image credit: suzueri (Elico Suzuki)
Thursday May 25 * 7pm * TICKETS
suzueri (Elico Suzuki) is a Tokyo based sound and visual artist. She plays circuitous and restless performances using pianos combined with self-made instruments. Her recent interests have centred on the exploration of the gaps and narrative aspects between the interaction of instruments and particular embodiment.
She was born in Yokohama, studied Fine Art at Musashino Art University, BFA. After 10 years of working in gaming fields, she studied media/sound art at the Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences (IAMAS). Since 2018, she has been an adjunct lecturer at Musashino Art University. She is currently in NYC as an Asian Cultural Council Fellow and Harvestworks Scholarship Artist. She is awarded several prizes, including Jury selection for the 24th Japan Media Arts Festival, Art Division.
In 1993 suzueri participated in “Sound Garden” curated by Hiroshi Yoshimuara, one of the first sound art exhibitions in Japan. Since then, she has continued to make art in the field, with recent activities including AIR TAIPEI (2022, Taiwan), Lausanne Underground Film Festival (2022, Switzerland), Taiwan Interenational Improvised Music Festival (2021,Taiwan /Online), Audiograft Festival (2021,UK/Online), Tsonami Festival (2019, Chile) and Ftarri Festival (2019, Japan) etc. Also known as an improviser, she has released several albums including the recent “Fata Morgana” Ftarri (solo,2020) and “Live at Ftarri" Ftarri (2016) with Roger Turner, Tetuzi Akiyama, and Makoto Oshiro. In 2023 she will release a physical album with Toshimaru Nakamura on SUPERPANG. In addtion, she is involved in several collaborations, such as the band 'a.hop', with nine members from nine countries, including Ryoko Akama, Anne-F Jacques, and Bonnie Jones, and as a contributor to Mopomoso TV, organised by the late John Russell.
Besides that, she has also been influenced by Maker Movement and is founder of the edible circuit project, "BreadBoardBaking", so named by the Maker Founder, Dale Dougherty. She has translated "Getting Started in Electronics" by Forrest M. Mims III, "Getting Started with Soldering" by Marc de Vinck, and “Mochi Magic” by Kaori Becker into Japanese under the Maker imprint for O'Reilly Japan.
Ross Wightman is a double bassist and composer from New Jersey. Currently, he serves as a Technical Manager at the Yale Center for Collaborative Arts and Media (CCAM) and Curator of the CCAM Sound Art Series. As a composer and sound artist, his work incorporates microtonality, electro-acoustic multimedia composition and instrument building.
Ross will be touring with Fiddle Henge, an electroacoustic instrument he created to investigate themes related to performance practice, virtuosity, timbre and resonance. Fiddle Henge is a robotically controlled array of four violins mounted on a 24” bass drum that is played by a motorized acrylic disk that is inspired by a collection of mechanical musical instruments and automata from the turn of the 20th century before phonographs and recorded music forced them into obscurity, namely the Mills Violano-Virtuoso. Similar to the Violano-Virtuoso, the circular bow of Fiddle Henge allows tones to sustain indefinitely. Where Fiddle Henge differs is being able to operate the position of the violins in relation to the speed control of the circular bow, opening up new possibilities timbral and resonant discoveries.
Clash Magazine has cited his work as among the “best of the American experimental underground."
The Bureau of Sensory Affairs (BSA) is an institution dedicated to sensory experimentation. Based in Washington, DC, its mission is to provide a platform for research into the limits of perception, sensuality, emotion, imagination, empathy, and memory. Though no individual sensation is privileged over another, hearing and sound are the primary drivers to advance such research. Working in collaboration with other organizations and artists of all disciplines, the BSA is more interested in posing questions than seeking answers. Theoretical abstractions take precedence over scientific truths. And searches hold more meaning than findings.
The BSA’s core objective is to explore questions that arise through the facilitation of experiences, both subtle and intense, where aural sensation intersects with sight, touch, taste, smell and other mysterious senses.