[ISEA2013] Curator Statement: Tom Smith (curator) — NIGHT DEPOT #3

Curator Statement

Firstdraft, in association with ISEA2013, present this new edition of Firstdraft’s NIGHT DEPOT series. This work will focus on the notion of ‘advanced technology’ – after Sydney writer / thinker Nick Keys – and feature artists who build sound-making devices from readily available items in order to ‘advance’ their own artistic and musical goals – in a sense also ‘advancing’ towards a form of technological equilibrium.

Brisbane collective Golden Solution, in residency at The Depot in the lead-up to this event, will present new work developed on-site. Performing alongside alongside Golden Solution, each with their own unique sound making apparatus, will be some of Australia’s most exciting practitioners in this area: Benjamin Kolaitis, Peter Blamey, Alex Cuffe and Pia van Gelder.(Kolaitis, van Gelder and Michael Candy (of Golden Solution) are also participating in Campbelltown Arts Centre’s Catching Light project for ISEA2013.) siteworksblog.wordpress.com/2010/09/24/humans-as-technological-creatures

  • Tom Smith (curator) , Sydney, AU thomaswilliamsmith.com
  • Golden Solution is a collective in flux, including Brisbane-based artists Andrew McLellan (of Cured Pink), Michael Candy and Kiah Reading. Via self-built instrumentation, over-stimulation and audience inclusivity, the collective has worked towards user-generated volatility, nausea-inducing ultra-sonic beams and 59 minute deep house trax.
  • Benjamin Kolaitis is a Melbourne-based contemporary instrument builder and sound and sculptural artist. He currently works with electronics and programming to develop kinetic sound sculptures, invented instruments and improvised performances. He is head curator for the Handmade Music Festival, dedicated to promoting contemporary instrument designs and performances, together with OpenLAB, a monthly art technology workshop presenting new and old technologies in the realm of creative practice, and he has presented workshops for a number of festivals in Australia. Key features of his work are play, engagement and community. He seeks to encourage viewers and listeners to expand their engagement with sound as a material element through the tactile nature of play, together with skill sharing and community engagement.
  • Alex Cuffe is a multi-disciplinary artist who works across sculpture, installation and experimental sound. His practice approaches the materiality of objects in relation to convoluted theories drawn from science, geometry, astrology, kinetics and acoustics. His works utilise the aesthetics of the ‘backyard inventor’, where lo-fi materials and natural matter coalesce, transformed through new media technologies. He performs with the sound group Sky Needle.
  • Pia van Gelder is an electronic artist, curator and teacher. Her work explores ‘AV mysticism’ along with what she calls ‘machine affinity’ – feelings of closeness to machines. She develops performances and installations by working with media machines, both custom-built heirloom technologies and common electronic devices, which are hacked and opened up to perform in ways that negate their use or assumed design. She is the Overlord for the Sydney faction of Dorkbot, a regular meeting for ‘people doing strange things with electricity’, and lectures at the College of Fine Arts, UNSW in the school of Media Art. She has recently returned from a 3-month residency at the experimental venue SuperDeluxe in Tokyo.
  • Peter Blamey is a Sydney-based artist whose practice, largely revolving around notions of what might be called ‘open electronics’, explores connectivity, ecology, feedback and re-use, and also electricity and experimentalism. Much of his current work uses recovered electronic components (such as discarded computer motherboards and old copper wire) that are re-deployed to produce sound, and also used as readymade materials for installation works. Video: Double Partial Eclipse, Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center