August 11th - ISEA
Starting off with a mashup of washing machine and 70s funk, NPR came up against the weekend with the help of Jon Brumit and Zefrey Throwell
All-week regular David Madrid played some old school funk and soul for his Friday “Block 2 Block” show. His guest was Bobby Seals who is a youth caseworker for EHC Lifebuilders, a local non-profit focused on homelessness. Once again, Madrid sounded a note of gritty reality in what could otherwise be a non-stop celebration of electronic art.
“Block to Block” with David Madrid
Making your electronics work can often be an art form. Your gear can go wrong and that’s what happened to our next all-week contributor, Saul Albert. His show, “Traffic Island Disks”, relies on being able to pipe what people are listening to on their headphones live out over the air. But come Friday it just wouldn’t work so NPR volunteer and “Frank Prattle” host, Zefrey, seized the opportunity to interview Mr Albert about himself and the two-year-old show.
“Traffic Island Disks” creator Saul Albert explains himself
After a little Matmos music we moved to an interview between LeE and Steve Dietz, the director of the ZeroOne festival and ISEA 2006 Symposium for Electronic Art in San Jose. Dietz explained how San Jose came to be the host for this year’s event as well as the goals and themes for the show. The ZeroOne arts festival will return to San-Jo in 2008, now that the audience has been primed to consume the “community-based, social-practice digital media” that this week has been all about.
The director of the whole ISEA/ZeroOne shebang, Steve Dietz, explains himself
Another interview followed that one and it featured another local gent, Geoff Alexander, who is Director of The Academic Film Archive of North America. He and Michael Trigilio – past collaborators – spoke about the archive, its films and how they have seen new life in the work of modern video artists. Alexander explained that many of these films mirror the prevailing prejudices of their time, providing an interesting reflection on how what is considered politically correct has evolved throughout the lifetime of the medium.
Interview with Geoff Alexander, The Academic Film Archive of North America
It all went everywhere after that with the presence of musician, soundman and NPR volunteer, Mr Dave Rice, with music from his band, “See Gentlemen Play”, and their tribute to Syd Barrett of luna-madness and Pink Floyd fame. The conversation ranged from broken feet to scientology, South Park and intergalactic overlords.
NPR volunteer Dave Rice talks with Michael about his band and other things
Leonardo dropped by again, or at least Andrea Polli from the Leonardo Education Forum did. A teacher of integrated “meedya” at New York’s Hunter College, she explained what the Education Forum does. Any artist interested in having an exhibition in space should listen to this show. For real.
Andrea Holley from the Leonardo Education Forum
“And now, ladies and gentlemen, before the cops come and drag her away, it’s SL Morse“, said Mr Lee, nervous that the next and final show of the day would be moved along by the boys-(and girls)-in-blue, as they say over there in the UK. This act consists of translating an excerpt of a novel - Frank Norris’s 1901 novel, “The Octopus” - into Morse code and then playing that on the drums. “It makes for an interesting compositional strategy,” says Ms Lockhart.
SL Morse - a novel turned into morse code and played on the drums
And that was the end of the day on NPR and its broadcasts from the Camera 12 cinema in San Jose.