DMU hold regular concerts and events every fortnight on a Wednesday – and Mike Blow, Ryan Jordan, Jules Rawlinson and Lewis Sykes with Steve Symons performed alongside local artists Bathysphere. Video documentation can be found at the Future Of Sound – De Montfort University – 09-01-23 album on Vimeo.

On Thursday 22nd team members each ran a workshop for small groups of students to get hands-on experience of some of the techniques, methodologies and technologies explored through their work i.e. Mike Blow – Build a Binaural Headset, Ryan Jordan – Circuit Building, Jules Rawlinson - Quantised Gestures and Steve Symons – Introduction into Performing with Physical Interfaces. Photographs of the workshops can be found at the Cybersonica AV Lab at FOS 09 Flickr set.

Mike Blow, Ryan Jordan and Jules Rawlinson then helped with the technical production of the main Future Of Sound showcase on Friday 23rd.

Feedback from participants, audiences and DMU seems to have been positive all round.

The group attempted to realise a range of individual and collaborative ideas for interactive installations, impromptu performances and sound works inspired by a visit to the venue on the 6th November as part of the AV Lab 08 programme aiming “to set a challenge for the group to create some modest but considered site-specific work that could be included in the Future Of Sound showcase on 22nd November.”

Details of featured works can be found in the Cybersonica-FOS-DLWP.pdf (Right click and ‘Download Linked File’ – or equivalent for your browser and platform).

Sabine Vogel’s audio work ‘Strandspiel’ is available for download – right click and ‘Download Linked File’ or equivalent depending on your platform and browser…;
Sabine Vogel – Strandspiel.

In truth it was all a bit of a stretch and not all the proposed pieces quite came off – but the responses from both artists and audience were generally positive: “I felt a surprising amount of satisfaction from our installation and I’d definitely like to do something on that scale again.” Gavin Morris

This ‘Work In Progress’ Showcase is open to anyone interested in live, audiovisual performance that explores crossdisciplinary collaboration and the use of new technologies – allowing you to see how this week long residential workshop has encouraged participants to share their work, realise new technological possibilities, be inspired, challenged and stretched, develop new ideas and collaborate with others.

Expect demonstrations of audiovisual experiments utilising the Illustrious 3D-AudioScape surround sound system and numerous examples of the inventive application of technology to create immersive media and convergent art.

Martyn Ware
Ray Lee
Steve Symons
AV Lab participants

Digiville is Lighthouse’s monthly event for digital and moving image artists. Each event incorporates a diverse cross-section of the digital arts community, from installation artists to animators and VJs, and involves an initial presentation of work, either by individual artists or artist groups, followed by a Q&A/discussion session. The artists invited to present their work or perform are a careful mix of well-known names and less established artists.

For this special Digiville, special guest Martyn Ware – 80s pop icon as co-founder of Heaven 17 and The Human League - team members from the Cybersonica AV Lab including artists Steve Symons and Ray Lee and selected participants will present and answer questions about their work.

Thanks to everyone who applied to the AV Lab – we really appreciate all the interest shown. Its just a shame that with twice as many applications as spaces we’ve had to disappoint people – with the selection panel trying to achieve a difficult balancing act of interests, skills, expertise and ambition within the group overall.

We can now announce that participants in this year’s AV Lab include: 
Alison Ballard
Mike Blow
Ed Firth and Shaun O’Connor – FYI
Ryan Jordan – Sensory Response Systems
Krystyna Markiewicz and Sonia Vera – voice controller Kristi & Oddscene live cinema
Gavin Morris – Digital Funfair
Agnese Mosconi – Esperanto 2.0
Barry Gene Murphy
Shelley Parker
Sabine Vogel

With a delivery team of:
Ray Lee
Sarah Littman
Bruno Mathez
Lewis Sykes
Steve Symons

And a range of invited guests and contributors yet to be announced.

Profiles on each participant  – essentially the AV Lab application form – will be available on the website shortly.

As part of our programme for 2008 Cybersonica is collaborating with the Future of Sound and Lighthouse & with the support of The Basement and SCAN to develop the AV Lab – a week-long residential creative & practical workshop exploring sound, moving image, art and technology – funded by the National Lottery through the Arts Council England. This will take place at The Basement , Argus Lofts, 24 Kensington St, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 4AJ from Sunday, 2nd – Sunday, 9th November 2008.

We’re now accepting applications from artists and practitioners who would like to participate in the AV Lab and in future Cybersonica and Future Of Sound programming. We’re open to interest from non-UK residents but will only be able to contribute towards travel within the UK.

Deadline: Monday, 22nd September 2008
Notification: Monday, 29th September 2008
Details, entry forms and terms: Download HERE (Word document).