VIX Sound+Light+Motion

Exhibiting Bandwidth as part of the Guelph Jazz Festival Nuit Blanche gave me the opportunity to enjoy the audience reaction to the work, as three enthusiastic audience members participated simultaneously. Each individual operated a controller to “dance” one of the images projected on one of the three screens as the other images (one per screen) reacted to selected frequencies in the soundtrack.

Now, I have a very good idea of how to create an interface for stand alone installation. Everyone had positive comments and the wireless arduino powered control was a source of wonder. Thanks to everyone who assisted me in the programming of the Arduino sketch.

During the day, I was able to hear some of the other performances in downtown Guelph and was fortunate enough to be interviewed by the resident radio station. CIUT fm was broadcasting live from the tent and playing CD’s of musicians who were performing at the festival.

Toronto’s preeminent, listener-supported presenter of leading-edge music and spoken-word programming since 1966.

Producer Erik Betlem was kind enough to send me a copy of the interview recorded live on September 10th in the downtown Guelph outdoor venue tent.
The hosts were David Dacks and Laura Dymock,

Bandwidth Interview – click to go to the interview then  — click to listen.

Thanks to all the festival organizers, volunteers, CIUT and the friendly citizens of Guelph — I am grateful for the opportunity to premiere my interactive installation in Guelph.

Hope to see you all again soon.

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UniverCity Net – digital art by Victoria Gibson

As an Integrated Media Artist, I have many project ideas that I am constantly working on. My most recent project proposals have been seeking support to develop a new instrument for me to play in performance. My current goal is to develop a performance instrument that works using gesture control and sensors to create an alternative reality environment.

Although my core training is in music, I have studied dance and motion and have spent years of my life in on-stage performance as a musician. In my recent presentations, I have played computer based instruments and I realize that a lot of the impact of musical presentation is about the gesture of producing the sound.

If I am to continue to use the computer as a performance instrument, I need to develop a controller that responds to dance-like movements. The vision of being able to focus physical energy through dance and control audio and visual elements was crystallized into my need for an Immersive Environment Instrument (IEI). (continue reading…)

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Podcast (girl_can_dream): Download

Third Podcast in the Girl Can Dream Series

The previous two podcasts were about my heritage music, gospel and blues.  This third one features some of the work I do using the computer and effects. All the music in this series is written and performed by me, Victoria Gibson, and I have imposed the limitation that I be able to perform it in a live solo concert. I am playing with a computer in one of these examples, but I still count it as a solo work.

The title, “Echoes of You Far Away” comes from the memories of the interesting people that I spent time with this summer who are far away now. The style is a recollection of the naturally echoing space called “The Cistern Chapel” that I speak about in the podcast audio.

In May, I met Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster and David Gamper, the trio known as The Deep Listening Band, in Port Townsend. This ensemble first recorded in the cistern 20 years ago and many sound artists have followed them down the narrow entrance to experience the 45 second reverb since then.  My mission was to document the 20 year anniversary return of the Deep Listening Band to The Cistern Chapel located nearby in Fort Worden with video and photos and to assist with the audio recording.

I journeyed to the location on my Yamaha FJ1200 motorcycle loaded down with all the required gear.

The video and photos that were taken of the band may be released by The Deep Listening Institute as a DVD or on their website, but I am giving a preview of the photos I took of the Cistern Chapel.  I do not include any photos of the band as some of them may be used in the commercial release and we have not finalized the details. The audio was recorded by Jonas Braasch, a colleague of Pauline’s from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, School of Architecture, Architectural Acoustics Program who is a fine saxophone player. The audio of my experiments was recorded by me using my Zoom H4.

This slideshow gallery includes photos of my trip and some of the cistern itself. It was very dark under the ground and the feeling in the place was unique.

[Show as slideshow]

Thank You.

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Podcast (girl_can_dream): Download

The second podcast of Girl Can Dream, moves into the realm of electric slide guitar. I also realized I don’t have many photos of myself on-line, so I started using the timer feature on my camera. This one came out fairly Ok, but the focus is not really sharp yet. I am trying to take a photo of me with no makeup in natural light. I have seen some great portraits lately, so I am inspired to move in this direction.

As always, comments or donations encourage me to keep going in this direction. I would like to hear from you. Girl Can Dream is a new initiative of mine as I usually play with a band. The high costs associated with touring in an ensemble have given me the idea to experiment with a solo project.

Performances will become more polished as I become used to making all of the noise myself.  I may start to add electronics to give me some support, but for now, I am trying to go back to my roots and keep it simple.

Thank You.

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Podcast (vixmedia01): Download

Paul Plimley and Victoria Gibson have formed the duo, You Are Here and are excited to announce their first podcast. This podcast contains samples from the first three musical works completed from their upcoming disk “Twilight Zone Love Affair”.  Paul and Victoria discuss the meaning and the making of the three tracks, Condensed History Patterns, In A Ghana Havana and Sleepwalkers Vacation.

Download a pdf file outline of the three tracks and some information about Paul and Victoria here.

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Podcast: Download

This year I am volunteering at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival because I was asked to document the volunteer experience, in a similar way that I did with the Jazz Festival volunteers. Usually, I don’t volunteer for every festival in Vancouver, but there is a really good festival line up and I wanted to attend anyway.

One of the big differences between the documentation that I did at the Jazz Festival and this experience, is that I am handling the audio recording of interviews with the participating volunteers. I have a partner, Dean Buscher (2nd from right – wearing the shades), who has a Nikon D3 and all the fast lenses he needs. This a photo I tool of the 2009 “Volunteer Experience Documentation Committee”.

I am honoured to be doing sound recording at the festival because of the work my friend, Sylvi MacCormack, (pictured left) has done by creating a soundscape record of the festival that is posted on their site; VFMF Soundscapes 1999-2002: Festival Quartet for Solitude

Sylvie is a woman I really admire because she has devoted her life to her music and art. Despite all of the obstacles she has faced, I always see her smiling and excited about a project she is involved in. She certainly contributed to my experience of the Folk Festival through her work.

She was present at our orientation and will be continuing to document the sound events at this year’s festival. I am dedicating my participation, including this web page, as a tribute to her and in recognition of her pioneering work that helped to develop this idea.

As we were receiving our directions I noticed a group of very well equipped photographers standing nearby. I went over to photograph them. This festival has a major crop of Nikon D3 cameras sprouting up everywhere and this was a dense patch.

I was happily taking pictures with my camera, when one of them handed me his deluxe model and requested I take one for him. I was amazed by the clarity of the screen and the camera was so crisp when operating the shutter. I can’t complain about my Nikon D50, it is a good camera and I can learn a lot with it. BUT, when I really want to get good, I will have to invest. Photography really is one of those arts where money makes a difference.

The photographer who traded cameras with me, ever so briefly, took a photo of me – with mine. Notice the poor form, not totally balanced to be tripod steady and continuing to wedge a program under my arm. I hope the result was not too bad!

The real story is the audio, so I include a couple of interviews with the photographers. I will post individual photos, but Alyssa is second from right and Colin is third, next to her (camera at ready) in the group photo.

Colin Mills interview

Alyssa Burtt Interview

I have added Alyssa’s interview to my podcast feed.
More from fellow volunteers and my own posts on the Folk Music Festival Site.

My gallery software now automatically creates a gallery of images on the page, so I added a few more of the photographers. I am going to have to figure out how to edit this as it makes duplicates. Edited and updated.

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