014
Sonic Fiction
Synaesthetic Videos from Austria
A DVD release celebrating the extraordinary young video and electronic music scene in Austria. These are radical avant-garde works that emerge logically from modern electronic music. The images sometimes tie in with the earliest pure abstract avant-garde films, but reveal themselves in everything to be exponents of contemporary digital technology.
Thomas Aigelsreiter (KEY WEST)
Sound: Rudi Aigelsreiter
*1972 in Vienna, Master Class for Graphic-Design at the HGBLVA, Vienna. Since 1990 he works under the name of AUGE illustrator, cartoonist and producer of animation films - also for the internet (Flash movies).
Videos (Selection): Sophia´s Sofa (2001), Bomb! (2002), Key West (2002), Haiku Who? (2003), established (2003), Masse(s) (2004 )
www.auge-animated.com
Didi Bruckmayr (ICH BIN TRAURIG)
Sound: Fuckhead
*5.4.1966; lives in Linz, Austria. Doctor of economy. Since 1985 singer, actor, video-maker and performance-artist.
International acitivities with the notorious multimedia-performance-group Fuckhead.
Digital arts since 1999. Specialises in 3d environments and realtime video processing. Work on audio- interactive interfaces for solo performances.
www.fuckhead.at
Michael Strohmann (ICH BIN TRAURIG)
Sound: Fuckhead
*04.01.72; training at the Bass School Munich and at the Institute for Electro-Acoustic in Vienna.
Involved with the music performance group Fuckhead and Honolulu, the theater groups Bilderwerfer and toxic dreams as composer and interface designer. Interests focus primarily on the fields entropy vs. self- organization, anxiety and liberty.
www.fuckhead.at
Siegfried A. Fruhauf (SUN)
Sound: Attwenger
*1976 in Grieskirchen, Austria. Since 1993 experiments with video and film. Since 1995 studies at the University for Design in Linz. Various works and shows in the area of video and film. 2002 Supportive Award for Filmart.
Films/Videos (Selection): La Sortie (1998), Höhenrausch (1999), Blow-Up (2000), Exposed (2001), REALTIME (2002), SUN (2003), Structural Filmwaste. Dissolution1 (2003), sed (2001), REALTIME (2002), SUN (2003), Structural Filmwaste. Dissolution1 (2003)
Karø Goldt (FALCON)
Sound: Rashim
*1967 in Günzburg. 1998 Diploma at the School for artistic photography Vienna. Various exhibitions for photography, photofilm and objects in Vienna, Berlin, Paris, Barcelona a.o. since 1995. Participation at international festivals since 2001. Lives in Berlin and Vienna
Videos (Selection): ILOX (2000), LILIUM (2001), mir mig men (2002), falcon (2003), LOST (2004), solo mit chor (2004), SUBROSA (2004)
www.alles-goldt.de
Michaela Grill (TRANS)
Sound: Martin Siewert
*1971; has studied in Vienna, Glasgow and London. Various film/video works, sound installations and live visuals since 1998;
various performances in Austria and abroad. Lives and works in Vienna.
Videos (Selection): o.T. / takeshi fumimoto (1999), kingkong / dj pure (2000), My Kingdom for a Lullaby # 4 (w/Billy Roisz) /
Kurzmann, Nakamura, Siewert (2002), trans / Siewert (2003), My Kingdom for a Lullaby # 2 (w/Billy Roisz) /
Kurzmann, Nakamura, Siewert (2004), KILVO / Radian (2004)
lullaby.klingt.org
Lia (HARDVIDEO/G.S.I.L. XIX)
Sound:@c
Graphikprogrammer. Born to start working on computers in 1995
Works in Progress: G.S.I.L. (real-time graphics) together with @c
Videos (Selection): G.S.I.L.VI/almada (2001), G.S.I.L.XII/+ (2002), hardVideo/G.S.I.L.XIX (2003), v3/G.S.I.L. XXIX (2004)
lia.sil.at
m.ash (CUBICA)
Sound: Chris Janka
a.k.a. Michael Aschauer, born 1977 in Steyr, Austria. 1999 University of applied Arts, Vienna. Lives and works in Vienna.
recent project list @ m.ash.to/art/
m.ash.to
[n:ja] (FRAME)
Sound: Radian
a.k.a. Annja Krautgasser, born in 1971 in Hall; from 1990-2002 studies of architecture and applied art.
000 foundation of the vidok studio.
Videos (Selection): perceptive faculty 2 (1999), rewind (2000), track 09 (2001), frame (2002)
www.vidok.org
Timo Novotny (NEON)
Sound: Wolfgang Schloegl
*1973 in Böblingen (FRG). 1993-99 University of applied Arts Vienna, visual media class
member of Vidok,Sofa Surfers live (visual.displacements), displacement activity (+ M. Kienzl).
Videos (Selection): wirehead (1993-96), The Plan (1997), cargo (1999), Sofa Rockers (2000), can i get a witness (2002), neon (2003), sempre semper (2004), Life in Loops (2006)
ww.vidok.org
reMI (ZIJKFIJERGIJOK)
a.k.a. Renate Oblak, born in Villach, Austria in 1972. Since 1990 various works (costume design, graphics, painting, installations) concentrating on digital sound and video. Participation in group shows in Austria and abroad. Lives and works in Vienna and Zeist.
a.k.a. Michael Pinter, born in Graz, Austria in 1969. Painter, author and composer, concentrates on sound, video and computer art.
Participation in numerous group projects and shows in Austria and abroad. Lives and works in Graz, Berlin, Utrecht and Zeist.
Videos/Films (Selection): comp.tot 4 (1999), Teufel Eintritt (2000), Mobile V (2000), uta zet (2001), vague nouvelle (2002), Vincit Veritas (2002), zijkfijergijok (2003), seciron_ra (2003)
remi.mur.at
Billy Roisz (BLINQ)
Sound: Burkhard Stangl, Boris Hauf, Martin Siewert, dieb13, Christof Kurzmann, Sachiko M., Toshimaru Nakamura, Akoasma, Werner Dafeldecker, El
*1967; video- and soundexperiments in context of performance, installation and cinema. Member of efzeg,silly (w/akoasma) and ntsc (w/Dieb13). Lives and works in Vienna.
Videos (Selection): oberflach.avi (2000), smokfraqs, w/ dieter kovacic (2001), katapila, efzeg (2002), My Kingdom for a Lullaby # 4 (w/Michaela Grill) (2002), -2.20, w/ dieb13 (2003), My Kingdom for a Lullaby # 2 (w/Michaela Grill) (2004), Sources (2004), "blinq" (2002)
gnu.klingt.org
Michaela Schwentner (JET)
Sound: Radian
*1970 in Linz. Studies philosophy, history, drama and media studies. Visuals, various concepts and realizations of exhibitions, concerts and clubs (e.g.: alternative project space "Jadengasse"). Co-founder of the label mosz.
Videos (Selection): orchester 33 1/3 (S8) (1997), r4 (2000), transistor (2000), #Z (2001), the_future_of_human_containment (2002), take the bus (2002), JET (2003), giuliana 64:03 (w/Didi Bruckmayr) (2003), tucker (2004),
rhiz.org/jade
Nik Thoenen (NEON)
Sound: Wolfgang Schloegl
*1963 Zwieselberg (CH), 1986-92 studies of graphic design in Switzerland, 1997 forming of the mediagroup re-p.org in Vienna
Works (Selection): white_noise (webproject) (2001), void (av performances) (2000-02), ./logicaland (webproject) (2002), amoeba (video installation) (2003), neon (2003)
www.re-p.org
VARIOUS SONIC FICTION: SYNAESTHETIC VIDEOS FROM AUSTRIA
As part of the research and development wing of the computer department of Bell Labs lnc the early 1970s, Lilian Schwartz and programmer Kenneth Knowlton worked laboriously on some of the earliest forms of short computer animation usually making hltherto unseen visual forms seethe, swirl and practically brainwash the viewer to an accompaniment of electronic music. Judging by this new compilation of digital shorts made by collaborative unions of Austrian video makers and sound artists, little has changed at the bleeding edge of image production, except perhaps the downsizing of equipment from mainframe to laptop. Many of the 12 clips included are monochrome responses to glitchy abstract electronica soundtracks. Lia's hardvideo/GSIL XIX uses the kind of lo-fi screen-snow beloved of Farmers Manual, and M.ash's Cubica utilises cuboid silicon worms from the computer game Snake to dance to Chris Janka's pulse Techno. The pervading austerity of the DVD – notably Nik Thoenen and Timo Novotny's Super-8 studies of six fluorescent tubes – is offset by Thomas Aigelsreiter's Key West, which samples 1960s Americana newsreels of cars speeding down the freeway superimposed on babes lounging around at the Florida sunspot. These extremes of speed and indolence dovetail with a repetitive music by Rudi Aigelsreiter that hammers home a sense od repetitive hedonism and consumption leading to a forgetful, oblivious lethatgy. Along with Karø Goldt's Falcon, a static cockpit washed with a spectrum of morphing colours, it's one of the few videos that shows recognisable forms. Billy Roisz's Blinq features sonic miniatures by Burkhard Stangl, Christof Kurzmann, Martin Siewert, Toshimaru Nakamura and others heard over a black screen, interspersed with silent visual interpretations of what you've just heard. ReMI's zijkfijergijok is a tube-wrecking blip-exercise, with random pixels of colour and TV interference interspersed with Reformation-era woodcuts and pages from magical tomes. Two cuts involvlng the music of Radian, [n:ja]'s Frame and Michaela Schwentner's JET, inspire graceful, lightly brushed marks on a white bachground, although Schwentner's beautiful piece suggests some action taking place in an area of the brain that is not yet sufficiently developed to decode it.
BY ROB YOUNG, The Wire, January 2005 (Issue 251)