About DMS | A:D:A:P:T | August 28 2008

Visiting Artists Sara Kolster and Derek Holzer

Friday, February 17, 2006
7:30pm, Davis Auditorium,
Sturm Hall, U of Denver
Free and Open to the Public
downloadable flier

resonanCITY
a live cinema performance
by Sara Kolster and Derek Holzer

Many sounds and images in our everyday lives slip past our notice simply because they are too small, or because we lack the proper receivers to pick them up. ‘resonanCITY’ is an ongoing project to gather these microscopic sounds and images from various cities, and to amplify and transform them. The goal is to build a new city of sound and visuals inside the old one, and to inspire curiosity and exploration of one’s own environment.

This audiovisual performance by Sara Kolster and Derek Holzer explores contemporary ideas about “Live Cinema” and demonstrates the principles and tools explained during their Pure Data workshops. Sound and image gathered in various locations around the world are rendered into a dreamlike journey in a live improvisation where sound and image are directly interrelated.

Both artists find inspiration in the history of experimental cinema and electroacoustic music, as well as in contemporary video and microsound practices, and a variety of live sources such as photographic film and found objects are used to generate the visions and sounds. Visually, Kolster’s work deconstructs the analog/digital dichotemy by presenting carefully prepared film positives in a software-manipulated environment. Similarly, Holzer’s realtime digital sound treatments highlight and enhance rather than obscure and distort the phonographic sources he collects. Kolster and Holzer also reject the use of common, commercial production methods and the default, commercial artworks that these methods often produce, preferring instead to program their own software, build their own hardware interfaces and actively participate in the free and open source communities which surround these activities.

‘ResonanCITY’ has been performed live in Holland, Brasil, the Baltic States and at the Transmediale 05 in Berlin. ‘resonanCITY’ also took the Second Prize at the 11th International WRO Media Art Biennale in Wroclaw, Poland in May 2005.

Here is more information on the participating artists:

SARA KOLSTER
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Kolster [NL 1978] is a video and media artist with a background in web / graphical design and webbased projects. The focus of her work shifted more towards video and film; capturing details from urban locations, visualizing fragments of stories of these environments. She uses different strategies, from time-based media (video, film) to appropriated research methods belonging to different observational disciplines (journalism, documentary & archeology). Recently, her work concentrates on the integration of sound and image, using different techniques - from medium format slides, 35/16 mm film and video to database-systems, live processing programs such as Pure-Data and web-interfaces.

“ I choose my images carefully, with a main focus on details and close-ups. The camera observes, looking for stories behind objects and locations. In my work, i emphasize the uninhabitated environment in which human appearance seems to be even more accentuated. This environment, obviously designed by humans, shows inevitably their traces. Questions as, who lived there or what has happened, i leave to be answered by the viewer.”

http://www.umatic.nl/info_sara.html
http://www.sarako.net


DEREK HOLZER
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DEREK HOLZER
Holzer [USA 1972] is a sound and radio artist with a background in free radio, net.radio and streaming media technologies. He was involved with some of the first net.radio experiments in Hungary (Pararadio) and Czech Republic (Radio Jeleni). He has also worked with Re-lab, a net.radio group in Latvia who gradually shifted their focus towards broader issues of ‘acoustic spaces’ and networked audio communications. In August 2001, Derek participated in the Acoustic Space Lab, which brought together an international team of 30 sound artists, community
radio activists, and scientists to experiment with a 32 meter antenna, recording sounds and data from planets, communication satellites and the surrounding environment. Recently, his work has focused on capturing and transforming small, unnoticed sounds from various natural and urban locations, on the electromagnetic
resonances in our everyday environment, as well as the use of free software such as Linux and Pure-Data.

http://www.umatic.nl/info_derek.html


A:D:A:P:T:
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This performance is part of the A:D:A:P:T visiting artist series generously supported by the Marsico Initiative & Digital Media Studies at U of Denver.