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Installations presented in 2016
Interactive Radio: Diversity on Air
By Lori Beckstead
January 20, 2016
Wednesday to Sunday 1:00pm-6:00pm.
Gallery 1313, 1313 Queen Street West, Toronto
Whose voices are heard loudest on mainstream radio in Toronto? Do radio hosts reflect the diversity of the city's population? Interactive Radio: Diversity on Air is a data auralization tool that allows users to explore information about diversity among radio hosts in Canada's largest radio market. Tune to an AM or FM radio station and discover, through soundscape, visual information, and the moving radio antenna-meter, how many men, women, and/or racialized persons have control of the microphone.
By Lori Beckstead
January 20, 2016
Wednesday to Sunday 1:00pm-6:00pm.
Gallery 1313, 1313 Queen Street West, Toronto
Whose voices are heard loudest on mainstream radio in Toronto? Do radio hosts reflect the diversity of the city's population? Interactive Radio: Diversity on Air is a data auralization tool that allows users to explore information about diversity among radio hosts in Canada's largest radio market. Tune to an AM or FM radio station and discover, through soundscape, visual information, and the moving radio antenna-meter, how many men, women, and/or racialized persons have control of the microphone.
Lori Beckstead is a professor of radio & sound media in the RTA School of Media at Ryerson University, with a background in community and public radio. Her creative practice centres around soundscape recordings and interactive sound installations that explore themes of location/dislocation, voice, and diversity.
Free Transmission, a photo exhibit
By Stefan A. Rose
January 20, 2016 to January 31, 2016
Wednesday to Sunday 1:00pm-6:00pm.
Gallery 1313, 1313 Queen Street W, Toronto
By Stefan A. Rose
January 20, 2016 to January 31, 2016
Wednesday to Sunday 1:00pm-6:00pm.
Gallery 1313, 1313 Queen Street W, Toronto
Stefan A. Rose has documented Deep Wireless since the early 2000’s with an eye to creatively documenting performers and composers in ways that translate the audio performances into visual form, capturing pivotal moments’ textures, colours, and compositions. This transmission from one medium to another frees the viewer’s imagination.
Stefan A. Rose is a photographer, poet, and video artist, who explores psycho-geographic themes using analog and digital formats. Stefan received his BSc. and BFA degrees from Mount Allison University. He has been a documentary photographer since 1997 for Toronto and Kitchener-Waterloo new music organizations. Five of his video artworks were commissioned by the Penderecki String Quartet to accompany performances in Canada and around the world. Anchorage Press published his poetry chapbook "The House That Stands," winning a 2008 Alcuin Society Canadian Book Design Award. He was the 2010 City of Kitchener Artist In Residence, and lives in Waterloo, Ontario with his wife, artist Laura De Decker. http://www.stefanrose.ca
Synthecycletron
Open 24/7 July - Oct
By Barry Prophet
Open 24/7 July to October
Between the pier and the boardwalk on Centre Island
FREE
Open 24/7 July - Oct
By Barry Prophet
Open 24/7 July to October
Between the pier and the boardwalk on Centre Island
FREE
Synthecycletron was commissioned in 2006 by New Adventures in Sound Art and has been a Toronto Island favourite amongst Toronto cyclists and visitors ever since. It is an interactive installation where the public generates power by pedalling on stationary bicycles which in turn activate synthesizers and generate sounds connected to the pedalling movement.
Site Specific Installations at Warbler’s Roost
By Yves Daoust, BARFFF Enterprises, Christine Charette and Darren Copeland
July 29, 2016 to July 31, 2016
Friday and Saturday 10am - 4pm; Sunday noon-4pm
Warbler’s Roost located in the forest behind the Inn, 3785D Eagle Lake Rd, South River, ON
General $PWYC
By Yves Daoust, BARFFF Enterprises, Christine Charette and Darren Copeland
July 29, 2016 to July 31, 2016
Friday and Saturday 10am - 4pm; Sunday noon-4pm
Warbler’s Roost located in the forest behind the Inn, 3785D Eagle Lake Rd, South River, ON
General $PWYC
Darren Copeland's new installation Hidden Sounds will be included on the Artscape Studio Tour organized by the Almaguin Highlands Arts Council. Enjoy a northern summer visit to Warbler’s Roost and also experience outdoor sound installations curated by NAISA that includes works by Yves Daoust, BARFFF Enterprises and Christine Charette.
Program:
I. Home by Christine Charette
Christine Charette’s sound art installation “Home” wanders through forest metaphors inspired by “women’s work” in sight and sound. In scope are the co-existence of the object and the domestic, the parallels of mending in the home and in the environment, and what that can look and sound like. Charette’s installation is meant to unwind you and hopefully carry you to places that move you in your own relationship to what “Home” has meant or can mean to you.
Christine Charette’s sound art installation “Home” wanders through forest metaphors inspired by “women’s work” in sight and sound. In scope are the co-existence of the object and the domestic, the parallels of mending in the home and in the environment, and what that can look and sound like. Charette’s installation is meant to unwind you and hopefully carry you to places that move you in your own relationship to what “Home” has meant or can mean to you.
II. Empreintes by Yves Daoust
Sponsored by the the René Derouin Foundation, for the International Symposium of Art in Situ, Val-David, Québec
The work is a long loop of about 36 minutes, the end merging perfectly with the beginning, without any interruption. The structure makes it very difficult, even in extended listening, to perceive repetition, all the sound elements being repeated two or three times, but in different contexts and vertical organizations.
The sound materials are in immediate relationship with the environment: wood (beaten, broken, rubbed), leaves, the wind whistling, rain, rocks, some real sounds of animals (frogs, birds), and naturalists electronic sounds evoking the forest bestiary .
I worked according to my usual way: classification of sounds by typo-morphological categories, but especially expressive energies and potentialities. The srtucture consists of a juxtaposition of moments in which, for each of them, a specific material is in forefront.
The eight speakers are above the heads of listeners. The spatial distribution of sounds is done according to the following principles:
1) a specific category of sounds invading all the space;
2) opposition of the different materials, spreaded in different area of the diffusion system, circular movements, echoes…
In compliance with the natural environment in which the installation takes place, I mainly used the medium and high registers, and levels were adjusted so that the dissemination area is restricted. Some bass sounds, evoking menace of nature, appear sometimes.
Sponsored by the the René Derouin Foundation, for the International Symposium of Art in Situ, Val-David, Québec
The work is a long loop of about 36 minutes, the end merging perfectly with the beginning, without any interruption. The structure makes it very difficult, even in extended listening, to perceive repetition, all the sound elements being repeated two or three times, but in different contexts and vertical organizations.
The sound materials are in immediate relationship with the environment: wood (beaten, broken, rubbed), leaves, the wind whistling, rain, rocks, some real sounds of animals (frogs, birds), and naturalists electronic sounds evoking the forest bestiary .
I worked according to my usual way: classification of sounds by typo-morphological categories, but especially expressive energies and potentialities. The srtucture consists of a juxtaposition of moments in which, for each of them, a specific material is in forefront.
The eight speakers are above the heads of listeners. The spatial distribution of sounds is done according to the following principles:
1) a specific category of sounds invading all the space;
2) opposition of the different materials, spreaded in different area of the diffusion system, circular movements, echoes…
In compliance with the natural environment in which the installation takes place, I mainly used the medium and high registers, and levels were adjusted so that the dissemination area is restricted. Some bass sounds, evoking menace of nature, appear sometimes.
III. WR - NETTT – wilderness and technology by BARFFF Enterprises
Readings from the local environment using a triangle mesh interface. Visitors will have a chance to record a simple composition which will serve as a document of the combined living presence of the environment, the participants, and myself. Some of the results will be presented as animations on my website (www.BARFFF.com/wr-nettt-technology-and-wilderness/). This is part of a continuing investigation into the human psyche – consciousness, using artwork as the medium. The forest provides networks rich beyond comprehension. The tools of scientific computing offer an opportunity to discern some of the information, messages, and forms that are carried along them.
Readings from the local environment using a triangle mesh interface. Visitors will have a chance to record a simple composition which will serve as a document of the combined living presence of the environment, the participants, and myself. Some of the results will be presented as animations on my website (www.BARFFF.com/wr-nettt-technology-and-wilderness/). This is part of a continuing investigation into the human psyche – consciousness, using artwork as the medium. The forest provides networks rich beyond comprehension. The tools of scientific computing offer an opportunity to discern some of the information, messages, and forms that are carried along them.
IV. Hidden Sounds by Darren Copeland
This is the second part of Hidden Sounds, a series of installations that uncover sounds not audible to the human ear. The series uses unconventional methods for capturing ultrasound, material-born sound, and electromagetic radio waves. This second part focuses on the latter, capturing the natural radio waves that encircle the earth's ionosphere. Thanks to Dan Tapper for his assistance and guidance in the construction of the VLF receiver and antenna. Hidden Sounds is supported by the Ontario Arts Council's Northern Arts program. This presentation coincides with the Almaguin Arts Council’s 2016 Studio Tour.
This is the second part of Hidden Sounds, a series of installations that uncover sounds not audible to the human ear. The series uses unconventional methods for capturing ultrasound, material-born sound, and electromagetic radio waves. This second part focuses on the latter, capturing the natural radio waves that encircle the earth's ionosphere. Thanks to Dan Tapper for his assistance and guidance in the construction of the VLF receiver and antenna. Hidden Sounds is supported by the Ontario Arts Council's Northern Arts program. This presentation coincides with the Almaguin Arts Council’s 2016 Studio Tour.
Yves Daoust Composer, teacher and researcher, Yves Daoust has greatly contributed to the development of electroacoustic music in all its forms in Canada since 1976. Co-founder in 1978 of ACREQ (now ELEKTRA), he headed for 7 years this organization producing concerts and experimental events. From 1976 to 1979, he worked as a sound designer in the National Film Board. From 1980 until 2011, he taught at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, where he developed a five year program of electrocaoustice music composition. His concert works bear witness to his past endeavours in music for the cinema.
A ''figurative'' composer, he mostly uses sonic sources that are evocative, such as sounds from day-to-day life, musical quotations and sound archives. A visual music, eagerly evolving on the boundaries of musical genres. Mixed musics (acoustic instruments and electro-acoustic support) are an important part of its production, since Valse (1980), to Chorals ornés (2007/2008), Official selection in 2009, Prix de composition Prince-Pierre-de-Monaco. Alongside the composition and teaching, he works since 2004, in collaboration with Alexandre Burton, to the creation and development of educational tools for sound creation. He developed the FonoFone, a sound creation application for the iPad. In 2009, Yves Daoust received the Serge Garant Awards (Émile-Nelligan Foundation), for his work.
BARFFF Enterprises Working with nearly complete autonomy for two decades, BARFFF Enterprises is now moving to connect with the rest of humanity in what could possibly be a glorious awaited revelation or an inexcusable reckless failure. Finding middle ground has seldom been an option. Exploring the intersection of ancient, modern, and natural technologies. Everything we could possibly ever need is provided, its just a matter of figuring out how to access and use these tools. The forest speaks.
Christine Charette , a local multi-disciplinary Northern Ontario artist, has been sharing her artwork publicly since 1992, through themes of mothering, mending, existence, and the environment. Through narrative whisperings she invites you to wander through both ancient and ephemeral stories of sound, colour, shape, and spirit. Textile artist, printmaker, painter, sound and word art relationship maker, Christine’s art is meant to draw you deeper into our human experience, and our connection to nature.
Darren Copeland is a sound artist based in South River Ontario and is the Artistic Director of New Adventures in Sound Art. Key interests include multichannel spatialization, fixed media composition, soundscape studies, radio art and sound installations. His fixed media compositions have explored both abstract and referential sound materials and are published by empreintes DIGITALes. His radio art works engage in the associative qualities of environmental sounds in relation to spoken text and have been commissioned by Deutschlandradio Kultur, CBC, WBEZ, and Kunstradio (ORF). His sound installations include gallery and sited works which examine the relationship of sound and place, including Sound Columns co-created with Andreas Kahre and commissioned by Edmonton Arts Council.
‘Birth and Death Frequencies’ from A Time to Hear for Here (2007)
Co-presented with the Canadian Music Centre
By John Oswald
August 8, 2016 to August 26, 2016
Mon to Thurs, 9 AM to 5 PM & Fri, 9 AM to 1 PM
Canadian Music Centre, 20 St. Joseph Street, Toronto, ON
FREE
Co-presented with the Canadian Music Centre
By John Oswald
August 8, 2016 to August 26, 2016
Mon to Thurs, 9 AM to 5 PM & Fri, 9 AM to 1 PM
Canadian Music Centre, 20 St. Joseph Street, Toronto, ON
FREE
The Birth and Death Frequencies is a component from John Oswald's site-specific sound installation for the Crystal at the Royal Ontario Museum. Using the high frequency characteristics of directional speakers this component from the expansive reflection on time, space and Canadian identity gave the illusion of sounds whispering into the ear of the visitor. Although magical and mysterious, it was also rarely heard as it was situated in a remote part of the Crystal. For the month of August, the Birth and Death Frequencies will be heard anew where they will receive special focus in the composer’s lounge of the Canadian Music Centre.
John Oswald is best known as the the creator of the music genre Plunderphonics, an appropriative form of recording studio creation which he began to develop in the late sixties. This has got him in trouble with, and also generated invitations from major record labels and musical icons. Meanwhile, in the ’90’s he began, with several commissions from the Kronos Quartet, to compose scores, in what he calls the Rascali Klepitoire, for classical musicians and orchestras, including b9 (2012-13), a half hour condensation of all Beethoven’s Symphonies. He also improvises on the saxophone in various settings, dances, and is a visual media artist and chronosopher, best known for the series Stillnessence. He’s a Canadian Governor General’s Media Artist Laureate. His multifaceted sonic clock, A Time To Hear For Here, is a permanent environment at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. In 2016 he’ll be in residence in California, and Umbria, presenting a concert in total darkness as part of 21C at Koerner Hall in Toronto, and, with Scott Thomson, filling Parc Fontaine in Montreal with performance.
Sound Spaghetti presented by NAISA as part of Intersection
By Elliott Fienberg
September 3, 2016, 2:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Yonge Dundas Square, Toronto, ON
By Elliott Fienberg
September 3, 2016, 2:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Yonge Dundas Square, Toronto, ON
Sound Spaghetti was created to help younger audiences learn about the fundamentals of synthesis by encouraging free play. Using a tactile interface, users experiment by plugging in various waveforms and seeing how these combinations change the shape on the oscilloscope.
The system was created as a capstone project for OCAD University's Digital Futures program, where it was an audience favourite at the school's graduate showcase. It aims to be the first cardboard synthesizer which is open source and hackable.
Elliott Fienberg’s interests sit at the intersection between new media and sound art. Through his projects and initiatives, he aims to bring awareness to the importance of sound in our everyday lives.
As an artist with a vision for building community, Elliott organizes the Soundhackers Meetup, which assembles sound enthusiasts at venues such as Gamma Space and even the High Park Zoo.
The system was created as a capstone project for OCAD University's Digital Futures program, where it was an audience favourite at the school's graduate showcase. It aims to be the first cardboard synthesizer which is open source and hackable.
Elliott Fienberg’s interests sit at the intersection between new media and sound art. Through his projects and initiatives, he aims to bring awareness to the importance of sound in our everyday lives.
As an artist with a vision for building community, Elliott organizes the Soundhackers Meetup, which assembles sound enthusiasts at venues such as Gamma Space and even the High Park Zoo.
Elliott Fienberg 's interests sit at the intersection between new media and sound art. Through his projects and initiatives, he aims to bring awareness to the importance of sound in our everyday lives. As an artist with a vision for building community, Elliott organizes the Soundhackers Meetup, which assembles sound enthusiasts at venues such as Gamma Space and even the High Park Zoo.
Silo Solos (part of in/future)
By Wendalyn Bartley, Anne Bourne and and Lisa Conway
September 19, 2016 to September 25, 2016
tickets for in/future http://www.infuture.ca/register
Ontario Place, West Island
By Wendalyn Bartley, Anne Bourne and and Lisa Conway
September 19, 2016 to September 25, 2016
tickets for in/future http://www.infuture.ca/register
Ontario Place, West Island
NAISA is proud to be part of in/future at Ontario Place. On this occasion NAISA will be launching its SOUNDplay series with Silo Solos, which is a site-specific sound installation for one of the silos on the West Island of Ontario Place. The installation will feature multi-channel sound art pieces by Wendalyn Bartley, Anne Bourne, and Lisa Conway that respond to the acoustics of the silo. in/future is a multidisciplinary arts and music festival presented by Art Spin in partnership with Small World Music.
Program:
I. Whose Place? by Wendalyn Bartley
The lyrics of the original Ontario Place theme song stated: “This is your place; This is our place”, and yet it was eventually abandoned, leaving behind lost dreams and treasured memories. Using excerpts from the theme song, present and past soundscapes of the Ontario Place environment and an improvised vocalization recorded in the Snow Silo, the composition reflects upon the reality of changing public values and visions, questioning the power systems behind decisions made about public spaces.
The lyrics of the original Ontario Place theme song stated: “This is your place; This is our place”, and yet it was eventually abandoned, leaving behind lost dreams and treasured memories. Using excerpts from the theme song, present and past soundscapes of the Ontario Place environment and an improvised vocalization recorded in the Snow Silo, the composition reflects upon the reality of changing public values and visions, questioning the power systems behind decisions made about public spaces.
II. Grain by Lisa Conway
Inspired by Ontario Place's Ontario North Now exhibit and rural Ontario, Lisa Conway decided to experiment with grain, using it solely as her source material. The sound of various seeds are distorted and fractured into electroacoustic gestures, through granular synthesis, multi-channel spatialization, and other digital manipulations.
Inspired by Ontario Place's Ontario North Now exhibit and rural Ontario, Lisa Conway decided to experiment with grain, using it solely as her source material. The sound of various seeds are distorted and fractured into electroacoustic gestures, through granular synthesis, multi-channel spatialization, and other digital manipulations.
III. Water Protectors by Anne Bourne
Anne Bourne recorded a multi-track piece for cello and voice. Her response to Ontario Place brought back memories of performing with Jane Sibbery in the Ontario Place Forum. In her piece she quotes the words from one of Sibery's songs.
High tide
I tire
who rests
in a state of war
there listen
listening to high entire you
entirely you
entire
entire
you
Anne Bourne recorded a multi-track piece for cello and voice. Her response to Ontario Place brought back memories of performing with Jane Sibbery in the Ontario Place Forum. In her piece she quotes the words from one of Sibery's songs.
High tide
I tire
who rests
in a state of war
there listen
listening to high entire you
entirely you
entire
entire
you
Navigating Wellness
co-presented by NAISA and Workman Arts as part of Nuit Blanche
By James Buffin, Carrol Louie, Sarafin, Jan Swinburne, Lisa Walter and and Kerry Westall
October 1, 2016, 7:00 pm to 7:00 am
Center for Addiction and Mental Health, 1001 Queen Street West
co-presented by NAISA and Workman Arts as part of Nuit Blanche
By James Buffin, Carrol Louie, Sarafin, Jan Swinburne, Lisa Walter and and Kerry Westall
October 1, 2016, 7:00 pm to 7:00 am
Center for Addiction and Mental Health, 1001 Queen Street West
Workman Arts and NAISA present a site-specific sound installation created by artists with lived experience of recovery and wellness. Toronto Nuit Blanche Visitors will experience a contemplative auditory environment composed from sound art pieces created by artists of Workman Arts. This piece provides a calm and peaceful sound environment amidst the bustle and chaos of late night revelry. Navigating Wellness will be installed outdoors on the grounds of CAMH behind the Workman Arts Pop-Up Gallery at Queen Street West and Gordon Bell Road. For information on the Nuit Blanche site go to https://nbto.com/project.html?project_id=170
Sitting Under a Highway
Co-presented with Electric Perfume
By Hector Centeno
November 19, 2016 to November 26, 2016
Nov 19-20 and 22-26, 1 to 5 pm
Electric Perfume, 805 Danforth Ave, Toronto - http://electricperfume.com/
FREE
Co-presented with Electric Perfume
By Hector Centeno
November 19, 2016 to November 26, 2016
Nov 19-20 and 22-26, 1 to 5 pm
Electric Perfume, 805 Danforth Ave, Toronto - http://electricperfume.com/
FREE
Sitting under a highway is part of a research-creation project and is presented as an interactive audiovisual virtual and presential space. Visitors will experience photo-realistic 3D visuals and spatial audio that are the product of an artistic practice centered on the attentive aesthetic exploration of a physical place. The VR space that the user inhabits is activated through the combined measurement of concentration and relaxation via an EEG reader. A hand tracker allows the user to also physically interact in space. Through mindfulness we engage with the environment, in the hope that art created with such processes can contribute to a better understanding of the disconnect that exists between post-modern society and our inhabited places. Awarded Best Creative Work, Best Thesis Document and Outstanding Thesis Research, Digital Futures Graduate Program, OCAD University. Read more about this work at http://sitting.hcenteno.net/
Hector Centeno is a digital media artist, interactivity designer and creative software developer with nearly two decades of experience as an independent and collaborating artist, sound designer, interactive media programmer and media art technician. His focus is on immersive sound, visuals and interactivity that seeks to engage the audience into a self reflection of existence, place and reality. Among his activities are included presentation of his individual multi-channel sound art works, installation collaborative work and live sound and video improvisation performances in Canada, Ireland, UK, Colombia and Uruguay. As a software developer he has created spatial audio mobile applications, video game mechanics and simulation systems, hardware sensors and micro-controller systems. He has also leaded workshops on electronics and sound design for artists and worked as technical director at New Adventures in Sound Art in Toronto. He also currently works at OCAD University as technical lead for an augmented reality research project and teaches at George Brown College.