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Mar 262014
 
Logo by Rachel Briggs.

Logo by Rachel Briggs.

A few weeks ago, the Nashville Scene unveiled the first round of artist announcements for the Circuit Benders’ Ball, and now it is my pleasure to announce the full artist lineup as well as the panels, presentations, and workshops!

The submissions were so strong this year that we decided to expand to three full days of programming! The Ball will begin on Friday, April 11th and continue through Sunday, April 13th. All festival programming will take place at the premiere Nashville makerspace Fort Houston located at 500 Houston Street, Nashville, TN 37203.

Performers:

With special presentations by:

Art by:

Live visuals by:

Featuring the panels:

  • Introduction to Circuit Bending
  • Making Music by Code Alone
  • Society of the Spectacle: Culture Jamming, Détournement, and Tactical Media
  • Fair Use, Artistic Appropriating, and Culture Jamming (Pt. 2)
  • Glitch Art / Dirty New Media
  • Visual Bending
  • Structural Biases in Local Show Booking
  • Chiptune Art
  • Electronic Enclosures Design
  • Computer Models of Circuit Bending
  • Towards a Circuit Bending Standardization

Featuring the workshops:

  • Playdoh Vs. Lego: A Composer’s Take on Hacker-Culture by Kyle Baker (Soundcrawl co-founder)
  • Piezo Mic Making by Christopher Lavery
  • Hacking the Gameboy by Abandoned On Fire and b4by f4c3
  • Let’s Build a Hex-Schmitt Trigger Oscillator by Christopher Lavery
  • Subverting Google by Patrick Quinn
  • Bending with Photoresistors! by Jeff Boynton
  • Microcontrol of a Macroworld: Physical Computing with Arduino by Josh Gumiela

Three day passes, single day tickets, and workshop tickets will be available soon at FortHouston.com. The three day festival pass is $35 advance or $50 at door. Single day tickets are $15 advance or $20 at door. Workshops are $15 advance or $20 at door (if any slots remain). Those who purchase the festival pass in advance will get a sweet LED lanyard with their name on it. Because of the intimate size of the space, we’re limiting the total amount of tickets to 100, so be sure to scoop yours up as soon as they go on sale. (Tentatively, Saturday, March 29th.)

We are proud to have Yazoo Brewing Company back as a sponsor. If you’re interested in sponsoring the Ball, see our sponsor guide.

Watch this space for the full schedule, panel & workshop descriptions, and spotlights on the participants. Are you excited yet? I know I am.

Mar 252014
 
Dr. Lonnie Smith. Photo by Jimmy Katz.

Dr. Lonnie Smith. Photo by Jimmy Katz.

This week is absolutely packed to the brim with great shows.

Thursday, March 27th, 9 p.m., Betty’s Grill, 407 49th Ave N, Nashville, Tennessee 37209

Underground free jazz saxophonist Jack Wright teams up with experimental percussionist Andrew Drury. The press release states,

The core of this duo is the depth and originality of the individual voices combined with their intense listening and commitment to the present moment. It is intimate music, often raucous and always adventurous. And it is executed with minimal materials—a couple saxophones and usually, instead of a full drum set, just a floor tom and some percussion accoutrements. Wright is a somewhat underground figure in the U.S., at the same time legendary for giving revelatory performances that reach both experienced listeners and people unaccustomed to free improvisation. Drury works some kind of promethean magic on a floor tom, using it as a stage for a theater of small objects that he charms into producing amazing sounds.

Also appearing are People (Noa Ben-Amotz and Chris Davis) and Onika & Allen. UPDATE: Noise artist/circuit bender Derek Schartung got added to the bill.  More info on the Facebook event page.

Friday, March 28th, 9 p.m., Boheme Collectif, 919 Gallatin Ave., Suite 8, Nashville, Tennessee 37206

Mike Kluge brings you the first Future Night of 2014. This one features the music of The Perfect Hours, Autran, Lust and the Black Cat, and Gay Vibes and the installations of Adrienne Outlaw, Zach Adams, Yospeh Kennerly, David Wright Lagrone, and Dale Liska. The show will feature projections by Devin Lamp.

More info on the Facebook event page.

Sunday, March 30th, 10 p.m., Betty’s Grill, 407 49th Ave N, Nashville, Tennessee 37209

Thrash violinist Joey Molinaro is passing through Nashville and will be joined by Graphic Tease, Marid, and Pleasuredome. I wrote about it here.

Monday, March 31st, 7 p.m., Fisk Memorial Chapel, Nashville, Tennessee 37208

Legendary organist Dr. Lonnie Smith will be performing with pianist Cyrus Chestnut. Don’t miss this one!

More from the press release:

The evening will begin with an energized set of solo piano from master jazz pianist Cyrus Chestnut making his 1st return to Nashville in over a decade. The New York Times notes Chestnut as a “highly intelligent improviser with one of the surest senses of swing in jazz.”

Since last year’s sold out appearance in Nashville last April, Dr. Lonnie Smith released the double CD “In The Beginning” featuring tunes originally composed and recorded during the 1960s alongside peers such as trumpeter Lee Morgan, saxophonist David “Fathead” Newman, guitarists George Benson and Melvin Sparks and drummer Idris Muhammad. The recording topped year end “top album” jazz lists in such publications as Jazz Times, Downbeat and The New York City Jazz Record. Throughout his five decade career, Dr. Lonnie has topped both the Jazz Journalist Association and Downbeat Critics and Readers polls as “#1 Jazz Organist”.

All ticket proceeds will go to benefit Fisk University and Daniel Payne Outreach Ministries. Founded in 1866, Fisk is Nashville’s 1st university. Fisk received a charter for the first chapter of The Phi Beta Kappa Society on a predominantly black campus in 1953. Fisk’s outstanding faculty and students continue to enhance the University’s national reputation for academic excellence that is validated year after year by the leading third party reviewers, as well as by the pool of talented applicants and the large percentage of alumni who complete graduate or professional degrees and become leaders and scholars in their fields.

More info on the Facebook event page.

Tuesday, April 1st, 10 p.m., Betty’s Grill, 407 49th Ave N, Nashville, Tennessee 37209

Chris Murray is curating some “April Fools wackiness at Betty’s” for this show featuring Close Your Eyes I’m Changing, Flesh Control, Harvest Team, Night Moves, and a special guest. More info on the Facebook event page.

Aug 012013
 

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The Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood is kicking off a new monthly art crawl, beginning Saturday, August 3rd from 5:30pm to 11pm. I’m teaming up with Mike Kluge (Future Night at Boheme Collectif) to curate an electronic art exhibition at the SNAP Center called “ON/OFF.”

The art community centered around Chestnut Street (near Greer Stadium) has long been one of Nashville’s best kept secrets. The Saturday art crawl is a great opportunity to tour wonderful spaces such as music producer Lonie John Hutchin’s new Cleft Studios, world famous Infinity Cat Records, community makerspace Fort Houston, and galleries such as Ground Floor Gallery, Ovvio Arte, Seed Space, Track One and Zeitgeist Gallery.

For our ON/OFF exhibition at SNAP Center, Mike and I called upon members of the circuit bending and electronic music and art communities to show off  interactive installations, reactive video, sound sculptures, flashing lights and things that go buzz.

There will be two live performances. At 7pm and 9pm, artist David Wright LaGrone will perform live dynamic video art with guitar pedals and the Hard Soft Synth 3jb, an innovative lo-fi video synthesizer from Bleep Labs.  At 8pm and 10pm, artist and Watkins professor Morgan Higby Flowers will perform realtime audio visuals using a no-input system. The output ranges from dirt-filthy, loud, and stroboscopic to soft, rhyth-matic NTSC rivers.

The participating artists include:

  • Zach Adams
  • Brains Bailey
  • Benton Bainbridge
  • Lawrence Crow
  • Josh Gumiela
  • Linda Heck
  • Morgan Higby-Flowers
  • David Wright LaGrone
  • Andrew Morill
  • Adrienne Outlaw
  • Luke Rainey
  • Stan Richardson
  • Liz Clayton Scofield
  • Derek Schartung
  • Russell White

(Artist list is subject to change.)

This should be a fun show! Check out previews of Adrienne Outlaw‘s and Zach Adams‘ works below.

And be sure to check out all the other great gallery exhibits.

More info on the Facebook event page.

ON/OFF Electronic Art Exhibition (Wedgewood-Houston Art Crawl) Saturday, August 3rd, 5:30-11pm, FREE, all ages

@ SNAP Center 1224 Martin St, Nashville, TN 37203

Parking locations: 516 Hagan St. 37203 500 Houston St. 37203 427 Chesnut St. 37203

This article was adapted from my guest post at Nashville Arts Magazine.