Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center present:

ALESSANDRO BOSETTI: MASK/MIRROR

MONDAY JANUARY 26, 2009,
7PM FREE

HARVESTWORKS DIGITAL MEDIA ARTS CENTER
596 Broadway #602 
New York City (at Houston St)
Subway: F/V Broadway/Lafayette, 6 Bleecker, W/R Prince

Harvestworks is pleased to present Mask/Mirror by Italian composer and sound artist Alessandro Bosetti. Mask/Mirror (M/M) is a sampler-based software tool written created using Max/MSP that processes recordings of spoken language in real time. In performance, the composer uses samples of his own voice to create an ambiguous situation of being interrupted by himself all the time and of having to resort to all possible resources to keep making sense. The sampler follows both sound and meaning criteria in sorting, organizing and processing samples and formulating utterances.

Bosetti has performed more than 40 shows with M/M in Europe and the United States. Performances often build up to collective and interactive events where the audience gets actively engaged. This instrument has also been feature on radio shows, like a phone-in performance for Kunstradio.at and a live interview on WMFU. Bosetti also plans to explore the therapeutic use of this instrument with people with speech disorders like aphasia.

M/M has been made possible by taking immersive Max/MSP certification classes at Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center in NYC with interactive media artist/instructor Matthew Ostrowski. Additional work was done in collaboration with STEIM in Amsterdam.

BIOGRAPHY:
Alessandro Bosetti was born in Milan, Italy in 1973. 
A composer and sound artist, he works on the musicality of spoken words and unusual aspects of spoken communication. He has produced text-sound compositions featured in live performances, radio broadcastings and published recordings. His work straddles the line between sound anthropology and composition, often including translation and misunderstanding in the creative process. Field research and interviews often build the basis for his abstract compositions along with electro-acoustic and acoustic collages, relational strategies, trained and untrained instrumental practices, vocal explorations and digital manipulations. Since he's curious about differences, he travels. Since 2006 he has lived and worked in West Africa, China, Taiwan, Holland, Scandinavia, United States, Germany and Italy. Presently he is working and living between Berlin (D), Milano (I) and Baltimore (USA). More information: www.melgun.net

About Harvestworks - www.harvestworks.org
Harvestworks is a nonprofit Digital Media Arts Center that provides resources for artists to learn digital tools and exhibit experimental work created with digital technologies. Our programs are made possible with funds from New York State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs, Materials for the Arts, the Mary Flagler Cary Trust, the Jerome Foundation, media The foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary Art, The New York State Music Fund, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, The Argosy Foundation, The Carnegie Corporation, The NY Community Trust, The Andy Warhol Foundation and the Friends of Harvestworks.