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  • audiovisual electroacoustic improvisation with Birgit Ulher, Jacob Felix Heule , and Bill Hsu

    Co-sponsored by  Goethe Institute.
    Bay area improvisers Jacob Heule (percussion) and Bill Hsu (electronics, interactive animations), joined by Birgit Ulher (trumpet, electronics) from Hamburg, Germany, present an evening of improvisations on acoustic and electronic instruments, and interactive video.
    Video clips:
    Birgit Ulher studied the visual arts, which still have an important influence on her music. She works mainly on extending the sounding possibilities of the trumpet and has developed her own extended techniques and preparations for producing these sounds. She performs solo, with her working ensembles, dancers, visual artists and one-time collaborations with musicians from around the world, including Ute Wassermann, Gino Robair, Bill Hsu, Leonel Kaplan, Christoph Schiller, Heddy Boubaker, Gregory Büttner, Michael Maierhof and Forbes Graham, amongst others. Concerts and festivals in Europe, USA, South America, Russia and the Middle East. Website: www.birgit-ulher.de
    Jacob Felix Heule is a percussionist and electronic musician focused on sound-oriented improvisation following the traditions of electro-acoustic improv, noise, and 20th-century composition. His playing embraces both rough-edged intensity and disciplined instrumental technique.
    Heule’s Norwegian/American acoustic noise ensemble Sult has been actively touring the US and Europe, and released its second album, Harm, in 2013. His local group Addleds (with Kyle Bruckmann, Kanoko Nishi, and Tony Dryer) was awarded a grant from the San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music to hold a concert series in the fall of 2013. Heule has also been actively touring with Voicehandler, his electro-acoustic duo with Danishta Rivero, and they are currently working on a recording of the their open-form song cycle. Website: http://www.heule.us
    Bill Hsu has built systems, tools, installations and compositions in collaboration with Peter van Bergen, Chris Burns, John Butcher, James Fei, Matt Heckert, Lynn Hershman, Jeremy Mende, Gino Robair, and Birgit Ulher. He has performed and exhibited work in the US, Europe, Asia, and Australia. He teaches and does research in the Department of Computer Science at San Francisco State University. Website: http://unixlab.sfsu.edu/~whsu/art.html

     

  • George Kuchar: “Storm Squatter”

    The second of two nights celebrating the life and works of the hugely influential filmmaker brothers George Kuchar (1942-2011) and Mike Kuchar.

    George Kuchar’s long and loving interest in extreme weather is most poignantly portrayed in his “weather diary” films depicting his tornado-chasing exploits during severe storm seasons in Oklahoma. He habitually took up residence in hotel rooms and trailer parks in order to follow the storms as well as the locals.

    I am not a storm chaser as I never learned how to drive a car. I wanted to experience springtime storms on the American plains like the simple folk I read about in those library books. Therefore the videos in the weather diaries depict the turmoil, tedium, terror and televised terrain of tornado country through the eyes of a transplant. At times I try to blend in, to digest the alien ambiance, the fast food and slow-motion days. Ailments galore pepper the series along with glimpses of those who pass like gas, vapors of vitality to sniff at with a gizmo that doesn’t have a nose. But I do hope you enjoy what its eye captures on this journey of jubilant junk food and delightful dread. – George Kuchar

    WEATHERDIA_002Weather Diary #2 (1966, 70 minutes)

    One of Kuchar’s fascinations is extreme weather. Every year for vacation he spends his time in a small motel room in El Reno, Oklahoma, waiting for a tornado to touch down in the small town. Here he copes with leaking air conditioning, food shopping, loneliness, television, and eating, among other things.

    Weather Diary # 4 (1988, 48 minutes) 

    Attempting to apologize for the lack of good weather in Weather Diary 3, George arrives in Milwaukee only to find the drought back in full swing. Since there’s not enough good weather, the tape becomes a social diary against the backdrop of the Motivation Of The Carcasoids project.

     

     

  • Mike Kuchar: New & Recent Works

    mikeOver two nights, ATA celebrates the life and works of the hugely influential filmmaker brothers George Kuchar (1942-2011) and Mike Kuchar. Night one focuses on new and recent works by Mike Kuchar, feature the “SoulSearching” and generation Z series.Program:LOST BLUES

    SUMMER SINS

    SOULSEACKERS

    NONSENSICLE

    CHASING SHADOWS

    GENERATION Z

    THE SPIDER’S PARLOR (SFAI collaborative class project)