May 2011

Sigrún Harðardóttir

jessiArtists on RAFLOST 2011

Gaia in action.
This work is Juxtaposition of shots from the volcanic eruption on Fimmvörðuháls Iceland from april 4th 2010. Here the creativity of Gaia (Mother earth) is in the center, drawing attention to the painterly quality of the imagery from the crater of the volcano as it was an gigantic action painting.

Sigrún Harðardóttir studied at the Icelandic School of Art and Crafts and at the State Academy of Fine Arts, in Amsterdam. Sigrún also holds a Masters of Arts in Communication/multimedia studies from University of Quebec in Montreal. Sigrún has shown her works for over 2 decades in Iceland as well as in Canada, USA, The Netherlands, Germany and in Denmark. Her works can be found in the Art Museum of Iceland, The Art Museum of Kópavogur, The Netherlands Media Art Institute, The National Bank of Iceland, The Reykjavík Energy Corporation and at The Sudurnes Regional Heating Corporation.
For decade the surface activity of a geothermal site has been a source of inspiration for Sigrún which she has captured in paintings as well as in video- and video/sound installations.

Dennis H. Miller

adminArtists on RAFLOST 2011

Echoing Spaces (2009) is an nine-minute composition for single-channel video and stereo audio. The work explores a number of virtual environments in which the primary elements recur (echo) both in immediate succession and at different times throughout the piece, always in varied form. The visual imagery employs a number of similarly shaped elements that appear in overlapping, morphing configurations, and the restricted color palette helps maintain a focus on the primary objects. The music of Echoing Shapes was created using a variety of modern techniques including convolution and physical modeling. The quasi-tonal context adds an additional layer of continuity to the work.


Dennis Miller is currently on the faculty of Northeastern University in Boston where he teaches courses in electronic music and mixed-media composition.  Miller is the founder and artistic director of the Visual Music Marathon (www.2009vmm.neu.edu), an ongoing program that includes screenings of works by filmmakers from around the world. His music and artworks are available at www.dennismiller.neu.edu.

Ninna Þórarinsdóttir

jessiArtists on RAFLOST 2011

Ninna Thorarinsdottir is a designer from Akureyri currently living and working in Reykjavik as a graphic designer and illustrator. Graduated with a BA from the Design Academy Eindhoven in 2006. Since her graduation project (Limbus) she has continued working on body sculptures, combining fashion with technology. Making the form around the body and around the function, if it is changing colors, form or sounds. Here she is showing a part of her collection “Fellings“. Dancing dresses and Multi colored film dresses. www.ninna.eu/

Björk Viggósdóttir/Þorbjörn G. Kolbrúnarson

jessiArtists on RAFLOST 2011

Reverse Memories

Memories mediate between images and sounds. Old experiences are abstracted to create new. Memory becomes reality.
In her general practice Björk Viggósdóttir deals with visual images, emotions, sounds and sensations in a similar way to what occurs involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of live, whether in dream or at wake. Björk works with colors, emotions, signs and other things from the everyday, which she brings to other dimensions by creating for them new perspectives and settings. In her art Björk likes to encourage her audience to use all their senses for viewing her work by using combinations of different media in her works.

Þorbjörn G. Kolbrúnarson graduated from the Icelandic Academy of the Arts in 2010 with a degree in Composition. He works in varied fields, collaborating  with dancers, visual artists and other musicians. Along with his own compositions he has composed music for computer games, films, dance and installations.

Hallvarður Ásgeirsson/Áslaug Gunnlaugsdóttir

jessiArtists on RAFLOST 2011

Áslaug sings


Áslaug is autistic woman living in Hólaberg in Breiðholt. Shesings a lot, especially in the evening, and loves music and going toconcerts. I recorded samples of her, and cut pieces together.

Hallvarður Ásgeirsson is born in 1976 lives in Reykjavik. He hasstudied at the Icelandic Academy of the Arts and graduated with a BAin composition / new media. After that he went to Brooklyn College inNew York where he earnedM. Mus in composition. He has played in numerous bands, includingSkyboxx, Skmendanikka, Fengjastrútur, and Stórsveit Nix Noltes. Hiselectronic works have been performed at the International ElectroAcoustic Music Festival atBrooklyn College, and he has composed and performed music formechanical musical instruments as partLEMUR (League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots) Residency inFebruary 2008. Compositions for the theatre production Mika that hewrote with the band Catal Hüyük was performed at the United Nations inNovember 2008, as part of a the campaign Unite to End Violence AgainstWomen which was created by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.

Madelyn Byrne/Lily Glass

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Arrival
Madelyn Byrne, composer Lily Glass, video artist
In this piece travel serves as a metaphor for self-discovery, or its opposite – distraction. The sounds of travel and introspection – including traffic, trains, planes, breath, rain, and voice – are juxtaposed and eventually integrated. This piece explores the ongoing and multifaceted process of self-discovery and living with integrity. The song-like theme of Arrival is explored in four sections. Section A is introspective, section B makes use of homeland security announcements as a metaphor for manufactured fear, C is a peaceful resolution to the previous sections, and D is an optimistic projection forward.


Madelyn Byrne is an active composer whose work frequently combines acoustic instruments with computer-generated sounds. Some  compositions in this area include For ANWR (commissioned by Yoon Jeong Heo), Rain, Sea, and Sky (commissioned by the NOISE Ensemble), and Dream Tableaux (commissioned by Colin McAllister). Past honors include ASCAPlus Awards, honorable mention in the “Suoni di Legno” competition, winner of the Friends and Enemies of New Music Composition Competition, and recordings on CRI (New World), Innova, and Everglade Records.  Madelyn’s music has also been selected for a wide range of new music festivals and she been a guest composer at Columbia University’s Computer Music Center. Madelyn is currently on the faculty of Palomar College. http://www.madelynbyrne.com/

Aldo Rodriguez

jessiArtists on RAFLOST 2011
La vida en un Suspiro – Life in a Sigh
This work is a visual point of view about life and about living in the northwest of Mexico where the drug dealers rules the way of life of many citizens. Death, Violence, Weapons, Murderers cause only a deepest fear in many people, wishing not to be in the wrong place and time.
Life in a Sigh is  our life as a continuum flux and all the fragility in it and the events who can cut it out our existence.
Created using – Processing, Particles Generator and Max/MSP
La vida en un Suspiro – Life in a Sigh
This work is a visual point of view about life and about living in the northwest of Mexico where the drug dealers rules the way of life of many citizens. Death, Violence, Weapons, Murderers cause only a deepest fear in many people, wishing not to be in the wrong place and time.
Life in a Sigh is  our life as a continuum flux and all the fragility in it and the events who can cut it out our existence.
Created using – Processing, Particles Generator and Max/MSP
Aldo Rodríguez
Aldo Rodríguez. Been born in Culiacán, Sinaloa in 1966. His life has been the music: composer and investigator of rare fields of the musicotecnology.
It works in the AUTONOMOUS UNIVERSITY OF SINALOA from 1984, and in Radio University from 1985.
Nominated for the award Sinaloa of Sciences and Arts 1991 and deserving of distinguished awards and reknowledge for his work in the ambience composicional, it has been awarded as Creator with Trajectory for the FONCA/FOECA in composition 1995 for his work Form of Viajar/1999 for Métropolis/2002 with Dances Apócrifas/2005 with Vox Feminae, It is gone away of the career of Guitar on the part of the School of Music of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa in 1988, it has realized studies in composition with prestigious national and foreign compositors, between which desatacan Radko Tichavsky, Sergio Villarreal, Gregory Taylor, Philippe Manoury, between others. It has studied numerous courses of specialization in the IRCAM since 1999.
At present he is a member of Ircam’s Forum, a composers’ grouping of the whole world that applies discharge technlogy to the musical creation. His music has appeared in important festivals of electroacustics in the world, emphasizing Festival Predicts, Paris, Latin American of Electroacústica and Visual in Paris, Sonoimágenes, Buenos Aires, ICMC07, Copenaghe, Musically, Lisbon, Sonic Visions, Mexico between others.
His music has been interpreted for: Assemble Temp-Espatial, Assemble Mobile Art of Mexico and national and foreign soloists between whom there stand out the oboist Plamen Petkov, the pianist Rodolfo Ponce Montero, the flautists Roberto Morales and Eduardo González, the clarinettist Isidro Muñetón, the soprano Patricia Valdéz, the guitarist Tawally Prado, the Extreme Quartet, Psappha Ensamble of Percussions, the Orchestra Nicolaíta and the Symphonic Sinaloa of the Arts.
The interpretation of 5 Apocryphal Dances for ensamble and electronic in real-time with the Sinaloa of the Arts. Being the first work electroacústica for big assemble presented in Sinaloa. This work was presented in the Palace of Fine arts, (Mexico city) in the frame of the celebrations of 70 Anniversary of the above mentioned enclosure with the Sinaloa of the Arts under the guidance of Gordon Campbell.
He is a member of the Mexican Society of New Music and of the Center of Musical Multimedia Investigation and of the Forum of the IRCAM.
He is a pioneer of the music electroacústic in the northwest of Mexico since 1987. At present it develops interactive systems using technologies motion capture, Algorithmic Languages and DSP with video in real-time for his compositions and concerts.
He deserves the Winner Prize of the Biennial one of Visual Arts of the Northwest with his interactive video Life in a Sigh, being the first visual composer / artist in SInaloa in obtaining such a distrinción
His last audio-visual installations – Insects, The gosths do not cry, Autoportrait will be presented in museums and galleries across in Mexico, the United States, Spain and France during 2010 and 2011.
The most recent part of his work was compiled in an entitled CD – Electroacústic and Other Machines, produced by the Institute of Culture Culiacan, The CCDCMC, ISIC and CONACULTA.
He is considered to be like the most important composer of his generation as well as of the northwest of the country. www.aldorodriguez.com