My class’s band, Mister Resistor, is playing again this Saturday night, 7 and 8:30, at Flux Factory! Come and listen until your ears bleed!
It’s FREE, and there will be booze, popcorn, and homemade ice cream!
[…] The exterior appearance was plain– a sleek, seamless black wall that nearly spanned the entire lofty space. A silver crank handle and a small, clear, rectangular box encasing a pickle were the only ornaments. Clamped by wires on both sides, the pickle began to spark and light up as the handle was turned. Moments later, a halting melody churned out from the other side of the wall.
A journey through the maze-like interior of the melody’s physical architecture began when you infiltrated the entrances to the box, tucked away on either side. The artists created a series of small musical chambers connected by sharp turns, stairs, and an orange slide, producing curious textures of sound that played in sync, united in a single song. An old accordion hummed in a blue velvet room designed by Ranjit Bhatnagar. Draped with delicate strings of tiny white lights, it hung by a rope and pulley from the ceiling like a chandelier, playing itself with each rotation. […]
— pp74-75, Sculpture 12/2006, International Sculpture Center
The sound of an accordion can be joyful or annoying, and artist Ranjit Bhatnagar has managed to add a dose of creepiness with his creation “Misericordiam.” Here, an accordion dangles in a black curtain-flanked booth, playing sinister sounds to no one in particular. White LEDs give it a festive air, but its intermittent noises and shakes make it seem like a prop escaped from a haunted house.
— Rachel Metz, Wired Blogs
Wheeze “Misericordiam” (new name! “Cordy” for short.), the hovering accordion from the Fluxbox project, will be groaning and heaving at the Artbots 2006 NYC show. As the ArtBots page says:
ArtBots is very happy to announce a regional NYC show as part of the science+art festival 2006 this fall. The show will feature works old and new by eight New York artists who have appeared in previous ArtBots shows.
When:
Thursday-Sunday November 9-12, 2006, Noon-6pm
Opening reception Thursday November 9th, 6-8pmWhere:
Location One
26 Greene Street (between Canal and Grand)
New York City!How much:
$$$FREE$$$
Come see wheeze and a bunch of other marvelous art machines!
I’ll be presenting Lev, the theremin-playing robot, at the AUTO+MATOS show at New York University on Thursday, Oct. 19. Come see singing, dancing, performing robots! Best of all, it’s free!
Behold sensational innovations in the fields of movement, science, and art in an evening of noise, high impact dance, and robotics. Visitors are encouraged to interact with robots, experimenting with noise and paint, and to observe the vigorous and propellent dance of STREB.
— from the AUTO+MATOS web site
The exhibition will take place the evening of Thursday, October 19, 2006 at 6:30pm in the Eisner Lubin Auditorium of the NYU Kimmel Center (60 Washington Square South, 4th Floor). Get tickets at the door or from NYU Ticket Central.
Lev is a machine for playing a theremin.
Lev is named after Lev Termen (Leon Theremin), a Russian scientist who invented one of the first electronic musical instruments, an instrument which is played without touching, and which bears his name.
Lev is made out of an old floor lamp, some plumbing supplies, a few empty mint tins, and some microprocessors. Lev will never replace the human theremin virtuoso, although, as there are so few of the latter, a mechanical substitute may someday be vital to our economy.
“On March 25th, 2006 the Flux Factory space in Long Island City was transformed into a giant, interactive music box.
“A group of seven sound artists, musicians, and sculpture/installation artists gathered together by Flux Factory have created kinetic sculptures that all work together to play a single song. Viewers activate the box with a crank. Inside the Box, a veritable funhouse of sound can be discovered in each artist’s contribution to the overall song. The viewer becomes an active participant in the experience, subtly altering the song produced.” —flux factory
There’s a nice review of the Fluxbox in the June issue of the Brooklyn Rail.
The FluxBox, which was on view at the Flux Factory in Queens from March 25 to April 29, triggered a greater feeling of suspense than your everyday automata. Not because it was a room-sized version of something that usually fits in your hand, but because the only visible part of the box from the entrance was the crank, and the crank was wired to a kosher pickle. more…
– Bethany Ryker
A portable version of Lev went to Electro-Music in June, 2005 to warble for the musicians, artists, and shiny classic synths that attended the conference. To set the scene, here’s a few photos from the event. (For many more, see the official Electro-Music site.)
–The New Yorker, April 24, 2006