Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Medienwissenschaft

During our time together this evening, I will intorduce two media archeaological art projects I have realized over the past few years.

 

TONEWHEELS (2007-present) is an experiment in converting graphical imagery to sound, inspired by some of the pioneering 20th Century electronic music inventions such as the ANS Synthesizer (Murzin USSR 1937-57), the Variophone (Sholpo USSR 1930), The Light-Tone Organ (Welte DE 1936) and the Oramics system (Oram UK 1957). Transparent tonewheels with repeating patterns are spun over light-sensitive electronic circuitry to produce sound and light pulsations and textures.

 

Taking it's name from the advanced speech security system developed by the pioneering English computer scientist and cryptanalyst Alan Turing in the Second World War, "Delilah Too: An Archaeology of Privacy" presents a model of voice encryption as a method to protect privacy while still speaking in the public sphere. Technologically, "Delilah Too" is based on the voice scrambling capabilities of the vocoder, a device far better known for its role in the history of electronic music than for its cryptologic potential.

 

Taking cues from the research methods of Friedrich Kittler, the phenomenological compositions of Alvin Lucier and DIY spirit of electronic arts pioneers such as Steina and Woody Vasulka, I will discuss my use of "obsolete" technology as a lens to view contemporary problems.

 

Derek Holzer (1972) is an American instrument builder and sound artist based in Berlin DE, whose current interests include DIY analog electronics, the relationship between sound + space, media archaeology and the meeting points of electroacoustic, noise, improv and extreme music. He has performed live, taught workshops and created scores of unique instruments and installations since 2002 across Europe, North and South America, and New Zealand. http://macumbista.net