LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University’s Studio 300: Digital Art and Music Festival showcases the cutting edge of art in the digital age with nine exhibitions, three concerts and four lectures presented by 33 musicians and 130 artists in just two days.
The festival, free and open to the community, is Oct. 4 and 5. Exploring creative manifestations of technology is the festival’s focus. Timothy Polashek, director of the festival and assistant professor of music at Transylvania, emphasizes the importance of innovation: “All the artists and musicians involved are also technologists who build their own tools, instead of using preexisting tools in traditional ways. This is one of the factors that makes Studio 300 really exciting.” Polashek is himself a software creator and an internationally recognized composer.
Studio 300’s exhibitions include “Waves & Currents: An Exploration of Sound, Light, and Time,” by Montréal artist Lenka Novakova and Boston artist Georgie Friedman, in Transylvania’s Morlan Gallery through Oct. 11.
Other notable exhibitions include “Vox-Novus 60×60 Video Mix” and the BYTE Gallery International Exhibition. “60×60” is a one-hour multimedia performance made up of sixty 60-second or shorter compositions by artists from around the world. The BYTE Gallery International Exhibition will feature 45 works, selected from several hundred internationally submitted entries. The BYTE gallery features video, audio and still images from all over the world, including Iran, Germany, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Japan, Italy and France.
Three multi-artist concerts and four Art Talks over the two days round out the schedule. (A complete schedule follows.) You can also visit the Studio 300 website for details about the artists and events.
The festival will give Transylvania students and the community “an exclusive front row seat,” Polashek says, to experience the newest developments of international digital art.
For more information about Transylvania’s music technology major or the Studio 300 festival, contact Tim Polashek at tpolashek@transy.edu or 859-233-8254.
Festival details
Studio 300 begins with an Art Talk on Friday, Oct. 4, at 10:30 a.m. and continues with an afternoon of open art installations, another lecture, and two concerts Friday evening. The first concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in Transylvania’s Haggin Auditorium; the second is at Al’s Bar at 601 N. Limestone St. starting at 11 p.m. Each concert features six or seven different artist-composers, offering the audience a wide exposure to unique video, audio and other digital media music varieties.
Saturday’s events include an Art Talk at 11 a.m. and another at 2 p.m., art installations until 7:30 p.m., and a concert in Haggin Auditorium at 7:30 p.m.
Each of the four Art Talk events has a built-in interactive component. For example, “You Are Coming For Us. We Are Coming For You,” is a collaborative performance art work between artists Dmitry “Dima” Strakovsky and Nick Warner, who team up with Kentucky’s sci-fi/electronica act, Italian Beaches. The result is an interactive live performance that blends digital beats, visual imagery and sound with live analog instrumentation manipulated by audience members via midi-controllers.
Among the array of internationally, nationally and regionally acclaimed artists and musicians are Transylvania faculty and students. Larry Barnes, professor of music, will perform “Beyond the Golden Door,” and Polashek will perform “Sonata.” Transylvania students and recent graduates also contribute to the festival, including Zach Bain-Selbo ‘15, Dustin Jones ’13 and Lindsay Studer ’13, who will play the “Late Night with Digital Al” venue at Lexington’s Al’s Bar.
Ryla Luttrell ’12 will exhibit “Illuminated,” a light and audio sculpture. Laura Campbell ’13, Joseph Perkins ‘13, Dustin Jones ’13, Adam Greene ‘13 and Tyler Turcotte ‘15 have works in the BYTE Gallery. In addition, three Transylvania classes will have exhibitions on view: “SITE ART: Audio Postcards” by the Art and Acoustic Ecology students, “Digital Reflections” by the Introduction to Digital Rhetorics students, and “808s & Nancarrow-ama” by the Introduction to Music Technology students.
Transylvania offers a degree in music technology and encourages art majors to incorporate digital mediums by using the Fine Arts Technology Lab, which offers state-of-the-art audio and video software and hardware.
Schedule of events
ART TALKS
FRIDAY, OCT. 4, 10:30–11:20 a.m. — “Technology, Composition, Performance,” demonstration by composer and flutist Linda Antas.Faculty Lounge, Mitchell Fine Arts Center.
FRIDAY, OCT. 4, 1:30–2:20 p.m. — “Humanexus the Film: Humanity Through Time and Technology,” by Norbert Herber. Faculty Lounge, Mitchell Fine Arts Center.
SATURDAY, OCT. 5, 11 a.m.–noon — “Bouncing: An Interactive Audio-Visual Installation,” demonstration by Krzysztof Wolek and Zach Thomas. Coleman Recital Hall, Mitchell Fine Arts Center.
SATURDAY, OCT. 5, 2–3 p.m. — “You Are Coming for Us. We Are Coming For You,” demonstration by Italian Beaches. Faculty Lounge, Mitchell Fine Arts Center.
EXHIBITIONS
Oct. 4 and 5, noon–7:30 p.m. Art installations are in the venues specified below inside the Mitchell Fine Arts Center.
Faculty Lounge
“808s & Nancarrow-ama” by Introduction to Music Technology students
“Digital Reflections” by Introduction to Digital Rhetorics students (available for viewing 4:30-6:30 p.m.)
“SITE ART: Audio Postcards” by Art and Acoustic Ecology students
Rafskeller Foyer
“BYTE Gallery International” by various artists
Coleman Recital Hall
“Bouncing: An Interactive Audio-Visual Installation” by Krzysztof Wolek and Zach Thomas
Haggin Foyer
“Notes from Underground” by David Jason Snow
Morlan Gallery
“Waves & Currents: An Exploration of Sound, Light, and Time” by Lenka Novakova and Georgie Friedman
Classroom #25
“Illuminated” by Ryla Luttrell
Classroom #27
“Vox-Novus 60×60 Video Mix” by various artists
CONCERTS
The three main concerts are titled “waves,” in homage of the electronic wave inspiring the digital festival. All are free and open to the public.
WAVE 1 Concert: Friday, Oct. 4, 7:30–9:30 p.m. Haggin Auditorium, Mitchell Fine Arts Center
- “Category 5 (Echoes)” by David Taddie; Mikylah McTeer, violin, and Francesca Arnone, flutes
- “Vessels” by Timothy Dwight Edwards; Timothy Dwight Edwards, wine glass
- “Mobile Variation” by Krzysztof Wolek
- “Wunderkind” by Timothy Roy; Jeff Manchur, toy piano
- “Beyond the Golden Door” by Larry Barnes; Larry Barnes, piano
- “Humanexus” by Katy Börner, writer/producer; Ying-Fang Shen, animation/design, and Norbert Herber, music/soundtrack
- “Greed” by Christopher Biggs; Abderrahmán Anzaldúa, violin
WAVE 2 Concert: Friday, Oct. 4, 11 p.m.–12:30 a.m. “Late Night with Digital Al,” Al’s Bar, 601 N. Limestone, Lexington
- “I.D.R.” by Space Genetics; Paul Scea and Eric Haltmeier, laptop computers and woodwinds
- “One Moon Overtakes Five Shadows” by Josh Simmons
- “Toy Store” by Lindsay Studer
- “Z-dB Kiln Fired” by Zach Bain-Selbo
- “A Journey of Beats” by (F.L.A.C.) Dustin Jones
- “You Are Coming For Us. We Are Coming For You” by Italian Beaches; David Farris, Farhad Rezaei and Reva Williams, voice and interactive electronics (in collaboration with Nick Warner and Dmitry “Dima” Strakovsky)
WAVE 3 Concert: Saturday, Oct. 5, 7:30–9:30 p.m. Haggin Auditorium, Mitchell Fine Arts Center
- “Screaming Electric Whispers” by William Lackey; Leo Saguiguit, saxophone
- “Windhorse” by Linda Antas; Linda Antas, flute
- “Sonata” by Timothy Polashek
- “Prayer” by Ioannis Andriotis; Nicole Robertson, soprano
- “Seppuku” by Nathan Corder; Nathan Corder, guitar
- “Shoulderpieces” by Melody Eötvös
- “Glyph Tropes” by Patrick Long; Patrick Long, percussion