Festival Commissions Underway

AV Festival 12 includes 12 new commissions by Phill Niblock, Yoshi Wada, Susan Stenger, Julien Maire, Hamish Fulton, Kenneth Goldsmith, Torsten Lauschmann, Attila Csihar, Vicki Bennett, Richard Fenwick, Jonathan Schipper and new work in remembrance of Peter Christopherson. All the commissions are underway and many of the artists have visited the region.

Yoshi Wada visited this summer and is producing a new sound installation for the Discovery Museum in Newcastle, his first in the UK.

Phill Niblock visited last month to make recordings for a new piece with Rhodri Davies, to be premiered at the Festival.

Susan Stenger also visited over the summer to select the location for her new sound installation, to be installed in the unusual acoustics of the Civic Centre circular entrance space and supported by the PRSF for Music Foundation.

Torsten Lauschmann and Julien Maire have both visited their exhibition venues, and the selection of works for their shows is nearly finalised.

Meanwhile Chris Watson has been making sound recordings of human exhaustion for a new film with Richard Fenwick, and recording the sounds of Durham Cathedral for our new commission in remembrance of Peter Christopherson.

Vicki Bennett is currently scheduling 744-hours of online radio for Radio Boredcast, which runs continuously throughout the Festival. Including contributions from hundreds of other artists including: Language Removal Services, Matmos, Chris Watson, Radio Web MACBA, Leif Elggren, Jem Finer, Andy Baio, Carl Stone, Dave Soldier, Felix Kubin, Jez Riley French, Daniel Menche, Gordon Monahan and Gudrun Gut to name but a few.

Kenneth Goldsmith is busy researching 1920s weather reports and data from the UK Met Office, for his new Festival durational reading.

Attila Csihar has selected the Tyne Bridge Tower as the location for his scrying performance, and planned a research trip to Lindisfarne. He is working on creating a new text from the Enochian language.

And feasibility for the site of Hamish Fulton’s mass participation Slowalk is currently underway and will be confirmed very soon. This walk involving hundreds of people walking slowly together, will mark the end of the Festival on 31 March 2012.