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Medium cool Two great tastes in one festival: Activating the Medium By Kate Izquierdoa&eletters@sfbg.com John Cage warned us: "If you develop an ear for sounds that are musical it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience." The curators of Activating the Medium, a festival dedicated to sound art, are clearly heeding the composer's warning. Now in its ninth year, ATM is a testament to the dedication of a small group of noise devotees, a festival that has consistently reinvented itself to survive. Activating the Medium began in 1998 as a senior project for founder Randy Yau, who was studying at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo. Eight years on, the festival has evolved and mutated — remaining, in part, in San Luis Obispo but also branching out to other cities such as LA, Chico, and finally, in 2001, San Francisco. Sitting with cocurator Scott Arford at the 7Hz Warehouse in San Francisco, Yau explains that the intent of the festival has always been to entice a new audience to participate in "this dialogue of sound art and noise." Working in conjunction with its nonprofit, 23five, ATM has presented artists ranging from old-school noise band the Haters to German installation artist Christina Kubisch. Activating the Medium spent three years at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art before a shift in the media arts department left the festival without a venue or funding. The next two years were spent at SomArts, with varying success. In 2001, for example, the festival cost Yau $5,000 out of pocket. "It's really tough," he says. "You want to pay your artists." He refocused on a leaner, more economical event that could showcase transdisciplinary performance without taxing everyone's wallets and sanity: a video-based program of collaborative screenings. Arford answered the call to pull together a program centered on soundmakers who make images as well. Live performances are matched with some visuals, creating what Anthony Braxton would call "an immediate soundspace." Meanwhile, Yau returned to a core tenet of Activating the Medium: collaboration with other institutions. He invited San Francisco Art Institute and San Francisco Cinematheque, both of whom expressed interest almost immediately. Even with a scaled-back blueprint, this year's program includes works from veterans such as Phill Niblock and Gordon Monahan, composers who are committed to noise art. Arford is particularly pleased with the unsettling nature of some of the visuals: "It should be a pretty intense screening." Video artist Sue Costabile (also known as Sue Cie, Gold Chains' performing partner) will team up with electronic composer Laetitia Sonami for their work "I.C. You." Greek composer Dimitris Karofilis, a.k.a. Ilios, and Basque multimedia artist Xabier Erkizia offer their touring collaboration, "(un)commonsounds." Some might roll their eyes at the slightest mention of multimedia performance, presuming it's for chardonnay-sipping gallery hounds. Activating the Medium aims for exactly the opposite, to engage everyone within their reach. From the gravelly roar of white noise to sweet hiccupping of laptops, the festival aims to provide steady doses of "difficult listening" (where "difficult" equals "not boring") to its audience. Worry not, Mr. Cage: The battle continues. * ACTIVATING THE MEDIUM Fri/10–Sun/12, Feb. 24, March 3 San Francisco Art Institute Yerba Buena Center for the Arts www.23five.org |
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