Darwin Grosse

Welcome back, Julien. Can you tell us what you've been up to since our last interview with you?

Actually, quite a lot of things have occurred.

I develop a lot my own creative processes, and I just built the real first live performance setup with which I am satisfied. This led to ALPHA, an audiovisual live performance I’ve performed 7 times, from sound:frame in Austria to Elektra in Canada. I’ve also now been booked for 3 future dates, including Paris (Transient Festival) to Houston. The whole system is based on a big Max 7 patch analyzing audio coming from Ableton Live in real-time, then generating ‘impossible’ 3D open GL structures. It continues by modulating these structures and firing off bright flashes in order to produce stimulate the brain in a way the causes auditory effects.

I also designed and exhibited some installations, still seeking to further push my artistic research into disruption/interference, complex systems-based emergence and the physic of sound. In addition to my own creations, I collaborated with the research lab LMA-CNRS (standing for Laboratoire de Mécanique et Acoustique, Mechanic & Acoustic Lab) during the last 6 months while also continuing to teach a course about Max at ESADMM (École Supérieure d'Art et de Design Marseille-Méditerranée, a former fine arts school in Marseille). Since I’ve become more and more busy with my own development, I ended these two collaborations and focused on building my own studio.

Currently, I'm involved with London & Marseille based label Bordille Records with François Larini (curator and musician known as S/QU/NC/R with a social-anthropology background and friend of mine), and with the Canada based label Yatra Arts, founded and owned by Praveer Baijal. I'm working on my own album right now.

What are some of the concepts and perspectives you are exploring in your new work?

What I dig the most are the emergence & disruption concepts.

Indeed, in our totalitarian-digital era, everything is a continuum. We are overwhelmed by messages, urban sounds, air based networks. It seems as if we cannot be unplugged or disconnected. It drives society to become absolutely dependent on the wired (as described in the stunning manga/anime serial experiment lain), which is a kind of artificial – and  uncontrollable – rhizome containing/supporting all networks on earth. Despite this network, independence and individual isolation increases.

I'm interested in building complex systems: trying and probably hoping to notice something new, unpredictable and beautiful from them. I think this is a consequence of observing society, the world's way of operating and of my own desire to interrupt the continuum. I want the world to stop and to take a break, to slow down, and to create new territories that don't follow the global movement. I think my creation is about that notion.

This quest drove - and still drives me - to modular systems. I designed my own system that is built from eurorack modules, and am still trying to improve it with live performance perspectives in mind. Again, I'm absolutely fascinated by where the constraints of hardware (compared to software) have brought me. My whole process seems to have been changed forever. When I come back to my computer after some intense improvisation and continuous patching sessions, I notice that some mental blocks will have had been broken and removed. Actually, going back and forth from the hardware modular system to my Max patches improves each of these parts. It’s crazy!

From there, I decided to start a new live performance setup, with a laptop-based system that involves taking Max7 and Max for Live several steps further. At its center, I created Max for Live devices acting as context managers. Each device, used in specific tracks, contains a context. A context can be a complex patch system that generates MIDI, or even directly generating audio. The context managers are controllers for content switching and more - directly manipulated by Ableton Live clips - which provides me timing synchronization and smooth switching controls on stage.

I already knew about using this kind of setup of course, but - you know - this comes up anew after having created my first modular system, and I really needed to bring this concept back to my laptop-based work: the patch as the core of my live performance. The ability to patch complex structures, completely breaking the usual and classic rules in music, is the thing that excites me in music.

Generally, I'm thinking about patching a sequencer: one that acts as a strange triggering system inside of itself, using modulation or clock feedback, triggering and changing its own rate according to obscure rules like "tempo increase along that envelope IF the number of beats crossed that threshold" – and actions like that. It allows me to say: "My system is so complex that even I cannot totally be sure and safe about it" which sounds totally uncontrollable in our era of maximum control. But I'm building systems creating sounds and visuals that no one can really control, not even myself.

Julien, in another conversation you also told me about using some large scale datasets. What are you doing with that?

It is a project using the large scale dark matter map dataset from Durham University.

This will be both a music release and an audiovisual installation. Systems will parse density, temperature and other values data, trying to give a consistent, tangible feeling with these antimatter clouds. The artistic research is finding an analogy we can have with big data, omnipresent data and at the same time the intangible character of all data. 

Antimatter is a great example. Present everywhere, misunderstood, tangible.

Thanks, Julien for your time. Information about Julien’s work - and his performing schedule - can be found at his website: julienbayle.net.


an-update-from-artist-julien-bayle

An Update from Artist Julien Bayle

fuse*

Multiverse is an audio-visual installation that draws inspiration from these concepts and, through the creation of a sequence of digital paintings, generated in real-time, attempts to represent the eternal birth and death of infinite parallel universes. The concept of eternity and the idea of infinity are translated also with the modality in which the visitor and the artwork interact with each other.

The installation consists of a vertical projection of 7.5 meters high and two large mirroring surfaces that generate an infinite reflection of the image towards the sky and the center of the earth. The goal is to increase the perception of reality by giving the impression that the installation is going beyond the physical walls projecting itself into a boundless space. Realising this artwork inside a deconsecrated church for the first time assumes consequently a very important symbolic meaning.

Multiverse is an audio-visual installation that draws inspiration from these concepts and, through the creation of a sequence of digital pai

multiverse

Multiverse

Andrew Benson

Jackie's Studio At Djerassi Artist Residency

Jacqueline Gordon is an artist based in Los Angeles, CA who uses Max to build sculptural multichannel sound installations. Jackie's workspace photos caught our eye, so we caught up with her to find out more.

Andrew Benson:What are you working on right now?Jacqueline Gordon: I'm work on an upcoming solo sound and sculpture installation at YBCA and a show of drawings at CULT Gallery in San Francisco. 

AB:How does Max fit into your larger studio and music practice? What other tools do are you using?

JG: I use Max to create the multi-channel sound environments for my installations. the sound sources are either live mics, field recordings or samples and then i use Max to add some processing, like delay (to prevent feedback), filter if need be and output to speakers. the way the output is organized and the number of speakers i use depends on the sculpture.  I do not use ambisonics because my speaker placement is never are the correct positions due to the sculptures.   I use Reaper as my DAW and i'm trying to learn SuperCollider

AB:How important is a physical studio to the way that you work?

JG: Very important. for me sound is physical and I need to a space to visualize it. I also work with sculpture so I tend to have a messy area and a clean area in my studio. As far as my daily practice goes it's incredibly important just to leave the house. When I need to use a recording studio or listen to something on really nice monitors, I usually go to a friends place. 

JG: At SFAI where i got my BFA i took a sound art class with Laetitia Sonami. She started us out on sound edit 16 and we ended with Max. But it wasn't till i started to do my multichannel sound installations as few years later that i really started using it.  i've also have some amazing friends who are Max experts and they have helped me develop my patches over the years. 

AB:Do you spend much time patching, or is it really focused on specific ideas or projects?

AB:Do you have one patch that you are always changing or a bunch of little things?

JG: I use one that i modify over and over. It's time now for me to start a new one but i've been procrastinating on it. 

JG: I've got a show at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts that opens in a little over a month that will involve a 15 channel sound installation surrounding a sculpture.  After that i'll be doing a residency at The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic in Troy, NY.

Jacqueline Gordon uses Max to build sculptural multichannel sound installations.

jacqueline-gordon

An Interview with Jacqueline Gordon

One of the great things about hanging around the Cycling '74 campfire is the great group of artists and musicians that are found there. One of these, Andrew Benson, produces visual artwork that ranges from stamp-sized GIFs through massive festival/concert graphics. Find out more about Andrew's work and artistic perspective in this mini-interview.

Let's start off by introducing people to your artwork. What are some of your highlight pieces?

Right now I seem to have 3 different trajectories of work, all sort of inter-related.

The main thread is heavily feedback driven experimental digital video/animation work like these:

And the past few years I've been working a lot with 3D animation like this new one I just released through Undervolt & Co:

http://undervolt.co/SINGLES/Mud-Andrew-Benson

And oddly one of the most popular projects I've done is Wolf+Unicorn:

And then there is live video performances and installations that are hard to document well, but it's an important part of what I do.

You've been involved in collaborations with some big name performers. What are some of the particular challenges with that kind of work?

I've been very lucky to work with some wonderful artists all around. The biggest challenge there is that it's not just you in a studio coming up with a crazy idea and going for it. In addition to the headlining artist, you need to work with a big group of people who are all motivated by things not failing and being as predictable as possible. As someone fascinated by the unexpected in my own software, it took some adjustment to see things from that perspective.

The biggest challenge there is that it's not just you in a studio coming up with a crazy idea and going for it.

The other part of it, as Video Director, you often need to be on the phone with equipment vendors and venue people and your job is to demand the best possible situation while not making any enemies. That relationship is really important because in festival shows (for example) you are getting to the venue early in the morning and all you have is soundcheck to make sure the rig is going to display your output properly.

Among Max users, you are probably best known for your "Jitter Recipes" articles that describe interesting visual effects. What was your motivation for doing the recipes, and will we be seeing any more in the future?

When I was learning Jitter in art school, I found that the core stuff I really wanted to do was only hinted at in the tutorials. When I started working for Cycling '74, it was around the time that Jitter 1.5 was coming along with a lot of new sound manipulation and OpenGL features that were really exciting. As a side project, I started putting together these little demos of the new features while also trying to provide some guidance for people who were learning Jitter. These started as a Friday afternoon forum post, but it became clear quickly that we should collect them together and add some text documentation. Since a lot of us at Cycling '74 also happen to be serious home chefs, the cookbook format seemed like an obvious hit.

As a side project, I started putting together these little demos of the new features while also trying to provide some guidance for people who were learning Jitter.

I've begun work on a Jitter Recipes package that will be updated as I further develop the content. Right now, I'm focused on modernizing and consolidating the essential existing recipes, but I'm also excited to get to a point where I can start adding in some new ones.

While most of your writing has been about visuals, I've also noticed a few articles about sound/audio. What is your interest in audio work, and how do you integrate it with your visual work?

I actually started using Max because I wanted to do audio work with it. I spent most of teenage years playing drums in garage bands. The cool thing about being the drummer is everyone leaves their gear at your house, so after hours I'd go out and start plugging things in and experimenting with all the sound gear. So when I was in art school I really got into sound art and performance (I was a Painting major), and took a Max class with Laetitia Sonami. I consider sound, synthesis and music to be a really core part of my identity as an artist, although nowadays that tends to be more just part of the studio process and not necessarily a big focus of my output. I love collaborating with musicians because it keeps me connected to that part of things.

[You can also hear more about Andrew Benson’s work - and his background - in his interview in this Art + Music + Technology podcast.]


artist-focus-andrew-benson

Artist Focus: Andrew Benson

maybites

It uses MaxMsp/Jitter 5 as a Framework. It is opensourced and can thus easily be implemented into you own patch (if you know how to do it :-)

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