Part of Fall 2006
Join us for three days of multi-media performances, films, installations and panel discussions as Pleasure Dome joins New Adventures in Sound Art to present SOUNDplay 2006. Now in its 5th year SOUNDplay is a meeting point for experimentation in new media and sound art, pushing the boundaries and encouraging new fusions of image, sound and text. The legendary west coast film/performance group Wet Gate opens the weekend events on Friday, October 13 at 8 pm. Following on Saturday at 8 pm features performances by Michael Snow, Videomusique by Louis Dufort, and Phh!K with Don Sinclair.
On Sunday at 1pm Pleasure Dome presents Flicker Films, a programme organized around Tony Conrad’s landmark 1966 film, The Flicker, in which a strobe tempo created from black and clear film leader induces states of optical difficulty and altered consciousness. The Flicker superseded earlier analogies between structure and psychology (Peter Kubelka’s Arnulf Rainer, 1958-60 and Ed Emshwiller’s Thanatopsis, 1962 ) by dissolving differentiations between internal sensation and external perception. Conrad’s close associate, Paul Sharits, made several mandalic films in the 1960s (Piece Mandala/End War, Ray Gun Virus, Word Movie/Flux Film 29, T.O.U.C.H.I.N.G.) that added layers of sound, language, text and representation to the flicker premise, shearing from modern society’s mountains of random information crystalline patterns of time and image. In the context of Conrad and Sharits, Michael Snow’s Standard Time, 1967, can be freshly appreciated for its attention to the meter of edited time and motion through the nondescript space of the artist’s New York studio. Snow recently revived his interest in flicker with his collaborative masterpiece Triage, 2000, created with filmmaker Carl Brown and composer John Kamevaar.
A discussion follows the screening, with Tony Conrad, Michael Snow, Marcus Boon, a professor at York University specializing in altered consciousness, and moderated by John Geiger, a Toronto journalist and writer who recently published the authoritative biography of Brion Gysin (Nothing Is True&lrquo;”Everything Is Permitted: The Life of Brion Gysin, 2005).
Don’t miss Luis Jacob’s re-creation of Brion Gysin’s Dream Machine to be installed in a dark corner of the main space for the duration of the festival.
Programme:
Prologue
Arnulf Rainer, Peter Kubelka, 1958-60, 6:50
Thanatopsis, Ed Emshwiller, 1962, 5:00
Flicker 1960s:
The Flicker, Tony Conrad, 1966, 30:00
Piece Mandala/End War, Paul Sharits, 1966, 5:00
Ray Gun Virus, Paul Sharits, 1966, 14:00
Word Movie/Flux Film 29, Paul Sharits, 3:45
Standard Time, Michael Snow, 1967, 8:00
T.O.U.C.H.I.N.G. , Paul Sharits, 1968, 12:00
intermission
Triage, Michael Snow/Carl Brown (sound: John Kaamevar), 2004, 30:00
Friday & Saturday: $15/ $10 students & Pleasure Dome members/ Sunday: $5
Three-day Festival pass $25/ $20 students & Pleasure Dome members
