[YLEM lecture series] presents SHOW/PLAY! | Rx Gallery November 9, 2005

Wednesday, November 9
YLEM lecture series
SHOW/PLAY!
 
Bay Area filmmaker/musician/writer Loren Means hosts a multimedia event exploring the relationship of image and sound, and the difference in effect between producing work in the studio and producing it live, in real time, interacting with an audience. Nine visual/sound artists will participate in the event in fluid combinations, including two working sound/visual performing groups.
 
Live Feed is a visuals and sound ensemble comprising LX Rudis on a modified DJ rig and analog synthesis, Chris Fleeger on computer sound synthesis and modification, and Scott Davey on computer-generated / modified light projections. Live Feed has performed at the Luggage Store, done several shows at San Francisco State University, and has accompanied a performance by Winston Tong. Live Feed specializes in the use of "alternative controllers" for audio, such as light and proximity sensors, and Fleeger's use of Max-based touchscreen control.  And, unless specifically discouraged, Rudis can sometimes be found on Theremin.  Audio is used to control aspects of the visual projections at times, and Fleeger is oft detected modifying a direct audio link from Rudis. The group practices a semi-structured form of free improvisation, often organized around a roughly timed "arc" in analog, such as that of the typical television "broadcast day", or the life of an individual.  The group emphasis is on interrelation and interaction to create unified and evocative shifting fields of sound and light.  Laughter is not discouraged.
 
Rachael Abernathy is a filmmaker and sound artist who sews directly on Super-8 film, and scratches on a 45-rpm phonograph record in live performance. As Rachael puts it, ?I would not consider my pieces to be performance art, but rather a sharing experience of film.  I incorporate live sound into my work so that every screening will be exciting and new.  This is my own small way of fighting against the commoditization of art.  Everyone should have the freedom to make art, share art, and experience art.?
 
Rachel Manera is a filmmaker, sound artist, and performance artist. In addition to showing her films with live sound at Artists Television Access and RX Gallery, she recently served as mistress of ceremonies at the Cabaret Voltaire presentation at the San Francisco Art Institute, and was commissioned by the Exploratorium to create a film for the Trip Down Market Street 1905/2005 celebration.
 
Rachel also creates visuals for the group Reagan?s Memory, which is described by its members as ?Improvisational art-damaged sound/visual diarrhea with film projections by Rachel Manera and narration by Ronald Reagan. The group consists of Anthony DeSimmone, drums; Ian Enggasser, guitar; and Douglas Katelus, Rhodes keyboards. Ian and Douglas are also filmmakers. Ian, who also calls himself Ian Phillips, describes himself as an ?improvisational/psychedelic/hardcore/noise/jazz guitar player/composer. His films tend to revel in the beautiful absurd.? Douglas is a San Francisco based filmmaker and musician. He has produced several Documentary and experimental shorts that have screened throughout the U.S.A. Aside from making movies, Douglas also co-curates an experimental film show titled "Pathological Rhetoric" that regularly showcases local and worldwide filmmakers. As he puts it, "My films are an indirect reflection...a sudden and uncontrolled out-lash. I do not choose the images taken, but rather allow the camera to make its own decisions."
 
Loren Means founded the f8 Filmaker?s Co-operative in the Sixties, and won a prize at the Saginaw 8mm Film Festival in 1968. He has shown his films at the Exploratorium, Artists? Television Access, and RX Gallery. Loren paints on 8mm film, whose small size necessitates that the resulting imagery is self-organized, generative. When projected on a large screen, the imagery goes from microcosmic to macrocosmic. The images are then digitized, and the computer comes into play as a real-time performance instrument. Loren?s sound tracks are drawn from music played in improvising groups with Henry Kaiser and Ron Heglin in the Seventies, appearing at the Keystone Korner and Kaiser Auditorium. In addition to showing his films, Loren will be playing electronic trombone, flute, and vocalizing with Reagan?s Memory.