The jury committee of the 13th Japan Media Arts Festival has recommended SOUND NOMADS as excellent work in the art division 'Visual Image'.

The Festival and exhibition is held from Feb 3 to Feb 14 2010 at The National Art Center, Tokyo. The NACT is one of the largest art exhibition facilities in Japan.

Visions in New York City will be presenting SOUND NOMADS at Art Basel Miami Beach from Dec 3-6 2009. Art Basel Miami Beach is the most important art show in the United States, a cultural and social highlight for the Americas. As the sister event of Switzerland's Art Basel, the most prestigious art show worldwide for the past 40 years, Art Basel Miami Beach combines an international selection of top galleries with an exciting program of special exhibitions, parties and crossover events featuring music, film, architecture and design.

SOUND NOMADS as part of So Fresh! will also be shown at Art-Kino Croatia of Rijeka in Croatia Dec 7-13 2009.

The work 'Black Balloons' has been selected for competition at the international section of MADATAC, Madrid Festival of Contemporary Audio-Visual Arts. Screenings taking place at the Academia De Cine in Madrid Dec 10-12 2009.

Pantheon Xperimental Film/Animation Festival, Nicosia/Cyprus. Nov 27-28 2009
So Fresh!, Stazione Rogers, Trieste/Italy. Nov 17-29 2009
Borders+Segments, International ArtExpo, Baia Mare/Romania. Nov 13-14 2009
Visions in New York City, New York/USA. Nov 2-13 2009
Visionaria 18, Intl. Toscana Video Festival, Piombino/Italy. Oct 24-31 2009
So Fresh!, Gradisca d'Isonzo/Italy. Oct 10 2009
Electrofringe 09, Electronic Arts, Newcastle/Australia. Oct 1-5 2009
Split Film Festival, Split/Croatia. Sep 12-19 2009
So Fresh!, Galleria Comunale, Monfalcone/Italy. Sep 4-6 2009
BuSho Film Festival, Budapest/Hungary. Sep 1-6 2009

People's Choice Award: 'So Fresh!' / Ger Ger

One of the works finished in Tel Aviv earlier this year was part of VIDEOKILLS International Video Arts Festival 2009 (V:InVAF) in Berlin last week (Aug 26 - 30 2009). Amazing location: Stattbad.

The following exhibits have been extended: The highly successful show at LACDA has been extend to be open on Thursday September 10 for the upcoming LA Downtown ArtWalk. FILE 2009 in São Paulo has been extended to Sep 20. The Factory Exhibition at MoBY in Israel runs until Oct 10 2009.

SOUND NOMADS works are on display at LACDA (Los Angeles Center for Digital Art) as the central part of DigitalArt.LA, the multi-site international digital art expo. This exhibit - juried by Rita Gonzalez, curator of contemporary art, LACMA (L.A. County Museum of Art) - will run through September 5 2009. Reception: today 7PM.

Furthermore, the work 'Lantern Dogs' is on show at this year's Downtown Film Festival Los Angeles. It's part of the program 'Digital Arts Shorts'.

Screengrab, an exciting collection of screenbased works from across the globe at the eMerge Media Space. The exhibition including 'Luxor 22.145' runs until Aug 21, 2009. The reception took place on Aug 7.

Side note: A recent radio show by Somaya Langley on ABC Classic FM Australia featured audio pieces from SOUND NOMADS among other media art works, since I've been selected for Electrofringe's residences program (taking place this fall). It's still possible to listen to it online. The broadcast will be available until mid-August. Direct links: Real Audio | Windows Media

SOUND NOMADS works will be part of the FILE Media Art 2009 Exhibition in São Paulo/Brazil from Jul 28 to Aug 30 2009. FILE - Electronic Language International Festival - is one of the most renowned events for art and technology in the world.

Luxor 22.145 Screenings at the CON-CAN Movie Festival in Tokyo/Japan will start on Jul 31 2009.

SOUND NOMADS works are part of the exhibition Istanbul-Off-Spaces at the Kunstraum Bethanien in Berlin. Opening tomorrow Fri, Jul 3 at 7 PM. The show runs from Jul 4 through Aug 16 2009.

MAY 28	Art Performance: 'Still Evidence of Water'
Location	Parking Garage Complex, Dan Panorama Hotel, Tel Aviv, ISRAEL
Timeframe	0:00-1:30 AM [1h 30min] | 2:15 min. Video Runtime
Preparation	MAY 28. sound recordings, composing, sensor calibrations, software adjustments
Guest Nomad	Mangara aka Matthias Cermak

Deserts, dry landscapes, signs of water, but rarely evidence, no proof. Access to water in the Middle East, a sensitive and critical issue. Catalyzing the peace process or inhibiting it. Screaming out loud - water - drinking - no heartbeat. Images looming beyond the horizon. Silence - drought - blood - alive?

In a nightly action a hotel parking garage turns into an imaginary water hole. A performance work in the frame of 'Factory' invited by MoBY (Museums of Bat Yam).

Technology: A microphone as an acoustic sensor hanging down from the roof. Screaming provokes crossfading from ECG monitor sounds to slurping noises. Silence brings the heartbeat back.

MAY 25-27	Art Performance: 'Evidence of Water'
Location	Hangar, Industrial Area (Factory Exhibition), Bat Yam, ISRAEL
Timeframe	3x 7:00-11:00 PM [4h] | 5:34 min. Video Runtime
Preparation	MAY 14-25. sound recordings, composing, sensor calibrations, assembling, hardware/software development/adjustments
Challenges	Light sensor calibrations, Platform Transition
Guest Nomad	Mangara aka Matthias Cermak

Nearly 20,000 known species of bees. Millions have simply vanished recently, lost their sense of orientation, no way back to their hives. An Israeli bee virus is strongly tied to the samples taken from keepers who reported the collapse disorder. The definition of colony collapse disorder - a soft one, made by people who define the syndrome, somewhat like chronic fatigue syndrome in people.
In parallel, Israel's history, fundamentals of land and sense of home. In contrast an ever growing population with voids remaining all over the world. Strong cohesion and ties to the land of milk and honey. Climate and water ressources: essential.
Deserts, dry landscapes, signs of water, but rarely evidence, no proof. Silence, introversive.
'If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left.'

An abandoned factory hall, buzz, sprinklers, slurping noises. Emergency Room Tel Aviv after a delayed bee sting allergic reaction. Within 30 seconds of exposure to a chemical agent, a colony of bees will change the sound it produces. All the frequencies shift and change. And so does this performance work in the frame of 'Factory' invited by MoBY (Museums of Bat Yam).

Technology: Glowing water/ing cans as instruments, metaphorical watering of sounds that trickle away, triggers, frequency shifts and delay rhythms. Ventilators as time signatures. Doorways of the hangar connected. Powered by light/distance/pressure sensors.

DAY 8-11: May 21-24. Technical development, artistic process, props, assembling, artists/MoBY gatherings - things come together.
DAY 12-14: May 25-27. Opening and Factory Performances in this major three day event at the Industrial Area of Bat Yam. 2 takes of the SOUND NOMADS live performance 'Evidence of Water' at the hangar each night. In parallel, SOUND NOMADS video works as part of the MoBY Factory exhibition in the Bat Yam Museum of Contemporary Art as projections and installations May 25 - Sep 26 2009.
DAY 15: May 28. Post production. Last night: A different secret performance took place in Tel Aviv around midnight. 'Evidence of Water II'.

See some Tel Aviv and Bat Yam impressions in the pictures. Detailed blog entries for performance actions will follow.

Late May/Early June Participations:
SOUND NOMADS work Black Ballons screened as part of the Berlin Shorts Program at Street Fest 09 in London on May 24.
In Istanbul video works are part of several Performance Screening Programs at the Kurye International Video Festival Jun 2-12 2009.
In Bochum a SOUND NOMADS installation will be part of this year's 19th edition of the International Videofestival Bochum Jun 18-20.

May 21: My Talk at the Center for Contemporary Art in Tel Aviv had to be canceled as i was suffering from a delayed allergic reaction to a bee sting during sound huntings of hives in Israel days before.

The talk would have been in the framework of the Factory exhibition. Artistic production and its relation to other forms of production.

Site-specific Intimacy: What can it mean to work site-specific and to be able to implement artistic reflections immediately locally - to turn every single thought into something? When the change of location becomes a direct source of inspiration and the actual process of making substantial and very apparent. How to reflect and express emotions of the very moment; spontaneously, poetically, unobtrusively or provocatively? Why to create own forms of artistic expression and ephemeral interactive playgrounds based on technical complexity and interdisciplinarity? Some personal thoughts about intimacy in media arts and my own works, in particular SOUND NOMADS.

May 18-19: 2 days with a car out of Tel Aviv. On the move. Once again, as last time: Cows don't moo. Desert, Valleys, small villages. Sound huntings at bee hives, stung. Late allergic reactions. Barely sleep on car seats. Storms. Totally self-constraint to work on. The Dead Sea. Doctor experience in Jericho. Jerusalem. 1050m of height difference. Huge swollen head, sting reactions getting worse every minute. Sound Huntings at the market. Via Dolorosa. Muezzins rooftops recordings. Google Maps route coming soon. Intense impressions, artistic reflections to follow.

DAY 1: May 14 2009. Surprise, surprise. Stolen photo equipment. Half-empty Peli case at the airport of Tel Aviv.
DAY 2: Camera (Rental) Hunting vs. Sound Hunting. Tel Aviv gallery walk, MoBY Factory artists meeting. Sabbath. Nightly city/beach walk for leadoff field recordings.
DAY 3: Sound editings, software preparations, drafts
DAY 4: Successful equipment rental, MoBY meetings, Sound Huntings in the industrial area of Bat Yam.
DAY 5-6: Sound Huntings across Israel. See separate blog entry for details.
DAY 7: Emergency Room (Sourasky Ichilov Medical Center), Recordings, Editings, Concept, Development

Several other important participations this month: A special video art presentation took place in the Historic Centre of Kalamata in an open space between Agii Apostoli and Amfeia's square in the frame of the "Art Walks" exhibition on May 2nd.

New site-specific SOUND NOMADS works will arise for MoBY's Factory (by an invitation of the Museums of Bat Yam) in Israel May 14-29. First time Guest Nomad: Mangara aka Matthias Cermak from Vienna/A. Various Blog entries will accompany the process. Stay tuned.

A SOUND NOMADS installation is also part of this year's festival edition of Re-New in Copenhagen/DK. Re-New 2009 presents during May 18-22 in Copenhagen a wide selection of the newest ground-breaking works in digital music, video, installations, performative and distributed/ collaborative art.
Works in all genres and categories in multimedia related art forms are included, where digital technologies are an unseparable part: those works that challenge or expand the current vocabulary and practice of digital creation, performance, and consumption.

The Takeaway Festival tries to identify the changing interfaces between technology and practice. It celebrates a D-I-Y praxis that is infusing the creative landscape and challenging the status quo of top down software and proprietary licensing. The platform wants to encourage artists who are ground breaking and original, who find interesting solutions for old problems and demonstrate new relationships between technology and other media. SOUND NOMADS is part of the exhibition at the Dana Centre, Science Museum, London. May 19-30.

A Canadian screening of Lantern Dogs is scheduled for this year's Dérapage 9 at the Centre de Design de l'UQAM on Thu, Apr 23 2009. Dérapage Teaser on Vimeo

The SOUND NOMADS project will be part of this first-of-its-kind event in Las Vegas, USA. Two weeks of Performances and Video Art of a total of 19 artists/artist groups at multiple locations. SOUND NOMADS works are on view at the Contemporary Arts Center Las Vegas in an exhibition in conjunction with works from artist Tony Schwenson April 12-17. The whole 'Off the Strip' event will run from April 2-17 in the context of a city culturally symbolic and conceptually loaded on so many levels.