Monday 2 September 2013

THE WIRE SALON: VISUAL MUSIC AND SONIC IMAGES: NAM JUNE PAIK, CHARLOTTE MOORMAN AND EARLY VIDEO ART-MUSIC

ANGRY I AM MISSING THIS

Monday 2nd September 2013

Door Times : 8pm



















When affordable video technology arrived in the 1960s, it was welcomed not only by visual artists wanting to work with moving images and noise, but also by musicians wanting to visualise sound. In fact, many of the earliest video artists began their careers as musicians: Nam June Paik was an experimental composer; Steina Vasulka was a classical violinist; Robert Cahen trained in electroacoustic composition; and Tony Conrad was a member of The Theatre Of Eternal Music. These influential musicians ensured that early video developed into a highly sonic genre.

In the hands of these experimental composers, video enlarged the broader cultural and artistic climate of experimentation and inclusivity of the 1960s. In particular, the moving image technology encouraged expansive and interactive performance situations that challenged conventional methods of art and music consumption.

In this illustrated talk, Holly Rogers will explore the musicality of early video and its performance through the complex relationship and controversial collaboration of two of its most charismatic practitioners, the Korean artist Nam June Paik and avant garde cellist Charlotte Moorman, a collaboration that led not only to many interactive and highly influential events, but also to several arrests.

Holly Rogers is a composer, performer and Senior Lecturer in Music and Audio-Visual Media at the University of Liverpool. She is the author of several books on music and the moving image including Visualising Music: Audio-Visual Relationships In Avant-Garde Film And Video Art (2010) and Sounding The Gallery: Video And The Rise of Art-Music (2013).

The Wire Salon is a monthly series of events, hosted by The Wire magazine, dedicated to the fine art and practice of thinking and talking about music. The events consist of talks, panel discussions, film screenings and DJ sets.

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