As part of its "Year of Japan", Sonar presents Sonarama 2006, featuring two of the brightest stars in the firmament of Japanese electronic culture, Ryoji Ikeda and Toshio Iwai.

“Datamatics”, the new audiovisual project by Ikeda, and TENORI-ON, a digital musical instrument created by Iwai for the XXIst century, constitute a unique opportunity to assess the future of the new media in relation to advanced music. Along with this event, increasingly popular participatory communities such as Freesound, FlxER or Digitalmusician.net, as well as open-source creative platforms such as Arduino,Supercollider or Blender will also play a prominent role. And all of this without sacrificing a selection of the most innovative proposals taking place within our borders, as represented by AÄB, Arbol + Obionlab, La Màquina de Turing, Raw and Earth, Wind and Firewire.

Sonarama focuses on the latest developments in new media. Among this year’s activities will be the usual concerts, installations, and technology demonstrations as well as medialabs and software presentations. For a few years now, Sonarama’s has been held at the Centre d´Art Santa Mónica, the setting for the programmed activities of Sonar by Day.

Audiovisual concerts

AÄB (ES)
Since its creation in 1998 in Buenos Aires, AÄB has worked in media such as illustration, toy design, motion graphics, publishing and audiovisual performance. In Earzumba’s music (aka Christian Dergarabedian, ex Reynols) sampladelia, drones and improvisation coexist, blurring the borders between pop and chaos, tradition and noise.
www.aabland.com
www.earzumba.com

V-Scratch (CH)
A simple but efficient combination of audio and video, based on a computer system written in Java, which transforms each gesture, movement and detail of scratch into real time graphics, taking into consideration all speed, frequency and volume variations.
www.v-scratch.net

Arbol + Obionlab (ES)
The union of the Barcelona design and communication studio Onionlab with the musical project of Seville’s Miguel Marín, alias Árbol, produced a creative duo interested in the exploration of imaginary sound landscapes and improvised audiovisuals of an incidental nature.
www.onionlab.com

La Màquina de Turing (ES)
A psycho musical group that has been experimenting with electronic music and new creative tools since their beginnings in Vila-real, at the end of 2001. La Màquina de Turing focuses its activities on live performances of different styles, with the collaboration of visual artists from the audiovisual community Telenoika - on this occasion, Videocratz, Pan||se and Proletari Arts.
http://maquinadeturing.tk

Earth, Wind and Firewire (ES)
The formula used to create the different interstellar galaxies we know, together with the oval line which traces the evolution of elements, leads us to conclude that technology takes us where it wants and when it wants, towards a destiny rather difficult to define. Phil Link (aka Jaumëtic) and Videotone are the messengers of this second or third big-bang theory. The messenger IS important.
www.earthwindandfirewire.com

Ryoji Ikeda: “Datamatics” (JP)
By using pure data as a source for sound and visuals, “Datamatics” combines abstract and mimetic presentations of matter, time and space. A powerful and moving work. From the sequences of 2D patterns derived from hard disk errors and studies of software codes, the imagery transforms into a dramatic and shifting vision of the universe in 3D, while the final scenes provide an additional dimension as the tetra dimensional mathematic process opens the door to spectacular and infinite vistas.
www.ryojiikeda.com
www.forma.org.uk

SXNDRX: “Videoboxing” (NL):
"Videoboxing" is a multidisciplinary video performance in which video, new media, music, performance, fashion, choreography and physical violence merge on stage. The starting point of "Videoboxing" is a collection of sound fragments taken from different moments in a fight between lovers and ex-lovers of cinema and television. All of these reveal the form and content of SXNDRX: the eternal dispute between man and woman.
www.mediawar.com/sxndrx

RAW (ES)
A 45 minute concert-performance with two musicians: Alain Wergifosse (pots and pans) and Joan Coll (guitar). Caroline Pastor and Lidia González work the stage, controlling the multimedia system from their PDAs. Raw investigates new stage languages and the possibilities offered by new technologies.
http://lanticteatre.com
http://emotique.com

Toshio Iwai: “Tenori-On” (JP)
In 1981, Iwai started his work as an interactive digital artist with experimental animation, using early cinema toys such as zootropes or flipbooks. TENORI-ON, which he describes as a digital musical instrument for the XXI century, has a unique interface that consists of a matrix of 16x16 luminous switches. Each of these devices acts as a key in a keyboard, which emits light and tries to emulate sound in an intuitive way.
http://ns05.iamas.ac.jp/%7Eiwai/iwai_main.html

Software presentations

Freesound – Introduced by Bram de Jong & Jaume Ferrete (ES)
The Freesound project allows anybody to participate, by turning sounds up and down. Throughout the previous year, Freesound was a gigantic phenomenon with an ever-increasing community of users and a huge database that houses “free” sounds utilized in thousands of works around the world.
http://freesound.iua.upf.edu

SuperCollider – Introduced by Nick Collins (UK)
Originally written by James McCartney, SuperCollider is a highly efficient and “personalisable” audio programming language. Mac OS X, Linux and Windows compatible, it was conceived to be used in contexts such as live music, web concerts, algorithmic composition, or art installations. All syntheses and interactions take place in real time. www.cus.cam.ac.uk/~nc272
www.audiosynth.com
http://supercollider.sourceforge.net

DML Internet Music Collaboration – Introduced by Sun Electric & Digitalmusician.net (DE)
Established in Berlin and created by the people responsible for Steinberg, Digital Musician Net offers a community web for musicians, as well as creative tools. Its free software can be used with most sequencers. Performance by Tom Thiel and Max Loderbauer, better known as Sun Electric, using DLM: the collaborative tool of music creation by Digital Musician Net.
www.digitalmusician.net

Perrogato – Introduced by Miguel Seoane (ES)
Perrogato V.1.0 is software for live video creation in real time which allows for the use of external devices such as video cameras, webcams, DVD reader... and different types of mixes between clips and devices, video effects and imaging. It was programmed and compiled using MAX/MSP/Jitter by Miguel Seoane, musician, multimedia artist and part of the group LUDD34560, and the free digital art community ALG-A.
www.alg-a.com/org_ludd34560/?page_id=36
www.ludd34560.com

Free 3D – Introduced by Dani & Caedes (ES)
3D programmes in free software. Presentation of the projects executed on Crystalspace, Blender, Pure Data and other open tools. Interactive presentation using different free audiovisual technologies based on the mix of tri-dimensional reactive environments, the generation of sounds based on the exploration of 3D space, and interaction with hardware sensors.
http://delcorp.org

FlxER – Introduced by flxer.net (IT)
FLxER was born in 2001 as a tool to mix the expressiveness of a group of digital creators. Today, it is a free tool to mix audio, video and different multimedia sources in live performances, in addition to being an on line community made up of more than 4000 people interested in sharing the fruits of their work. FLxER is an open lab of experimental audiovisual creation and a powerful tool for live performances.
http://flxer.net

Zoonar – Introduced by Santiago Ortiz (CO)
Artist, mathematician and investigator, the Colombian is part of the investigation and project development team at MediaLabMadrid, as well as co-founder of the magazine Blank and the group Bestiario. His work investigates artificial life, sound and dynamic representation of information.
http://moebio.com

Arduino - Introduced by David Cuartielles & Alex Posada (ES)
Arduino is an open-source platform of physical computing based on a simple I/O board and a development environment that uses Processing/Wiring program language. Arduino can be used to create autonomous interactive objects or to interact with various software applications (Flash, Processing, Max/MSP). David Cuartielles, one of the creators, shows how Arduino can become a tool to enrich traditional uses of technology, thereby enriching the process of human communication.
www.arduino.cc

reacTable* - Introduced by Sergi Jordà, Günter Geiger, Martin Kaltenbrunner & Marcos Alonso (ES)
In reacTable*, several musicians share the control of the instrument by moving and caressing objects on a luminous table and creating complex and dynamic sound typologies with generators, filters, low frequency oscillators, modulators, and crushers. The constantly shifting sound webs that appear invite the participant to look, listen, touch, create and play, as well helping the user understand how this instrument operates.
http://mtg.upf.es/reactable/

Medialabs presentations

Le Fresnoy (FR)
Le Fresnoy is a post-graduate art and audiovisual research centre. Its aim is to facilitate the production of work by young artists, using professional equipment under the tutelage of established artists. The theoretical and practical work covers all audiovisual languages, from electronic to traditional media (photography, cinema, video) to digital technology and other contemporary media.
www.le-fresnoy.tm.fr

MECAD (ES)
Through projects of its own and collaborations, MECAD hopes to become a centre of investigation and production of ideas and activities, the nucleus of reception and support of projects created by artists, designers and other entities, and lastly the projection platform for creators representing the most diverse areas of media art. www.mecad.org

zemos98 (ES)
Zemos98 is a team of image and sound “communicologists” and “technologists”. They’ve investigated the narratives that have emerged in the new media and have created spaces for video and audiovisuals. They organize the zemos98 festival, which has featured artists such as DJ Spooky, Peter Greenaway, Scanner and Eclectic Method.
www.zemos98.org

Technological demos

Vestax presents Controller One – Introduced by DJ Tillo
Controller One developed with the help of important DJs like Ricci Rucker (one of the best known scratch DJs in the world) who were looking for something more than just good control of scratch on a turntable. Controller One is an instrument specifically created for DJs: it allows them to control vinyl in such way that they are able to reproduce musical notes as if they were playing guitar or another instrument. The demo will be presented by DJ Tillo, from Scratch Commando and Macaco, one of the greatest pioneers of turntablism on the Spanish hip-hop scene.

Edirol VJ equipment showcase – Introduced by VJ Masaru
Since 1994, Edirol has worked in order to satisfy the creative needs of all digital video enthusiasts. During this time, its objective has been to build easy-to-use, affordable, strong, and high-quality multimedia tools. A whole range of products for VJs and digital artists. The demo, done exclusively with Edirol material, will be presented by VJ Masaru, a pioneer of the Japanese video jockey scene.

Installations

Mike Nelson - “After Kerouac”
For the last 15 years, Mike Nelson has created works, installations and spaces fascinating to the public, though primarily because we know we won’t have to spend the night there. Hidden doors lead us to literature, corridors buried in cement, rooms with secret voodoo shrines, labyrinthine walks so irresolvable their absurdity can only be compared to what one experiments in dreams. Mike Nelson’s work brings home the fear brought on by staying alone with our questions and anxieties.

Lars Arrhenius - “Urban Stories”
Fascinated by movement within the city, Lars Arrhenius, with work as understandable as it is immediate, reveals the social framework of a city thanks to his penetrating gaze. "Urban Stories" consists of three works –two animations and one work on a wall– centred on the exteriorisation of what happens in a city.

- "A-Z", (2002).
- "Habitat", (2006).
- "The Street", (2006).

Sergi Jordà, Günter Geiger, Martin Kaltenbrunner, Marcos Alonso - ”reacTable*”
The reacTable* is an electronic, tangible, multi-user musical instrument with a user interface based on a table. Designed by a group of digital luthiers from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, the reacTable* allows several people to share the control of the instrument, moving physical artefacts on the surface of the table and building different sound typologies in a kind of tangible modular synthesizer.
http://mtg.upf.edu/reactable/

Advance tickets for Sónar by Night as well as general passes for the three days and two nights of Sónar 2006 are already on sale.

More info: www.sonar.es

(source: Press release)