Communikey 10

Wow, Communikey 10 was a blast.  This year I was a member of the technical support crew.  I assisted with the planning and performance of the Artificiel performance "POWEr" as well as the other performances and workshops in the black box.  This was the third installment of the festival, and Communikey 11 is already being planned.  Other events I was involved with included the Lucky Dragons' workshops, "Make a Baby", D Numbers' "Chop Shop", performances by White Rainbow, Lissom, and a special guest performance by the eccentrically brilliant Xavier van Wersch.  Peter Kirn also gave a lecture about Processing.  You can see more about the many other events and performances on the Communikey 10 website.  I also have lots of documentation of the event.
The "Make a Baby" workshop was an innovative new way to bring interactivity to experimental electronic music.  Using custom patch in MAX/MSP, signals are physically manipulated through modified guitar cables.  The result is a unique performance textured by the different skin resistances of the participants.  The workshops allowed the audience to improvise and participate, but there was also an organized performance in the end.

"Make a Baby"

"Chop Shop" was another interesting unplanned musical collaboration.  Using gear brought by the audience, as well as the group's equipment, a live multi-instrumentalist performance emerged.  While chaotic at times (to be expected) there were some very interesting collaborations.  This was also an opportunity for all of the music nerds in the community to show off their gear.

"Chop Shop"

Xavier van Wersch from the Netherlands was brought out as the headliner for the the ATL&S show.  This man is an insane, and brilliant musician.  His setup consisted of home-brewed electronics and effect pedals mixed in a way that only a madman could understand.  His show was as much music as performance.  Before he began, he prepared a magical green concoction which he consumed throughout the performance.  Using electrical signals through antennae on his fingers, he manipulated noises.  Then he 'swallowed' a contact microphone to add to the textural scenery.  Finally, he underwent a transformation from mad-scientist to cyborg-beast.  He ended up shirtless, with 'blood' streaming from his mouth, and a gas-mask with a microphone in it.  Loud, intense, one-of-a-kind.

Xavier van Wersch

And finally... the performance that took an extreme amount of planning to pull off.  Artificiel is a performance group.  For "POWEr" they use a custom built tesla coil to create audio and visual effects!  Our first technical challenge was to set up a dedicated ground for the excess electricity.  No problem, after calling the campus electricians.  The 'zaps' are then triggered using PWM (pulse width modulation) over an optical cable (no EM interference).  Using 2 cameras trained on the zaps, as well as 2 shotgun microphones, they create a 'powerful' performance with exciting visuals and interesting audio elements.  I've seen a little tesla work before, but this was by far the most exciting.

This video belongs to Artificiel