dana Centre.

The sound
Nominated as Rising Star in the 2004 BBC Jazz Awards, and winner of the Peter Whittingham Award 2001, trumpeter and composer Tom Arthurs has released two acclaimed albums on the Babel Label with his projects Centripede and Squash Recipe. A key member of the F-IRE collective, BBC Radio 3 recently featured an hour-long exclusive session of Tom's music with trio Arthurs.Høiby.Ritchie. Tom has performed and recorded internationally with artists including Ingrid Laubrock, Max de Wardener, Matthew Bourne, Chartwell Dutiro, Richard Fairhurst, F-IRE Collective, JazzXchange Dance and Music Company, Icarus, Pest and Sa-Ra Creative Partners.

Ollie Bown has produced numerous works as part of electronica duo Icarus, specialising in the production of complex computer generated rhythmic patterns. Icarus releases have appeared on the labels Hydrogen Dukebox, Output Recordings, Temporary Residence and The Leaf Label and the band has done remixes for Four Tet, The Creatures and Lunz. Ollie also writes his own performance software based on behavioural robotics systems and has recently started to publish this research in the field of computational creativity. He is continuing this work with the Live Algorithms for Music group at the University of London, and Brighton's Blip Science/Art research forum.

United by common interests in electronic and improvised music, Tom Arthurs and Ollie Bown have been working together since 2004. Setting out to replace the clichés of processed instrumental sound with an electronic interaction that is more generative, their duo brings together the best of contemporary jazz and electronica, using interactive software to produce a seamlessly integrated 21st century electro acoustic music. Their mix of live and computer-generated sound provides broad scope for a visual response.

The visuals
Squint and Brittski match the sonic aesthetic with a similarly broad range of approaches to visual media. This commission has provided the group with an opportunity to develop a visual element to their set, and to tightly integrate sound and image by developing a methodology for sharing information over MIDI.

Squint and Brittski have been developing a technique for making dense improvised visual environments, blending hand drawn/scratched 16mm footage with looped video and slides. This will be the third collaboration with Ollie Bown and Tom Arthurs but is the first time that data from their sonic systems will be used to affect the images directly.

Martin Hampton (Squint)
Martin Hampton is an architect-trained filmmaker, who tries to find a balance between making documentaries, architectural animations and creating visual installations for improvised music events.
In 2001 he co-founded Squint Opera, an experimental production company that specialises in the exploration of architecture through film www.squintopera.com. He has co-directed several independent documentary projects, including 174 Rising, a film about the installation of a memorial to the dead of Everest in Nepal and The Collector about an obsessive gleaner in a small Provencal town in France.

Britt Hatzius
Brittski is a visual artist working in photography, film, video and light installation. Since 2003 she has been showing her experimental film/slide projections in conjunction with music events of London/Lisbon based electronic music label ‘Süd Electronic’. She regularly collaborates with Squint, and has completed one-off commissions for other music events eg. ‘Homefires’ (a 2 day festival in London curated by acoustic songwriter Adem). She has worked extensively with experimental theatre group Rotozaza. Brittski recently completed an MA in Photography and Urban Cultures at the CUCR, Goldsmiths College.

For more details please contact Tessa Lewin on 01273 384222 or by email: tessa@lighthouse.org.uk

This commission is funded by Arts Council England South East, Brighton & Hove City Council and Lighthouse.