In anticipation of a soothing evening of Schubert performed by the brilliant Mitsuko Uchida at the Royal Festival Hall tonight.

On Sunday morning in Berlin, in collaboration with the Freie Universität, I attended a strange event.
On the basis of John Cage’s scores Branches (for amplified plant sounds and 4 performers, 1976) and Inlets (for water-filled conch shells and 3 performers, 1977), several artists created their respective instruments and performed for hours in a massive greenhouse. Those “instruments” were plants, preferably cacti, which were touched, plucked and “played”, as well as water-filled conch shells of different sizes, tipped in order to produce gurgling sounds.

For the past three weeks, Ryan McNamara has been working with over 1000 people at Elizabeth Dee Gallery to make a show and he would be very happy if you all would come to see the fruits of their labor. There is an opening reception this Saturday, March 24 from 6-8pm for the second phase of the exhibition.

On behalf of Ryan,
J-S

Thursday, March 22, 7pm
Breanna O’Mara and Josh Weidenmiller

Thursday March 29, 7pm
Kim Brandt and Burr Johnson

All events are free and take place at:

Elizabeth Dee Gallery
545 W 20th St (between 10 & 11 Aves)
NEW YORK

SB6 contributor RON ATHEY has been a central figure in the development of performance art since the 1980s. In his stagings of crisis, sexuality and death in the time of AIDS, Athey calls into question the limits of artistic practice. Athey has been a crucial figure in the development of performance art and body art; club performance; intersections between punk, queer and alternative cultures; sexual politics, specifically in relation to queer practices and the politics of HIV/AIDS; and the representation of religion and ritual.


DOMINIC JOHNSON, also contributing to SB6 is an artist and writer based in the UK. He is a Lecturer in the Department of Drama, Queen Mary, University of London, and publishes frequently on performance and visual culture. His research interests include: performance art, live art, and body-based practices since 1960; performance and visual culture; representations of sex, sexuality, and HIV/AIDS; and subcultural histories, including body modification and performance in alternative spaces.


Iniva creates exhibitions, publications, multimedia, education and research projects engaging with new ideas and emerging debates in the contemporary visual arts which reflect the diversity of contemporary society.


On March 29th, Ron will screen two short videos of his performance work and in the following discussion he and Dominic will explore ideas of extremity as a bearer of cultural and aesthetic politics and as a voice for a political understanding of violence, care of the self and transcendence of the literal and the limited and the consensual.


This event is part of Blasphemy and Redemption, a series of talks and screenings curated and chaired by Adrian Rifkin in response to Roee Rosen: Vile, Evil Veil.



BOOK YOUR PLACE HERE!

In the framework of this year’s Cambridge Science Festival – the UK’s biggest free science festival – Professor John Barrow will cast a mathematical eye over a wide range of Olympic sporting events. What is going on mathematically in a range of running, swimming, jumping, throwing, paddling, lifting, swinging and wheelchair racing events? Barrow will also examine some of the strange scoring systems that sports employ.

Festival runs from March 12-25 at venues across the University and City.
Barrow will speak on Monday, 12 March (6:00PM – 7:00PM).

Heiner Goebbels’ will be performing his response to the 1890 journals of Joseph Conrad in London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall tonight. Goebbels will be joined  by Senegalese Griots Sira and Boubakar Djebaté (voice and kora), the French musician Xavier Garcia (electronics) and the actor André Wilms.

Although this performance for tonight has sold out it will be watchable online for a week afterwards!

Watch it here from tonight after 7pm GMT: http://aroomforlondon.co.uk/sounds-from-a-room