OPEN PLATFORM_7 17 November 2016 @algomech 2016 - Performances

RAP(s) - Random Access Performances - TwT.algomake

In November 2016 OPEN PLATFORM_7 returned as part of AlgoMech 2016 - the first Festival of Algorithmic and Mechanical Movement in Sheffield!

AlgoMech seeks to examine the complex relationship between technology and performance, with the first edition of the festival celebrating the resurgence of making in performance, where creative processes are made visible during a live event.





At the heart of OPEN PLATFORM/RAP(s) - TwT.  lies the idea of making performance from algorithmic processes and translating computational processes into physical presentations and performances. Here are the 5 performers who took up the challenge to re-think the digital at OPEN PLATFORM_7/RAP(s) - TwT.algomake!  


Susanne Palzer - On/Off (core performance)

With On/Off (core performance) Susanne Palzer radically reduces 'performance' and the 'digital' to the act of going on/off and binary machine code of ones and zeros. A performer steps on and off a platform saying 'on'/'off' and thus embodies computational processes in physical performance by 'writing' and 'executing script' simultaneously. All 'live coded' performances are improvised but draw on a pool of 'samples': (emotional) mental images are accessed semi-randomly to create a dramaturgy for the live performance. Human and machine labor become tangible through the performer's exertion which transmits to the audience. At the center of On/Off is the body, highlighting that both performance art and digital technology are about information exchange, communication and connection.



Lou Hazelwood - The Rendering of Digital Memory

The temporality of memory and its fragility is now stored in many mainframes and we are reminded of moments in our lives not by our senses or our relationships with people but by algo-rhythmical data. Facebook reminds us in date order of our memories; the fluidity of experience lost to time. 
Lou Hazelwood presented a timehopping reading performance compiled from snippets of overheard conversation. With contributions from Toni Buckby, Brain G Gilson, Rachael Hand, Susanne Palzer and others.

Michael Borkowsky - Pixel Poetry

Michael Borkowsky performed a number of poems from the zine 'Pixel Poetry'. Pixel Poetry is a series of poems designed to extend our experiences and perceptions of video games by pulling them out of their original context and examining them from the context of poetry. 

Brian G Gilson - Title Yet To Be Confirmed

Brian G Gilson presented a reading performance generated by audience throwing dice.
Having appeared at previous events this time Brian brought his own platform because now that Hull is going to be UK City of Culture 2017 he thought they should have one, too.


The first OPEN PLATFORM event in Hull will take place on 30 March 2017 at Ground. OPEN PLATFORM/RAP(s) - TwT. B2Gat60.Hull is part of Mobile Platform and a collaboration between OPEN PLATFORM/RAP(s) - TwT. , Sheffield, and B2Gat60.Hull.2016/2017: open events at Ground organised by Brian G Gilson. 




John X. Moseley - Readings from Towers' International Transistor Selector: The divine poetry of semiconductor specification

Most people that own a modern computer or telephone are familiar with the idea that such devices are full of billions of transistors. Most people, quite rightly, never consider the function of billions or individual transistors. Why would you? Today anyone can search and retrieve transistor specifications directly from manufacturers. However, internet browsing does not adequately convey the optical aura and pattern serendipity of the gaze on a page of data in a physical book. The poet Paul Valéry declared that "a book is a machine for reading". In the case of Towers' International Transistor Selector it is a machine that is made of transistors unlike any other.
http://johnmoseley.co.uk/



AlgoMech 2016 took place in various locations around Sheffield, UK, from 12-19 November 2016. The festival featured talks, hand-on workshops, concerts, performances and an Algorave, all exploring algorithmic and mechanical movement. AlgoMech was organised by FoAM Kernow and LoveBytes, in collaboration with Millennium Gallery, Access Space, and Sheffield Hallam and Sussex Universities. AlgoMech 2016 was part of Year of Making Sheffield 2016.

AlgoMech 2017 will take place from 8-12 November this year. The Facebook event is here.

OPEN PLATFORM_5 04 April 2014 at Access Space - Performances

RAP(s)- Random Access Performance(s) - TwT.hashbangbinbash -x

Starting with a bang! OPEN PLATFORM_5 welcomed Pixelache Network to Access Space:

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP -
Platform selfie by Richard Bolam

Pixelache Network is an international network of cultural organizations engaging with art, technology and social change. Access Space is the UK hub of Pixelache Network and recently completed the larger EU Grundtvig supported project Open Sourcing Festivals in collaboration with other Pixelache Network nodes. The project concluded with Do It Anyway Festival which Access Space presented in May 2015.
Last year, from 03-05 April 2014, Access Space hosted artists, curators and cultural producers from Finland, Iceland, France and Norway when representatives from project partner organizations visited Sheffield for the first time.




Richard Bolam - Platform Announcements

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP:
Richard Bolam/Platform Announcements
HDV still: Richard Bolam/Susanne Palzer

"This is OPEN PLATFORM_5  ... Please stand well back from the platform!"




Opening OPEN PLATFORM_5 Richard Bolam delighted us with an imitation of automated announcements at train stations and on trains.




"We apologize for the late running of this event. This is due to the wrong kind of snacks." 



Liz Hall - Motherboard

" ... The job of the motherboard is to relay information between all components. Information is passed through electrical connections. Put simply it is the central circuit board of your computer ... A 2003 study found that spurious computer crashes, such as I/O read/write errors and screen distortions can be attributed not to faulty peripherals or software, but to ageing capacitors on motherboards. Despite the fact that it is important to have a good motherboard it will not necessarily increase the overall speed of your computer, none the less it is important to have one that is both reliable and stable as its role in the overall performance of the system is vital."

OPENPLATFORM/RAP: Liz Hall/Motherboard
HDV still: Richard Bolam/Susanne Palzer

Combining text, gestures and movements Liz Hall's performance 'Motherboard' looks at the central role of the mother image in computer terminology, and the correlation with the intimacy of human relationships. 

James Price - Stream II 

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP:
James Price/Stream II
HDV still: Richard Bolam/Susanne Palzer

"Basically I'm talking very very very fast for ten minutes ... the internet ... materiality of the internet ... does the internet have a materiality ... does it have MATERIAL, is it something that is performative or is it something that is real ... the people around me are completely real, the internet is full of real people, people are the material of the internet ... you hope they are real, some of the things on the internet may be less real than others ... we should not think of the internet as a tool ... we should think of it as a material that we actually shape and form ... it defines the way you go ... it is a place of theatre, I can no longer forget things because if I do they are there on the internet ... it changes you as a person as material ... we are the tools not it, it is not a tool ... you need to make stuff and do stuff ... you will be better off for making stuff ... the new things we can carve with the material of the internet ... You - make stuff! ... Has anyone used any hair products probably advertised on the internet at some point of another? ... MATERIAL! ..." James Price 


Jake Harries/Paul Newman - Fluctuate Excitement ...

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP:
Paul Newman/Fluctuate Excitement ...
HDV still: Richard Bolam/Susanne Palzer

Jake Harries' current practice is based around using spam emails as raw material for composition and performing. For OPEN PLATFORM_5 he teamed up with Paul Newman to present the world premiere of Spam Theatre! Playing to a packed out 'house' the two actors performed a dramatic and passionate (spam) script, hamming it up Shakespearian-style - trying to get you to buy viagra!











On-Off Trio: John X. Moseley/Susanne Palzer/Kate Sicchio - OptionX - A Pseudo Script

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP:
On-Off Trio/OptionX-A Pseudo Script

"To switch or not to switch? Lots of UNIX commands have options. (They are also called switches because you switch the options on and off by typing or not typing them when you type the command. ...) Options make commands both more versatile and more confusing. ..."
(Unix for Dummies, p43)

On-Off Trio/OptionX -Performance Script

On-Off Trio presented a sound piece that as a project stayed close to the OPEN PLATFORM_5 theme but at the same time added the human factor by taking liberties with the language system of computing. Performing a pseudo script which opened with the hashbangbinbash -x command  - that allowed the audience 'to watch the script run' - the three performers executed binary shell script (1/0) with analogue switches (click/no click).

On-Off Trio are John X. Moseley, Susanne Palzer and Kate Sicchio.



The Facebook album for OPEN PLATFORM_5 is here.  

TwT.network news

TwT.network @Digithon

Members of TwT.network recently supported Access Space World Wide Digithon - a live streamed 24 hour fundraising event. Bringing together contributors and audiences from all over the world the exiting event helped to raise much needed financial support for Access Space - the longest running free media and digital arts lab in the UK. 

Access Space Digithon is now available as an archived stream and you can check out all amazing performances and contributions here.

Donations are still possible! Please give generously to help Access Space do what it does best - bringing people and technology together! You can make a donation here. Thank you.

TwT.network @Digithon contributors

Stuart Faulkner
- I am not entirely sure what my set will be, but I will feel the vibe I am sure. 
Brian G. Gilson
- "Audio-graphical" pieces to camera   
Hard Shoulder aka Richard Bolam
- Hard Shoulder live sequenced performance 
Jake Harries
- Ode to Spam
Alex McLean
- Early morning algorave
- playing again, filling in for a missed connection
John X. Moseley
- "Space is the Place" 
Susanne Palzer
- 'Secret Cinema' @Digithon 
James Price
- Make Stuff - stop motion animation (pixelation) done live
Kate Sicchio
- Live Choreography!

OPEN PLATFORM_5/RAP(s) - TwT.hashbangbinbash -x

RAP(s) - Random Access Performances - TwT.hashbangbinbash -x 
Friday, 04 April 2014, 6-8pm at Access Space

Richard Bolam 
Liz Hall
Jake Harries - Paul Newman
Susanne Palzer - John X. Moseley - Kate Sicchio
James Price

The Facebook event is here.

OPEN PLATFORM_3 22 February 2013 at Access Space - Performances

RAP(s)- Random Access Performance(s) - TwT.crossplatform

Susanne Palzer - Black Screen

OPEN PLATFORM_3 opens with the audience being ushered into a blacked out Access Space foyer. With voice and text and in total darkness I simulate a brief scenario of computer start up problems. Questioning our contemporary dependancy on technology I wonder if we still know what may turn us on instead? 

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP: Susanne Palzer/Black Screen
Video Still: Zoe Marciniak/Susanne Palzer

Richard Bolam - What do you do when the Sat-nav fails?

Richard Bolam stays with the theme of technology failure by describing a journey in which he keeps driving and driving and driving ... until he runs out of fuel and eventually finds himself hungry and lost by the roadside - with an empty phone. 

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP:
 Richard Bolam/What happens
when the Sat-nav fails?
HDV Still:
Richard Bolam/Susanne Palzer 

Robin Close - This Performance contains Strobe Effects

Robin Close presents a different take on 'on/off' and surprises the audience by blinking his eyes rapidly, creating strobe effects for his own vision.

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP: Robin Close/This
Performance contains Strobe Effects
Photo: Susanne Palzer

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP: Robin Close/This
Performance contains Strobe Effects
Photo: Susanne Palzer 

John X. Moseley - Plato's Mechanical Book

For his second appearance at OPEN PLATFORM John X. Moseley continues his reflection on technology with a poem: a story about a book reading itself - the book reads, Plato writes and gains riches in the process. Featuring mechanical trombones, colossal cucumbers and other wondrous things, it also leaves us pondering sheds and Plato's cave.

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP: John X. Moseley/
Plato's Mechanical Book
Photo: Susanne Palzer

Stuart Faulkner - Double Dragon

Stuart Faulkner closes OPEN PLATFORM_3 with a delightful physical reenactment of a computer game. After 'training' two audience members as 'players' he leads us from the platform out into the car park where we are let loose as 'villains' attacking the 'players' and their 'controllers'. At the end of a fun evening we are all winners! ; ) 

OPEN PLATFORM/RAP: Stuart Faulkner/
Double Dragon
Photo: Susanne Palzer

Unfortunately Martyn Eggleton was unable to perform at this event.

We are currently planning OPEN PLATFORM_4. If you are interested in performing please get in touch with Susanne.