EMIT

 

BLK w/BEAR – JS Adams; Doug Poplin; Renée Shaw and PD Sexton – provide a self (mis)guided audio tour component to the Zeitgeist III exhibit. Working with text-to-sound files created from copy provided by the curators and exhibiting artists along with other input, their sound-art composition E:MIT seeks to convey an audiographic meltdown due to our on-going over-saturation and subsequent digital breakdown of too much (electronic) information. Gallery goers will interact with the sound files via their own smart phones by reading QR codes positioned around the DC Arts Center.

 

·                E:MIT 000 _ WELCOME [ 00:52 ]
·                E:MIT 001 _ ADAMS : my balcony is weighed down with satellite dishes [ 01:31 ]
·                E:MIT 002 _ ARKIN : how much is too much + how will we know? [ 00:45 ]
·                E:MIT 003 _ BLOCK : a faded card made from a material that could not be identified [ 00:25 ]
·                E:MIT 004 _ BROOKS : the fog is part of the dance [ 05:40 ]
·                E:MIT 005 _ DANA : PROMENADE 005 [ 0:48 ]
·                E:MIT 006 _ DAVIS : my heart is strong + hurt [ 07:27 ]
·                E:MIT 007 _ DRYMON : his growth + damage [ 06:48 ]
·                E:MIT 008 _ DWIGHT : daulität [ 15:08 ]
·                E:MIT 009 _ GIBSON-HUNTER : the fairness of my community [ 07:28 ]
·                E:MIT 010 _ GOSLEE : promendae 010 [ 00:12 ]
·                E:MIT 011 _ HERMAN : promenade 011 [ 00:28 ]
·                E:MIT 012 _ HOOVER : promenade 012 [ 00:40 ]
·                E:MIT 013 _ IOCOVONE : duetto [ 14:05 ]
·                E:MIT 014 _ JANTZEN : PROMENADE 014 [ 00:14 ]
·                E:MIT 015 _ MORISETTE : consuming [ 00:56 ]
·                E:MIT 016 _ PLATT + BEANE : winnowing [ 00:26 ]
·                E:MIT 017 _ TREVARROW : dinosaur or mattress? [ 00:54 ]
·                E:MIT 018 _ WEISS : overwhelmed by guilt + feelings of incompetence [ 00:45 ]
·                E:MIT 000 _ INSTALLATION - martin luther [ 00:46 ]

BLK w/BEAR advocates a communications aesthetic wherein audio/visuals are distilled to key base components through image pixelation and sound/time manipulation. We celebrate the physical manifestation of misfired communications, broken language and broadcast interference. We champion delay and decay. We champion audio bleed, field recordings and the deconstructed surface noise of altered vinyl recordings. We herald cyclical repetitions and misappropriated realignments, intentional over-processing, signal saturation and digital malfeasance, audio pranksterism. Through aggressive enlargement and recontextualization of the mundane and every-day we hope to usher listeners and viewers into a deeper introspective relationship with previously familiar – now unstable – environs.

BLK w/BEAR have garnered glowing reviews and international airplay for the thought-provoking and moving 'Wish for a World Without Hurt' collaboration with London's ROTHKO and the limited edition 'fahrenheit_drafts' 12-inch single (Trace Recordings). Their audio has accompanied film/video projects in NYC and London and selections from 'Wish for a World' were used in the Discovery Channel's poignant 'The Flight that Fought Back' program. The four-track 'Version 3' extended play is available for download at the Long Division with Remainders '14 versions of the same EP' project site and also available in a box-set collection with all fourteen versions plus an additional digital-download outtakes EP including a 21-minute remix of BLK w/ BEAR's Version 001. The mini-album ‘Sorry about your (remixes)’ was released on Front & Follow (UK) in 2011. Additional material has been released through Ultra-red’s free download site Public Record, Little Red Squirrel Collective (UK), Cohort Recordings and Sonic Circuits’ District of Noise imprint.

ZEITGEIST III _ TOO MUCH INFORMATION?

Curated by Ellyn R. Weiss + Sondra N. Arkin

 

04 May – 10 June 2012

 

District of Columbia Arts Center

2438 18th Street NW

Washington DC 20009 USA