An exhibition curated by James Beckett

// Opening: 01. July 2008, 17:00

// Date: 01.07. – 14.07. 08

// Opening times: 2.-5.7. 14–18h and by appointment (0179 9198700)

Sirens traces the development of the device as an instrument of analysis into the role of auditory alert. As well as a historical account, the exhibition looks at artistic appropriation of the machine in acts which reveal much about the cultural, political and functional aspects of a living device.

In physics, the instrument was developed as a means to illustrate tones, later to develop into the more elaborate and much disputed combination tones, revealing a ‘Klangfarbe’ or timbre. Along with numerous other acoustic instruments, the Siren became a means by which to describe and measure the composite nature of sound, and to some extent demystify the complexity of acoustic phenomena.

The exhibition delineates the development and transformation of the siren, as an idea, an instrument and as a technological device. The artists Andre Avelas, Mark Bain, Ralph Borland, Alec Finlay and Chris Watson, Raviv Ganchrow and Max Neuhaus present their own interpretation of sirens and auditory alerts.

With contributions from SOS Workshop [a collaboration between Leiden University and the Veenfabriek director John Heymans, artistic director Paul Koek], The siren collection of Albert Baas, David Stall, Victory Siren Foundation Inc., and CPSM in cooperation with the Venetian Research Consortium and the University of Verona [represented by Avanzini, F.; Rocchesso, D.; Belussi, A.; Palu, A.D.; Dovier, A].

Featured artists:

André Avelãs

Mark Bain

Ralph Borland

Alec Finlay and Chris Watson

Raviv Ganchrow

Max Neuhaus

Sirens was first presented 2007 at 66east gallery in Amsterdam. It is part of the program of Tuned City – Between sound and space speculation, which runs in paralell at various locations in Berlin.

More information:

> www.tunedcity.de

Selected Biographies:

James Beckett

James Beckett (b. 1977, Harare, Zimbabwe) graduated from the Technikon-Natal, Durban South Africa, after which he took part in a two-year residency in the Rijksakademie Van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam. Coming from a background of installation, sound has come to develop a more central role in his work. This has been a research-based activity with output ranging from radio documentaries to mock ethnic bands, and museum displays documenting the cultural and physiological effects of noise. The evolution in specific areas of the industrial revolution have also played muse; such as the foundation of synthetic colour manufacture and its relationship to BASF, and the cultural implications of vacuum tubes for the Dutch firm Philips. Without humor his work would appear as mere cynism - it is romance with an inherently rotten subject matter which offers some sort of redemption in a modern world.? He currently lives and works in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

> www.jamesbeckett.tk

Mark Bain

The work of American artist Mark Bain (b.1966) centres on the interaction of acoustics, architecture and physical/mental reactions to infrasonics – sounds below the human hearing threshold. Bain is involved in ongoing research investigating the effects of inherent and induced sonic events on structures and the people that inhabit them. He uses both the inaudible sounds normally present in buildings and other large constructions, amplifying them with seismographic and other specially designed equipment, and the sound potential of structures, using machinery to vibrate the materials and/or surroundings – essentially shaking buildings or the ground – for sonic effect.Amplifying the seismographic oscillations of the architecture and ground, either acoustically or using vibrators, allows Bain to plumb structures with waveform data and sound, mapping out the signatures of each and defining a presence within that which is normally thought of as static. Bain’s work finds parallels in Nicoli Tesla’s early experiments with vibrational devices.

Chris Watson

Christopher Richard Watson was born in Sheffield where he attended Rowlinson School and Stannington College (now part of Sheffield College). In 1971 he was a founding member of the influential Sheffield-based experimental music group Cabaret Voltaire. His sound recording career began in 1981 when he joined Tyne Tees Television. Watson is a sound recordist with a particular and passionate interest in recording the wildlife sounds of animals, habitats and atmospheres from around the world. As a freelance recordist for film, tv & radio, Chris Watson specialises in natural history and documentary location sound together with track assembly and sound design in post production.

> www.chriswatson.net

Raviv Ganchrow

Raviv Granchow (born 1972, USA) studied from 1995-2000 in New York architecture and completed his Master of Music in Sonology 2004 at the Institute of Sonology, Royal Conservatorium, Den Haag. Since 2004 he has been teaching in several positions in the Netherlands , at the Academie van Bouwkunst, Arnhem, the graduate programe at the Fontys Academy for Architectur, Tilburg and at the Faculty of Architecture at Delft University of Technology, and “Sound and Space” at the Institute of Sonology, The Royal Conservatory, Den Haag.

Next to this he has been exhibiting and presenting sound installations and sound works in the USA, France, Austria, The Netherlands, and Norway. His most recent project is Wave Field Synthesis, design and development of a spatial sound performance system, commissioned by the Stichting Game of Live, NL.

Max Neuhaus

Max Neuhaus (born 1939) was in fact renowned for his interpretation of contemporary music while still in his twenties. In the early sixties, he toured America as a percussion soloist first with Boulez, and then with Stockhausen, and gave solo recitals at Carnegie Hall and in European capitals.The world of the percussionist is one focused on sound timbre: Neuhaus travelled with one thousand kilos of percussion instruments to perform his solo repertoire. He extended this palette of sound color by inventing several early electro-acoustic instruments. His solo album recorded for Columbia Masterworks in 1968 stands as one of the first examples of what is now called live electronic music.

Neuhaus went on to pioneer artistic activities outside conventional cultural contexts and began to realize sound works anonymously in public places, developing art forms of his own. Utilizing his sense of sound and people’s reactions to it gained after fourteen years as a musician, he began to make sound works which were neither music nor events and coined the term ’sound installation’ to describe them. In these works without beginning or end, the sounds were placed in space rather than in time. Starting from the premise that our sense of place depends on what we hear, as well as what we see, he utilized a given social and aural context as a foundation to build a new perception of place with sound. With the realization of these non-visual artworks for museums in America and Europe, he became the first to extend sound as a primary medium into the plastic arts.

He has continued his activities in music with his networks or broadcast works: virtual architectures which act as a forums open to anyone for the evolution of new musics. With the first Public Supply in 1966 he combined a radio station with the telephone network and created a two-way public aural space twenty miles in diameter encompassing New York City where any inhabitant could join a live dialogue with sound by making a phone call. Later with Radio Net he formed a nationwide network with 190 radio stations. The current project, Audium, proposes a twenty-four hour a day global entity for live interaction with sound.

In his moment works, a series of large scale sound works for whole communities, he utilizes the cessation of sound to create a periodic sense of silence throughout the community both marking time and creating reflective moments.

Over the last thirty years he has created a large number of sound works for various environments including permanent works in the United States (Times Square in New York and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago) and Europe (Domaine de Kerguéhennec, Locmine, France; CAPC Musée d’Art Contemporain, Bordeaux, France; the AOK Building, Kassel, Germany; the Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland; and the Castello di Rivoli, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Italy) along with numerous short-term works in museums and exhibitions (The Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Clocktower in New York City; ARC, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; the Centre National d’Art Contemporain, Grenoble, France; Documenta 6 and 9, Kassel, Germany; the Venice Biennale; and the Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland) and numerous one person exhibitions of his drawings.His interests are diverse. He designs the sound generation and projection systems which realize his work, himself. He has originated new concepts of aural urban design, and utilized his knowledge of sound technology and the psychology of sound to design a more humane and safer set of sounds for emergency vehicles. Recently he began a series of retrospective books on his oeuvre with the publication of Max Neuhaus, sound works, volumes I-III. (Ostfildern-Stuttgart: Cantz 1994).

In support of his work, Max Neuhaus has been awarded fellowships by the Rockefeller Foundation, the University of Chicago, the Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst, and both the music and plastic arts sections of the National Endowment for the Arts.

> www.max-neuhaus.info