Talk in German + Performance
Guest: Alex Nowitz
Moderation: Mathias Maschat
Alex Nowitz (* 1968) works primarily as a composer and vocal performance artist. He is also active in the fields of improvisation and sound art, as well as artistic research. As a guest of Mathias Maschat in the imp[or]trait series, he presents his work with the voice, in particular the strophonion he developed. With this he opens the focus VOICE in the Denkraum Improvisation.
Since its premiere in 2011 in Seoul, South Korea, Alex Nowitz applies, as part of his vocal performance art, the strophonion, a gesture-controlled live electronics. It was developed and built from 2010 through to 2011 at the Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music (STEIM) in Amsterdam. From 2014 until the current day Berlin-based guitar player, instrument designer and programmer Sukandar Kartadinata is responsible for software configuration, updates and hardware maintenance.
The strophonion allows to run audio processes in real time. In addition to this, using a variety of manipulation and live sampling techniques enables the performer not only to extend the voice, but also to explore the sonic potential of the vocal material during the performance in correlation with wireless, sensor and computer-based live technology, on the one hand, and body movements, on the other.
Operating right at the intersection of the application of state-of-the-art electronics, bodily and vocal performance art unfolds an idiosyncratic and unparalleled performance art practice. The audience comes to experience unique ways of creating visually intriguing and fascinating, sonic outcomes ranging between the extremes of concrete emotional vocal sounds and abstract computational manipulations. Alex Nowitz calls this practice voice-induced or vocal sound dance.
In the course of the talk, Alex Nowitz will illuminate the underlying concept and the potentialities of the instrument and its practice. Another focus is the elucidation of the powers of the instrument and the performance strategies allowing new compositional and improvisational terrains to emerge. Finally he will share his experiences applying the practice also in collaborations with others, such as the Swedish-German duo SAM with Sten Sandell (piano), the German-French project BLONOVO with Frédéric Blondy (piano) and Sabine Vogel (flutes) or the Berlin-based trio MASUAL with Sukandar Kartadinata (e-guitar/electronics) and Matthias Bauer (double bass). The last two projects appeared in Berlin in 2023 at the exploratorium, Morphine Raum and Kühlspot Social Club.
Since 2021 Alex curates the International Festival for Vocal Performance Art, Sound & Music DESIGNING VOICES from 26th until 28th of October 2023 in Potsdam and invites great composer-performers all of whom nourish the idea of an expanded field of vocal performance art, such as Franziska Baumann (CH), Tone Åse (NO), Sten Sandell (SE), Isabelle Duthoit (FR), among many others: https://designing-voices.nowitz.de/en/
https://nowitz.de/gesture-controlled-live-electronics
https://econtact.ca/18_3/nowitz_strophonion.html
https://nowitz.de/essays-articles-and-expositions
Admission: 5 €
Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZEcJo-1XWg
