VECTOR SYNTHESIS
Online Workshop with Derek Holzer
The Vector Synthesis workshop was led by audiovisual artist and researcher Derek Holzer during which he guided participants through an investigation of a direct relationship between sound and image. The workshop was inspired by works of art by artists such as Mary Ellen Bute, Nam June Paik, Steina and Woody Vasulka, and Gary Hill; from the media archaeology of computer graphics; from obsolete technologies such as the Cathode Ray Tube monitor, the Scanimate, and the Rutt/Etra Video Synthesizer; and from contemporary laser display techniques. The course was Ddsigned for musicians, sound artists, animators, and visual artists who want to work with oscilloscope and laser imagery.
Among other approaches, participants learned how to draw Lissajous figures, render simple two- and three-dimensional shapes which can be displayed on oscilloscopes and ILDA laser displays using audio signals. These vector shapes can be animated and further modified in real time using external audio sources such as voice, amplified instruments, or electronic synthesizers provided by the participants. The core of the workshop were ready-to-use examples written in the Pure Data programming language.
Derek Holzer (USA 1972)
is an audiovisual artist, researcher, lecturer, and electronic instrument creator based in Stockholm. He has performed live, taught workshops and created scores of unique instruments and installations since 2002 across Europe, North and South America, and New Zealand. He is currently a PhD researcher in Sound and Music Computing at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, focusing on historically informed sound synthesis design.
Workshop Participants
Sebastián Fernández Baca
My name is Sebastián Fernández Baca, I‘m 23 years old and I‘m a composer/improviser/sound artist from Lima, Perú. I currently study a major in Creative Contemporary Composition in Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú where I previously studied Popular Guitar. I‘m a multi-instrumentalist (guitar, venezuelan cuatro, charango, piano, etc) and for the past years I‘ve been studying sound synthesis, sound art, noise, experimental music, free improvisation, computer music, ambient, drone, etc. Last year I composed a piece for charango, venezuelan cuatro and guitar with extended techniques and semi-aleatoric factors exploring an evolving soundscape collage concept. I‘m a member of the collective „Deshumanización“ where we create spaces for experimental music, sound art, free improvisation, computer music and dissidents. Last year we released the independent music label "1049 Records" for the release of music from the artist of the collective.
Erika Capová
My name is Erika Capova, I am a student of a Theory of Interactive Media and therefore I have a theoretical background in regards of new media art. Still, I myself love to experiment with various software in my free time. Lately I‘ve been mostly getting into ASCII art, visual poetry, digital and glitch art.
Diego Castillo
Diego Castillo is a Peruvian artist currently based in Berlin. Inspired by early west coast modular synthesis and minimalist artists, his work oscillates between the techno world and the experimental electronic music world, with a big focus on reduced rhythms, timbral/textural exploration and spatial cue.
Dennis Eldridge
Dennis Eldridge was raised in the Midwestern state of Missouri. Growing up, he was influenced by his eldest sisters to explore the world of hacking and the arts / crafts. Following their lead, Dennis has studied digital synthesis at the University of Missouri. Attending many hacker gatherings, and pursued self study from textbooks and teachings from the internet. Dennis now works in the realm of visual synthesis. Combining real world images with computer modeling to create familiar, but alien pieces.
Lee Favorite
Lee Favorite is a NYC-based transgender journalist, experimental media maker, and self-taught musician from Chile, with a research-centered and multidisciplinary practice. He works with mixed media to create participatory and hybrid experiences that explore questions of identity and otherness. For the past two years, Favorite has been focusing his socially engaged practice on New Media and Immersive Arts. As of 2020, he is working on a second prototype for a voice-based interactive installation, as well as a site-specific educational XR project at the Piers 45-46 in Manhattan, NYC. He also plays MIDI/keyboards in a collaborative sound experiment called Pxalm.
Xenia Ramm
Conceptual multimedia artist, working spatially and contextually with the situation and receiver, across a multitude of cultural fields. A DIY-background in organisation of cultural spaces, events, music and poetic environments. Light and communication are recurring themes. Collaboration is a fundamental vessel. Technical means are tools for sharing perception and sensory experiences. Interaction and relation is important for ideas to occur and change.
Kristin Reeves
Still and moving media have doubled for the human body since its invention. By following through on the logic that media is body/ human/person/material: outdated found footage becomes media cadaver to exhume, examine, and reanimate; video synthesizers model brain signal overload; 9X16mm grid performs a real-time exercise in crafting a personal narrative within the limitations of our physical selves. With both found and original media, Kristin Reeves pursue material of resiliency, loss, and control.
Gabriel Rolim
Gabriel Rolim is a Brazilian video artist focused on analog creations through video, circuits, photography and animations. His works link textures, nostalgia and music through different mediums and he has currently done more than 20 video music projects with artists from Brazil and abroad.
Karolína Sedláková
I‘m a student at MUNI TIM theory of interactive media. Our studies are more theoretically based what allowed me to research areas such as generative art, concepts of randomness etc. That‘s why I also started experimenting with code or softwares for creating generative art where I can observe the autonomous process. I realize that the concept of randomness in computer art is very common but I think in order to understand computer art and its aesthetics, it‘s important to play with this feature. To sum this up, the main area of my interest is generative art and manipulation with image/visuals but anyway, I‘m open to any form of manipulation with image/video or sound.
Müge Pelin Sen
Müge Pelin Sen an eclectic visual artist/designer based in Bremen, Germany, experimenting along the lines of digital media. Her field of interests includes creative coding, glitch-art, optical art, electronical installations that allow her to explore and go beyond the conventional limits. Nature is her primary inspiration with both what is seen and what is beyond our perception to further understand the parallelling fundamentals of organic and digital life, where numbers, data, patterns and algorithms meet. In order to do that she aims to work with technology, science and arts altogether using alternating tools. She is currently continuing her studies in Digital Media, Master‘s program at the Hochschule für Künste Bremen.
Jiří Suchánek
Jiří Suchánek (1979, Czech republic) is sound and media artist, musician and multimedia experimentalist focused in building permanent audio-light installations and
systems that are usually interactive and placed in a natural or public spaces (like a
cave, astronomic observatory, bridge...). His artistic approach is synthetic. In his works he is connecting sound, light, sculptural objects, electronics + code with carefully
chosen spaces. Through his work he explores relationship between nature, data,
technology and durability of the electronic media in a wild climatic situations. Jiří
Suchánek is searching for alternative situations and places for presentation of
media and sound art. The centre of his works is sound that is expanded or articulated by other media and unexpected social situations. Most of his installations deal with
sonification of natural phenomena. He usually integrates natural processes and
physical phenomena in his technologically oriented works.
Daniel Summer
Daniel Summer, a.k.a. dvdan, is an independent artist/technologist born in Detroit, Michigan in 1974, currently residing in Washington, DC. His work exploring a direct relationship between synthetic image and sound spans several decades.
Manuel Vázquez
Manuel Vázquez, born 1993 in Estado de México, is a mexican musician and digital artist. His works are based on interactive design, technological development and experimental music production, emphasizing the interrelationships established from interactive, visual and sound experiences. He acquired a B.S. in Digital Music Production Engineering in 2016 from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, Campus Ciudad de México. Has participated in exhibitions and concerts organized by CENART’s Multimedia Centre and other institutions. He earned the Young Creators Grant 2018/2019, New Technologies category, from National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA).
Jeong Woo
My name is Jeong Woo Jang and I am a noise musician based in Seoul, South Korea. I have just recently become interested in video synthesis, in the broader sense, and started
buying hardware! I am fascinated by how many of the techniques employed in the
production of experimental music can be extended to the visual realm. I currently am
not pursuing an academic career, but I also have a background in the academic field of
history of technology & STS (social studies of sciency and technology). I originally planned
an ethnographical research on what practices make the utilization of game engines in non-game industries possible. My academic interests are partially connected to the video work I pursue. I plan to combine analog video feedback with game engine based 3D graphics in the future.
Olga Yakimenko
Olga is a Russian multimedia artist and producer. Having started out as a graphic designer and cultural journalist, she found she was more interested in motion and technology, and after studying film-making, she worked as a video editor, videographer, and producer in London and internationally. During this process, she developed her skills in 2D animation and became a one-woman multimedia production band. These days she is looking to learn how to combine different media in new ways, experimenting with applying animation techniques to video and melding multiple streams of information.
The project was realized with the financial help of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the Statutory City of Brno.
