Open Circuits (2003) takes its name from Nam June Paik’s 1966 Manifesto ‘Cybernated Art’ (Packer & Jordan, Multimedia, 2001, p.41). A non-narrative visual montage which takes the viewer on a journey through a world where the distinctions between real and virtual, conscious and unconscious, daydream and nightmare become indistinguishable and the borders breakdown somewhere between anxiety and prescience. Originally cut and mixed together from 16mm single frame time lapse footage shot from moving cameras in both Sheffield and Chicago (by Jackie Jones and Pete Care, respectively) for multi-projection screening in the live concert work undertaken with Cabaret Voltaire in 1989-91. This material was later re-cut for single monitor screening and documentation around 1995. With Cabaret Voltaire unwilling to release this material commercially on video and DVD, it was then re-cut and remixed to the music of Mandragora for a potential live projection project with that group in 1996. This edit was then mixed with WinAmp computer animations generated and produced by composer Joe Audsley prior to the Cinema for the Ear event. Tim Howle worked with this picture edit using digital composition software to craft the soundtrack to the image, in a manner akin to the animation methodologies of “mickey mousing”, ‘the sonic illustration of visual events’ (Birtwistle, Cinesonica, 2010, p.188).
Open Circuits was selected for publication on DVD by the MIT Press’ Computer Music Journal, in the special edition devoted to visual music in 2005 (Computer Music Journal, Volume 29, Number 4, ‘Visual Music’ Edition, MIT Press, Winter 2005) after screenings at a number of conferences and electroacoustic concerts in the US. Open Circuits has also been published on DVD by Goldsmiths, University of London as part of the Process Revealed project documenting the European Conference on Evolutionary Music and Art, Artpool, Budapest, Hungary, April 2006; and as part of the ScreenWorks Practice as Research DVD in conjunction with The Journal of Media Practice, June 2007.
Screenings, presentations, performances
Screenings:
S.E.A 03 International Electroacoustic Conference; University of Hull, July 2003.
Gage – Technology, Art and the Individual, Digital Arts Festival; Ferens Art Gallery, Hull. February 2004.
On The Edge; University of Hull, February 2006.Sonorities Festival of Contemporary Music; Queens University Belfast, April 2004.
Sound Image Sound; University of the Pacific, Stockton, California, September 2004.
Third Practice – electro-acoustic music festival; University of Richmond, Virginia, USA, October 2004.
Legacies in Technology; Birmingham Conservatoire, October 2005.
GEM3 – Sonic Explorations 2; University of Huddersfield, January 2006.
Process Revealed – European Conference on Evolutionary Music and Art, Artpool; Budapest, Hungary, April 2006.
Dislocate: Trampoline Platform for New Media Art; Ginza and Koiwa, Tokyo, July-August 2006.
FLEXIFF 2006, Experimental International Film Festival; Western Sydney, Australia, September 2006.
Sounding Out 3, University of Sunderland, September 2006.
Fringe 06 Digital Scarborough; Crescent Art Gallery, Scarborough October 2006.
Trampoline – Platform for new media art, “Playing with urban structures – the city becomes alive at the touch of a button”; Broadway Cinema, Nottingham, November 2006.
Habitacion del Ruido/Arte Sonoro; Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana, Mexico City, Mexico, August 2008.
Mexican Centre for Music and Sonic Arts (CMMAS), Morelia, Mexico, August 2008.
The Works: Sounding Out 04; University of Sunderland, September 2008.
Lunchbytes Seminar; Culture Lab, Newcastle University, October 2008.
Journeys in Film – Beyond Film, Experimental Film Festival; Gala Theatre and Cinema, Durham, November 2008.
Sichuan University Jinjiang College, Chengdu, China, August 2010.
MuVi3 – Video and Moving Image: On Synesthesia and Visual Music, University of Almeira, Spain, Feb-March 2012.
International Festival of Projections, Lupino Cinema, University of Kent, March, 2016.
Invited Presentation and Performance of Work;
SEAMUS (Society for Electro Acoustic Music of the United States) Conference; San Diego State University, March 2004.
International Computer Music Conference; Miami November 2004.
Sonic Arts Festival; Leicester de Montfort University, June 2004.
MusicAcoustica 05; Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing, China, October 2005.
Audiograft – Oxford’s Festival of Sound Art and Contemporary Music, Jacqueline Du Pre Concert Hall, Oxford, February 2011
Monterrey Institute of Technology, Monterrey, Mexico, 19th February 2013;
The Centre for Digital Art and Experimental Media (DXArts), Washington State University, Seattle, USA, 22nd February 2013.
Published on DVD;
Computer Music Journal, Volume 29, Number 4, ‘Visual Music’ Edition, MIT Press, Winter 2005 (ISBN 0262757397).
ScreenWorks DVD: Documenting Practice based Research; in association with The Journal For Media Practice, Intellect Books, June 2007.
Process Revealed – Documenting the European Conference on Evolutionary Music and Art; Artpool, Budapest, Hungary, April 2006, Published by Goldsmiths, University of London (ISBN 1904158714).
Broadcast and Publication;
Broadcast – Elektra – TV Show for Experimental Music; TNA Channel (Cable Network) France, March 2007.
Reviewed in ‘International Computer Music Conference 2004: Concerts’, Computer Music Journal, Volume 29, Number 2, Spring 2005, MIT Press, ISBN 0-262-75739 – 5.
“DVD Program Notes -Visual Music Edition” Computer Music Journal 29 (4): 113-122. doi: 10.1162/014892605775179928
Featured in the book Video and Moving Image – on synaesthesia and visual music / MuVi 3 Ricco, D. and Jose de Cordoba, M. (eds) (2012) Ediciones Fundacion International Artecitta, Granada, Spain ISBN-13: 978-84-939054-3-9.
nick cope film & video 