Virb

About

Artkillart is a label based in Paris and Berlin, created in 2007. Its purpose is to promote experimental audiovisual and sound art. In reaction to dematerialized music, the artists of the label refocus on material objects. They are invited to conceptualize and design an object exploring the quality, the complexity and the limits of different media (including the dvd, cd and vinyl), and conceived as an experience both for the artist and the audience.

http://artkillart.tk

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ARTKILLART 01 : RADIO FREE ROBOTS / SILICONE CARNE

Radio Free Robots (RFR) is a radio show entirely conducted by robots (spoken through synthetized voices). The moderator, Macha, runs a set of highly selected guests (robots). Robots specialists but also the everyone robot are discussing topics as diverse as robots' sociology, cyber terrorism, computer linguistic, bio-computing, the place of human being within society, the weather, autonomous objects, ...

The radioshow being located in an undefined future, the topics are debated on a prospective or historical point of view; meaning that the era where the show takes place allows a historical sight over the contemporary topicality and as well anticipates a future of the future. The name Radio Free Robots refers cynically to the infamous US propaganda program fomented by the CIA: Radio Free Europe.

http://www.radiofreerobots.com

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ARTKILLART 02 : SAMON TAKAHASHI & VINCENT EPPLAY / TRIOS

Trios associates improvisation within a set of defined parameters. Its score includes a notebook with instructions for playing, 16 VCS3 patches, and two 33rpm records on which 2x16 sound events are recorded. The macrostructure is not determined, and both the duration and the temperament of the piece depend on the chances of the combinatorial principle. 16 sequences of vcs3 follow one another, and these are answered by 2x16 pre-recorded sequences, whose order is defined in real time according to the throwing of three dice.

While preserving most principles of the original composition, we allowed ourselves some free interpretation: the VCS3 patch is the original one, but its variations, the order, the development, and the duration of each sequence are left to the player’s determination. Although the order of playback of the 33rpm records depends on the random results of the dice, the duration of each pre-recorded sound, and the possibility of playing multiple layers are made thanks to the recording and the simultaneous replay on computer.

The original score was written for three players, but as the composer’s notes state in the booklet, adaptations for one or two interpreters may occur.

We, to some extent, combined these last two interpretations, that inevitably induce pre-recorded elements.No other effect has been used except speed variations. Even when there was need for free interpretation, we tried to remain as close as possible to the will of the composer although we added playing functionalities that the equipment of the era did not offer, but which we imagine he would probably have made use of if it had existed. i.e. The varispeed of commercial turntables, enhanced possibilities of the portable computer.

We also preserved its original rough aspect, as well as the inevitable clicks and pops typical of vinyl records, which gives its obsolete charm.To exhume Trios was for us an exercise of style, a kind of ‘archeosonic’ re-enactment, a respectful appropriation that pays tribute to this curiously still little known, talented and prolific composer.

Trios was played for the first time in france since its creation, at the occasion of the Sonorité Festival in Montpellier, september 2006.

* Note: the present record may be used to re-enact the piece in addition with a synthi vcs3 according to the solo version instructions.

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ARTKILLART 03 : YANN LEGUAY / CUTTER OFF DISCSECTION

“Discsection” is a noise dissection of a vinyl record.

Anatomy: a dissection consists of opening up a body according to a predefined protocol.

Geometry: a dissection problem involves cutting up a figure to rearrange the pieces into another given figure. A progressive mix began on a blank disc , using surgical material connected to a contact microphone.

The face A is the physical result from a live performance.

The face B is the sound result of the dissection.

http://phonotopy.org

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ARTKILLART 04 : CHDH / VIVARIUM

Trios chdh's work is based on a symbiosis between sound and image. Between minimalism and industrial, chdh creates a single, cold but organic universe. Thanks to the use of mathematical algorithms and physical models, chdh brings a new vision on the practice of data-processing tools in digital creation. The use of audio-visual objects, having a sound and a video component controlled by the same parameters allows an effective management of the relations between the two medias.

This project evokes a virtual world, made up with more or less autonomous abstract creatures. The aesthetics of the video and the sound is minimalist: sines, diracs and noises interact with cubes, spheres and other primitive in 3D on a black and white visual environment.

VIVARIUM is an audio/video DVD project based on chdh's performance work. vivarium's goal is to switch from a live expression form to written and composed pieces. This project is based on the years of work already provided by chdh, and on the experience due to the performances they've done in France and Europe.

http://www.chdh.net

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ARTKILLART 06 : MICHAEL SELLAM / SCRATCH

SCRATCH is a sound installation for which the fastest industrial robot in the world has been modified to scratch the surface of a vinyl record placed on a table. The monster machine, capabale of manipulating up to 240 pieces per minute is equipped with a reading head specialized for amplifying the sound that is produced by the frenetic attacks of the metal on the record. The dynamic force of the robot's arms is impossible to follow with the naked eye. The varied and surgically precise positions and accelerations are orchestrated by a computer program specially designed for the project.

The raw noise is massively distributed in the exhibition space until the moment when the robot detaches itself from the surface of the vinyl to prepare for a new cycle by practicing a series of extremely fast, circular warmup movements. Pausing only momentarily to allow for a space for silence, the sonic residue of the hypnotic hyperactivity of the robot quickly fills the space again. The heavy pressure caused by the movements of the metallic point on the surface of the record produce a series of erosion lines and remove some surface material along these markings.

The mutations and transformations of these objects are direct and unique results from the work sequence, raw traces of the performance. The choice of the record remains free and arbitrary and like a sportsman at the end of his career, it is not replaced until it reaches its rupture point, its saturation.

SCRATCH is a sonic composition of 7 minutes and 22 seconds in duration, made up of recordings of the activity of the robot on vinyl records and their reading on a regular record player. The two sonic states of a same object creates a third state.

http://www.michaelsellam.com

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• http://artkillart.tk