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Jan 292012
 

Patrick Becker at GMX11

Theatre Intangible was asked to host two circuit bending panels at last October’s Geek Media Expo, Nashville’s premier multi-fandom convention. In the first panel, Circuit Bending 101, we broke open some toys and showed people how to make simple bends. In Circuit Bending 201, we performed. Podcast 79 is that performance.

The GMX11 performance features BRIDGET VENUTI (Aether Jag), JOSH GUMIELA (Foster Dad), PIMPDADDYSUPREME, and maker-extraordinaire PATRICK BECKER.

GMX hosted the panels in multiple rooms at a local hotel and convention center. Panelists were given just 10 minutes to prepare the room after the previous panelists left. I’m not sure what the creative writing panel thought of the weirdos in the hallway armed with abused toys and wirey contraptions. (Come to think of it, they probably weren’t fazed. One word: Steampunk!) As we were setting up the equipment, the room started to fill with eager faces. By the time we started playing, we had amassed quite a crowd! As a gun-shy member of the Nashville experimental community, where a crowd of five is a good night, I wasn’t expecting this. As it turns out, the convention-goers really seemed to enjoy learning about circuit-bending. This was counter to my only other experience of doing Theatre Intangible live at a convention: Podcamp 2010.  (See Podcast 12: Live at Podcamp Nashville.) At that Barcamp-style conference about social media, search engine optimization, and pretty much anything BUT podcasting, we drew a crowd of two. I believe the reactions were so different because GMX is at its heart a convention about creativity. Podcamp is at its heart a convention about technology. As much as I love technology, I’ll take the creative people any day of the week.

All in all, Geek Media Expo 2011 was an absolute blast, and I would be honored to participate next year.

What’s circuit bending? Find out here.

Oct 172011
 

Georges Braque – Houses at L’Estaque – 1908

Here’s episode 69, Art Waves, the third of three Theatre Intangible presentations, performed live at Gallery F on August 27th, 2011. The performances all sought to bridge the gap between science and art. Check out the previously-released Brainwaves and Space Waves.

Art Waves features Craig Schenker on saxophone and Jamison Sevits on trumpet. Their performance is new interpretation of Steve Lacy’s song cycle Tips, composed in 1979 for voice, soprano sax, and alto sax. The pieces were responses to text selections from the notebooks of painter Georges Braque.

Here’s an excerpt from Steve Lacy’s notes to Tips (1980):

These are aphorisms, speculations, observations, but especially, advice to himself as an artist, and to all other artists.

Last year, I took fourteen of these phrases, and set them, in a chosen order, for voice and soprano and alto saxophones. Illustrated by the improvised sections, the result is a sort of ‘casebook cantata’, and a working examination into the nature of free play, in this case between two saxophonists, but also about preparation and spontaneity, and of music and information.

Craig and Jamison chose a selection of the pieces and arranged them for trumpet and saxophone. Here are the quotes they chose:

1. We will never have any peace. The present is perpetual.
2. I want to be in tune with nature rather than copy it.
3. Art is made to trouble. Science reassures.
4. Limited means lead to new forms, invite creation, make style.
5. Echo answers echo. All is repercussion.
6. With Age, art and life become one.

Sep 192011
 

Here’s episode 68, Space Waves, the second of three Theatre Intangible presentations, performed live at Gallery F on August 27th, 2011. The performances all sought to bridge the gap between science and art. You can hear the first wave, Brainwaves, on podcast 67. The third, Art Waves, will be on the podcast next week.

For Space Waves, a three-piece jazz ensemble inspired by Don Cherry’s world fusion period meditates on the planets. This theme was entirely conceived and composed by the participants: Jamison Sevits on trumpet/flugelhorn, Randy Hunt on upright bass, and Matt Aurand on percussion.

Enjoy.

Sep 122011
 

Zeitgeist Gallery is kicking off the second half of their 2011 INDETERMINACIES series with a performance by the PORTARA NEW MUSIC QUARTET. Portara Ensemble has been a choral entity since October of 2010. The Zeitgeist show will be the first time that the New Music Quartet will be performing without the collective. I’ll be recording the event for an upcoming Theatre Intangible podcast. Hope to see you there! Listen to the three previous INDETERMINACIES podcasts here. The PORTARA event happens Tuesday, September 13th at 6pm.

More in the Zeitgeist press release:

Zeitgeist and AIA Middle Tennessee will begin the Fall 2011 season of their Indeterminacies programs with the Portara Ensemble Quartet performing David Lang’s 2008 Pulitzer prize winning work for voice “The Little Match Girl Passion”, 6-8pm at Zeitgeist, located on 21st Avenue South.

The Indeterminacies events provide a forum for artists to present new works and a moderated audience discussion to explore the meaning in the works. Indeterminacies is free and open to the public.

Portara New Music Quartet:
Shreyas Patel (bass, bass drum, tubular bells)
Lea Maitlen (soprano, sleigh bells, brake drum)
Nathan Rodriguez (tenor, orchestra bells)
Monica Coombs (alto, crotales)

Zeitgeist
1819 21st Ave South
Nashville, TN