Dates and venues
The exhibition will run from December 1, 2023 – January 3, 2024, at the Deering Estate outdoor grounds and third floor of the Stone House.
16701 SW 72nd Avenue
Miami, FL 33157
Public presentation and performance program
Sunday, December 10, 2023, 2-8 pm
Free with RSVP. Register on Eventbrite
A public presentation and performance program will take place on Sunday, December 10, 2023, in the Deering Estate’s Palm Grove and in the Visitor Center’s theater. Children are invited to participate in the media installation "Artists Union" by Anna Frants by interacting with the drawing machines at the Visitor Center foyer from 2 to 8 pm during opening day events. All ages welcome.
Artists
George Bagdasarov, Todd Barton, Rumore Bianco, Anthony Bisset, Bred Blondie (Gleb Glonti), Vasilii Bakanov & Andrew Strokov, Alexander Bochkov, Budhaditya Chattopadhyay, Sam Conran, CYLAND Audio Archive, Alexandra Dementieva, Lena Filatova, Anna Frants, Glia/Bugaev, Jonáš Gruska, Elena Gubanova & Ivan Govorkov, Alexey Grachev, A. Nigh Herndon, Sergey Komarov & Alexey Grachev, Sergey Komarov & Lydia Griaznova, Max Kuiper and Thorsten Soltau, Luke Lund, Yoshio Machida, Gustavo Matamoros, Nao Nishihara, Akira Rabelais, Thorsten Soltau, Esther & Nikolaj Søndergaard, Vasily Stepanov, Hans Tammen, Sashash Ulz, Peter Vogel, Ruslan Yusipov, Zov, and Miami's Subtropics 2023 Marathon participants (TBA).
Curators
Melissa Diaz, Liliam Dominguez, Anna Frants, Gustavo Matamoros, Sergey Komarov, Lydia Griaznova
CYLAND Media Art Lab presents International Media Art Festival CYFEST 15: Vulnerability at Deering Estate.
The exhibition comprises three layers—media installation, sound, and performance—that invoke technologies developed to rediscover and affect space. The Deering Estate, a historical landmark with over 450 acres of natural landscape, including eight native ecosystems, will host a series of works expanding on the festival’s theme of Vulnerability. These pieces created with CYLAND Media Art Lab engineers will be in dialogue with the historical context of the place, irrevocably connected both to the past and future, the urban and natural.
This exhibition is an invitation, while following the route from one artwork to another, to take a closer look at the issue of how we are included in the world. At the Deering Estate, we featured the works of artists who closely collaborated with the CYLAND Media Art Lab. At the core of CYLAND is the creation of media art in close dialogue between artists and engineers.
CYFEST 15 at the Deering Estate is designed to be placed in spaces with characteristic sensibility and meaning, such as historic buildings or natural environments. It is envisaged as a cross-disciplinary and multi-sensory exhibition that stimulates the perception of the artwork’s idea via different senses and experiences.
A public presentation and performance program will take place on Sunday, December 10, 2023, in the Deering Estate’s Palm Grove and in the Visitor Center’s theater. Children are invited to participate in the media installation "Artists Union" by Anna Frants by interacting with the drawing machines at the Visitor Center foyer from 2 to 8 pm during opening day events.
This project is made possible in collaboration with the Kolodzei Art Foundation. The project's general sponsor is One Market Data.
Curatorial Statements
Vulnerability. Elena Gubanova and Silvia Burini
Vulnerability: to get back to earth and to become earthly. Lydia Griaznova
Press Release in Spanish (.docx)
About CYFEST
CYFEST, one of the biggest international media art festivals in Eastern Europe, was founded by a group of independent artists and curators in 2007. Since its inception in 2007, CYFEST’s main concerns have been to examine the dialogue between various visual languages and technology cultures, and thus to explore a way of communing with both art professionals and scientific communities. CYFEST unites artists, curators, educators, engineers, programmers, and media activists all over the world, and creates an inclusive platform for mapping, mediation, and documentation of new media art on different regional and international levels.
CYFEST is one of the world’s few nomadic cultural events: throughout the year, festival projects are presented at leading cultural institutions around the world. Each year, the festival program includes several exhibition projects, sound art, video and educational programs.
CYFEST 15: Vulnerability is a series of traveling exhibitions hosted worldwide by prominent cultural and public institutions.
Under the theme of vulnerability, CYFEST 15 showcases artworks that explore and reflect on vulnerability from a range of points of view — from the fragility of an ecosystem to the vulnerability of memory, from the preservation of becoming old media art to the state of equilibrium being within nature- and techno- worlds. CYFEST 15 took place in Yerevan, Armenia, this September and will continue in Venice, Italy, and in New York, USA, in 2024.
About the Deering Estate
Deering Estate, located at 16701 SW 72 Ave. in Miami, is a 21st Century house museum, cultural and ecological field station, and a national landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places, owned by the State of Florida and managed by Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Department. Deering Estate is designated as one of seven Miami Dade County “Heritage Parks” which have a vital role in our community’s history, environment and in providing recreational and cultural experiences.
Cultural Arts Programming at the Deering Estate is made possible with the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners, and The Deering Estate Foundation, Inc.
About the Deering Estate Foundation
For those who treasure the Deering Estate, who advocate for its preservation and wish to invest in its future, The Deering Estate Foundation provides opportunities for individuals and corporations alike to partake in membership, signature events, and one-of-a-kind experiences, all in service of providing vital funding and support to the Deering Estate. Through these efforts, the foundation fulfills its mission to uphold the legacy of Charles Deering's cherished 1920s-era property, to provide funding for the cultural, educational and recreational experiences it offers, as well as its significant scientific and archaeological endeavors to conserve its diverse flora, fauna and the eight native ecosystems that thrive on its 450 acres, and to ensure its longevity as a prized American heritage site. Established in 1989, The Deering Estate Foundation, Inc. is a community-based charitable 501(c) 3 Florida Corporation and the philanthropic partner of the Deering Estate.
Vasilii Bakanov and Andrew Strokov
Slow Burning
Installation, 2020 (edition of 2021)
Three fruits on pedestals are contained inside a black box. In artificially created and regularly maintained conditions, the fruits pass through three chemical reactions — caramelization, the Maillard reaction and enzymatic browning. Usually, these processes take place within minutes in cooking. Here they are intentionally prolonged in time. Inside the box constant humidity and a temperature of 60 degrees Celsius are maintained, thus killing bacteria which cause decay. In ideal and constantly controlled conditions, the fruits preserve their form, and burn up inside from day to day at the lowest possible speed. Visitors can observe the slowly burning still life by watching it in real-time on the video panel placed on the boxes. But the main activity remains hidden and takes place at the molecular level. Its tangible manifestation is a monotonous soundtrack performed by the fruits themselves. Information about the external appearance of each fruit is converted into sound waves. The processes inside the box are analyzed and sonified by an analog synthesizer. The sound pitch and timbre depend on temperature, humidity, fruit size and color. As the fruit burns up, the sound “burns up” as well and becomes increasingly dull and quiet. The process is an artificially prolonged borderline state of “in between”. The metamorphosis is too slow to perceive by the naked eye. Because of the unnatural maximum delay, all differences vanish in the abyss of time to the accompaniment of a droning trio. However, it is still an open question as to whether the process will proceed in the way that was intended. Every effort has been made, all we can do is to wait and see what will happen next. Chemical reactions, real-time generated sound, live streaming from webcam located inside boxes OpenCV, Python, Arduino, 3D printing, soldering, 3 thermally insulated black boxes, heaters, temperature and humidity sensors, HD webcams, flood lights, DIN rails, microcontroller modules, Raspberry PI, Korg Monotron Delay, portable speakers, fruits, china plates Engineers Andrew Strokov, Alexey Grachev, Alexander Bochkov; 3D engineering design Alexander Bochkov; Python programming Andrew Strokov Supported by CYLAND MediaArtLab
Anna Frants
Artists Union
From the series “Matter of Chance”
Media Installation, 2019
“Artist Union. Still life” is a reflection on the law of large numbers. Is it applicable in visual arts — to colors in painting, lines in graphics, forms in sculpture, and image integrity in installations? The law of large numbers is a principle that describes the completion of the same experiment many times. According to this law, the joint action of many random factors leads to a result almost independent of the chance. For example, in the XVI century, the length of the English foot was defined, by a royal order, as the arithmetic average length of the foot of the first 16 people leaving the church on Sunday matins. Although the law of large numbers was not yet defined, it serves as the basis for the principle of arithmetic mean used in determining the length of a foot. OpenCV, Python; 3D printing, ink on paper, stepper motors, servomotors, microcontroller, Raspberry Pi, web camera, oil on plywood; drawing paper rolls, pens, plinths Engineers Alexey Grachev, Alexander Bochkov, Viсtor Timofeev; 3D modeling Alexey Grachev, Alexander Bochkov; Python programming Alexey Grachev, Ruslan Khadzhimirzoev Supported by CYLAND MediaArtLab
Elena Gubanova & Ivan Govorkov
Monitoring the Rotation of the Earth on the Sofa
Site-specific Video Installation, 2020
In a semi-dark room there are packed and unwanted items lying around: wrapped chairs, sofas, household items. This abandoned room has been turned into storage. A video is projected on the wall in front of the sofa, showing only a gobelin carpet. The landscape on the carpet presents a fairy-tale composition: distant countryside, hills, a river, an autumn forest. A deer is depicted in the foreground. It breathes of peace and tranquillity. Such carpets were very popular in the 60s–80s of the last century in St. Petersburg and other Russian cities. In the video, sunlight slowly drifts across the carpet, transforming a kitschy image into an Italian Renaissance painting due to the play of light and shadow. The video is accompanied by the sound of the Sun obtained by NASA's spacecraft by converting electromagnetic waves into sound. This work is about the time within us. The wrapped items inside the room are a symbolic image of our profane world, our established perceptions. The installation invites the viewer to stop and observe the "earth movement" signified by the motion of light across a fairytale landscape with a deer from their childhood and to recall their presence in outer space. A short throw projector, speakers; a sofa, wrapped in plastic household items, blackout curtains Video by Elena Gubanova Sound: CAA—47 Elena Gubanova, Ivan Govorkov, Sergey Komarov, Redshift, 2011 Supported by CYLAND MediaArtLab
Sergey Komarov & Lydia Griaznova
Time Signals
8-channel Sound Installation, 2023
The installation is an 8-channel sound work, where time signals are subsequently interfered with children counting out rhymes. The time signals have a strict utilitarian purpose and are used as a reference to determine the time of day. Not only humans but machines too are sensitive to it. Coordinated Universal Time — an imposed time — splitting space into time zones and days on the slots for labour and leisure. A seemingly ordered and planned timing of a day is bending the stream of life. It sets up hours by a hierarchy of choices we make throughout the day. Various counting rhymes from different countries with subdued time signals impact their rhythms and durations. They upset the strict rhythm of time signals, making them unreliable, depriving their utilitarian purpose and stripping them of rhythmic sound. Worldwide synchronized general time dropped out from the organised and constantly maintained structure in which it resides. Counted time is slipping into continuous time. It is displaced by a subjective one, guided by one's sense of time, where what is considered too long or too short is a question of one's perception of what and when it is happening. It is lost in a temporally staged game that exists only for play with no obvious purpose. The ending of counting rhyme defines the random-made choice — the one on whom the last word or syllable falls is eliminated until all are counted out except the one who is “It.” Whatever slice of time will be chosen, it will be neither beginning nor end. They are all part of a general continuity, where a sound from this installation is the only one of many fragments. You are it, time! Performers: Margherita Catricalà (Italy), Ulyana Degtyareva (Russia), Anna Kolodzei (US), Adele Kübar (Estonia), Antonia Castro Martinez (Colombia), Michelle Mkrtchyan (Armenia), Izuru Nishihara (Japan), Kai Ayaz Vedel and his parents: Yäniyä Mikhalina and Joen Vedel (the Republic of Tatarstan–Denmark) 8 waterproof speakers, 8 synchronized players Supported by CYLAND MediaArtLab
Alexandra Dementieva
Source of Energy
Interactive Sculpture, 2021
A light sculpture shaped like an ethanol molecule connected to a jar with SCOBY-producing Kombucha. LEDs match the colour of elements: Hydrogen, Carbon, and Oxygen. The brightness of the object changes depending on the fermentation process. Adjacent to the sculpture, there is a jar containing SCOBY Kombucha immersed in a sweet tea broth. The fermentation process of the SCOBY is monitored through the use of an acid sensor placed inside the jar. This sensor detects the pH level of the Kombucha culture, creating a dynamic feedback system. As the pH level fluctuates within the SCOBY Kombucha, the sensor triggers changes in the light patterns emitted by the LEDs within the sculpture. The shifting colours and patterns of light reflect the real-time biochemical activity of the Kombucha culture. By placing SKOBY as the main actor, the artist emphasizes the agency and importance of non-human entities in shaping our understanding of nature and the environment. By shifting the focus from a purely human perspective to a more inclusive and holistic view, the installation prompts us to reevaluate our relationship with nature and foster a greater appreciation for the diverse forms of life and their significance in sustaining the planet. It challenges us to recognize that the well-being of the planet depends on our ability to value and protect the diverse actors that shape it; to see ourselves as part of a larger ecosystem, interconnected with all living beings, and emphasizes the need for caring attitude in coexistence with non-human entities. 3D printing, brazing; microcontroller, light-scattering plastic spheres, RGBW LEDs, Arduino, acid sensor, PVC pipes, Kombucha SCOBY Engineers: Alexey Grachev, Andrew Strokov, Alexander Bochkov, Sergey Komarov; Arduino programming Andrew Strokov; 3D engineering design Alexander Bochkov Supported by CYLAND MediaArtLab
Elena Gubanova & Ivan Govorkov
Victory Over The Sun
Outdoor Media Installation, 2023
A futurist opera Victory Over The Sun, staged in 1913 and co-authored by Aleksei Kruchonykh (the libretto) and Mikhail Matyushin (the music), was intended to underline parallels between literary text, musical score, and the art of painting. It became an exemplary collaborative work of poets and artists. It is about how the group of budetlyane (from the Russian word “budet”, “will be”) set out to conquer the sun. Commonly, it is interpreting the win of advanced technologies of the future over old nature. In this artwork, a supposed victory is put into question. Humanity depends on sunlight which is essential to the ecosystem it is part of. Even slight change in sunlight immediately shows how vulnerable we are as well as our aspirations and ideas for our future. The work of the installation depends on sunenergy. A set of solar batteries accumulates the energy and puts it in motion via motors the installation components — Futurist-like kinetic “mobiles”. The motors are connected to a set of solar batteries which follow the movement of the sun to collect power. The direction of movement of the installation components is defined by the trajectory of the sun and will change during the day. The installation is active as long as the batteries are charged. The installation has a sound component. A set of speakers is playing a new version of the opera Victory Over The Sun staged on May 3, 2007 at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. The noted St. Petersburg composer Georgy Firtich created a new score for the opera (only fragments of Matiushin’s original score have survived) and came to Vassar in order to take part in the performance with a company of Vassar student singers and musicians. It was envisaged not as a historical restoration but as reinvention from the perspective of the present, one that aspired to convey the explosively innovative impulse of early twentieth-century avant-garde. This year celebrates the 110th anniversary of the premiere of Victory Over The Sun and, by happy coincidence, the 85th anniversary of Georgy Firtich's birth. Engaging in a dialogue with its predecessors, this installation continues its explorations and offers its own reflection on the opposition between technology and nature. Fusion 360; 3D printing; 3D engineering design; welding; PVC "mobiles" attached to metal poles, motors, solar panels, speakers, motion sensor, drive belt Engineers: Alexey Grachev, Denis Markov. Sound Engineer: Sergey Dmitriev Supported by CYLAND MediaArtLab
Alexey Grachev
Field
Interactive Sound Installation, 2023
As a part of his ongoing artistic practice, Alexey Grachev continues to play with a word’s meaning. He merges a title with different definitions into how to perceive a word and the artwork it was named after. This interactive installation is a set of speakers with antennas working as the theremin. The installation is located in the field, and it creates a sound field. A sound appears when someone moves in close proximity. People can move freely between objects. Each object is based on a round printed circuit board (PCB), and each board has a graphic depiction of a contact field. Its composition refers to various images made from above the Earth’s point of view — from circular fields of center-pivot irrigation to circular formations on crop fields hinting at the signs of extraterrestrial life. A satellite vision extends the perception of reality to the planetary level, where the trueness of what is captured is blurred in abstract forms. The sense of one’s own position in this view is lost in coordinate numbers associated with low-resolution pixelated data. If you come back to the field and there is no one around, the artwork is still active. The theremins’ antennas swing in the wind and make short sounds. This movement disturbs the state of the system. They call upon us to enter the field, to change a field, to feel ourselves on the game field. Arduino, KiCad; custom made circuit boards, speakers, LEDs, proximity sensors Engineers: Dmitriy Shishov, Alexey Grachev Supported by CYLAND MediaArtLab
Alexey Grachev, Sergey Komarov
1:1.78055*10226
A/V performance, 2015–2023
Sound artists Alexey Grachev and Sergey Komarov continue their research series ‘Subjectivization of Sound’ with the new experiment 1:1.78055*10226. The creative duo specializes in various research of sound both as a physical entity and as a sensitive medium in the artists’ toolbox. The ‘Subjectivization of Sound’ project interrogates different problems of interfaces and communication of analog and digital syntheses, computing equipment, and the world around. The 1:1.78055*10226 is an experiment in chaotic programming of the digital FM synthesizer Yamaha TX7 (1985). This is a desktop version and is one the bestselling synthesizers in history — Yamaha DX7. But it has a lack of interface where sound patches can be edited. Over 150 parameters should be controlled via the old-fashioned MIDI System Exclusive (SysEx) messages, instead of the familiar and convenient CC controllers (continuous controller number). The unique historic sound and failings of the interface inspired Alexey and Sergei to experiment with this vintage audio gear piece. This is the second attempt to implement this idea (the first was 1:3.44743*10251 with the Waldorf Microwave synthesizer) of interfacing with outdated hardware, combining system restrictions and ‘overclocking’ to push synthesized sounds to the limit. In short, the idea is to fill the synthesizer with random parameters and play around with the data while fine-tuning the adjustments. For these purposes, the Max patch is used to manage SysEx messages running TX7. According to the multiplication theorem on probability, the probability of the sound event can be presented as 1 to 1:1.78055*10226 — that’s the total number of TX7 parameter combinations that can be set. https://soundcloud.com/subjectivisationofsound Max/MSP, Touch Designer; Yamaha TX7 Duration: 00:30:00 Real-time graphics by Alexander Bochkov; Math consulting by Sergei Kostyrko Supported by CYLAND MediaArtLab
CAA (CYLAND Audio Archive)
Selection of records from CAA, 2013 — ongoing
25 vinyl records, turntable, headphones
Kolodzei Collection of Russian and Eastern European Art, Kolodzei Art Foundation, USA
The CYLAND Audio Archive (CAA) is a division of CYLAND MediaArtLab, created to investigate archiving and exhibiting methodologies of sound art. This archive is a continuous process of working on a structure of various subgenres of sound art, making compilations, and cataloging the growing archive. To date, there are 58 releases in the archive, including works by more than 80 artists from every continent except Antarctica. All the records are available for listening on cyland.bandcamp.com
CAA—2 Peter Vogel Peter Vogel (1937–2017) is one of the pioneers of sound art. His work melds art and science. A glimpse into his early career history helps to explain how his practice came about. He came to realize that painting could not adequately convey a sense of time to the viewer. So he increasingly turned to sound for this purpose, creating numerous three-dimensional works which he called “sound objects”. Vogel’s sound objects are constructed with filigree metal wires moulded into various forms. Attached to the wires are electronic components, such as condensers, photo-electric sensors, LED and loudspeakers. All components are visible, and are arranged in an imaginative, engaging way. Viewers are frequently surprised to discover that an object reacts to their movements or sounds, and this entices them to investigate further and continue interacting with the work. Many of Vogel’s objects have become “sound instruments”, integrating glissando, vibrato, staccato, legato, and using noise and percussive sounds. People can trigger minimal loops and influence their volume through the duration of the shadows they create. They can also trigger rhythm and timbre changes by repeating the shadows. Text by Jean Martin Curated by Sergey Komarov Release date: June 12, 2013
CAA—3 Hans Tammen Imagine the Disklavier in the center of the stage. The composer/performer is somewhat distant and to the side. Several microphones are put into position not over the strings, like usual, but this time at the hammers and keys. Remotely controlled by the composer/performer, the piano produces constantly rumbled and crackled noises, often very rhythmically, occasionally ringing strings are added on top, or stopping for a few seconds on a chord. On a musical level this piece explores the sonic capabilities of the Disklavier machines. These instruments have hidden sonic qualities, and I try to explore these the same way I do with guitars for 20 years. The music will develop slowly, as there is a lot to discover for the listener. On a technical level the Disklavier is fed too much information at the lowest possible volume. At this point the hammers do not have enough power to bang the strings anymore, and ideally they only vibrate to produce a low rumbling sound. Occasionally the MIDI brain even stops for a few seconds on a chord due to the data overload, hence the title Choking Disklavier. /tammen.org/ Text by Hans Tammen Curated by Sergey Komarov & Vlad Dobrovolski Release date: June 29, 2013
CAA—6 Ruslan Yusipov Ruslan Yusipov is a musician, sound engineer, and programmer from Moscow. He is interested in digital synthesis in Max/MSP, algorithmic composition, designing audio generators and sound processors (Compositor, MDL12, SASER). Recorded pieces are artifacts from the tuning of the sound program SASER. The experiment involves using a master of wavetable for the digital air and the processing of the digitally synthesized stream with it. The result is an analog sound with the overtones typical of the 1950s–1960s radio stations. The improvisational and stochastic audio field becomes the subject of the research. Randomized splashes of audio information are like invisible particles extracted from the stream of the future. /compositorsoftware.com/ Text by Ruslan Yusipov Curated by Sergey Komarov Release date: August 28, 2013
CAA—9 Jonáš Gruska When listening to this record, we become visitors of the artist’s studio, where he employs analogue tape machines. We hear fast moving but harsh musical patterns derived from the analog equipment mixed with contrasting slower pattern. The sounds occur sharply out of nowhere, dancing around main rhythm before fading out again, returning the listener to the oscillating soundscape. These compositions were recorded in an analog study of the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. The sound is not in competition with the natural sounds and surroundings, but complementing them: hinting at the unseen processes. The result is an experience that connects the listener to the hidden but ever present micro-world and the underlying processes of the emergence of sound itself. Text by Vlad Dobrovolski Mastering by Angakok Thoth Curated by Sergey Komarov & Vlad Dobrovolski Release date: August 28, 2013
CAA—10 Yoshio Machida Yoshio Machida is a Tokyo-based artist, master of steelpan and the EMS Synthi AKS synthesizer. Presented are three pieces recorded in a series of works and implemented by using only EMS Synthi followed by AKS, one of the first portable synthesizers. It is fully equipped to be a stand-alone instrument with portable keyboard and digital sequencer. Yoshio’s interest in this record is to explore this instrument and take from it as much as possible. Simple Synthi’s structure gives to protracted player unusual polyrhythmic and abstract structures. Subtile and raw fat sounding is well known thanks to resilient discrete elements that can feed all this power. Instrument design is a key to Yoshio Machida creative technique: “These pieces are made by only EMS Synthi AKS. I focused on function of „repetition“ in this modular synthesizer, i.e. LFO, envelope generator, sequencer and feedback. These functions can make something organic repetition phase.” This release followed by more Synthi pieces by Yoshio in KARU:29 release on BASKARU and even more pieces using Synthi 100 in collaboration with Constantin Papageorgiadis, see self released in 2017 Music from the SYNTHI 100 CD album. /yoshiomachida.com/ Text by Vlad Dobrovolski Curated by Sergey Komarov Release date: September 23, 2013
CAA—11 Anthony Bisset Neurotransmit Lock 11 unrolls a triptych of Westcoast psychomagic opening with a live collaboration between David D. Bernbaum and Anthony Bisset propagating the meta-treaty [Signals]. The call for [Spaceships] realizes an improvised fractal whirlybird, a relentless modular narrative of galactic travel invoking a plane of immanence through difference and repetition. The final frame paints travelers into an alien habitat bathed in mists and radiations obscuring an elusive spherical life form [Spheres]. This is a class I mutagenic DNA scrambler. For more information: erowid.org Text by Anthony Bisset Curated by Sergey Komarov Release date: June 7, 2016
CAA—12 Vasily Stepanov Cloud Voice Have you ever dreamt you're in the clouds? Have you visualised it in your imagination at least once? As wind passes over the ground, air in contact with the surface is slowed by friction, while the air above continues a movement at an unimpeded speed. It creates many thousands of rolling vortices. Depending on the wind speed and roughness of the terrain, they can extend upwards for a considerable height. Your flying will encounter “bumpiness” called audio turbulence, that occurs in the sound perception of the surrounding space. When strong winds blow over you, the air turns into large organised sound waves that extend several metres downstream. Powerful rising and falling air currents are usually present in these sound waves and organised bands of clouds form near the wave peaks. These waves are called cloud voices because of the characteristic effect they often adopt. Text by Vlad Dobrovolski Curated by Sergey Komarov & Vlad Dobrovolski Release date: October 7, 2013
CAA—13 Sashash Ulz Pradedushka [Russian “прадедушка” — “grand-grandfather”] Once, when I was a boy, I found a tape at my grandparents’ apartment. It was the recording of my grandfather’s father Mikhail Fyodorovich Konzhiev speech. He was a peasant and a hunter. He lived in Korchagino village near the village of Karshevo, Pudozhsky district of Karelia. On this tape were several poems by Mikhail Fyodorovich, recorded by my grandfather around forty years ago. In addition to being a poet, Mikhail Fyodorovich was an actor in the local Public Theater in Pudozh. The first poem is about the village. The narrator describes how he returns from the city to his native village, where he lived many years ago. The village had disappeared and the narrator shares his memories about what life was like in his village back when he lived there. The second poem is about the hunt. The narrator bids a farewell to the forest and hunting which had been a destiny for his life. N.B. Year 2010: me and my friends went hiking to the mountains of Kandalaksha Gulf of the White Sea. I recorded on tape the sounds of that trip and the improvisations that we made there. Those sounds can be heard on the background of this recording. /dvazd.tumblr.com / dvazagorodnyhdoma.bandcamp.com/ Text by Sashash Ulz Poems by Mikhail Fyodorovich Konzhiev Recorded by Nikolay Mikhailovich Konzhiev Mastered and mixed by Sashash Ulz in October 2013 Curated by Sergey Komarov & Vlad Dobrovolski Release date: January 10, 2014
CAA—14 George Bagdasarov George Bagdasarov says, "What I do, I do as a nomad. I don't just move from place to place, but also from one field to the next. And sometimes I discover new pastures where I stay awhile." For the Cyland Audio Archive, improviser and multi-instrumentalist Georgy Bagdasarov recorded two saxophone experiments, played in one session, without overdubs. The percussion parts are interspersed with a lingering drone and noise parts. The names of both parts titled after two brothers of Sapa Inca dynasty of the Inca Empire — Yupanqui and Atahualpa lived in XVI century. Both sessions are somewhat reminiscent of fictional ritual invocations to the Gods due to the unusual manner of execution. Curated and text by Sergey Komarov Release date: March 27, 2014
CAA—15 Source material from Max Kuiper and Thorsten Soltau Mikrophagie is a concept by Max Kupier and Thorsten Soltau centered around the importance of carefully planned locations for sound sources, placing acoustic movements in a sonic room. The term “mikro” is not only applied to the use of detailed and rich sound palettes, but also refers to minimal movements and development over time. The power of single sources combined in one, is the basic stone for these compositions. The recordings are limited to a few selected loops taken from Max Kuipers raw material and supplemented by my sounds recorded from empty record surfaces and run-out grooves. The first part centers around emotion and faith represented in worn out images. The sonic movements are marked by decay and instability. A chant overlaid on the synthesized reel spools creates a hallucinogenic and isolated feeling — a despair in the face of time and a wish for humankind to keep memories away from decay and fragmentation. The second part is more stripped, with elements from Zwölftonmusik in thechords, and influenced by sound with artificial nature created with oscillations and filter chains. The overall theme is sadness, depicted in three tape loops running on various speeds layered on top of each other. They unspool over the time and create Reichian shifts [for translator: https://musictheory.pugetsound.edu/mt21c/PhaseShifting.html] and harmonic layers with varying degrees of frequency and loudness. Recorded February–March 2014 at Lichter Raum, Grafschaft, Germany. Additional sounds programming on the ESE system and pre-mastering by Marina Stewart. Special thanks to Max Kuiper (for sources and work), Praveer Baijal (for building the connection and belief), Rainier Lericolais & Olivier Prieur (for inspiration and feedback) and Mihkel Kleis (who kindly gave me access to the sermons of a long lost age)! Text by Thorsten Soltau Curated by Sergey Komarov Release date: April 16, 2014
CAA—17 Akira Rabelais “Side A Yes, to integrate the grandiose cosmic equation. Side B Yes, to unbend the wild, primitive curve and straighten it to a tangent — an asymptote — a straight line. Twenty-Second Entry Topics: Congealed Waves. Everything Is Being Perfected. I Am a Microbe Imagine yourself standing on the shore: the waves rise rhythmically, then, having risen, suddenly remain there — frozen, congealed. It seemed just as eerie and unnatural when our daily walk, prescribed by the Table of Hours, suddenly halted midway, and everyone was thrown into confusion. The last time something similar happened, according to our annals, was 119 years ago, when a meteorite dropped, smoking and whistling, right into the thick of the marching rows. We walked as usual, in the manner of the warriors on Assyrian reliefs: a thousand heads, two fused, integral feet, two integral, swinging arms. At the end of the avenue, where the Accumulator Tower hummed sternly, a rectangle moved toward us. In front, behind, and on the sides — guards; in the middle — three people, the golden numbers already removed from their unifs. And everything was terrifyingly clear.” Excerpt from "We", a dystopian novel by Yevgeny Zamyatin, 1921. Curated by Sergey Komarov Release date: October 30, 2014
CAA—18 Todd Barton Todd Barton is a sound designer, multimedia performer, and analog synthesist specializing in Buchla Electronic Musical Instruments. Sounds that come from synth ideas comes from engineering Genius of Don and melts together in the crazy dance of life. This is a dance of electrons. Wood, meditation, uncertainty, electric music box — these are not just metaphors but features of a real object — the metal box Todd fills with mixed circuit boards and interfaces made by different people and himself more than half of a century ago. Wood of Uncertainty, Asymmetry, Meditation #266 — Todd glues all this Buchla world and the poetry of the analog synthesis in his imagination to romantic sound art pieces. /toddbarton.com/ Text by Vlad Dobrovolski Curated by Sergey Komarov Release date: March 10, 2015
Sound art has consistently been a part of CYLAND’s festivals and exhibitions. We have been experimental with our approach, largely because when exhibited amongst multimedia installations, sound art can easily fall in the shadows.
It was a long process of trial and error to find a concept that would manifest in physical form a presence of sound in an exhibition space. There were probes with using portable players or tablets, headphones or directional speakers. Surprisingly, the most suitable medium — vinyl records — has always been available and remains to be a means of record and archive, it’s so well suited for representation of sound. Using records, we can now store, and showcase sound art in its most natural physical form. First-hand interaction with a turntable became a good additional feature. While the curator’s job is to compile a selection of records for an exhibition, people themselves manage the rest — they choose records to play, and run through descriptions. Each of the releases presented, are a stand-alone pieces accompanied with an artist statement, short commentary from auteur.
— Sergey Komarov
CAA—22 ZOV ---begin--- Two compositions derived from an ongoing acoustical investigation of glaciers, frozen soils, ice formation and melting, and other sub-zero environments, assembled using untreated sound recordings captured by means of hydrophones. Original source sounds collected in 2014 at Mont Miné glacier, Switzerland. Additional recordings of fluids at sub-zero temperatures conducted during August 2015 in a laboratory setting. Other than layering and editing, no further processing or treatments were applied to the recorded sounds. Working with microphones and transducers as if they were a microscope, we discover details of a sonic world normally inaudible to human ears. An invitation to immerse into the sound, observe its dynamic development from the inside, and follow the outbursts of energy acting like catalysts of the ongoing reactions. ---end--- Text by ZOV (Olga Kokcharova & Gianluca Ruggeri) Curated by Sergey Komarov Release date: October 5, 2015
CAA—23 Bred Blondie (Gleb Glonti) New Year 2015 New rest & recreation, event field recording. Sound art has a consolidating and communicative function. Sound art is a bearer of moral principle, frequently revealing actual life situations, helping the audience refer to themselves with others and become part of the community. These are some forms of the functions of sound art in the modern society. The feeling you experience while listening to the recording is supposed to be complicated, versatile, with many sides equally represented. The relaxation that Gleb Glonti’s work brings, can evoke empathy to the sounds, involvement into daily beauty. It is obvious that the versatility of the feelings during the listening does not depend only on the objective content of the sound image, but also on the image pre-existing in the listener’s memory. On the things he can hear, they can accept, on their response. The fragment of the record chosen by the artist is undoubtedly ambivalent: that is, it implies ambivalence of interpretation of the meaning and content of the work. Polysemy of the perception is empirically confirmed and specificated by the sound sample. The depth and adequacy of the respondent’s perception may depend on their experience of dealing with art, on the level of their “sound” competence in the broadest sense of the term — including childhood memories of the most important holiday of the year, on artistic sensitivity and susceptibility. The ambivalence of the work is a witness to the complicated way the art functions in mass culture — its ability to obtain various meanings that sometimes differs from the artist’s original ones. Text by Vlad Dobrovolski Curated by Sergey Komarov Release date: December 31, 2015
CAA—24 A. Nigh Herndon The phonogène is an important instrument along with sound manipulating techniques, in musique concrète. Three versions of these sophisticated tape machines were produced in the 1950–1960s of XXth century by different companies. Later, in the digital era all these features like time stretch, became standard effects in any DAW, but they lost their creative nature because of simplification purposes and interface. Now (in post-digital time?) these powerful instruments are back with the help of popular modular synthesizer systems. Most widely used Eurorack market offers this technique in a variety of ways from different brands. One of the most popular is Make Noise Phonogène. Control voltage interfacing is the advantage which is returning creative possibilities and expanding the ways to apply technique. A. Nigh Herndon works with a massive Eurorack system and uses many of Make Noise modules among few Phonogène to manipulate the most important characteristic it made for — THE TIME. Recorded between June 2015 — November 2015 in Guadalajara Mexico All recordings and compositions by A. Nigh Herndon Text by Sergey Komarov Curated by Sergey Komarov Release date: January 22, 2016
CAA—25 Rumore Bianco These are found art pieces made by unknown person(s), the only known data is that these ¼” tapes were found in a Barcelona flea market. What made these recordings unusual? A layering of the sounds self-organised stand-alone pieces happened accidentally. The tape was a homemade recording of a book someone did on a domestic recorder, something like an audiobook. But apparently, more was added to the multitrack recording on a higher speed (i.e., professional equipment or kinda other portastudio equipment), where probably not all channels of the latest session were engaged, and previous recordings survived. As a final result, we have two different worlds transporting on different speeds and directions through many years. Isn’t it a self-organised and non-organic act of art followed by no order? Definitely, it is! Text by Sergey Komarov Curated by Sergey Komarov Release date: April 17, 2016
CAA—26 Esther & Nikolaj Søndergaard Esther Søndergaard, a Danish physiologist, and Nikolaj Søndergaard, an engineer, are a married couple from Copenhagen. Inspired by the electronic sound, in the 1970s they recorded these interesting works using medical and scientific equipment, among others, as a hobby. Their main goal was to engage the human body in the process of controlling the track. The parameters of natural processes, such as heartbeat, blood pressure, and breathing, became the triggers and the basis for the improvisation. Luckily, Copenhagen is the unofficial capital of the world’s vibration and acoustic measurement. Industry monsters like Brüel & Kjær and Ortofon have their headquarters there. Nikolaj worked at a big architectural firm where he performed acoustic measurements of both new buildings and old houses that required restoration. Esther and Nikolaj had access to different equipment that has to do with the fixation and examination of acoustic data and were experienced in using it. Text by Sergey Komarov Curated by Sergey Komarov Release date: August 16, 2016
CAA—27 GLIA/Bugaev G: drums, mixing B: strings, texture Feedback is generally seen in a negative light… something to minimize or eliminate entirely from musical performances and recordings. However, we found it ironic that feedback is a foundational element of many synthesis techniques and chose to focus on these methods for a collaborative project. This type of exploration is not new. We felt there was no need to focus on novelty for its own sake. Still, the results were somewhat unexpected and pursuing the possible range of sounds within our preferred systems (software/no input) was extremely educational for us. /soundcloud.com/glia/ Text by Jonathan Ntuk Curated by Sergey Komarov Release date: October 21, 2016
CAA—30 Lena Filatova Листья (Leaves) «Листья» is a poem by Fyodor Tyutchev, cut in two pieces. It was taken from a Soviet time book printed in 1975 from my childhood library, with stories, fairy tales, poems, and riddles about woods. The sounds of the door are recorded in the cellar of the house in Hegenberg, where I lived. The record was made with a synthesizer, using a synthesizer sample from a Soviet animated film from 1978 about a little mouse. At the end, there is a hail cannon shooting repeatedly while a storm is approaching. Somewhere in the fields near Hegenberg. Яблоки (Apples) This song is based on a poem «Эхо» by Ramutė Skučaitė, taken from a book printed in 1975 with the sound produced on synthesizer and a clock ticking sound from a film for children about an airship. Глушь (Thicket) It is a mixture of cut pieces from different poems for small children by Irina Tokmakova («Медведь», «Усни-трава», «Где спит рыбка») from a book printed in 1984 found in a secondhand bookshop in our hometown Petrozavodsk in Karelia, Russia, synthesizers and tone-changed samples. Спать (Sleep) A poem by the Russian poet Afanasy Fet from a book «Детство» (Childhood) published by “Detskaya Literatura” in 1975. Sound made with a synthesiser and cut sounds of a stone falling down from a cliff from the film about an airship. Recorded by Kot Kot (Lena Filatova) in Hegenberg and Weingarten, Germany in 2014 and 2016. Kot Kot (Lena Filatova) is a musician from Karelia, North-West Russia, currently residing in Germany. She plays and records music based on found sounds and sound collages, both abstract and rhythmic. These are minimalistic songs and pieces inspired by late Soviet magazines and books for children. The lyrics are a sporadic mixture of texts and poems, worked out into new short but complete texts. Reverberating rhythms, hypnotic synthesizers, otherworldly singing, and melodies mingle here with childhood memories, picture books about nature, and a wood inside your wardrobe. /kotkotsings.bandcamp.com/dvazd.tumblr.com/ Text by Lena Filatova Curated by Sergey Komarov Release date: February 19, 2017
CAA—31 Budhaditya Chattopadhyay These two pieces are taken from Elements Songcycle — an ongoing series of uninterrupted and mostly unprocessed field recordings that employ multiple microphones at once, capturing sounds from a particular site embedded with a spatial character and rich with elementary sound sources, such as water and the wind. These works search for hidden melodies and uncertain rhythms in the lived environment unfolding within careful and attentive listening. Budhaditya Chattopadhyay is an Indian-born artist, researcher, writer and theorist. Chattopadhyay’s work questions the materiality, site-specificity, and object-hood of sound and addresses the aspects of contingency, contemplation, mindfulness, and transcendence inherent in listening. His artistic practice intends to shift the emphasis from “object” to “situation” in the realm of sound. /budhaditya.org/ Text by Budhaditya Chattopadhyay Curated by Sergey Komarov Release date: May 29, 2017
CAA—33 Thorsten Soltau DeStijnation features two tracks centered around the visual abstractions of the Dutch artistic movement De Stijl founded in 1917. The first track reflects the three primary values used by De Stijl. Three tape-loops were created, each linked with one value, black, white, or grey. The task was to give each value a specific sound scheme. For example, the value white was realized with a recording of a voice thinned out via spectral processings creating the impression of a rather bright monochrome sound surface. Deep tones are resembling the value black, whereas granular treatments of short Korg signals create a dense layer of sonic matter associated with a greyish tapestry, slowly re-shaping over the runtime of the composition. Dance Of The Formants is the rendition of a cubistic dance without any obvious rhythm or beat signature. Stochastic filter techniques were applied to the Korg signal creating shiftings slowly fading in pure tones shifting across the stereo field in exact harmonic relation. The breaks beneath the soundpool of the composition form a hidden rhythm — a mélange of start-stop inversions and geometrically arranged loops. Zwart, Wit En Grijs (Version G) is a special arrangement made for this release. A different mix (Version L) is part of De Stijlphone (Un Cahier de Curiosités n°5), a tape/magazine published by L'Art Pénultième in October 2017. /lartpenultieme.blogspot.fr/ This release is dedicated to Olivier Prieur Source material: voice and Korg MS-20 Recorded April 2017 at Lichter Raum, Schortens Text by Thorsten Soltau Curated by Sergey Komarov Release date: August 20, 2017
CAA—34 Luke Lund Dawnlight and Halcyon are two improvised percussive guitar pieces that explore minimal rhythmic patterns with felt mallets, attempting to capture slowly deteriorating, hazy youth memories. The pieces playfully skip around, adding hints of dub music with a custom tape echo that is in polyrhythmic interplay with an open-tuning Charvel 6-string guitar jacked to a Marshall amplifier. This is expanded with a Dr. Scientist Reverberator, only adding to the God of dub. Ring is, in hindsight, although rather loosely, tied both to guitars and the theme of reminiscing. Recorded in forests of my childhood, they are short extracts from a collection of works examining the resonation of massive steel guy-wires of mast radiators. Like guitar strings, each 200–350 meter wire has its own characteristic timbre; be it an ultra-low drone, metallic creak, or tonal howling. Ring is dedicated to Harry Bertoia, whose sound sculptures inspired the project. Special thanks to Jez Riley French for his magnificent JrF microphones. /lukelund.bandcamp.com/soundcloud.com/weight-less/ Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Luke Lund at Solace in June 2017. Ring was recorded in Kuusisto island, Lemu and Pitkämäki. Text by Luke Lund Curated by Sergey Komarov Release date: November 4, 2017
CAA—35 Alexey Grachev, Sergey Komarov Hourglass recording, originally made for 'Quantum' installation on B&K tape recorder @381mm/sec. Shown during Cyberfest—11 06:46 Quantum One of the directions in collaborations by Aleksey Grachev and Sergey Komarov, is the study of animate and inanimate noises found in nature. In this work, the artists conduct an analysis of time-space. Using precise accelerometers and amplifiers, they register the noise of sand that trickles in an hourglass on the magnetic tape. This sound is analyzed using a regenerating-computing system, accurate to a grain, and the "quanta" of time gets recounted. The work is stereophonic: sound reflects the time, and, in effect, it is time departing from one headphone channel and arriving in the opposite one, having flown through the space listener. This installation is simultaneously a vocalization of time and an attempt to quantize and recount it. This recording was made from the sound installation Quantum, showcased for the first time at CYFEST-11, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 2018. Quantum, Sound Installation, 2017 audio [00:10:00, real-time generated], DSP grains counter; Max/MSP, Arduino; steel, welding, soldering, plexiglass, LCD screen, 3D printing, audiotape, tape recorder, sensors, microcontroller, speakers Engineers Alexey Grachev, Sergey Komarov; 3D modeling by Alexey Grachev; Max/MSP Programing by Sergey Komarov Text by Alexey Grachev, Sergey Komarov Curated by Sergey Komarov Release date: April 1, 2018
CAA—37 Nao Nishihara Oil Drums, sound installation, 2015 Nao's installation is brilliantly simple: three drums are spun by electric motors, and rubber balls are rubbing against their bottoms making loud drawling sound. The simplicity stops here, and the listener is enveloped by the sound of literally fractal complexity: the tone quality keeps changing because the system is imperfect. The temperature, the humidity, the friction of the rubber balls, the unstable mechanism, etc all affect the sound. Even in the short moments of stability, the throbbing of the three sound sources in the huge hall makes a strong impression, alternatively changing from exultation to long reverberation. Therefore this sound exists only now and here in front of you. Also, it is a kind of gap that this light and bright sound originates from the oil drum, which is deeply oiled in heavy industries. A gap is the possibility of a human being because human beings always try to fill the gap. This recording was made in 2017 during CYFEST-10 in the Saint Petersburg Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design, where the work was exhibited. The place for Nao's installation was chosen due to the spatial dynamics of the Great Hall of the Stieglitz Academy: 1196 square meters, and its dome is 18 meters high. That's the biggest hall in St. Petersburg. Its natural reverberation period is about 7 seconds. Nao Nishihara was born in 1976 in Hiroshima, Japan. An active practitioner of sound art and performance. Inspired by Dadaism and the classical music of Japan, he is known for building movement-animated, half-autonomous sound machines that explore the bodily aspect of creating and performing music in space. Text by Sergey Komarov and Nao Nishihara Curated by Sergey Komarov Release date: May 1, 2018
CAA—38 Sam Conran Magnetic intervals. Magnetic field recordings sampled in Supercollider and pitched at harmonic-minor intervals. Magnetic spike is trigger source for arpeggiator. 06:21 Cosmic ray Thevenin’s arp. Interference with the Nyquist frequencies, basically magnetometer being disrupted by cosmic rays. 04:03 The Kabbalistic Synthesizer, 2015 The Kabbalistic Synthesizer was made in collaboration with Imperial College Blackett Lab for Physics (Mag Lab) and the Royal College of Art Design Interactions department in 2015. The synth uses fluctuations in the Earth's Magnetic Field measured in micro Tesla as the base carrier frequency of a 22 stage FM voice system based on John Chowning's Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence (1967). It has a live input of Jovian Decametric Noise from an embedded NASA Radio Jove receiver with an outboard Fractal Loop Antennae as well having an 11 channel Cosmic Ray Detector and true random event generator in place of a customary clock. The synth was ultimately built as a studio/personal tool but has also been exhibited/performed at Moogfest North Carolina 2016, ACT Festival Korea 2016, as well as going on a commissioned tour of stone circles in Redruth Penwith West Cornwall and was nominated for the ARS Electronica STARTS prize 2016. Sam Conran also performed The Kabbalistic Synthesiser during the opening at CYFEST-11 at Annenkirche, St. Petersburg in 2018. Text by Sam Conran Curated by Sergey Komarov Release date: May 13, 2018