EVENTS SERIES 2015-16: Poulomi Desai & Anat Ben-David, 2 December 2015

2 DEC, 7pm
PACE Studio 1
Richmond Street
De Montfort University

Leicester
LE2 7BQ

Entry Free
http://mtirc-news.blogspot.co.uk/2015/

Poulomi Desai is best known for her large-scale sound and photography installations that interrogate the politics of identity, listening and perception. Inspired by her post-punk theatre background, her tools are image-based, textual, performative and acoustic, traversing boundaries of physical location and structures of presentation. Her current pre-occupation investigates sacrilegious sound and vision through the machinations of her prepared, modified sitar, electronics, sirens, VLF and radio soundscapes, and slide projections, performing on the noise and free improviser scenes. 

Recent performances and installations include, Fort Process, Clandestino, Colour Out Space, Supernormal festivals and appearances at Cafe Oto. Commissions and exhibitions include, The Serpentine Gallery, The Photographers Gallery, The Science Museum, INIVA, The Queens Museum (USA), The Oxford Gallery (India), Futuresonic UK and Souzouzukan 9001 Japan. Her work has been published in four books, Red Threads, Different, Terrorist Assemblages and Out of Place. She runs Usurp Art, an experimental tactical media artist-led space where she has curated over 100 exhibitions and events. "Her irreverent aim is to shatter the contours of these fixed notions of sexual, national, cultural, personal, political and diasporic identities" - Professor Stuart Hall Different Pub.Phaidon.

Poulomi Desai will be joined by Dushume.
www.poulomidesai.tumblr.com | www.usurp.org.uk | www.youtube.com/usurps

Anat Ben-David is a London based artist and composer. Her primary interest lies in the relationship between different elements occurring in an event where text, sound and digital image are mediated through improvisation and performance. She has recently completed a PhD at Kingston University researching how an artwork that includes different mediums and different systems within it can be underpinned by foundational concepts for the work to be considered a coherent whole – the OpeRaArt. Anat’s OpEraArt exists as a multiple visual and sonic expressions presented as gallery video and photographic installation, as well as a live performance comprising of songs and sound pieces assembled into a music album.

Since 2003, she has been a member of the group Chicks On Speed and has also been a member of Art Rules Crew. She has produced many solo works and albums and has had exhibitions and performances at many leading international venues and galleries including: Tate Britain, ICA, London, MoMA New York, Migros Museum, Zurich and the Pompidou Centre, Paris.

“Anat is a wonderful performer… part Laibach, a dash of Einsturzende Neubauten, add a touch of Marlene Dietrich and Doris Day, marinate it in a freezer with Busby Berkeley, Pina Bausch and Valie Export, et voila! That's what the image of her shows at that
time... it's accurate, believe me. As for me trying to squeeze my tiny ego into a portrait by
Rankin, well, the results speak for themselves. If in any doubt, please call 999 and ask
for the fire service.” Douglass Gordon 
(Destroy Rankin project for youth music 2009)

Anat will perform the piece The Unexpected Whiz for large group featuring Dirty Electronics.
www.yippieyeah.co.uk/anat

EVENT SERIES: Maya Verlaak, Manolis Manousakis and Neal Spowage

18 Nov, 7pm, De Montfort University, Leicester
PACE Studio 1, Richmond Street, Leicester, LE2 7BQ
Entry Free

Maya Verlaak will perform two works for small group that explore the characteristics and limitations of musical instruments as a departure point for generating compositional material and structures. Because of this working method, her pieces are bound to particular performers and instruments. This necessitates rewriting the piece when it is taken up by different performers, forcing her to re-evaluate the connection between her musical concepts and their means of execution. http://www.maya.ricercata.org

Neal Spowage presents some short video art pieces including New Track of Unknown Terra I & II: an audio visual filmed performance demonstrating the Beast sculptural instrument in an industrial landscape. http://www.nealspowage.com

Manolis Manousakis will present video/dance work Soma with Sania Stribakou (dance) and Panagiotis Goubouros (video) and also short fixed media compositions from Soundscapes Landscapes: Birds, Banana Church, and Sygrou Av. http://www.medeaelectronique.com

Note: There will also be seminar presentations by Maya Verlaak, Manolis Manousakis and Neal Spowage from 1.00 in the MTIRL, Clephan Building, DMU (all welcome).

Two MTI staff members return from a busy trip to China

Professor Leigh Landy and Dr John Richards have both just returned from a fleeting and varied trip to China, where they visited historic institutions, gave performances and presentations, and continued work to strengthen international ties between China and De Montfort University. 

John Richards presented a talk at the Shanghai Electroacoustic Music Week Festival and followed that up with a combined workshop and performance at the Shanghai Theatre Academy. He also gave a presentation on design and sound objects at the Centre for Digital Innovation, Tongji University, Shanghai. In Beijing the following week, he performed in the Miji Minifest curated by Yan Jun where he also worked with musicians and artist from Beijing. Finally, he joined Leigh Landy to present a talk at the China Conservatory in Beijing, the MTI’s newest partner.

Leigh Landy had a slightly lengthier schedule there including a talk at the Shanghai Conservatory’s Composition Department and meetings with their Dean of Sound Engineering regarding potential future collaboration. He also met with staff from the new Zhejiang Conservatory in Hangzhou (in Shanghai) and is expected to visit this new conservatoire in the spring.

He was featured composer at this year’s Musicacoustica Festival at the Central Conservatory in Beijing where he also presented a master class and sat on two juries (as well as visiting the China Conservatory). Further meetings were held with a staff member from the Xinghai Conservatory in Guangzhou where a draft proposal is being circulated including the creation of an MTI China. A further Musicacoustica concert was held in the Southeastern city of Xiamen as part of the eMac Festival there, so his new work was performed there for the second time.

Finally, he was in residence for a week at the Tianjin Conservatory where he is Visiting Lecturer. This visit included two talks, a one-composer concert and discussions with the conservatoire President concerning various forms of collaboration with DMU. Negotiations will commence in the near future to investigate which forms of collaboration will be pursued.