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Sunday, May 30, 2010

Nakatani / Weaver / Balistreri Trio | June 5 @ ARTS Lab

Don't miss the last "Electic Ensemble Giglet of the season with the Nakatani / Weaver / Balistreri Trio at ARTS Lab on June 5th:


What:       Nakatani / Weaver / Balistreri Trio

When:      Saturday, 05 June 2010 / 19:30-21:30

Where:     ARTS Lab, 131 Pine St., NE Albuquerque

How:        Free (but donations encouraged);  Sign up at: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=122918287741989
“...an improvisational approach that operates on the foamy crest of an ever-unfurling present”
(Santa Fe Reporter) 
Nakatani / Weaver / Balistreri Trio was formed in 2007 in performance at the (now defunct) Blue Dragon in Albuquerque while Tatsuya Nakatani was on tour across the country, playing solos and collaborations with with local musicians as he traveled - such as the Albuquerque improvised music duo of Mark Weaver and Mike Balistreri. Finding that they shared similar approaches to space, sound and environment, the trio stayed in communication, and reconvened for well-received performances at the Outpost Performance Space (2008) in Albuquerque, the College of Santa Fe (2008), at The Agency (2009) in Albuquerque, and at Santa Fe Complex (2009).

Tatsuya Nakatani (percussion) is originally from Osaka, Japan. In 2006 he performed in 80 cities in 7 countries and collaborated with 163 artists worldwide. In the past 10 years he has released nearly fifty of his own recordings on CD.

Nakatani has created his own instrumentation, effectively inventing many instruments and extended techniques. He utilizes drumset, bowed gongs, cymbals, singing bowls, metal objects, bells, and various sticks and bows to create an intense, organic music that defies category or genre. His music is based in improvised/ experimental music, jazz, free jazz, rock, and noise, yet retains the sense of space and beauty found in traditional Japanese folk music.

In addition to live solo and ensemble performances, Nakatani works as a sound designer for film and television. He also teaches Master Classes and Workshops at the university level and heads H&H Production, an independent record label and recording studio based in Easton, Pennsylvania. He has been  selected as a performing artist for the Pennsylvania Performing Artist on Tour (PennPat) roster, and is a Bronx Arts Council Individual Artist grant recipient.

(additional information is available on Tatsuya Nakatani’s website):

http://www.hhproduction.org/TATSUYA_NAKATANI_WORKS.html

Tuba player Mark Weaver is a native New Mexican who has contributed to countless creative music projects in the Southwest region and on the West Coast, and who has recorded for Balance Point Acoustics, Black Phone Records, Leaf Records, Carrot Top, Newsonic, Nine Winds, pfMENTUM, Plutonium, Snowdonia, and Zerx. Recent projects include Resonance (duo with vocalist Patti Littlefield), UFO Ensemble with Bill Clark, Christian Pincock, and Jason Aspeslet (which explores Mark’s unique approach to ensemble composition), The Rumble Trio with Mike Balistreri and Ben Wright (long-standing improvised-music trio which performs with a different featured ‘front’ artist each time), and Tubanator5000 which incorporates live audio manipulation and sampling by Bee.

A drummer in a past life, Mike Balistreri brings a distinctly percussive approach to the double bass. Having devoted himself almost exclusively to improvised music, Mike has collaborated/performed/recorded with a wide range of musicians, poets, filmmakers, and performance artists. He spent a year and a half on the road in 2004-2005 playing improvised music with artists across the country. Recently Mike has been performing with The Rumble Trio, I-Beam (Milwaukee), and his large ensemble project th3 e1emental orke5tra.
contact: Mark Weaver (505) 255-8046 mw@toast.net

Monday, May 24, 2010

UNM Student Wins Prestigious International Award in Immersive Media


The work David Beining and our immersive media group have been doing has really begun to pay off.  UNM School of Engineering students are currently working hard in support of the NSF-funded Partnerships of Innovation project in immersive media -- and we've had great success in our collaboration with the students of Claudia Valdes' Electronic Arts class.  Here's the latest:


UNM Student Wins Prestigious International Award
in Immersive Media

 


ALBUQUERQUE – The University of New Mexico amplified its reputation as the leading university working in immersive media with a major award earned by student Barbara Ryckman. 

 

Ryckman won a top prize at the Fulldome Film Festival, an international program held at the Zeiss Planetarium in Jena, Germany – the birthplace of the planetarium.  Ryckman's immersive art film "Wander" won the coveted "Creativity Award" which included a stunning glass trophy created by the renowned optics company Zeiss and a cash prize of 500 Euros (about US$600).  http://www.fulldome-festival.de/

 

Ryckman created her winning piece as an assignment in the "Immersive Media: Fulldome" course, under the instruction of Assistant Professor Claudia X. Valdes (Electronic Arts program / Department of Art & Art History).  http://www.claudiaxvaldes.com/ Valdes' course is supported by UNM's ARTS Lab and its "gDome," a small research and education digital dome studio in the transdisciplinary new media laboratory which supports research, education and economic development for the university and state-wide media industry.  http://artslab.unm.edu

 

All of the works developed in Valdes' course screened in the international competition at the festival.  Of the ten submissions, three were selected as finalists (including Ryckman's).  Student submissions to the fulldome festival also came from four German universities, including the prestigious Bauhaus University at Weimar, and Tongji University in Shanghai.   

 

MFA graduate student at UNM, Mitchell Marti, received an honorable mention award for his code-based film "Oculus."

 

This is the second consecutive year Valdes and ARTS Lab have collaborated to offer the course and for a UNM student to win a top prize at the festival in Germany.

 

In addition to winning the fulldome festival award, last week Ryckman earned her Bachelor of Art degree from UNM's Department of Communication & Journalism.



Photo Info: UNM student Barbara Ryckman (left) and Assistant Professor Claudia X. Valdes accept Ryckman's "Creativity Award" in the ARTS Lab gDome for Ryckman's "Wander" film (on screen).

 

 

Infrared Light + Computer Vision Workshop in Processing & openFrameworks


Infrared Light + Computer Vision Workshop in Processing & openFrameworks

Date Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Time 5:00pm - 7:00pm

Location ARTSLab, MSC04 2570 131 Pine Street, NE, Albuquerque, NM 87131

Description

For the first XD Group workshop, hosted graciously by the ARTSLab, we will focus on integrating Computer Vision (CV) + Infrared (IR) Light setups in Processing and openFrameworks for Experiential Art and Design projects. The 1st hour will focus on how  to get CV + IR working in Processing, with a 10 minute presentation at the beginning of the hour. The 2nd hour will focus on how to do the same within openFrameworks. 

Joe Dean from Lumenscapes (http://lumenscapes.com/) will be helping with the IR lighting setup.

This is a free event that is open to the public. To get the most out of the workshop, bring a laptop with Processing (
http://processing.org/) and / or openFrameworks (http://www.openframeworks.cc/) installed.

For more info http://j.mp/cK9CT2


The XD Group

The XD Group was formed by Dr. Woohoo (http://www.drwoohoo.com) with the need to either disseminate or create innovative and open-source approaches that solve challenges within the realm of Experiential Art + Design (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experience_design) in a format that is conducive to learning. The group meets on a monthly basis where each workshop begins with a 10 min presentation by the expert outlining the current challenge and solution, if applicable, followed by a collaborative workshop where the audience learns how to resolve the challenge with the help of the expert and/or participates in solving the problem at hand. Taking an agnostic approach to the development tools & frameworks, the XD Group embraces open-source frameworks (openFrameworks, Cinder, processing, HYPE, RhinoScript, etc.) that can be leveraged over time and across multiple mediums, platforms, surfaces and machines. 
* /

Dr. Woohoo!

aim: drw00h00
skype: drwoohoo


Thursday, May 06, 2010

IFDM Student Showcase Tomorrow!


We invite you to attend the Interdisciplinary Film & Digital Media student showcase where students will present their creative works, from this spring semester, in a variety of new and emerging technologies.

Date: May 8th
Time: 11am-3pm
Location: UNM ARTS Lab (northwest corner of University and Central)
IFDM is providing lunch.