seen from Iceland
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Russia
seen from Germany
seen from Türkiye
seen from China
seen from China
seen from Singapore
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from France
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Canada
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
The early days of electronic instruments lacked commonly accepted ideas about what an electronic instrument was, much less how it should be used. No one associated electronics with techno or new wave or hip hop or pop, given that none of these existed.
Just as Sholpo and his colleagues sought to eliminate the musician and grant performative agency to a machine, new technologies like chatbot
"IN THE SUMMER OF 1917, the Russian engineer and inventor Evgeny Sholpo (1891–1951) wrote “The Enemy of Music,” a polemical science-fiction essay describing a colossal instrument he called the Mechanical Orchestra. Combining miles of slatted black paper tape with a network of electrical wires, pipes, levers, tuning forks, sine wave oscillators, and horns, this fictional sound machine allowed a piece of music to unfold automatically, rendering the musical performer obsolete...
...Critics expressed skepticism about the supposed benefits they could provide, anxiety that mechanisation would replace human labor, and distress at the perceptual dislocations and destabilising effects on the modern psyche that they generated."
I want to build an instrument ! A synthesiser !
Check out this fantastic docu-short about Andrey Smirnov, founder of the "Theremin Center for Electroacoustic Music", and his work unearthing some of the most interesting avant-garde music and musical techniques of early 20th century Russia for collection in his exhibitions "Generation Z" and "Sound in Z". There's lot of great insight into the artistic climate of pre-stalinist Russia, and AMAZING clips of the filmstrip compositions which controlled optical-based synthesizers. I think the "network culture" of art and "projected future methods" he talks about has very much been resurrected today!
Artist’s Profile: Sonya Roerich, USA | Digital Art
Facts:
Sonya Roerich (pseud) New York City - based experimental composer & multimedia artist
Artist’s main focus is on the use of audio/visual technology as a new language to interpret philosophical concepts
“The I Ching Symphony project above attempts to provide "sonic" interpretation of the I Ching (ancient divination tool), acoustically rendering relationships between its elements. The goal is to reveal the concept of oracle by use of music technology, math, motion graphics and audio engineering.” - Sonya
After acquiring experience in film scoring and conducting broad ethnomusicology research in Asian traditions, she started creating her own sonic projects, incorporating indigenous sound techniques and interdisciplinary composition models.
Sonya holds a Master’s Degree in Sonic Arts
I started off in visual arts & analogue photography only to realize the interconnectedness of all mediums and fields, and developed an urge to bridge in my musical upbringing. - Sonya
In her series for Spotte, Sonya uses stills from glitch art motion collage project “Dryden Tantrums”.
“Dryden Tantrums” video was presented at the group show “Dazed” at the Sensei Gallery, NY in February 2015.
While editing original photos as audio files and extracting improvised color edits, noises and microsounds through audio software, artist explored the notion of toxicity in the environment, as well toxicity in sound in order to find their aesthetic value.
Sonya Roerich "Beach" 2014 24" x 36" (61 x 91.4 cm) Photo transfer on plexiglass, museum quality
Sonya Roerich "Aruba 2" 2014 24" x 36" (61 x 91.4 cm) Photo transfer on plexiglass, museum quality
Sonya Roerich “Sky" 2014 24" x 36" (61 x 91.4 cm) Photo transfer on plexiglass, museum quality
Sonya is particularly interested in Russian 1930's graphic sound experiments and “visual music”. Below is her animated take on the past century Variophone instrument that was developed to animate sound.
Neue Variophone video incorporates soundwave forms of all notes used within the composition, animating their motion as the music progresses, giving the viewer a chance to actually see the movement of sound. - Sonya
Current project she’s working on is called “Sonic Portraits” where Sonya collects and (re)arranges recordings, dedicated to personal acoustic ecology. Her subjects are defined by individual audio traits, from alaskan fisherman on the boat at sea to a dishwasher in a NYC restaurant
Trivia:
Sonya has synesthesia. She sees sounds in color. Piano is usually purple. That’s why she meditates right before her recording process to clear her audio/visual palette.
Artist’s series of video stills on plexiglass are exclusively available on Spotteart.com
1930s Russian Drawn Sound: La Suite Caburateur Drawn sound composition by Georgy Rimsky-Korsakov, realised by Evgeny Sholpo on his ‘Variophone’ (1932).
Variophone -
This is "sound on film: Variophone" by Mariska de Groot
The Variophone was developed by Evgeny Sholpo in 1930 at Lenfilm Studio Productions, in Leningrad, the Soviet Union, during his experiments with graphical sound techniques, also known as ornamental, drawn, paper, artificial or synthetic sound. In his research Sholpo was assisted by the composer Georgy Rimsky‐Korsakov. The Variophone was an optical synthesizer that utilized sound waves cut onto cardboard disks rotating synchronously with a moving 35mm movie film while being photographed onto it to produce a continuous soundtrack.
Generation Z: Variophone Library 1932
More info:
http://asmir.theremin.ru/generation_z_e.htm
Variophone or automated Paper Sound invented by Evgeny Sholpo & Georgy Rimsky-Korsakov. 1931
Read more.
