Pixels.Frames.Beats.Drones
Meta.Morf 2024 – [up]Loaded Bodies / Rosendal Teater / Performance May 3 – 4 /
Performance and installation, May 3 & 4 @ 19:00: Ticket
Open exhibition May 4 @ 12:00 – 16:00, Lecture May 4 @ 15:00
Persistent Disequilibrium (2024)
Pixels.Frames.Beats.Drones project consists of Øyvind Brandtsegg, Tjis Ham, Trond Lossius, and Jeremy Welsh.
The group works with ideas related to resonance, vibration, recycling, field recording, perception, and exploration of available materials. “Persistent Disequilibrium” has a form between performance and exhibition, where scenographical elements are created and take shape during the performance, and the space thus created remains available for audience exploration as an exhibition after the performance. The division between performers and audience is blurred, as the audience is free to move throughout the space during the performance.
A recurring theme revolves around the material exploration of feedback systems. Such systems are chaotic and have a rich potential for organic processes where the performers can influence key elements but not control the specifics of how the material unfolds. These processes have close analogies in nature, “tipping points” in environmental catastrophes, weather systems, and psychological, political, and social processes. We find these kind of systems everywhere. They materialize through rich interaction processes combined with cymatics techniques where sound vibrations can affect matter. Various powders and granular substances are used: salt, flour, spices, pigment powders, coal, grain, small rocks, and leaves. This constitutes a visual stop-motion expression unfolding live in the physical performance space. One can associate geological shapes and dramatic mountain- and volcano formations, where objects moved by sound take on the role of animated characters with empathic traits.
The physical installations and performance objects are enlarged and reflected through video projections that frame the performance space. By means of ambisonic techniques and field recordings, an outer, immaterial space is created that contrasts and envelopes the concrete objects.
The project is supported by Norsk kulturråd, Billedkunstnerens Vederlagsfond, Sparebank1 SMN, Trondheim Kommune, Surnadal Billag, Møre og Romsdal Kunstsenter, Rosendal Teater, Norwegian University of Science, and Technology.
Thanks to Apichaya Wanthiang, Anita Akbarzadeh Solbu, and Robin Støckert.
Øyvind Brandtsegg (NO) is a composer and performer working in the fields of computer improvisation and sound installations. He has a deep interest in developing new instruments and audio processing methods for artistic purposes, and he has contributed novel extensions to both granular synthesis, feedback systems, and live convolution techniques. All of his music software is available as open source. Brandtsegg has participated in more than 25 music albums in a variety of genres. Since 2010, he has been a professor of music technology at NTNU, Trondheim, Norway.
folk.ntnu.no/oyvinbra/portfolio
Jeremy Welsh (UK/NO) is a visual artist working with video, installation, and photography in various combinations, often in collaboration with other artists and musicians. Since his studies at art schools in England in the 1970’s he has had a strong engagement with multimedia art and experimental music. In recent years, he has worked with exhibitions, performances, concerts, and public art projects and has curated a number of exhibitions. One of his most significant projects is “The Atmospherics,” a collaboration with Trond Lossius that has been in progress since 2014 and has been shown at a number of museums, galleries, and festivals in Norway, England, and Italy. The project is concerned with an investigation of place through sound and image and has usually been presented as an installation with surround sound and several projections. “The Atmospherics” grew out of “Re:place,” an interdisciplinary artistic research project at Bergen Academy of Art between 2012 and 2013. Welsh was a professor at the art academies in Bergen and Trondheim between 1990 – 2020. He is currently a board member at Atelier Nord, Oslo, and board leader at The Sound Gallery, Bergen.
Tijs Ham (aka Tapage) (NL) is a Dutch sound artist and researcher living and working in Bergen, Norway. His artistic practice is situated in the field of live electronic music. He earned his Ph.D. in 2024 in artistic research at the University of Bergen, resulting in the project “Tipping Points.”
Ham explores chaotic and emergent processes in his works by designing and building new instruments and developing performances with them. These performances are informed by chaos’s volatile yet mesmerizing qualities, instilling a sense of wonder in the attentive listener. His sound is always evolving, moving from more rhythm-oriented music in the past to music that focuses on noise, timbres, drones, texture, and spectro-morphology. Under the moniker Tapage, he has been releasing his music for nearly two decades. In the past, he has worked extensively with the record label Tympanik Audio (US), through which he released several full-length albums.
Trond Lossius (NO) investigates relations between sound, place, and space in field recordings, audio-visual installations, and collaborative cross-disciplinary projects. Using surround (Ambisonic) microphones, he records places rather than sounds, primarily engaging with suburban sound environments. “The Atmospherics” (River Deep, Mountain High) is an ongoing collaborative project since 2014 with Jeremy Welsh. The project researches notions of “place” explored through field recording in sound and video that capture unique qualities from rural and urban areas. The material is processed and edited to realize large-scale audio-visual installations. He has previously worked with the contemporary performance group Verdensteatret, winner of the New York Dance and Performance Awards, a.k.a. The Bessies. He develops open-source software for spatial audio and real-time media for his projects, and he has published research in international conferences and journals on sound and music computing. Trond Lossius holds an MA in geophysics, studied music composition at The Grieg Academy, and has a Ph.D. in artistic research from the Academy of Fine Art, Bergen National Academy of the Arts. He has formerly been Head of Research at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts and is currently a professor and Head of Ph.D. at The Norwegian Film School, Inland University of Applied Sciences, and Professor II at The Grieg Academy, The University of Bergen.
Header graphics: Tijs Ham
Øyvind Brandtsegg portrait photo: Berre
Jeremy Welsh portrait photo: Arne Skaug Olsen
Tijs Ham portrait photo: Laimonas Puisys.
Trond Lossius portrait photo: Courtesy of the artist.