VOLUME and Human Resources are pleased to announce “Cosm, Organization-Construction, Second Instance,” an exhibition of new work by Bay Area artist Anja Weiser Flower, curated by VOLUME member Jared Baxter. The main exhibition space of Human Resources, formerly a movie theater, will be completely darkened, with Flower’s work, a new iteration of an ongoing project, illuminated by a single hanging light. Presented in its “first instance” at Odium Fati in San Francisco in 2016, the work asserts a receding point of fixation beyond naming. It is a place to trap yourself into heavenly orbit of the possibility of making universal, real human community, bringing an end to the world of whiteness, (cis)gender, disablement, and pervasive social alienation, and unifying human action and knowledge: to face the cosmos. With this orienting device, we might come together for a moment to consider the proletarian possibility of a universal flowering, the beginning of a world.

VOLUME will host seven musical events over the course of the show’s run, and the last four days of the exhibition will feature an interactive sound installation by Stephanie Cheng Smith. In keeping with Flower’s exploration of both spatial concentration and spatial orientation, the event program is roughly divided between improvisational, instrumental, and electro-acoustic performances and multi-channel electronic work by leading artists in their respective fields. With an aim to opening up possibilities for engagement outside of the traditional performer-audience relationship, audiences of each performance will have the chance to freely organize themselves in relation to the sound and the space.

This exhibition is intended to be accessible to users of wheelchairs and other accessibility devices.  Human Resources’ front entrance has one step, and they have a folding wheelchair ramp. The side entrance is wheelchair accessible. Human Resources does not have a wheelchair accessible restroom. The bathroom is gender neutral and has 2 stalls adjacent to each other. All events will take place in darkness, with Flower’s work as the main source of illumination, and other, minor lighting sources as needed for a particular performance. Please contact Human Resources with any accessibility questions or requests.

Gallery hours: Wed-Sun, 12pm-6pm.

Event calendar:

5 April 2018, 8pm – Opening reception with quadrophonic sound performance by Elsa Trash

7 April 2018, 8pm – Extended improvisational performance by pianist Vicki Ray

12 April 2018, 8pm – Quadrophonic electronic performances by Igor Amokian, Zzyzxzyzz, and O.C.D.

14 April 2018, 8pm – Spatialized electro-acoustic performance by guitarist Nicholas Deyoe and trombonist Matt Barbier

18 April 2018, 8pm – Quadrophonic electro-acoustic performance by Stephanie Cheng Smith

19-22 April 2018, 12pm-6pm – Interactive sound installation by Stephanie Cheng Smith

21 April 2018, 8pm – Quadrophonic sound installation by Richard Chartier

22 April 2018, 8pm – Closing reception with John Cage’s “Ryoanji” performed by flutist Christine Tavolacci and percussionist Ted Byrnes

 

ABOUT ANJA WEISER FLOWER

Anja Weiser Flower is trying to knot together a newly centralized aesthetic construction. Anja Weiser Flower wants to pull the unitary social mind together with you. Is modeling a point of concentration whose sheaves you can read through, feeling some of the patterns in which our Everything organizes itself. Is trying to get you to feel the underlying potential of a transsexual universality in human life, is here for the potential of an unwhite disabled queer feminine transcendent overcoming, the material human community. Coming to meet the still very real possibility of globally overcoming the capitalist social world and establishing communistic social relations. Coming to meet the cosmos.

She lives in San Francisco, California, attended the San Francisco Art Institute, and will have her work featured in an upcoming project by the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP) and Printed Matter, Inc.

ABOUT ELSA TRASH

Over the last 15 years, Elsa Trash has worked in media including musical and non-musical sound, drawing, painting, sculpture, video, zines and comics. Her latest music/sound projects are Painwife, Scissoring, S.A.D., and Inverts, and she was part of the 2017 exhibition Soundtracks at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. She lives in Oakland, California.

ABOUT VICKI RAY

Described as “phenomenal and fearless,” Vicki Ray is a pianist, improviser, and composer. She has commissioned and premiered countless new works by today’s leading composers. Ray is a founding member of Piano Spheres and head of keyboard studies at the California Institute of the Arts where she was named the first recipient of the Hal Blaine Chair in Musical Performance. She has appeared on numerous international festivals and is a regular member of the faculty at the Bang On a Can Summer Festival at MASS MoCA. Ray has been featured on the Los Angeles Philharmonic Green Umbrella Series as soloist and collaborative artist. Her widely varied performing and recording career covers the gamut of new and old music: from Boulez to Reich, Wadada Leo Smith to Beethoven. Notable recordings include the first Canadian disc of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire with the Blue Rider Ensemble, the premiere recordings of Steve Reich’s You Are (Variations) and the Daniel Variations with the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the first recording of John Cage’s Europeras 3 and 4. Her recording of Cage’s The Ten Thousand Things on Microfest Records received a 2013 Grammy nomination. Recent recordings include the premiere recording of Andrew Norman’s Sonnets with Eighth Blackbird’s Nick Photinos on the New Amsterdam label, Daniel Lentz’s River of 1000 Streams on Cold Blue and YAR – a duo recording on the Orenda label with slide guitarist Scot Ray.

ABOUT IGOR AMOKIAN

Igor Amokian – circuit bending producer cross blends various genres of electronic beats, music, and noise, exploring random realms of sounds with his audiences as his machines usually take over. A wide mix of Igor Amokian sounds and music can be found all over Bandcamp and Soundcloud. Hundreds of Igor Amokian circuit bending videos are posted on YouTube.

ABOUT ZZYZXZYZZ

Zzyzxzyzz is a collaborative listening experiment conducted by Aaron Bartell and Ian Wellman, currently focused on the electromagnetic sounds of everyday objects. The project explores an often unheard sonic landscape in the post-industrial world. Aaron Bartell, AKA AnalScubaHive, is a sound artist and co-founder of Triptronics Research, a biweekly experimental electronics series in Los Angeles. Ian Wellman is an IATSE Local 695 production sound mixer and field recordist.

ABOUT O.C.D.

O.C.D. or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is the alias of Los Angeles-based musician Mark Taylor. His music can be described as experimental electronic music with elements of techno, psychedelic rock, dub, Krautrock, ambient music, noise, and black metal. He is currently working on a collaboration with Madlib and finishing up a new album.

Some of his influences include Skullflower, COIL, GAS, Autechre, Philip Jeck, Demdike Stare, King Tubby, Keith Hudson, Destroy All Monsters, Aphex Twin, Darkthrone, Paysage D’Hiver, Boredoms, Lustmord, Ash Ra Temple, Faust, and Popol Vuh.

Utilizing recordings of synthesizers, electric guitar, and samples, Mark’s sound has the ability to transport the listener to a different place through repetition, loud volume, and subtle manipulation of recorded samples to dizzying effect. His music can induce trance like listening experiences while at other times abruptly changing direction on the fly resulting in wild and unpredictable sonic experiences. On stage, Mark primarily uses recording samplers to achieve his live sounds. He has played consistently around the LA area for over a year now and has opened for Jan Jelinek, Kid606, Yann Novak, Richard Chartier, Robert Crouch and SFV Acid.

ABOUT NICHOLAS DEYOE

Nicholas Deyoe is a Los Angeles based composer, conductor, and guitarist, and is the Co–Founder and Artistic Director of the wasteLAnd concert series.  His music has been called “intriguingly complex and excitedly lush” by the LA Times. The New York Times wrote that Deyoe’s a new(er) anxiety “contrasted filigree lightness and explosive loudness…without seeming to strain for effect.” Drawn to sounds that are inherently physical, Nicholas strives to create music that engages listeners intellectually and emotionally by appealing to their inner physicality.  His compositions combine uses of noise, delicacy, drama, fantasy, brutality, and lyricism to create a diverse sonic experience. As a guitarist, Nicholas strives to further the already vast sound world of the electric guitar by experimenting with microtonal tunings, preparation, bows, and beer cans. He has received commissions from The LA Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, USINESONORE Festival, The La Jolla Symphony, Palimpsest, and several soloists.  His music has been performed in throughout North America, Europe, and Japan. As a conductor, Nicholas has performed with wasteLAnd, ICE, The La Jolla Symphony Orchestra, Red Fish Blue Fish, Ensemble Ascolta, The Darmstadt Preisträgerensemble, Noise, The University of Northern Colorado Symphony Orchestra, and many ad-hoc ensembles in the United States and Germany. He holds a Ph.D. in composition from UC San Diego where he studied with Roger Reynolds.  Nicholas is currently on faculty at California Institute of the Arts where he conducts The Ensemble and teaches composition.

ABOUT MATT BARBIER

Matt Barbier is an LA based trombonist and composer focused on experimental intonation, noise, and the physical processes of his instrument. His playing has been described by the LA Times as being “of intense, brilliant, virtuosic growling that gave the striking impression that Barbier was dismantling the instrument while playing it.”

To encourage new repertoire and the expansion of his instrument, Matt engages in collaborative relationships with a range of composers including Wolfgang von Schweinitz, Michelle Lou, Nicholas Deyoe, David Brynjar Franzson, Timothy McCormack, and Katherine Young. He has also given world premieres of works by a wide spectrum of composers including Katharina Rosenberger, Richard Barrett, Catherine Lamb, James Tenney, Anne LeBaron, Scott Walker, and Jürg Frey.

Matt is a founding member of gnarwhallaby, the low brass duo, RAGE Thormbones, with Weston Olencki, Trio Kobayashi, wildUp, and is an assistant director of wasteLAnd music. Matt is a member of the performing arts faculty at CalArts and teaches trombone and euphonium at Los Angeles City College (LACC).

Matt has performed for the Monday Evening Concerts, LA Phil’s Green Umbrella, Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt, Dartington International Summer School, the Museum of Jurassic Technology, Hamburg’s KlangWerkTage and Kampnagel, Berlin’s 7Hours, Palimpsest Ensemble, InAuthentica, Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, the New Century Players, and The Ensemble at CalArts, as well as presenting guest lectures at CalArts, UCSD, UCSB, University of British Columbia, and Simon Fraser University. He has also been in residence at Harvard (HGNM), UCSD, Stanford, CalArts, UCSC, Columbia, NYU, and UCLA. Matt has recorded works for release of Populist, Mode, Hat Hut, and Innova Records. Additionally, he has released a technical manual for composers and trombonists on the production and compositional integration of lip multiphonics and split tones.

As a composer he has written music and created sound installations for The Factory Seconds Brass Trio, WasteLAnd, gnarwhallaby, RAGE Thormbones, the Museum of Jurassic Technology, SASSAS, Machine Project, LACMA, the Los Angeles Trombone Collective,  and the Getty Villa, as well as engaging in a long term collaborative relationship with digital media artist Tom Leeser.

His trombone teachers include Richard Stout, James Miller, Michael Svoboda, Alex Iles and Dick Erb. He studied composition with Ulrich Krieger and Wolfgang von Schweinitz. Matt received a MFA from CalArts.

ABOUT STEPHANIE CHENG SMITH

Stephanie Cheng Smith is a composer, performer and programmer who creates interactive pieces, installations, improvisations and through-composed works. She often uses electronics, violin and light, and her latest explorations with motor arrays have been featured in the 2016 issue of Experimental Music Yearbook. Smith’s performances and residencies include Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music (STEIM, Amsterdam), PACT Zollverein (Essen), liebig12 (Berlin), Re-New Digital Arts Festival (Copenhagen), EcoSono (Caribbean), Centre for the Living Arts (Mobile), Megapolis Arts Festival (Baltimore), and—in Los Angeles—Machine Project, LA Film Forum, REDCAT, and the Society for the Activation of Social Space through Art and Sound (SASSAS). She has also made appearances on webcasts such as EarMeal, Experimental Half-Hour and dublab. Smith frequently performs electronic music under the name Stephie’s Castle, is a member of networked music ensemble bitpanic, and has composed for and performed as a member of the Dog Star Orchestra. Serving on the wulf.’s Artistic Advisory Board, she also curates and produces experimental music concerts in the Los Angeles area.

ABOUT RICHARD CHARTIER

Richard Chartier (b.1971) is a Los Angeles based artist, considered one of the key figures in minimalist sound art. Chartier’s works explore the inter-relationships between the spatial nature of sound, silence, focus, perception, and the act of listening itself.

Chartier’s critically acclaimed sound works have been published since 1998 on a variety of labels internationally including Room40 (Australia), Editions Mego (Austria), Important Records (US), Ash International (UK), Raster-Noton (Germany), Spekk (Japan), Trente Oiseaux (Germany), NVO (Austria), Farmacia901 (Italy), 12k (US), and his own imprint LINE (US).

He has collaborated with composer William Basinski, sound artists ELEH, CoH, France Jobin, Robert Curgenven, Taylor Deupree, AGF, and Yann Novak, and German electronic music pioneer Asmus Tietchens. In installation form, he has created works with multimedia artists Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand, visual artist Linn Meyers, and projected light artist Anthony McCall. Under his guise Pinkcourtesyphone, an ambient project restarted in 2012, he has collaborated with Cosey Fanni Tutti, Kid Congo Powers, harpist Gwyneth Wentink, AGF, and thereminist Evelina Domnitch.

Chartier’s sound works/installations have been presented in museums and galleries internationally including the Whitney Biennial and the influential sound art exhibit Sounding Spaces at NTT/ICC in Tokyo. His performances have occurred live across Europe, Japan, Australia, and North America.

Since 2000, Chartier has curated his influential recording label LINE, publishing nearly 100 editions documenting the compositional and installation work of international sound and video artists who explore the aesthetics of contemporary and digital minimalism.

ABOUT CHRISTINE TAVOLACCI

Christine Tavolacci is a Los Angeles based flutist, composer and educator specializing in contemporary and experimental music. She has traveled across the United States and Europe to study and perform, and has been involved in the premieres of many new works, including those by Alvin Lucier, James Saunders, Michael Pisaro, Chiyoko Slavnics, Carolyn Chen and Catherine Lamb.

Christine is active as a soloist, improviser, curator and chamber musician both in California and internationally. She is co-founder and co-director of Southland Ensemble, as well as a member of the  Dog Star Orchestra and Gurrisonic. Her playing has been released on Orenda Records, Slub Music (Japan), and Tzadik. She has been a guest lecturer at both UCLA and CalArts, an associate instructor at UC San Diego, and has taught several workshops on contemporary music to children of various ages.

In 2006, Christine received her BFA in flute performance from California Institute of the Arts.  She has also received her Diplôme de Specialisation with mention trés bien from the Conservatoire National de Region Strasbourg in Strasbourg, France, where she studied flute with Mario Caroli from 2006-2008. Christine completed her Doctorate (DMA) in Contemporary Music Performance at the University of California San Diego in the spring of 2017.

ABOUT TED BYRNES

Ted Byrnes is a drummer/percussionist living in Los Angeles. An alumnus of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, he comes from a jazz background and has since made his home in the worlds of free improvisation, new music, electro-acoustic music, and noise.

Ted primarily works in ad hoc improvisational settings, but has standing improvisational groups including: a group with John Wiese, a duo with Jeff Parker, a duo with Chris Cooper (AQH), a duo with Charlie Mumma, a duo with Sam McKinlay, a duo with William Hutson, a trio with Jacob Wick and Michael Foster, among others. Additionally, Ted has played in duo/trio/or ensemble settings with: Mazen Kerbaj, Matt Weston, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, Charlemagne Palestine, Alfred 23 Harth, Arrington de Dionyso, Jaap Blonk, Torsten Muller, Kim Myhr, Jim Denley, Lloyd Honeybrook, Chris Schlarb, Mike Watt, Paul Masvidal, the LAFMS (including Smegma, Airway, Ace Farren Ford’s Artificial Art Ensemble, Rick and Joe Potts, Fredrik Nilsen, Tom Recchion, Vetza, etc), Sissy Spacek (the band), Maher Shalal Hash Baz, and more.

Ted’s recorded output oscillates between heavily acoustic music and harsh noise while keeping a similar approach. For a thorough overview of recordings, please visit the Discography page.

Ted has also collaborated with / worked for a variety of visual artists: he has accompanied a Doug Aitken “happening”, scored and performed percussion for an Emily Mast performance, collaborated with Olivia Booth to play her glass artworks, collaborated with Dani Tull on a sound performance, performed with John Knuth and Bret Nicely at an installation in an empty pool, and has performed for FLUXUS artist Jeff Perkins on multiple occasions for his projector/light installations.

Currently, Ted is delving further into the possibilities and realities of solo drumset performance in addition to continuing to work with his existing projects.

ABOUT VOLUME

VOLUME is a collective of creative individuals dedicated to presenting time-based work by emerging and established artists engaged in sound based practices, including performance, experimental music, field recording, voice, radio, movement, and technology. Through performances, concerts, exhibitions, screenings, and workshops, VOLUME aims at fostering a critical understanding of politics and aesthetics in relation to sound and sound based practices. As a curating body, VOLUME intends to cultivate social and public activities, contributing to the contemporary sonic arts scene of Los Angeles.