Tel:01225 312084

CONTEMPORARY ARTS TALK PROGRAMME (external event)

STAGING SOUND

David Cunningham, Lina Dzuverovic-Russell, Robin Rimbaud (aka Scanner)

Wednesday , 23 April 2008, 7-8.30pm

Presented by Contemporary Art Talks Programme (CATp)

When recently asked what made the use of sound so appealing for him, the artist Christian Marclay replied that it was its connection to the instant.* This comment seems to go immediately to the heart of the question about the appeal and use of sound in contemporary art – it’s immediacy and its connection with the temporal. On the one hand, sound might be a way of accessing a broad affective field and on the other, a way of refusing easy access to the affective nature of the experience but this all unfolds within the moment.

This forum addresses the way in which artists choose to stage sound (whether that is as a performance or event, or as an ongoing installation or sonic environment), and the materials that they use to do so. It asks a panel of artists, writers and a curator to consider whether it is this temporal aspect – this connection with the instant – that makes sound so appealing to artists and audiences or is it something else? Is it the different ways in which it accesses audiences that is its special appeal? Its potential for shared authorship and audience participation? Conversely, is it the reassertion of the artist as a celebrity performer? And finally, has the dissemination of interactive gaming and digital technologies opened up more of a freeform attitude to making music / sound / noise?

Visitors welcome £3: Members/Students £2

The forum will be followed by an open improv event at the Porter Cellar Bar, 14 George Street, Bath from 8.30pm. All welcome but please email to guarantee a slot: lucy@mediaartbath.org.uk

For more information please contact Lucy Sames on tel: 01225 396 479 or email: lucy@mediaartbath.org.uk.
For more on Bath Contemporary Art visit www.bathcontemporaryart.org.uk. 

The Contemporary Art Talks programme is supported by: Media Art Bath, Bath Area Network for Artists, Contemporary Art Programming, The Porter Cellar Bar, Arts Council England, South West and Bath & North East Somerset Council.

(* Christian Marclay, Tate/Art Monthly Talking Art series, 24 November 2007)