Connecting Media - Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg

POINTES PRÉCAIRES
for computer-generated audio-video media
Composed in 2003
Sound and visuals by Diego Garro. Reciting and whispering voice by Dominique
Belkadi.
Programme Notes: A story of serendipity and instability; the peaceful sound of gentle waves lapping
on the lakeside; the terror of a single droplet riding the crest before crushing on the cliff. A story
where quasi natural shapes float in precarious equilibrium and move back and forth between their
sonic and their visual dimensions. A story told by invisible narrators. A faint chant in the twilight. A
tremor that never leaves you completely.
Premiered at VAD Festival Internacional De Video I Arts Digitals, Girona, Spain, 13-15 November
2003
RADICAL LOW is a dance and multimedia ensemble formed in Spring 2001 by Kurt Ralske and Chan-
tal Yzermans. Radical Low has performed at Joyce Theater Soho, Merce Cunningham Studio, at Re-
cyclart Centre (Bruxelles, Belgium), the 92nd St. Y, Judson Hall, and Galapagos Art Space.
RADICAL LOW is exploring the intersection of dance and technology by using custom software cre-
ated by the artists. New avenues are opened for the relationship between dance and sound and
image. Some techniques the artists have used are: video capture, real-time video processing, image
analysis, sensors, and networked audio-video control systems Kurt Ralske is a Manhattan-based
video artist and composer. His work is exclusively created with his own custom software, written in
C, Java, and Max/MSP, and involves the expressive improvisation of both sound and image, simulta-
neously and in real-time. Kurt has performed at museums, galleries, and theaters throughout Euro-
pe, Canada, and the US, including the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and the Montreal
Museum of Contemporary Art. The New York Times has praised his “compelling, ingenious alliance
of sound and motion” and his “technological wizardry”. In February 2003, Kurt received received
the Image Award at Transmediale International Media Art Festival in Berlin, for for his work on the
DVD “Live in Bruxelles” by real-time video improvisation ensemble 242.pilots. Kurt works mainly as
a performer: as a soloist, with other video artists, with live dancers, or with live musicians. He has
created interactive video installations, software art, and video-derived still images. He is the author
of Auvi, a commercially released software environment for creating custom real-time video programs.
(http://auv-i.de)
Chantal Yzermans [dancer/choreographer] was born in Ostend, Belgium, currently residing in NY.
Chantal worked in Europe as a freelance choreographer in collaboration with Belgian composer Star-
fish Pool. Together they toured throughout Europe and Canada with “Ritual for the Dying.” Yzermans