some things coming up in august...

Ok... been so long time since i blogged now - so i take the opportunity to write about some different things coming up. Both ongoing projects and some starting soon in august. Here we go...

Avatar Orchestra Metaverse is a project I have been involved in since februar 2007. This is an virtual orchestra in Second Life that have about 15 members all over world. We play different new music that are composed by the members. We only use virtual instruments and in-world sounds but we often appears in mixed reality situations/events. I have been writing three pieces for the orchestra, Rue Blanche, FRAGULA and Vicky's Mosquitos 13 (which was the virtual adaption of Harold Schellinx project Vickys Mosquitos).

Since earlier works with Rinus van Alebeek in spring in Eskilstuna/Stockholm it has now happened that I am responsible for the virtual section in Second Life of festival day 10th august 2007 of Das Kleine Field Recordings Festival in Berlin by Rinus van Alebeek. We will host the virtual festival at the Odyssey Island where we have received fantastic support from curator Sugar Seville and Chi5 Shenzhou who builds specially designed sound houses for the happening.

New piece for AOM

Fragula, a new short piece by me will be premiered by AOM on the PgUp happenings on saturday the 30th june. Read more at AOM blog and spinster Vooms blog. Fragula makes use of Bingo Onomatopoeias great HUDs for sounds and visuals especially made for this piece.

1 @ 4 by Juria Yoshikawa

Yes, behind the somewhat enigmatic title of this blogpost there is a new music piece called "1" by me that will be involved in the new installation by Juria Yoshikawa called "4". The installation is opening at sunday 3rd june, 9am (SLT) See below for details where I include all the original notecard for the installation sent out by Juria.
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INSTALLATION - "4"
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Juria Yoshikawa
At White Cube Gallery
June 3rd to July 4th

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Stadtrand/79/73/22

Original musical compositions by the talented and skilled Miulew Takahe, Bingo Onomatopoeia, Auxillary Snook and AldoManutio Abruzzo.


4 weeks, 4 installations and 4 composers. "4" is the latest artistic romp of emerging virtual artist Juria Yoshikawa. Given a month in a 15x15 meter cube shaped art space, she has chosen to use a single number as the beat to create her artwork to. The idea is simple. Yoshikawa will install a new artwork in the gallery each week. The minimalist number concept then extends to the 4 SL musicians she has called on to collaborate with, one each week. Each composer is given a single number 1, 2, 3 or 4 to create a soundscape based on their musical interpretation of that number. Yoshikawa herself will use her 4 opportunities to extend her ongoing exploration of light in immersive spaces. Yet this time, she has taken on the challenge of using the art space itself as the raw material of the sculpture. As with light, sound, motion and time - the art space is material for the creator. We are left with a question. Can a simple number inspire? Yoshikawa, 4 composers and you have 4 weeks to find out. Please join us at 4.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Super thanks to the 4 musicians who agreed to create original soundscapes at such short notice. Also thanks to my international friends and family who recorced their voices for the show. Last but not least, many thanks to Dan, Frank and Elynn at the White Cube Gallery for keeping their minds open and allowing to use their superb art space in unconventional ways. Thanks all!


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ARTIST - JURIA YOSHIKAWA
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HER ARRIVAL IN SL
After two decades of creative pursuits - ranging from conceptual art, installation, poetry, performance, computer art, animation, photography and digital design - Juria Yoshikawa arrived in Second Life in the winter of 2007 looking for a new artistic spark. Initially picking up the usual odds and ends of objects, textures and scripts - almost immediately she began building large scale kinetic sculptures in public sandboxes and friends' land.

ROOTS OF THE WORK
Rather than bringing in rl artwork, Juria felt compelled to use mainly the elements that make up sl itself. At the same time, drawing from a long time interest in site-specific installation art, she often looks to the surroundings for stories waiting to be dug up, using this to transform the space or be transformed by it. Inspired by a spectrum of cross-discipline rl influences including Christo, Brian Eno, Haruki Murakami to name a few, she seeks a multimedia experience to create a presence within her work.

FREEDOM TO CREATE
A typical Juria Yoshikawa virtual artwork mixes kinetic objects, animated texture, ambient noise and av animations. She inevitably chooses scales larger than conventional gallery work because she is interested in people experiencing the work in a physical way - flying through them, riding on them and socializing within the art. To Juria, still new to sl, virtual art is about freeing oneself up to create in ways she finds impossible in real life. She loves the idea of art as a social medium and is seeking opportunities to collaborate with like minded artists and curators.

Read her blog bio at http://memespelunk.org/blog/?page_id=39
Contact her by sl IM or email her at mailto:juriayoshikawa@memespelunk.org

RECENT INTERVIEW

A new interview of Juria just came out on the Virtual Artist Alliance blog. It covers her art philosopy and her take on making participatory art in RL.
http://virtualartistsalliance.blogspot.com/2007/05/vaa-interviews-juria-yoshikawa.html

Long time no blog!...

Well, just a little lifesign that Miulew Takahe do still exists - and maybe even more busy than ever. So that's mainly the reason for no updates on this lil' blog of mine since february. If you feel like checking out some of my whereabouts - do update yourself on the Avatar Orchestra Metaverses blog - and also do check out Sugar Sevilles new Ning community/site called odysseykunst.com I have a profile page there aswell where you might catch up some latest meanderings.

Jitterbug Ponk (Golden Dust for Vit)

Jitterbug Ponk (Golden Dust for Vit) 5:39

This is a pre-avatrix track that was made as a tribute to Vit, the wonderous liminal avatrice that brings so much inspiration these days. The sounds used in this track comes from the Mesh party at InTheGrid in Chicago on the friday 26th of jan. At this poetry and music party that took place both in Second Life and Real Life Björn Eriksson was playing some wild improvised clarinets and more while avatar Miulew Takahe was supervising the whole thing. Please feel free to read Jason Pettus blog posting on this at:
http://www.jasonpettus.com/inthegrid/2007/01/party_success_faith_in_second.html

Track description:

A high drone - along with some lowpitched voices and speeded up clarinets starts this track. Soon a kids glockenspiel adds up to Björn's "Say when!" refereng to when to start the transmission thru Skype into the Second Life Mesh party. Soon the gold dust sweeps in... consisting of fine grains of pure gold. Interdialog between mesh and Björn's place takes the piece into some backward soundings of anothes gold dust sweeps... mixed in with mesh sounds... clarinets... voices. Some accompanying metal stick sounds from garden 2005 points out some timestamps to remember. In the end some wild distorted clarinets brings the piece to a disturbing place not far from here. . . but i guess this ain't the place. Well. . . . i guess you better just listen! This is considered a ponk piece. Hope you like it!

To download or listen:
http://miulew.podomatic.com/

Celebrating Arts Birthday on the Pomodoro Bolzano deck!

On the 17th of january at the Art's Birthday happenings over at the Pomodoro Bolzano Gallery (art.think.box), located at Netherbeck (158, 175, 82)
I was doing live streaming on the deck with my laptop. I was on it in about 2 hours which for my standards must be something of barrier breaking. I was meshing found and recorded sounds from various location that my higher supreme being had prepared for me. The whole evening was a blast for me and I was really enjoying my stay on the deck as people danced away the night. One reporter from The AvaStar popped by to make an article about the ongoing exhibition of the artists of the Pomodora Bolzano group and I also got some words in there about the experiences of being an avatar making music in 2nd life. On page 18 in issue no.5 of The AvaStar you can read some about this.
If you missed the event there will soon be an option to listen to the recordings of these sets that I call Dust Hearby in Stereo, part 1 and part 2. Thanks to all collaborating forces that made this evening come true.

Miulew Takahe - sound explorer in Second Life

Welcome to my new blog. I will not introduce myself more than saying that my main reason for going to Second Life is to explore and find out more about different ways to creatively use audio in context with other media. I am myself a musician playing both electronic and acoustic instruments. If you are interested in being part of ongoing live happenings and other projects inWorld, please contact me! (inWorld). I am also very interested in different art projects where there is collaboration and crossreferencing between First Life and Second Life.