Welcome to Sounding out
Sounding Out, London's first ever Festival of Sound and Performance Art will be held at the University of East London (UEL) Docklands campus between Weds 17 March - Fri 19 March 2004.
Over 3 days and nights Sounding Out will present new sound works and performances together with an associated programme of lectures by 7 leading British sound/performance artists, including: Anne Bean, Paul Burwell, John Carson, David Chapman, Peter Cusack, Sean Dower and Janek Schaefer.
This will be complemented by 21 installations and performances by student artists working with sound from leading London art schools, including UEL, the Royal College of Art, The Slade, Middlesex University, The London Institute and London Metropolitan University. The students have been chosen from an open competition selected by a panel of artists including Richard Wilson, Alison Winckle, Sean Dower and Pete Nevin.
The Festival features both live and recorded sound, with a diverse range of work including performance, installation and headphones. Work will be sited both indoors and outdoors, using & responding to many different environments on the campus.
Highlights include:
Peter Cusack: new work created from recordings of cracking ice at the North Pole
David Chapman and Adrian Palka: performance playing the sound sculptures Steel Cello & Bow Chime created by Bob Rutman in the late 60's. David Chapman, lecturer at UEL's School of Cultural and Innovation Studies will present a lecture on sonorous structures including those by Luigi Russolo, Harry Partch and the Baschet Brothers.
Anne Bean and Paul Burwell will present of the work of The Bow Gamelan Ensemble. Described as 'a cross between a painting by Turner and Apocalypse Now', Bow Gamelan has performed all over the world, using a variety of bizarre self-made instruments powered by steam, electric motors, high-powered water jets, compressed air and helium gas. Paul Burwell will give a performance.
Organiser Richard Wilson, who has won international acclaim for works including 20:50, currently on show at the Saatchi Gallery and Butterfly, shown at the Wapping Project in 2003, is currently based at UEL on a two-year Sculpture Fellowship funded by the Henry Moore Foundation.
He said: "Sounding Out will be an arts festival with a real difference, in that the audience will be using their ears more than their eyes. Contemporary artists are increasingly working with sound as well as visual media, and we hope that Sounding Out will be an exciting snapshot of the current sound sculpture scene, as well as a great opportunity to showcase the work of up-and-coming London artists working in this medium."
Sounding Out opens at UEL Docklands campus, University Way, E16, on Wednesday 17th March. For programme details, contact Alison Winckle on 020 8223 3439 or log on to www.uel.ac.uk/soundingout. Admission is free.
© 2004
