[Microsound-announce] [EVENT] Twilight of the Little Boxes: Austin, 04.27.08

[Alex Keller]

Twilight of the Little Boxes
a 24 hour sound installation with performance.

invitation to attend and/or participate!

Salvage Vanguard Theater, 2803 Manor Rd., Austin, Texas
Sunday April 27, noon 'til Monday April 28 noon.
admission, free.

presented by Church of the Friendly Ghost as part of the Fuse Box Festival.
<http://refractionarts.org/fusebox/calendar.shtml>

rules:
submissions must involve the audible broadcast and subsequent destruction
and re purposing of  a minimum of 1 compact audio cassette mix tape.
no maximum number of tapes per submission.
said tapes may be manufactured for the purpose of the event but will ideally
be found objects.
tapes included must be "mix tapes" as the phrase is commonly understood in
contemporary popular culture, not exact reproductions of existing recorded
works. tape destruction requires rendering the media unusable in its
original, intended form.
tapes may not be burned.
the end result of all works requires re purposing of the original tape
material introduced into the piece.
additional non tape material may be introduced as well.

multiple source 24 hour compact audio cassette play-out and intention to
deliver as many tapes as possible into the unknown.
regarding the tapes themselves as lost, obsolete, restless, or otherwise
misunderstood messages one may view them as having a certain spiritual
charge. the idea is to collect as many as possible together at one time to
ritualistically provide one last chance to broadcast their information
before delivering them to peaceful oblivion thereafter. the re purposing
will then take many forms. some husks will be retained as a reminder and
celebration of the event and also because the tape's covers themselves are
so often unexpectedly beautiful and fun to look at. the music itself then
lost, part of the installation's proposition is to inspire fresh inspiration
for a small local bloom new mixtape-making in order to keep the art form
viable and dynamic.

Mix CDs do not have the same power.

some of the pieces are performances (there are 5 main performances) where
the playback, destruction, and re purposing happen as the musical
performance itself. in those cases, the re purposing can be sonic more than
visual or tactile. many of the pieces are ongoing while the tape material to
be used is played constantly at a low, sometimes barley audible volume.

there will also be a certain amount of nostalgic, high volume broadcasts.
this is unpredictable and will depend largely on the improvisational
participation throughout the 24 hours.

the istallation will begin at noon Sunday and the performance pieces will
start around 8. one may of course arrive at any time Sunday and is welcome
and encouraged to stay the duration. a certain amount of the material will
be improvised as the night stretches into the morning and those who hang out
will play a big part.
I (aaron mace) will be on site and awake for the entire 24 and installing
everything that comes though the doors with the intent to push the spacial
and temporal limits of the installation as far as possible. all are welcome
and encouraged to bring tapes and tape payers.
all tapes will be destroyed. all tape players will be returned unharmed.

Performance pieces begin at 8pm Sunday with:

Steve Marsh/Tape Gore:
playback dissection, disembodied tape head with real time hand-tracking.

Douglas Ferguson/array: 4 echo-plex/4 amplifiers.
Doug will record segments of the playback, destruction, re-purpose process
during the installation
and feed it trough a series of 4 echo-plex loops via a mixer. at first, the
sound will be familiar and
discernible.

Josh Ronsen/Handphones
uniformed Handphone Ensemble will be present.  Handphones  are hand-mounted
speakers and will move about cupping hands over people's ears so only that
person can hear what is coming out of the Handphones.there will be 1-5
people moving about, playing mix tapes.

Alex Keller/Confessional
Confessional is a piece about divulging something personal, in solitude, to
someone who will hear your confession at another time.
In this piece, the participant will approach the microphone and quietly
confess. The confession is recorded onto a tape loop that will be played
back without erasing what was recorded before. What will begin as a single
voice will become a chorus of voices, drowning in murmurs, static, and
noise.

7 Inch Stitch
sourced from an archive mix tapes created in the eighties for use with ST37
and Thanatopsis Throne that contain snippets of Wizard of Oz, baptist
preachers, Cancer therapy, P.D.A.P., collages, etc.
playback broadcast of multiple cassette tapes accompanied by
guitar/keyboard. subsequent tape dismantle
and sculpture.
 
THE PUBLIC IS WELCOME AND ENCOURAGED TO PARTICIPATE ON-SITE AND UNANNOUNCED
AT ANY TIME DURING THE 24 HOUR PERIOD.

twilight of the little boxes is intended as the first in a series of 24 hour
sound-intensive installations curated by Church of the Friendly Ghost.

more information, contact aaron mace at 512 786 2015
churchofthefriendlyghost at gmail.com