Convergence -The Soundtoys exhibition.2002. Convergence - new
audiovisual experiences online and offline. A showcase of artists who
use new musical interfaces and explore the audiovisual. Curated by
Stanza.

WWW.SOUNDTOYS.NET

A website for new experiments in audio visual media, sound and
interactive art.
Convergence - new audiovisual experiences online and offline from Soundtoys.net

Convergence the soundtoys exhibition is being shown at the ICA in
London as part of the Cybersonica festival at the new media centre
from june 5 th to mid july. There is also an artists talk on june 13
th. Soundtoys was featured at Den Hague film festival in late may and
Zeppelin Festival in Barcelona. Garage - festival for art, is
featuring soundtoys 26th july to 18th august 2002, Stralsund/Germany.

Introduction.

The exhibition showcases artists who use new musical interfaces and
explore new media for creative purposes. The exhibition reflects the
current fascination with creatives from all disciplines focusing on
new media and software for audio visual expression. Many artists
are developing their own programs, pushing beyond the boundaries
of the standard new media technologies, and standard interfaces.

Featured work includes Leafcutter John, and Pelado, both writing
their own applications in max and msp, used for manipulating sound.
Soundtoys also features Julian Baker and Ixi, both exploring
director software to make highly inventive stand-alone applications
and music tools. Another common area of exploration is with
sound controlled interfaces using the Antione Schmitt's FFT extra,
for example artists like Toxi, Area 3 and Atty's Multi-amaze.
Meanwhile the likes of Schmitt and Bakteria are building
autonomous generative machines. Also installed on one of the machines
is Golin Levin's beautiful interactive Flong piece, written in Java
and only available as a stand alone. And working in the same
sphere we have artists like Peter Luining, Rechord and Stanza, all
with a fascination for interactive 'painting'. Stanza is also
exhibiting his new subvergence work, and the project 'inner city'.
Other premieres include Iriealist's new audio visual work and
Squidsoup's Alt Zero 4. And it wouldn't be fair to leave out some
of the audio visual artists who are currently working with 3-D
worlds like Christina Mc Phee, and the well known Glasbead by John
Klima. Soundtoys would also like to acknowledge online contributions
by Andy Wilson, Jim Andrew and Jay Malaiperuman and the other
hunfred artists exhibiting who have allowed for this project
to develop.


About Convergence.

The merging of the audio and the visual is increasingly becoming a
central issue in the development of interactive media. Web artists
are fusing the arts, incorporating a wide range of approaches to the
medium of the Internet and audio visual practice. Artists are
producing new audio visual experiences, and this includes art, games,
generative music and interactive environments. Advances in computer
and online technologies have provided a whole new way of artistic
expression and experience which incorporates opportunities for
non-linear experience and interactivity as well as this convergence.
Artists are attracted to a sense of connection and convergence which
is one of several qualities inherent to the Internet as a medium for
creative expression; sound,visual effect, time, movement and
interaction all provide new parameters for the development of
contemporary art. Artists have always been influenced by technology.
The convergence of hardware and software has enabled many types of
creatives to meet or converge. We are now seeing the emergence of a
new art form. As this newness unfolds a history will unfold with it.
At the moment there is a blurring of the boundaries as many
approaches are adopted, and this is confused further because of the
constantly changing and developing nature of technologies which also
allows for the artwork themselves to change. We are starting to see a
much bigger emphasis on works that generate and evolve. Formal
relationship to art will change as the artists relationship to the
process changes. Online, we have net.art - artists that are
specifically addressing the uses and abuses of the Internet as a
medium for creative expression. Within this context artists are
exploring many technologies including shockwave, flash, vrml and
java. And offline we see more application driven interface
experiments using technologies such as max, super collider, and
exploiting multi user systems, generative audio, and graphics
displays. This exhibition addresses the blurring of these boundaries
and presents artists working at the edge of software development and
arts practise and the new musical interface. The exhibition offers
insights into the diverse and creative nature of the web which is
available to today's artists. These works could been seen as a new
art form, or as a contribution to the new music and electronica.

About Soundtoys

In recognition of the pioneering experimental works continually being
produced by artists for the internet Soundtoys.net has been
established to provide a space for the exhibition of exciting new
works by a growing community of audio visual artists, while also
providing a forum for discourse around new technologies and the
nature of interactive media. The site is intended to provide a
meeting point for this growing community of artists and users, and in
addition to the exhibition of audio visual projects, the site
contains areas for artists interviews, links to resources, and
texts by contributing writers where serious issues around
interactive arts, audio visual synthesis, generative art, and a
history of interactivity are discussed. Hopefully it is a fun and
entertaining site to visit , while also providing valuable
information for all parties.

Soundtoys (www.soundtoys.net) may take the form of art, games,
generative music, interactive environments, shockwave movies, etc.
They might be described as the fusion of audio and visual output
through new technologies made available for the internet. But because
this site intends to encourage the expansion of the possibilities of
this new media, hard and exclusive definitions are avoided, and each
contributing artist to the exhibition is invited to provide their
own views to help develop the dialectic.


The soundtoys site features a journal section which aims to provide
a forum for debate around the creative use of new technologies for
the internet, past, present and future. All interested parties -
artists, writers, programmers, scientists, philosophers - are
encouraged to post their related essays, texts, articles and debates,
and we envisage that this journal will become a valuable reference
and research tool which will inform current practice and future
development.


Soundtoys.net currently features contributions from these artists…..

area3 . ian andrews . jim andrews . amy alexandra . rain ashford .
bakteria. detlef bursiek. andrew bucksbarg . julian baker. boredom
research .beth carey . gregoire clique. steven clark. jonah brucker
cohen. corby and baily . trip dixon . carla diana . eric deis .
duodecimo . flx. martin franklin . andy forbes . ana galkina. michiel
van der haagen . andy huntington . leafcutter john . brian judy .
andy greenwood. ixi . iriealists . mickel knaven. john klima. shirin
kouladjie . simon lalli . labau . golin levin . christina mcphee .
hidekazu minami . jey malaiperuman. wade marynowsky. richard mullarky
. jason nelson . glorious ninth . photon. emilie pitoiset . alan
peacock . tina la porta . pelado. perestroika. peter luining .
benjamin louis . rikard lundstedt . rechord. adam rogers.
semiconductor. sascha. jonathan snyder . antoine schmitt . greg sidel
. barry smylie . yoshi sodeoka . soda . squidsoup . stanza . submeta
. michael szpakowski. brad todd. toxi . tomoo. peter traub . michael
trommer . paul webb . ade ward. andy wilson. john woodward . jeff
wookey . chris yewell .



Special thanks to all those artists and contributors and everyone
that sent in material ….thanks…stanza