From the archive 1995 - The Navigator

While we are in pre production for our new work, Mark has been trawling our archive rescuing old work from decaying VHS tape.  Here's a quick edit of our full length production THE NAVIGATOR from 1995.  This is where it all began in terms of our venture into interactive technology...with a lot of hard wiring...a sensitized performance space, and a willing performer.  It looks old and clunky, but we were pushing the envelope in those days... enjoy

The Navigator from Mark Bokowiec on Vimeo.

Sonic Acts Festival: Amsterdam: 24/2/13

The brilliant Andrew Pickering (The Cybernetic Brain) will be talking about our work with the Bodycoder at Sonic Acts this Sunday his keynote: Cybernetics and the Politics of the Dark Universe - is part of the conference day 'Ontologies of the Unknown'...we are extremely honoured, and SO pleased for the work to be recognized as operating within a larger political and ontological context...

Abstract:
What is the allure of cybernetics: what draws people to it? We teach our children to think of the world as a predictable place bound by laws, natural as well as man-made. Modern science reveals what the consistencies are, enabling us to control the world and refashion it to suit our own ends. Politically, this is what many want to escape. This is where cybernetics comes in. Its ontology is different. It begins from the assumption that the world is ultimately unknowable, a place of emergence and becoming that will always surprise us.

For physicists and cosmologists, the discovery that ninety per cent of the universe is mysterious ‘dark matter’ is a self-generated challenge—to tame the mystery and place it within the context of the known and predictable. Cyberneticians, in contrast, work with the assumption that we live in a ‘dark universe’– and that’s it, full stop. This is the source of cybernetics’ allure—an alternative and non-modern notion of what the world is like, which invites us to rethink from scratch all of the traditional academic, artistic and, certainly, political problematics.

SONIC ACTS

 

 

New Publications: Embodiment & Practice

A couple of new publications cite and contextualize our work with the BODYCODER - 'Blood, Sweat & Theory: Research through Practice in Performance' by John Freeman which examines aspects of our making process and 'Kinesthetic Empathy in Creative and Cultural Practices' an edited volume by Dee Reynolds and Matthew Reason - that offers some very interesting exploration and case studies in empathy, embodiment and performance not only from the performers point of view but also in terms of audience engagement.

CYBORG Performance: New Journal Article

LA PERFORMANCE DE LA MACHINE, OU COMMENT LES CYBORG ET LES ROBOTS JOUENT SUR LA SCÈNE by Izabella Pluta. Ligeia 25. 117-120 (Jul-Dec 2012)

Lovely article by Izabella Pluta citing our work with the Bodycoder System and including new insights. Indeed the entire issue looks very interesting, so we recommend you have a browse... LIGEIA

In the last few months there has been a flurry of interest in our early CYBORG performances from the late 90s. Julie is therefore developing responses and picking up the Cyborg-thread again...watch this space for developments.

V'Oct (Ritual) at BEAM Festival 2012 on Vimeo

V'Oct(Ritual)@BEAM2012 from Mark Bokowiec on Vimeo.

RE-New Digital Art Festival: 19/11/12

Mark will present an illustrated paper V’Oct(Ritual): the anatomy of an interactive composition,  at RE-New Digital Art Festival in Copenhagen.  The theme of the festival is Cybernetics Revisited – towards a third order.  The full program can be viewed here:
RE-NEW 2012

Performances 2012: AMERA 22/10/12

Mark's piece AMERA will feature in Sonic Interactions III an evening of interactive mixed works and acousmatic compositions at the beautiful Capstone Theatre in Liverpool. 
SONIC INTERACTIONS III

This concert also profiles the work of the fabulous Lauren Hayes.

Performances 2012: ICMC Slovenia, 9-15/9/12

Marks fixed media work Amera (2009) has been jury selected for a performance at the International Computer Music Conference in Slovenia.  This piece was a finalist of the CONCOURS INTERNATIONAUX DE BOURGES Musiques Electroacoustiques et Arts Electroniques.  You can listen to the full piece via SoundCloud on our sidebar.

Also a reminder that Marks wonderfully epic work ROUTE is finally available on iTunes:

ROUTE on iTunes

V'Oct(Ritual) @ BEAM Festival 23/6/12

V'Oct(Ritual) at BEAM Festival Saturday 23rd June.  Thanks for a great weekend...it was a real pleasure being part of this years festival.

A small note on the meaning of ritual:

From the very earliest times ritual sacrifice was an unfettered act of devotion, not committed to the charge or regulation of a body of priviledged priests, but left to the free impulse of s/he who offered it.  Over time and repetition the ritual assumes a formal character, becoming finally a strictly and minutely regulated succession of complex physical acts.  A body of utterances, formulas of sound/words that are activating and symbolically significant, are refined through practice and ordered. 

New Essay Publication: May 2012

Future voices of digital opera: re-imagining the diva

Julie's first meditation on the new role(s)/identities and function(ality) of the digital diva is published in a special edition of International Journal of Performance Arts & Digital Media.  A longer artistic manifesto is currently in development.

Abstract:
This article seeks to re-imagine the identity and role of the diva within a future realm of digital opera. Staged in three acts, the article presents some of the obstacles that obscure a radical rethinking of the opera diva; it also signposts recent practice and ‘cyberpositive’ thinking that might act as an inspiration and catalyst for the evolution of new dramaturgy, composition and performance practices.

IngentaConnect

Performances 2012: BEAM Festival, London 22-24/6/12

We are guest artists at BEAM 2012 curated by Sarah Nicolls & Atau Tanaka

New Publication

We are very excited to announce and promote a new book publication by Izabella Pluta 'L'ACTEUR ET L'INTERMÉDIALITÉ' that includes discourse and a commentary on our performance piece The Suicided Voice along side the work of Stelarc, Orlan, the wonderful Wooster Group and Robert Lepage...

Further information: Publisher

Wow Izabella what a massively impressive book...

Keynote: Conscious Schizophrenia: psycho-vocality 11/1/12

Julie will be giving a Keynote at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) UK conference on the work of Pan Theatre.    

Conscious Schizophrenia: psycho-vocality and voice beyond the larynx
The keynote will explore plurality in vocal performance, extended vocal techniques, live processing and interactive technologies.  Julie will draw on a range of sound and video examples from Roy Hart to Cathy Barbarian, Opera to Lana Del Rey and from Yakut open throat singing and the ‘yelli’ of the Aka (Cameroon) rainforest people to Xenakis.  Julie will also contextualise her own work with the Bodycoder System and discuss skills and techniques. 

"...schizoid polycentricity is a style of consciousness...that thrives in plural meanings, in cryptic double-talk, in escaping definitions, in not taking heroic committed stances, in ambisexuality, in psychically detached and seperate body parts."  James Hillman (Re-Visioning Psychology)

For more information:

http://www.pantheatre.com/5-international.html 

Pythia + goat - Act One - ORACLE

Work has begun on the first act of ORACLE. Click on the link to find out more about Pythia + goat

Talks 2011: Lisbon, Portugal 28 - 30/10/11

Kinaesonics: articulating body, sound and technology

Mark will be speaking about Kinaesonics and his work with the BODYCODER at Music & Gesture: 2nd Musical Itineraries Forum, held at the magnificent Centro Cultural de Belém in Lisbon.

Performances 2011: Oslo, Norway 30/5/11 - 1/6/11

We are delighted to announce that we have been invited to participate in NIME 2011 (New instruments for musical expression) held this year in Oslo, Norway May 30th - June 1st. 

We will be performing V'Oct(Ritual) - see our Soundcloud link and programme note in our previous blog post.  Mark will also present a paper.

 V'Oct(Ritual) rehearsal on VIMEO

Performances 2011: Falmouth 6/5/11

First GIG of the year!
University of Falmouth
6th May 2011

UK Premiere of V'Oct(Ritual)
(for vocalist, Bodycoder, live MSP and multi-channel sound diffusion)
The concert will also include Etch (2007), Amera and Ghosts

Get a sneak preview of V'Oct(Ritual):
V'Oct2 2channel Final rehearsal by marekbuk

Full Concert Programme

V'Oct(Ritual) (2011) UK Premiere

(for vocalist, Bodycoder System, live Max/MSP and automated and performer controlled 8-channel spatialization) 

Duration: 18 minutes

V’Oct(Ritual) places the audience inside a circular liminal space of sonic evocation and transformation the boundary of which is defined by the presence of eight loudspeakers (21^st century standing stones) that mediate and are the containers for the performers’ vocal transmogrifications.  

V’Oct(Ritual) features the Bodycoder System© the first generation of which was developed by the artists in 1995.  The Bodycoder interface is a flexible sensor array worn on the body of a performer that sends data generated by movement to a Max/MSP environment via radio.  Movement data is mapped in a variety of ways to live processing and manipulation. All processed sound is derived from the live and acoustic voice of the performer. The Bodycoder also provides the performer with real-time access to processing parameters and patches within the Max/MSP environment as well as control over the sensitivity of sensors. In this way all vocalisations, decision making, navigation of the Max/MSP environment and qualities of expressivity are selected, initiated and manipulated by the performer, uniquely, this also includes access to gestural control of live 8-channel spatialization.  This piece is fully scored with few moments of improvisation. 

V’Oct(Ritual)  was created in residency at Dartington College of Arts (Totnes) in 2010.

Ghosts (1997)

(concert version with video)

Duration: 7:55 minutes

Inspired by three legends from the Aboriginal Dreamtime – a time when man was in direct contact with the spirit world.  Ghosts was originally commissioned for 4 Composers, 4 Choreographers as a dance score with funding from the Arts Council of England.  The sound sources for the piece are derived from a C sharp Didgeridoo and a variety of homemade Spirit Catcher instruments. Samples were manipulated using Sound Designer and Alchemy software.

Amera (2007)

Duration: 8:28 minutes

Amera was composed using soundfiles derived from field recordings taken in various localities in Devon and Cornwall including the boat construction yard in Polruan and the Funicular railway at Lynmouth.  This material was then processed using a variety of techniques in MSP, particularly Phase Vocoding and Granular synthesis to create a pallet of sonic motifs.  This material was then taken into the Absynth environment where it was reprocessed, modulated and orchestrated in real-time using a variety of custom built hardware controllers to create a number of long sequences.  The final piece was then constructed using ProTools and mixed in the Electro-acoustic Music Studios at the University of Huddersfield. Amera was selected as a finalist for the prestigious 2009 Arts Electroniques des Concours Internationaux de Bourges prize.

Etch (2007)

(for vocalist, Bodycoder System, live Max/MSP and video / computer graphics)

Duration: 12 minutes

Extended vocal techniques: Yakut, open throat, overtone and Bell Canto singing, is coupled with live interactive sound processing and manipulation. Etch calls forth sonic fauna and pattern flora building soundscapes of glitch infestations, howler tones, clustering sonic-amphibians, and swirling flocks of synthetic granular flyers.

In Etch the video content is manipulated by the performer using the same interactive protocols that govern sound processing.  Visual content is mapped to the physical gestures of the performer and its live manipulation forms a significant part of the piece.  As the performer conjures extraordinary voices out of the digital realm, so she weaves a multi-layered visual environment. 

Etch was created in residency at the Confederation Centre for the Arts on Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and is dedicated to the artist Hilda Woolnaugh.

About the artists:
The composer and technologist Mark Bokowiec and performer Julie Wilson-Bokowiec began creating interactive work with the Bodycoder System in 1995 and have since developed a repertoire of both dance and vocal works including the Vox Circuit Trilogy (2007) as well as number of full-length music theatre works. They perform regularly at international festivals and artist gatherings and are acknowledged as experts within their particular field of interactive electro-acoustic music. Always theatrical in intensity, their interactive works have been variously described as “like an acid trip with the performer pulling the strings” and as “opening a realm of cyber art that exceeds the human without simply rejecting it” (Drew Hemmant – Future Everything). They have been commissioned twice by the Science Museum London for both performances and interactive instrument installations, KlangArt (Germany), Digital Summer (Commonwealth Games Cultural Programme), were featured artists and guests of the Hungarian Computer Music Association supported by the British Council and have been funded by the Arts Council of England, Banff Centre for the Arts (Canada) and STEIM (Amsterdam) to name a few. Mark’s fixed electro-acoustic music works have been published on CD (MPS music & video) and on a variety of CD collections. Amera (2007) included in the Falmouth concert, was a selected finalist for the prestigious Arts Electroniques des Concours Internationaux de Bourges prize in 2009 and Ghosts (1997) was commissioned by the Arts Council of England. Also in the Falmouth concert programme are two interactive works; V’Oct(Ritual) (2011) was created in residency at Dartington College of Arts, Totnes last year, and Etch (2007) created in residency on Price Edward Island, Nova Scotia. Both pieces very much reflect the spirit of the environments in which they were created.



Mark Bokowiec (Composer, Electronics & Software Designer)

Mark Bokowiec is the manager of the electro-acoustic music studios and the new Spatialisation and Interactive Research Lab (SPIRAL) at the University of Huddersfield where he lectures in interactive performance, interface and system design and composition.



Julie Wilson-Bokowiec (Vocalist/performer, video and computer graphics)

Julie has creating new works in opera/music theatre, contemporary dance and theatre including: Salome (Hammersmith Odeon – Harvey Goldsmith/Enid production) Suspended Sentences (ICA & touring) Figure Three (ICA) for Julia Bardsley, The Red Room (Canal Café Theatre) nominated for the Whitbread London Fringe Theatre Award, Dorian Grey (LBT/Opera North), Alice (LBT) and a variety of large-scale site-specific and Body Art works. As a performer and collaborator Julie has worked with such luminaries as Lindsey Kemp, Genesis P-Orridge and Psychic TV and the Austrian artist Hermann Nitsch. Julie is a Visiting Research Fellow at CeReNeM (Centre for the Research into New Music) at the University of Huddersfield.