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Peter van Haaften Michael Montanaro Nien Tzu Weng
PETER VAN HAAFTEN & MICHAEL MONTANARO (QC - CA)
SPIEL | performance for prepared mouth (2018)
INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL ART FESTIVAL
SAT - 6 PM
JUNE 12, 2019 Montreal, Canada
USINE C - 8 PM / 10:30 PM
JUNE 13, 2019 Montreal, Canada
BIO - PETER VAN HAAFTEN & MICHAEL MONTANARO
Peter van Haaften is a multidisciplinary composer based in Montreal. He creates live performances, interactive installations, and fixed media for speakers. His work is particularly concerned with the creative potential of the algorithm, and how chance musical processes can be derived from the behavior of ordinary objects and vibrating matter. His projects have been presented internationally at Ars Electronica (Linz), the Japan Media Arts Festival (Tokyo), FILE Hipersônica (São Paulo) and more. He is currently completing a master‘s in musique composition et création sonore at the Université de Montréal, and holds a BFA in Electroacoustic Studies from Concordia University.
A Professor in the Department of Contemporary Dance and Director of the Topological Media Lab, Concordia University, Montanaro is dedicated to the envisioning, design and creation of
projects focused on evolving innovative ways in which new technologies are used to enhance the interactive experience. A trans-disciplinary artist, he is known for his work in the field of
contemporary dance, interactive media and film. Michael was artistic director of Montanaro Dance and has worked as a choreographer, director on numerous projects including the Cirque du Soleil’s “Varekai, Opéra de Montréal`s “Carmina Burana”, “Frankenstein’s Ghosts, and a series of short films “Dances for Small Spaces”. More recently he is the creative director of “InTime”- an FQRSC funded research creation project; a conceptual collaborator and mise en scène for “Practices of Everyday Life |Cooking”- Ars Electronica|Alchemists of our Time, 2016 (Linz), as well as a number of venues in Europe and Canada; the visual concepteur and designer of “Aquaphoneia – Ars Electronica | Alchemists of our Time, 2016 (Linz) and NÉMO, Paris Biennale | Les Faits du Hasard, 2017-18. Montanaro is also a member of the Living Architecture Group, Phillip Beesley (Toronto) and is a participant in the Solar Decathlon Competition in China, July 2018.
SPIEL | performance for prepared mouth
performed by Nien Tzu Weng
While absorbed in conversation you notice a stranger approaching. With a curious instrument affixed to their face the visitor leans in, and listens. The mouth opens, patterns of rhythm and sound emanate from within: voices recognizable as your own.
Spun out of focus, words reveal their ingrained subtleties as the collector of conversation captures the sentence but not the sentiment. Vocal exchanges are recalled and reflected. Voices are transformed by physical formant inflections, while acoustic hallucinations seem to reference what might have been said.
An étude on hearing lips and seeing voices, the performer’s mechanically augmented vocal tract reshapes and filters conversational spectra into new modes of mis-communication. Spiel physically unravels the tenuous synesthetic relationship between what is seen, heard and understood.
PETER VAN HAAFTEN
Creative direction, composition, sound, interactive design, programming, and electronics
MICHAEL MONTANARO
Original concept, creative direction, and visual design
TATEV YESYAN
Visual design, mask fabrication
NiEN TZU WENG
Performer
Research collaboration: Topological Media Lab / Concordia University [an “in time” FQRSC funded project]
With special thanks to Greg Salinger, Nicolas Bernier, Garnet Willis, Navid Navab, and Laboratoire Son / Matière (Université de Montréal).
