RAFLOST Festival

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.

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 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/

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.

Brautarholt Rímix (2011)

Audio, video and candy

The piece is created with support from the Danish Arts Foundation.

Performance: Katie Buckley

www.slatur.is/jesper

www.slatur.is/gudmundursteinn

Fire

It’s hot

Páll Ivan is born in the year nineteeneightyone, is educated and active.

www.slatur.is/pallivan

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.

294° for Halldorophone and mixed tuba/trombone.

Performed by Ingi Garðar Erlendsson and Sandra Snæbjörnsdóttir.

www.slatur.is/aki

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/

La Casa Adentro (The House Inside)

La Casa Adentro is an audio-dance installation where the choreography is seen through the ears as an intent of a synesthetic experience for the audience. The dancers were recorded with a Binaural audio technique which allows the sound of the movement to be heard in a spacial way and that places each member of the audience in the center of the choreography at the same time. This recording technique does not require any post-production or special effects.

La Casa Adentro was first shown as a live performance where the dancers were in a room above the audience. In real time it was also heard by people around the world that connected with their headphones to the web page of the piece. This installation has no post-production or special effects.

Destriplamiento

This video-dance project started in 2009 with a funding from the National Funds for Culture and Arts of Mexico. It is filmed in Mexico and inspired by the last words that the Argentinian poet Alejandra Pizarnik wrote before committing suicide.

After a process of nearly 2 years the project is finished in March of 2011. ‘Destriplamiento’ is a word invented by the poet that was interpreted in the process of making this video-dance as “unfolded three ways and stripped at the same time”.

Lilian and Halldor started the Kora: Espacios Indeterminados production project in 2008 in Mexico. This project is interested in approaching choreography through its relationship with other media and with diverse disciplines. Lilian has studied dance and choreography in Cuba, Mexico, Austria and Holland. She has worked as a tutor, researcher and teacher at the national center of choreographic research in Mexico. Her artistic work has mainly been inspired by the theme of the house and identity. Halldor has studied audio engineering in Iceland and Holland and worked as an audio engineer teacher in the G Martell university in Mexico. He has specialized in Binaural research.

An Aversion to Light [2]

Experimental film collaboration across contemporary dance, video art and sonic art. Initiated by Kristian Larsen, An Aversion to Light [2] began as an innocent attempt to compose arbitrary dance footage in a way that somehow made sense. From improvised free shots, captured on a borrowed camera in a single room, Kristian and Norm Skipp worked these into shape over an extended dialogue. Kristianʼs long time friend, Leyton, then developed the soundtrack. Although worked on in isolation by each artist, there is a common aesthetic thread that is amplified through this piece.

Kristian Larsen is a New Zealand based choreographer and performer with a vested interest in rigorous methods of improvisation. He intertwines discourses and correlates of European and American influenced post modern dance with contemporary issues emerging from the questioning of contemporary masculine and Pakeha identities. Operating from the self-professed position of belonging to a privileged underclass of Western artists, he merges wry self- commentary with a spectrum of movement materials that are influenced by strands of Forsythean methods, Butoh, martial arts, image work, and stand up comedy. http://throwdisposablechoreography.blogspot.com/

Norm Skipp is a NZ/UK composer/sonic artist, video artist and online editor/compositor based in Manchester. International performances of his video and sound work have taken place in New Zealand, Australia, U.S.A., U.K., France and Canada and as part of festivals such as NextWave, Soliton, Pulsefield, 34th New Zealand International Film Festival 2002, Festival Licences and Synthèse. Norm devotes himself to creating innovative sound and visual compositions in collaboration with a diverse range of artists. http://normanskipp.com/

Dunedin based sound designer/ musician / composer leyton has been active in film, live performance and recording as “Epsilon Blue” and ʻrotor+ʼ. A man of many talents he is well respected in NZʼs music industry having appeared on 34 national and international records as well as remixing Fat Freddyʼs Drop, Salmonella Dub, Pitch Black, HDU and The Clean.

Amorphisms is a continuously evolving sequence of images that are unified by means of a recurring color palette. The musical score imposes an emotive quality onto the images and guides the overall dramatic curve of the piece.

Dennis Miller received his Doctorate in Music Composition from Columbia University and is currently on the Music faculty of Northeastern University in Boston where he heads the Music Technology program and serves on the Multimedia Studies Steering Committee. His mixed media works have been presented at numerous venues throughout the world, most recently the DeCordova Museum, the New York Digital Salon Traveling Exhibit, the 2005 Art in Motion screenings, Images du Nouveau Monde, CynetArts, Sonic Circuits, the Cuban International Festival of Music, and the 2004 New England Film and Video Festival. His work was also presented at the gala opening of the new Disney Hall in Los Angeles (2003) and at the SIGGRAPH 2001 in the Emerging Technologies gallery. Recent exhibits of his 3D still images include the Boston Computer Museum and the Biannual Conference on Art and Technology, as well as publication in Sonic Graphics: Seeing Sound (Rizzoli Books) and Art of the Digital Age (Thames and Hudson). Miller’s music and artworks are available at www.dennismiller.neu.edu.

Moon Young HA (b. 1980) is a Korean composer residing in New York City. He combines classical instruments, video, and electronics to create contemporary music. His interests include the organic development of intervals and narrative structure. His work has been presented at festivals and concerts in Europe and America, and his music has been performed by Alarm Will Sound, Empyrean ensemble, LOOS ensemble, ensemble s21, among others. Currently as a McCracken fellow, he is pursuing his Ph.D at New York University, Graduate School of Arts and Science. More information can be found at his website: http://www.moonyoung.net