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Apr 21

Baby, Said Alice B. Toklas: Artist Talk

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Please join us on Sunday, April 30th, as artist Hanne Tierney speaks about her current exhibition Baby, Said Alice B. Toklas, currently on view at Knockdown Center.

About Baby, Said Alice B. Toklas
Baby, Said Alice B. Toklas is a self-performing object theater produced by artist Hanne Tierney. Installed across the expanse of Knockdown Center’s Annex, a series of vignettes come to life as cloth figures, hula hoops, and satin configurations gesture, twirl, and sway, manipulated by a system of motors and robotic electronics, designed by engineer Oskar Strautmanis. A soundtrack further animates each semi-abstract character, composed of a drifting narrative that stages imagined arguments between Gertrude Stein and her life partner Alice B. Toklas, woven with excerpts from Stein’s early plays, and with music by Erik Satie. Baby, Said Alice B. Toklas will be played on a fifteen-minute loop during gallery hours, offering viewers the possibility of an ongoing encounter with the immersive, ambulatory experience of Tierney’s enchanting work.

Hanne Tierney has performed her puppetry and object theater at The Kitchen, Franklin Furnace, the Queen’s Museum, the Whitney Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, MoMA/PS1, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Espace Kiron, Paris, the Akademie der Kuenste, Berlin, and at the Jim Henson International Festival of Puppet Theater. Tierney received an OBIE in 2000. Tierney is the founder and director of Five Myles, an exhibition and performance space in Crown Heights that focuses on engaging directly with the community and presenting work by under-represented artists.

Apr 21

Stronger Together

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Stronger Together is an exhibition featuring software and electronic art by faculty and alumni of computer art departments of nine area universities, and includes a selection of electronic music performances and free Maker workshops teaching 3D printing and modeling as well as DIY electronics assembly and programming.   Produced by Leaders in Software and Art (LISA) for Creative Tech Week in conjunction with Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center, the exhibit celebrates the explosion of technology onto the global art and music scene and highlights the leaders at our educational epicenters for technological innovation in the arts.

Experience the work of artists and educators who are driving forces in guiding and facilitating the next generation of innovators in technological arts, and explore the intersections in aesthetic and conceptual inquiries across academic programs at nine area universities. The exhibition includes art installations incorporating a wide range of technologies and media including Virtual Reality; Augmented Reality; 3D printing; CNC router milling; custom or recycled electronics; custom software; the Internet; custom video game consoles and joysticks; photo manipulation; data visualizations; drone video; algorithms; speech synthesis; and tablets, smartphones, flat screens, projectors, computers, microphones, sensors and speakers.

In addition to university partners and LISA, Creative Tech Week is also partnering with Harvestworks, Plan 23, Columbia University, CUNY and the Lady Tech Guild to feature exciting performances and hands-on workshops over the two-day period. Organizers include Isabel Draves, President of Creative Tech Week and Founder of LISA; Carol Parkinson, Director of Harvestworks; Wolfgang von Stuermer (aka WvS), Representative of Plan 23; Michael Merck, Co-Director of the Knockdown Center; and Akaash Mehta, Creative Tech Week Arts Hub Exhibition Director.

Artists featured in the exhibition include Richard Jochum from Art and Education, Teachers College at Columbia University; Daniel Tempkin, Joe Diebes, Ed Bear, Margaret Schedel and Melissa F. Clark, Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center; Annie Berman, Andrew Demirjian, Ricardo Miranda Zúñiga from Integrated Media Arts at Hunter College CUNY; Terry Nauheim, Yuko Oda and Robert Michael Smith from the Department of Digital Art & Design at NYIT; Katherine Bennett, Chun-Fang Huang, Javier Molina, Tatiana Pilon, Kate Sicchio and Mark Skwarek from Integrated Digital Media at NYU; Harry Chiuhao Chen, Gene Kogan, Zhenzhen Qi, Hellyn Teng, Yang Wang, and Jingwen Zhu from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU; Amelia Marzec and Yuchen Zhang from Design and Technology at Parsons; Allison Berkoy, Blake Carrington, Ursula Endlicher, Carla Gannis, Claudia Herbst-Tait, and Linda Lauro-Lazin from the Department of Digital Arts at Pratt Institute; Seth Cluett, Christopher Manzione, and Nicholas O’Brien from Visual Arts & Technology at Stevens Institute of Technology; Benton C Bainbridge and Eric Corriel, respectively from MFA Computer Art and BFA Design at School of Visual Arts; and Michael Rees at William Paterson University.

Free admission and creative technology workshops Saturday, May 13 12-7pm
On Saturday May 13th, the exhibition is free and open to the public from noon to 7 pm. Visitors can receive free advice and instruction on 3D scanning and modeling and 3D printing. Visitors can also participate in Maker workshops on Raspberry Pi, Arduino, generative art, and building radios from recycled electronics (a materials fee and advance registration is required for the workshops, see ctw.nyc for details).

Performances – Friday, May 12 (Exhibition Preview) 5-11pm and Saturday, May 13, 7-11pm
Tickets $15 advance, $20 at the door / $25 two-night tickets available
The evening programs features performances by Pamela Z, Jimmy Joe Roche and Layne Garrett and Long Distance Poison on Friday and SMOMID, Raphaele Shirley and Plan 23 with live visuals by Zarah Cabanas, Chris Jorden & Sofy Yuditskaya on Saturday.

Friday Night Tickets: http://ticketf.ly/2pmhbkB
Saturday Night Tickets: http://ticketf.ly/2oRVo2s
2-Night Tickets: http://www.ticketfly.com/event/1469604

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Creative Tech Week
From VR, 3D printing and hackathons to fashion tech, data visualization, digital art, interactive installations and STEAM, Creative Technology is front and center in innovation success stories across the corporate and non-profit landscape. Creative Tech Week, held from May 12 to 21, 2017 in New York City, is a crowdsourced festival created to showcase the cutting-edge research, art, media, and community initiatives being generated in the field of creative technology.  ctw.nyc 

LISA
Leaders in Software and Art (LISA), founded in 2009, brings together cutting-edge software and electronic artists, curators, collectors, and coders to share their work. LISA holds exclusive monthly salons across NYC featuring presentations by artists who work with technology; curates digital art for interested parties; and partners with museums and art fairs to showcase the work of past speakers. Over 200 past LISA speakers are featured in the artist portfolio.

Harvestworks
Founded in 1977, Harvestworks’ mission is to support contemporary artists in the creation of art works achieved through new and evolving technologies. Innovative use of new technology helps acclimate people to change, allows for the absorption of new ideas, and enriches the space of imagination in our culture. Our programs record the artists’ impact on the ways technology can be integrated into artistic practice through residencies and presentations of the highest quality work across the arts and technology spectrum to the public. 1977-2017 – 40 Years!
www.harvestworks.org

Plan 23
Emerged out of Bushwick, Brooklyn, Plan 23 creates site-specific, extended, immersive, audio-visual experiences that bend one’s perception of time and space. Encompassing a sonic spectrum from dark-ambient soundscapes via subliminal pulses to electronic sounds the group delivers sonic explorations into uncharted spaces; combining live music, lasers and live visuals into an engaging sensory journey – redefining psychedelic sound for the 21st century. plan23.net  

 

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Image Credit: ‘Cubist Mirror’ by Gene Kogan (http://genekogan.com/) via School For Poetic Computation

Apr 20

A DEEP BOOMING LAUGH

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A DEEP BOOMING LAUGH is an evening of atmospheric music by Brooklyn-based bands B0DYH1GH, Boiled Wool, and Sister Pact. Largely inspired by Riot Grrrl culture, the three acts revel in the Sad Girl aesthetic, producing pensive, intensifying music that features gorgeous sound reverberations that resonate within the acoustics of the Knockdown Center, providing an opportunity to collectively explore what diligent and thoughtful music can mean in the present.

About the artists:

Since 2010, Brooklyn-based art duo B0DYH1GH have developed a cult following for their epic, psychedelic, synaesthetic music; dark and weird art interventions; intricate, tautological grooves; and entrancing, mysterious style. They’ve performed at myriad events in New York City; including Birdsong, Spank, Pussy Faggot, Clump, Super Bisexuals, Everybooty Gay Pride, Jason & Jill, Apocalypse Wow, and F.:.NCY; earning a rabid fan base among the proto- Bushwick queer scene. They’ve also graced the stages of more ‘highbrow’ New York cultural institutions, performing at the Public Theater and Joe’s Pub; and the American Realness, Coil, Prelude, and Under the Radar festivals. They performed at the finale of 2013’s Queer New York International Arts Festival at La MaMa, debuting an evening-length performance called ALIEN AFTERLIFE, and organized and starred in the April 20th gala, DEEP-FRIED CANDYFLOWERS, at LES art gallery CultureFix. They’ve created site-specific work for galleries such as Strange Loop and the Impossible Project Space, where they presented their instrumental art-rock EP, BUTTERBAWL. They’ve served as models and muses for internationally-acclaimed artists such as Amos Mac, whose image of the band went viral after being featured in Out Magazine.

BOILED WOOL is the performance and installation project of artist Cynthia Chang. Cynthia Chang started making sculptures in college at the Rhode Island School of Design, often as ornaments for their performance work. After graduating, Chang shifted their focus to wearable items, using their knowledge of sculptural objects and material manipulation. They launched their label Something Happening in 2014, with a couple of signature pieces and club-inspired one-offs and they showed their first full collection Big Babies during New York Fashion Week. https://soundcloud.com/boiledwool
SISTER PACT is Logan Sibrel & Omar Afzaal. Sister Pact’s sophomore effort is a concept album wherein the protagonist journeys with a resurrected lover, and is later devoured when his companion is overtaken by his zombie urges. The album explores themes of love, ambition, and shortsightedness, and was inspired by a long meditation over a photo of Nancy Kerrigan, post 1994 attack.

Apr 18

SITE : SOUND

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Join us for a culminating exhibition and showcase staged as a sonic portrait and re-telling of the Site : Sound series.

Site : Sound is a series of intimate site-specific lectures, sonic-spatial interventions, and performances celebrating the pliancy and tactility of acoustic experience. Taking place across three boroughs of New York City from April 23 to June 25, 2017, twelve contemporary sound artists, composers, and instrumentalists invite the public to channel their curiosity and join in an exploration of the auditory sense.

Presented by Clocktower Radio and Lea Bertucci.

For more information about Site: Sound programming, visit:http://clocktower.org/event/site-sound-april-june-knockdown

Apr 14

Gamelan Dharma Swara

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Knockdown Center is pleased to host Gamelan Dharma Swara as they receive, unpack, and perform for the very first time their new set of gamelan instruments from Bali.

Over two decades New York City’s Gamelan Dharma Swara has built an international reputation as one of the country’s most accomplished and innovative ensembles—tackling a diverse and daring repertoire of both classical Balinese and contemporary music. The 20-member ensemble captivates audiences with the raucous, wondrous sounds of bronze-keyed percussion instruments, gongs, bells, and drums. On April 20th Dharma Swara’s new set of gamelan instruments arrive from Bali after nearly two years in the making. (The group previously performed on instruments generously loaned by other institutions.) Soon, with full access to a gamelan, Dharma Swara will enter a new chapter of study, creative exploration, music-making and dance intended to drive American gamelan forward.

The new set of Balinese artisan-made instruments is composed of 20 metallophones, 20 brass pots, 3 gongs, 6 drums, and an array of flutes and cymbals, most of which are set in hand-carved, decorative  wooden cases. In owning one of the most complete sets of instruments with semara dana tuning (the most progressive and extensive mode of Balinese gamelan tuning), Dharma Swara will undertake complex pieces from both the classical repertoire and new compositions.

After their unpacking, the instruments will be on view at sunset from 7:00PM – 9:00PM, and Dharma Swara’s gamelan gendèr wayang ensemble will perform, demonstrate select gamelan instruments, and there will be opportunities for visitors to play the instruments.

Image: Gamelan Dharma Swara’s instruments are ready for its big unveiling.  Don’t miss this opportunity to be the first to welcome them stateside!  Here they are being blessed by the priest before they departed Bali, Indonesia. Photo by: Gusti Putu Aryamana.

Apr 13

QUADRAPHONIC MUSIC NIGHT

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File New is proud to present the first of our Quadraphonic Music Nights, featuring Brooklyn electronic musicians Martial Canterel, Michael Sherburn, Collin Crowe, Dylan Marcheschi, and Anastasia Clarke.

Quadraphonic (or Quadrophonic and sometimes Quadrasonic) sound – similar to what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four channels in which speakers are positioned at the four corners of the listening space, reproducing signals that are (wholly or in part) independent of one another.

Martial Canterel’s Sean McBride is the progenitor of American cold synth sounds of the 21st Century. He began under the moniker Moravagine before he started releasing limited edition cassettes and playing Brooklyn dives as Martial Canterel in 2002. Since then, McBride’s bleak intellectual exercises in the dark and danceable have flooded North America and Europe through the frosty fairwaves paved by Pieter Schoolwerth’s Wierd Records. With an inimitable minimal style merging bright, urgent melodies ornamented and punctuated by the noises of industry and McBride’s sonorous, stern vocals, Martial Canterel’s recent releases (You Today, Refuge Underneath) have garnered both critical acclaim and a rapidly growing rabid fanbase. McBride’s influence can be heard in scores of bands in the Wierd cadre and beyond (he is also one half of the Weird Records duo Xeno and Oaklander). Through the collision of a uniquely humanistic means of production via live analogue synthcraft expertly paired with vocals and lyrics that reflect the pitfalls and pleasures of our age, Martial Canterel provides a visceral kick best felt on the dancefloor, amidst a flurry of flesh in motion. http://martialcanterel.bandcamp.com/

Michael Sherburn (of DUST / Earth Boys)
https://soundcloud.com/earthboys

Collin Crowe is an electronic musician, dj, promoter, a video and installation artist based in Brooklyn NY.
http://soundcloud.com/collincrowe

Dylan A. Marcheschi (Eastern Tapes)
https://soundcloud.com/dylanmarcheschi
Marcheschi is a multi-disciplinary artist who has performed and conducted workshops in New York over the past decade exploring minimalist noise and drone music, historical tuning systems, and psychoacoustics. He studied history and art at Columbia University where he spent time working and studying at the famed Computer Music Center. He’s active in a variety of fields from past work writing musical arrangements for New York’s Public Theater to most recently serving as director on an award-winning PBS documentary series. He curates the Monthly Modular Series, a long-running audio/visual showcase in Brooklyn which began as a night of exploration in analog synthesis but has grown to include all manner of improvised music and attracted internationally acclaimed artists. As a co-founder of Eastern Tapes he’s worked to release recordings from like-minded sound artists in the New York area over the past several years.

Anastasia Clarke is a New York/Oakland based composer and performer working with voice, digital signal processing, and analog tools. Her work finds form in solo performances, improvising ensembles, and sound for dance and theater. She has performed and released music as Silent Isle since 2011. Anastasia is currently an MFA candidate in Electronic Music and Recording Media at Mills College.
http://soundcloud.com/silent-isle

Apr 12

Sunday Service: Caitlin Baucom Presents…

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We are pleased to announce Sunday Service: Caitlin Baucom presents… Orlando Estrada, Greem Jellyfish, PAUL (Angelina Dreem), QUALIATIK, Lorelei Ramirez, and An Only Child.

This month, Knockdown Center invites Caitlin Baucom to host our free monthly performance series Sunday Service. The evening, titled A Raging Grace, will gather artists across disciplines who are lit from within by a burning well, and rather than combust, they use its fuels to go higher and brighter.

‘It’s like having a sickness that gets more fierce as it passes on to wellness. We don’t have to view that period as an invitation to despair, but as a sign of potential transformation… whatever pain we are experiencing…’ –bell hooks

Working across performative disciplines, the artists included are also active as organizers and participants in their broader communities, acknowledging that the roots of rage go beyond the merely personal and its power can feed the world. Together, ‘we admit that we don’t want to see the world blown up; we are for the human species.’ –Andrea Juno & V. Vale, Angry Women.

Watch footage of the evening on our MEDIA page here.

About the Curator
Caitlin Baucom is a Brooklyn based artist and composer. She has shown interdisciplinary performance work at Knockdown Center, SIGNAL Gallery, HERE Arts, Dixon Place, JACK, 315 Gallery, and ABC No Rio in NYC; Dfbrl8r Gallery, High Concept Labs, Mana Contemporary, and MCA Chicago; and in Berlin, Paris, Stockholm, Leipzig and Weimar, Germany. As a performer she works regularly with other artists, and has interpreted the works of Yoko Ono, Lygia Clark and James Lee Byars for MoMA and New Museum. She’s held residencies in Chicago, New York and Weimar, and has work and writing published in Emergency INDEX: Volume 3, Bad at Sports, Incident Magazine, and Sorry Archive’s Air Sheets. Her curatorial experiment trevorshaus programs monthly events bringing artists working across performative disciplines into a heightened temporary reality, and recently premiered the immersive sci–fi opera GENERATION SHIP at Mana Contemporary, New Jersey, featuring site specific commissions from a community of movement and sound artists.

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.

Apr 05

Black Swords (Black Rain + Orphan Swords)

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In late 2013, Orphan Swords sent an email to Ike Yard proposing a vocal featuring for their track Vassago. That track – later featuring a vocal part written and recorded by Ike Yard – was released by Desire Records on the “Risk In a New Age” EP  (2014).  It was the beginning of a long term collaboration between NYC-based Stuart Argabright and the Orphan Swords, from Brussels.

 

Later on, Orphan Swords was invited by Desire to remix an Ike Yard track for a compilation around the reissue of their 1983 classic album “A Second”. Orphan Swords then invited Black Rain to remix Asmoday from their EP “License To Desire”. Black Rain is Stuart Argabright’s project with Shinichi Shimokawa – rebooted in 2012 on Blackest ever Black.

 

The three musicians connected quite well and became good friends over time, not merely sharing interest in music but also in the arts in general and the philosophies that relate to them. In April 2016, after Stuart performed at Rewire Festival with Pete Swanson and Vessel, they spent a night in Brussels at Orphan Swords’ HQ “New Terminal Studios” and recorded hours of music in the most spontaneous and direct fashion. This raw material has then been simmered within the following weeks. The two tracks that figure on “The Future Of The Sun” EP are the pith and marrow of what occurred that night.
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