12 August / FRIDAY / 22.30–23.00 / Multimedia hall / Laboratory of Culture – Różana 2
Martin Howse – “Terra Muta[0]”
… the chief principle of the art is the Crow, which is the blackness of the night and clearness of the day, and flies without wings.
Terra Muta[0] performs a giving of voice literally to the silent earth, to the already voiced crow (members of the Corvus family) and to the silent and darkened earth worm. These two latter creatures give and take a material voice from the earth, and are implicated mythically and materially within cycles of decay, death and rebirth (rewritten as Nigredo, and Albedo). During a performance which unites deep earth currents and atmospheric signals with vocal beak and tongue fragility, both voice (material carrier for meaning or for nonsense), and the voiced (that non-sense) are derived directly from the earth using custom software tools, material electronics, and physical simulation analogues
My work during the Sokolowsko residency was focused on the primary concerns of my artistic research in exploring the connections between technology and materiality; more specifically in examining what the earth (considered as complex living and geophysical structure) might have to do with computation and communications infrastructure. At Sokolowsko this research was considered in two directions: firstly within small studies of the local iron-rich earth and some researchs into local mining/excavational histories (Kowary), secondly the computer synthesis of artificial earth-influenced voices (raven and worm). Both projects are ongoing and will be revisited on return to Sokolowsko in August. The abandoned Brehmer sanitorium at Sokolowsko also presented a fine opportunity to develop further an audio and light-based apparatus for so-called spirit detection. With the collaboration of Gerard Lebik a light/laser interferometer installation set-up was left running (and audio and images recorded) for two nights in the old sanitorium hall. The results of this investigation will perhaps form the basis of a future audio release. The residency at Sokolowsko allowed for a short, well-supported and focused research period on these topics, and further exploration of local geology and mineral extraction history will provide the basis for future work in this area.
Martin Howse
Martin Howse is occupied with an artistic investigation of the links between the earth (geophysical phenomena), software and the human psyche (psychogeophysics), proposing a return to animism within a critical misuse of scientific technology. Through the construction of experimental situations (within the process-driven performance, laboratories, walks, and workshops), material art works and texts, Martin Howse explores the rich links between substance or materials and execution or protocol, excavating issues of visibility and of hiding within the world.
From 1998 to 2005 he was director of ap, a software performance group working with electronic waste, and pioneering an early approach to digital glitch. In 2005 his environmental computational work, entitled ap0201 installed within the Mojave desert received first prize within the Art & Artificial Life competition VIDA 8.0. From 2007 to 2009 he hosted a regular workshop, micro-residency and salon series in Berlin. Recently he has worked and collaborated on acclaimed projects and practices such as The Crystal World, Psychogeophysics, Earthboot and Sketches towards an Earth Computer. For the last ten years, he has initiated numerous open-laboratory style projects and performed, published, lectured and exhibited diversely. He is equally the creator
of the skin-driven audio divination noise module, aka. The Dark Interpreter, and the ERD modular series.
During the residency in Sokołowsko Martin Howse using tools and methods specified in „Psychogeophisics” statement will run a project at the intersection of art, geophysics, and digital technologies.
http://www.psychogeophysics.org/wiki/doku.php?id=wikipedia
Martin Howse – Terra Muta[0]
Concert takes place as part of the A-I-R Sanatorium of Sound Sokołowsko implemented in cooperation with the Artist-in-Residence Programme A-i-R Wro. The A-i-R Wro Programme is a part of the European Capital of Culture Wrocław 2016 and is subsidized by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland.
