Confirmed Events at AV Festival 08
Whispering in The Leaves by Chris Watson
Rain Forest Sound Installation in Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens
Renowned BAFTA winning BBC sound recordist, artist and musician Chris Watson will transport audiences from Sunderland's Winter Gardens to the exotic soundscape of the La Selva, Costa Rican jungle via a unique sound installation, 'Whispering in The Leaves'. The piece will use 16 surround sound speakers hidden in the Garden's tropical hothouse to recreate the experience of being in one of the World's most remote and protected places.
At hourly intervals throughout the day, visitors will be immersed in a surprising and dynamic surround soundscape of dawn and dusk chorus.
Explains Chris: “ Rainforests are home to more than half the wildlife on earth. Twice each day, hundreds of primates, thousands of birds and millions of insects broadcast their presence in dawn and dusk choruses of a myriad voices - mostly unseen, but heard far and wide through the dense dark greens of the tree canopy and rolling out across the dank leaves of the forest floor”.
Commissioned by AV Festival 08 and produced by Forma (www.forma.org.uk)
Deep Play by Harun Farocki
The 2006 World Cup Final from Every Angle on 12 Screens!
First Major UK exhibition for German Film-Maker and Artist
(29th February - 12th April, Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland). Admission FREE.
Harun Farocki is a celebrated German film-maker and artist who for decades has explored how cinema and other image technologies affect our understanding of the world.
For his first major exhibition in the UK he focuses on football. 'Deep Play' is a huge, 12-screen work offering a dozen different perspectives on the World Cup finals of 2006 between France and Italy (which Italy won on penalties 5-3) The 2006 World Cup stands as one of the most watched events in television history garnering an estimated 26.29 billion non-unique viewers, compiled over the course of the tournament. The final attracted an estimated audience of 715.1 million people.
'Deep Play' unpicks the nature of 21st century media spectacle: it bombards and dazzles our senses with an excess of data and digital images as well as camera footage.
'Deep Play' originated as a collaboration between the artist and Documenta 12, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona (MACBA), DFB Kulturstiftnung Berlin, and FIFA.
At The Top of The Game presented by Jimmy McGovern
Top screenwriting tips from the writer of Cracker and The Street
(4th March at Cineworld, Middlesbrough, 7pm, £5)
Jimmy McGovern is a BAFTA award-winning English television scriptwriter from Liverpool. He is particularly known for writing powerful and thought-provoking dramas often based around hard-hitting social issues or controversial real-life events.
McGovern started his career working on Channel 4's social-realist soap opera Brookside in 1982, tackling many social issues such as unemployment. Other landmark television productions he has written include include: 'Cracker', 'Hillsborough', 'The Lakes', and 'The Street' (the second series of which has recently aired on BBC One).
In 2007 McGovern also completed a musical stage show called 'King Cotton' as part of the Liverpool European Capital of Culture 2008 which premiered at the Lowry in September 2007 before moving to the Liverpool Empire.
'At the Top of The Game' is a unique opportunity to hear from Jimmy and to ask questions about his craft, career, and work. The talk at Cineworld coincides with the Northern Screenwriters' Conference.
'For You, Only You' , Sonia Boyce
29 Feb - 9 March, Castle Keep, Newcastle
Features the music of an early 16th Century Renaissance masterpiece by Josquin Desprez, performed by the Alamire Consort comprising of some of the UK's finest early music singers, fused with contemporary sound art by Greek composer Mikhail Karikis, recorded at Magdalen Chapel, Oxford.
On the 28th February there will be a live to air broadcast on the AV Festival radio station from the Castle Keep, Newcastle upon Tyne, with artist Sonia Boyce.
Produced by Locus+ to co-incide with AV Festival 08.
National Grid by Disinformation vs Strange Attractor
(5th March, Life Theatre, Centre For Life, Times Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, 7.30pm for 8.00, £5 Tickets on door).
' National Grid' is a rumbling, timber-shivering electronic performance by art group Disinformation inspired by the work of radio pioneer Nikola Tesla (1856-1943).
The two performers describe 'National Grid' as “ a philosophical entertainment involving live mains electricity and antiquated electrical laboratory and medical equipment. An intense son et lumiere spectacle in the tradition of Nikola Tesla, Michael Faraday and other gentleman scientists of yesteryear that you will see, smell, hear and feel as the air fills with sparks, current and sound”.
Now Hear This - Marcus Coates, Zoe Irvine and People Like Us
Publicly sited audio works, various sites, Middlesbrough
28 Feb – 8 Mar 08
'Now Hear This' is a series of site–specific audio works presented in various public spaces across Middlesbrough. Encompassing several new commissions, the project features audio works by artists selected for their various interests in the complex relationships between sound, space and location.
Adopting diverse modes of broadcast and public address, Now Hear This offers a range of listening experiences and unexpected sonic interventions into our everyday urban environment, creating surprising and engaging encounters with broadcast material.
Commissions include new sound works by British artists Marcus Coates, Zoe Irvine and People Like Us.
Curated and produced by Forma
Autechre
(Sunday 2 March, 9pm-1am, Digital Newcastle, Tickets £10 from www.seetickets.com & local record stores)
Autechre bring angular machine music to the masses, celebrating their new album 'Quaristice' (Warp). This unfeasibly popular duo take the sounds of Todd Terry, Mantronik and Kraftwerk, jam them through corrupted hardware, and bring Cage and Stockhausen to the dancefloor. In the dark.
Also in attendance will be Sheffield's clicks n' cuts funk duo SND and Rob Hall of Gescom and Manchester's legendary Skam label.
Presented by NO-FI.
AV:ISION is the Official After Dark Programme of AV Festival 08
Presented by NOVAK
AV Festival never sleeps. Last time, in 2006, a series of club events proved so popular that it was inevitably going to be repeated - and, of course, improved upon. North-East producers Preamptive, Name and Retina Glitch who form NOVAK collective produce the party aspect of this year's night-time programme, AV:ISION.
This is the festival strand for those who come alive after dark and also for local Vjs and Djs whose understanding of audio-visual entertainment is unparalleled. AV:ISION have a programme of night time club and lounge events cross the ten days of the Festival at Basement in Middlesbrough, Secco and Bernaccia in Newcastle and The White Room and National Glass Centre in Sunderland.