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BLIP / LIGHTHOUSE PERFORMANCE COMMISSION
Featuring Tom Arthurs, Ollie Bown (Icarus), Martin Hampton (Squint), Britt Hatzius (Brittski)
Dana Centre, South Kensington, London
Lighthouse and Blip 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 premiered in May 2006 at the Creative
Cyborgs event at the Dana Centre. The group performed together again
in Brighton in November 2006.
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) 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.
This commission was funded by Arts Council England South East, Brighton
& Hove City Council and Lighthouse. |
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