v.14 – 2012

Featuring

v14 Artwork: Jeanette Johns 

Design & Layout: Paul Phillips

Statement from the Director

These days, the concept of nature, or what is natural, is an open and nebulous question. There is no simple definable way of encapsulating these ideas. From describing the physical world around us to defining ourselves as human, talking about ‘nature’ brings more ambiguity than clarity.

So it was quite a conundrum for us in choosing natural sound for this, our 14th edition of send + receive. A conundrum we, as usual, happily embraced. With each year we hope to present thought provoking works contextualized under themes that bring new perspectives and ideas through sound, all packed into a uniquely enjoyable four days.

For this year we had two very particular senior artists in mind when we began to develop the program. The first is one of the original self-defined sound artists, Japanese artist Akio Suzuki. Suzuki has been exploring sound as his artistic medium since the early 1960s with a particular emphasis on conceptual performance, simple and organic instruments with deep purposeful listening. His contribution to the field of sound art is of great importance and we are honoured to have him with us at this year’s edition.

The other artist who spurred this year’s theme was leading British sound recordist and composer Chris Watson, who has been a leading figure in natural sound recording for decades. He works extensively in documenting the natural world globally for BBC documentaries, and creates intoxicatingly rich compositions from these audio documents for his own practice. Though Watson was unable to be with us in person this year, he has created a piece, The Forest Floor, captured in the Borneo rainforest, specifically for send + receive v.14. This piece will play continuously (24 hours a day) during the festival, in the Cube in Old Market Square.

From these two distinct creators we went to town exploring contrasting and complementary approaches and artists. At the core, this year’s program has a few trains of thought and these are:
• Compositions created by using the world around us as source material (field-recording / phonography – Watson, Quinn, Winderen, Hardy, Woollard and Peterson).
• Organic materials used live to create unique sound works with the aid of amplification, processing, or simple physical manipulation (Forget, Brecht, Sauvage, the Rita, Wolff and Suzuki)
• The use of live acoustic and environmental sounds as a fundamental instrument in one’s performance (Suzuki, Brecht, Wolff, Allport and Nmperign)
• The body/breath as instrumental element or as extension of the instrument (Tingley and Nmperign)

We are very excited by the quality and diversity of all of the artists that are part of this year’s festival, and we feel that each piece will bring a distinct perspective and unique experience to our audience, opening all of our ears and minds to the world around us.

–crys cole, Director

Galleries for v14

v.14 PARTNERS + FUNDERS