ICM012 Bryce Hackford “Diegetic Music” Record Release:
M. Lamar (Instrumental set)
Angus Tarnawsky
Bryce Hackford
Camilla Padgitt-Coles (DJ)
In June, The Dream Wanderer arrives at Knockdown Center! This transformed shuttle bus now houses an immersive and interactive virtual reality installation currently on a nationwide tour, exhibiting an original VR work created by Flatsitter Media Arts Collective.
The VR experience is suitable for children ages 8+.
Schedule:
Thursday, June 15, 5:00pm – 9:00pm
Friday, June 16, 5:00pm – 9:00pm
Saturday, June 17, 2:00pm-8:00pm
ABOUT THE DREAM WANDERER
This has never been done before…
The Dream Wanderer was once a forgotten Ford Econoline transit shuttle parked in the back lot at a used car dealership in Olean, NY. After being gutted and wrapped and retrofitted, the Dream Wanderer has a third life as a touring virtual reality gallery showcasing all-original virtual reality artworks by Buffalo-based arts collective Flatsitter. So far, tour stops have included Miami Beach (Satellite Art Fair during Art Basel), Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp in Central Florida, SOUP Experimental Space (Tallahassee), The Music Box Village (New Orleans), The French Quarter (New Orleans), Cheer Up Charlie’s (Austin, TX), Museum of Human Achievement (Austin, TX), Pump Project (Austin, TX), Convivio (Oaxaca), Material Art Fair (Mexico City), and Lawn Gnome Books (Phoenix), NOMAD (Los Angeles), Marfa Myths (Marfa), SXSW (Austin), Castillo Blanc0 (New Orleans), Ace Hotel (Pittsburgh), and Elephant Gallery (Nashville). Upcoming stops include Moogfest in May.
ABOUT LILY DALE
The original VR work being exhibited is titled “Lily Dale” and is a virtual reality exploration of spiritualism and the afterlife. This experience features a custom-drawn tarot deck and 20 different VR vignettes for multiple viewings. More info: http://lilydale.flatsitter.com
Lily Dale was founded in 1879 as a camp and meeting place for Spiritualists and Freethinkers. Residents of this small town in Western New York claim to communicate with the dead. The ‘Guidelines for Spiritualism’ are posted on the wall of the Assembly Hall in downtown Lily Dale.
Guideline #4 reads: “We Never Die”
The virtual reality experience incorporates interviews with Lily Dale resident mediums, motion capture from movement artist Ginger Wagg, and a deck of hand-drawn tarot cards by artist Bobby Griffiths.
ABOUT FLATSITTER
FLATSITTER is an interdisciplinary collaborative that incorporates video, film, software programming, performance and installation. The artistic works nurture a perception of society, community and environment as interlocking parts of a creative experience and are exhibited in an array of formats, such as ephemeral web collections, live performances, site-specific installations, short films, and live virtual reality experiences.
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The bus was funded with generous donations from kind people. Major contributors include: Rick Smith from Silo City and the VRTC Foundation.
The interior of the bus was built with generous assistance from carpenter Robert Sturm.
The Subpac haptic feedback vests were provided with support from Subpac.
This month, Knockdown Center’s free monthly performance series Sunday Service is hosted by Andrea Arrubla for the BABZ Fair. The evening will reflect and celebrate the legacy of the seminal poet Essex Hemphill established among contemporary literary and visual artists with Tiona Nekkia McClodden, James Allister Sprang, Peter BD, and Karmenife X.
Bios
Tiona Nekkia McClodden is a visual artist, filmmaker, and curator whose work explores, and critiques issues at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality and social commentary. McClodden’s interdisciplinary approach traverses documentary film, experimental video, sculpture, and sound installations. Themes explored in McClodden’s films and works have been re-memory and more recently narrative biomythography.
Peter BD is a writer on the internet.
Karmenife X is an artist, writer and stand-up comedian from Harlem, NYC. Karmenife is most known for her photo project entitled “Reclamation” where she reclaimed fraternities for survivors of sexual violence. Karmenife graduated from Wesleyan University in 2016 and in 2015, she published a memoir entitled “Sea Salt and Sandalwood” through Wesleyan’s Gorilla Publishing Collective. Karmenife currently lives in New York City and is working on a collection of short stories revolving around her experiences with online dating and an art project entitled “Put Him In His Place,” which combines her artwork with harassing messages she has received on online dating sites in an effort to reclaim space, power, and voice. Karmenife has also begun an illustrious career as a stand-up comedian whose work focuses on uplifting marginalized groups that are often targeted in the white, male, cis dominated comedy world. Karmenife plans to continue creating and working to make more safe spaces for survivors of sexual assault, especially survivors of color.
James Allister Sprang is an artist and writer currently based in Philadelphia. A graduate of The Cooper Union and an MFA candidate at the University of Pennsylvania, Sprang works as an interdisciplinary concerned with race and the embodied/disembodied voice. Working through both time and objects, Sprang’s work exists in gallery spaces, theater spaces and the spaces generally found between the ears. James has spoken, shown and performed in institutions such as the Apollo Theater, The Brooklyn Museum, The Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Pioneer Works, Abrons Arts Center and the Public Theater and The Kitchen.
About the curator
Andrea Arrubla is a Colombian interdisciplinary artist living in Brooklyn, NY. Her artwork revolves around issues of personal histories, institutional critique, and language through accessible mediums that confront professionalized methods of art making. Arrubla was the Student Liaison of the Bruce High Quality Foundation University (‘14-’16) where she focused on genuine and inclusive community building in the arts. Her first solo exhibition took place at New Release Gallery; New York. She has exhibited work in group exhibitions at Essex Flowers and various educational institutions across the United States. Arrubla has been featured in print in OSMOS Magazine, The Third Rail, and Packet Biweekly.
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About BABZ FAIR
The 5th annual BABZ Fair presented by BLONDE ART BOOKS is a weekend long event that features small press art and poetry publishers, and individual artist projects, alongside a program of performance, readings, and workshops. BABZ Fair will be taking place Friday, June 2 through Sunday, June 4, 2017.
Over the years the BABZ Fair has grown dramatically and this year the fair will feature art books and zines by over 100 publishers and artists from across the country.
This year we are collaborating with artist Andrea Arrubla to produce the weekend programming. The full program schedule, including a new expanded program series, and workshop series, will be announced shortly.
About Sunday Service
Sunday Service is a curated series of short-form live performances across mediums. Taking place the first Sunday of each month in the Ready Room, a guest curator is invited to organize a salon style evening of in-progress works, performances, and presentations, anchored by a framing principle such as a question, proposition, theme, or formal structure. Sunday Service encourages works in progress and interdisciplinary endeavors showcased in a lo-fi environment to foster experimentation and critical discourse amongst peers.
Fierro Ex Machina
War Hippy
Amy Mills
Matthais Etter
Friday, June 9
The Range
Visuals
Dave Harrington – bass/electronics
Jordan McLean – trumpet/electronics
Brian Chase – drums
Dave Harrington – bass/electronics
Jordan McLean – trumpet/electronics
Brian Chase – drums
Projections by Wild Dogs
Tickets here.
Friday, June 16
George Clanton
Pictureplane
Visuals
Nicky Sparkles
Projections by Kathryn Chadason
Tickets here.
Friday, June 30
Computer Magic
Visuals
Casey Dienel
Projections by Spencer Bewley
Tickets here.
About VISUALS
VISUALS is Andrew Fox, a vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and producer from New York City.
Fox began crafting the songs that would become VISUALS in 2012. A long-standing working relationship with Dave Harrington, Nicolas Jaar’s partner in DARKSIDE, led to VISUALS joining Jaar’s Other People crew and releasing an acclaimed self-titled debut EP.
In October 2013, Fox swapped Brooklyn for Berlin and left behind a studio full of gear, finding freedom in the limitation of a laptop. Working with his voice as a primary instrument led to an intensified focus on melody, and opened moods previously inaccessible.
Whilst the dominance of house and techno in Berlin’s club scene has undoubtedly influenced his music, Fox also consciously counters that, balancing his recent work with some unmistakably American indie traits. He has honed a new sound, combining aspects of traditional songwriting and structure within this electronic context. His gift for memorable hooks and compelling melody remains the focus, with dancefloor arrangements and sounds providing endless new possibilities.
Summer is almost here and we’ve teamed up with the Feel Up Records squad to bring you Chicken & Beer, one of the wildest parties in town with a stacked lineup including Jillionaire, Serani, Jubilee, Max Glazer, Silent Addy, Hewy, Love Taps, Zeemuffin, Bobby Dubs and Noise Cans
Chicken…Beer…and you never know who might show up!
In the Ruins, Knockdown Center’s Backyard.
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Originally created by Irvin Benitez as an alternative to the nightlife scene in Washington Heights, New York and to fill the daytime party void, Brunch Bounce was spawned Memorial Day Weekend 2012. What began as a month to month day party amongst friends, grew from hundreds to thousands of revelers; expanding beyond its place of origin into the rest of the city that never sleeps, with the sole mission of providing pure unadulterated fun.
Bouncing around (no pun intended) from borough to borough and packing out some of New York’s most esteemed night clubs and venues.Built on the ethos of come with a good vibe, a smile and your dancing shoes, Brunch Bounce exists to provide a judgement free zone where you can let all your inhibitions go and just have fun on the dance floor with your friends and Brunch Bounce family while listening to some of the best DJ’s in New York City play out some of the best music. Covering every genre from House, Disco and Techno to Hip Hop, R&B and Reggae and even mixing in some Latin, Funk and More. We cover all the bases from sun up to sun down.
In 2014 Brunch Bounce conceptualized and produced The Greatest Day Ever! Festival; A cross-genre music event that sold out with 7,000 attendees. Over time, this once small social event has now roved to Miami, aboard the Mad Decent Boat Party and Mysteryland USA.
About OVERTIME
This summer, we’re teaming up with the best promoters, hosts, and DJs to bring you an outdoor party every weekend! Come get down in the Ruins and kick back with a frozen drink and your favorite acts.
EVERY SATURDAY ALL SUMMER LONG
Tickets Start At $15
Radeberger is the official sponsor of OVERTIME
OSHUN
Live Out Loud Band
Highclass Hoodlums
Nakaya
JIL
Sounds by Shiva
Hosted by Zuri Lyric Marley
For its 5th anniversary celebration CT::SWaM is proud to be presenting collaborations, compositions and cookies! A special spatial sound session will be held and for the occasion we’ll be setting up a 12.3 channel sound system in the main room. The program will include a reworked version of Shelley Hirsch’s “ToHuWaBoHu”, a control-suspending Modular Collaboration, a series of individual pieces, simultaneities and in between sounds from the archive.
Solo pieces:
Claude Barnes – spatialized field recordings and interviews
Merche Blasco – EEMF:
Shelley Hirsch – ToHuWaBoHu
David Linton – 9/11/15
Cecilia Lopez – From Versiones Arruinadas: Los Boredoms, La Manoseada
Matthew Ostrowski – Shiver and Cleave
Kamron Saniee – Turbulent Flow: spatial synthesis piece for solo performer and 3x4ch loudspeaker system
A Modular Collaboration:
3 groups of performers over a 3 x 4.1 channel sound system:
Gus Callahan, Michael Clemow, Richard Garet, Wolfgang Gil, Jenn Grossman, Victoria Keddie, Patti Kilroy, Daniel Neumann
During two workshop days a multi-channel piece based on sonic exchange between individual performers will be developed. The architecture of the piece is such that none of the participants has direct control over the output. Any original output, structural or sonic, must be passed through at least one other performer. There won’t be any direct individual expression. Each performer switches between >GENERATE<, >CAPTURE< and >PASS<. The sound system will consist of a total of 12 speakers, yet divided into 3 smaller sub-(quad-)systems.
Join Knockdown Center and local Maspeth author Lori J. Fitzgerald for the launch of her story collection Through the Oak Door on June 25th at 5:00 P.M. in our Ready Room Bar. The author will read excerpts from the collection, invite discussion, and sign copies of the book that will be available for purchase.
Through the Oak Door is an independently published paperback collection of related novelettes in the mythic fiction genre, featuring Celtic mythological figures and medieval characters in stories of self-discovery and transformation. The novelettes were originally published as separate e-books, Love Lies Bleeding and Songs Within Stone, and have been collected in an exclusive paperback edition.
Lori J. Fitzgerald writes fantasy fiction. She lives in Maspeth with her fellow English major husband, their two bookworms, and a small black rescue dog. Medieval literature and the mythic arts are her passions, and she loves attending the NY Renaissance Faire. Lori has a B.A. in English from St. Joseph’s College, Brooklyn, and an M.A. from Queens College. She was a middle school English teacher for over a decade and was well-known for her dramatic readings. Her first novelette, The Dragon’s Message, can be found on Amazon Kindle, and her non-fiction comparative literature essays can be found on www.onceuponafans.com in the Origins section. She is currently working on a mythic fiction novel.
Flatland explores the interplay of dimension and light through use of laser and 3D LED sculptures built to create immersive environments. It is inspired by the capacity of light and color to elevate the human spirit and the transformative power of sound. Live performances will be on a 4-point sound system.
NITEMIND is a group of artists using technology and physical space to create immersive and interactive installations. Our work uses light as a medium, including laser beams, video-mapped LED, and software art in combination with ephemeral sculpture and site-specific installations. Nitemind has been instrumental in the development of exhibitions at the Palais de Tokyo, Metropolitan Museum of Art, MOMA P.S. 1, Johannes Vogt Gallery, Red Bull Music Academy and many others.
Teengirl Fantasy
ADR
LAFAWNDAH
YAEJI