Activating The Medium XV with Relay For Death, Danishta Rivero, & Jen Boyd

Description

23five Incorporated presents the fifteenth annual Activating The Medium festival
in collaboration with Art Practical, The Lab, and the San Francisco Art Institute

Activating The Medium XV : Chapter Three
Friday, April 27, 2012 : The Lab
Relay for Death (North Carolina)
Danishta Rivero (San Francisco)
Jen Boyd (Vallejo, California)

Since 1998, 23five Incorporated has produced the annual Activating The Medium festival -- an internationally recognized showcase for the most innovative and visionary practitioners of sound art. Now entering its fifteenth season, Activating The Medium addresses the theme of a 'dark ecology' -- a term which comes from the philosopher Timothy Morton, who argues that the idea of nature and the attitudes surrounding those ideas are the stumbling blocks to environmental thinking. A glance through the lens of dark ecology refuses to idealize nature as a Romanticized other; furthermore, it eschews the notion that mankind has disturbed and transgressed nature through our engineering and manipulation. A dark ecology frames reality that anything has the potential to disrupt everything, with global catastrophes inevitably occurring through such relationships. As such, Morton beseeches an aesthetic that does not forget the murk, the grime, and the filth that are the symptoms, causes, and glue of what might have once been described as 'nature.' It is from this vantage point that 23five is curating the 2012 Activating The Medium festival, seeking works that engage the specter of noise pollution, the melancholy of eco-acoustic blight, the horror of technological chimeras, and / or the altered states that may emerge from such meditations through sound-based composition and performance.

Relay For Death is a project comprised of twin sisters from the American South. Due to close proximity since inception the two have been fated to act as physical witness-one for the other - of certain pre-birth awarenesses. Embodied psychic imprints not allowing for the comfort of forgetting. Where the sense is retained, always looming, though not fully realized in the nervous half -known swarm that seems to surround them and their sound. Making references to numerous styles but conforming fully to none, the underlying coherence of this post-industrial project rests on a metaphysical vision rather than a stylistic approach. Upon hearing the often bleak and unsympathetic, sometimes frenzied arch of their recordings and live sets which are here and there interspersed with stabs of unrelenting beauty one can easily depict this duo as an atrophied hand that resignedly pushes the sinking trash sound boundary or matter-of-factly points at our existence as a terrible dream toward and everlasting reality. Their LP Birth of an Older Much More Ugly Christ (2010) on Hanson records is highly acclaimed in the genre; and They Are Heating Up The Ovens Get the Fuck Out Now (2011) released by No Rent Records is a disquieting and considered elaboration on their work.

Danishta Rivero is a musician and sound artist who resides in San Francisco. She performs solo improvisations on the Hydrophonium, a water-based electro-acoustic percussion instrument. Danishta also does vocals and digital processing in Blood Wedding, a just intonation noise duo with Chuck Johnson on steel guitar and modular synth. Through the years, she has been involved in various music projects. Most notably, she was lead vocalist of progressive metal band Aghora (1997-2006), and she co-founded Optiphonal Wonder Machine, a multimedia collaboration with Jennifer Rannells.

Jen Boyd is a sound artist living in Vallejo, California. She spends time recording sounds in her environment and then arranges them into layered soundscapes. In these pieces, some sounds unfold naturally while others are processed. Jen uses contact microphones to explore the textures and timbres in trees and other found objects. Many of her soundscapes seek to give depth to these delicate sounds. Although her work mostly relies on 'natural' sounds she uses a wide variety of sound sources to paint sonic pictures for the listener. Jen holds a BFA in composition and music technology from CalArts and a MFA in electronic music and recording media from Mills College.

23five Incorporated is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the development and increased awareness of sound works in the public arena, and to the support and education of artists working with and discussing the medium of sound. 23five was founded in 1993, and secured federal 501(c)(3) status in 1995.

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http://www.23five.org