Synthesis
John Harding, Gábor Lázár, Thomas McConville and Paul Stapleton
20 September – 1 November 2018
Synthesis, 2018
We understand the world around us by combining fragments of information, gathered and stored over a lifetime. Synthesis is the process of combining new information with previous understandings. In the gallery space, a space made for observation, we synthesise a unique experience through engagement with materials. With a focus on our sensory perceptions, this raises two questions:
How do spatial elements and physical context affect how we experience light and sound?
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How do light and sound affect how we experience spatial elements and physical context?
The combining of these stimulants together results in the creation of something new. This exhibition combines Sound Art, Visual Installation, and Reactive Sculpture that each affect and are affected by the space they reside in. These stimulants provide the audience members with new information and each individual synthesises there own interpretation.
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Artist Bios
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Gábor Lázár is an electronic musician born in 1989 in Budapest. His first release was a split tape with Russell Haswell in 2013, then in the same year he was invited by Lorenzo Senni to release a CD on Presto!? which led to Gábor’s first album ’ILS’ published early 2014. Right after ‘ILS’ he’s got invited by Conor Thomas to make a record for The Death of Rave, a label managed by a record distributor called Boomkat. His work ‘EP16’ has been critically acclaimed by magazines and festivals, at this time Gábor was already touring extensively in Europe, also taking part in artist residencies at House of Electronic Arts in Basel, at EMS in Stockholm and was a Shape Platform Artist as well. He made audio visual installations at Santa Monica Art Center in Barcelona and at Rewire Festival. In 2014 he met Mark Fell and they recorded a collaborative album in Budapest which was released in 2015 as ’The Neurobiology of Moral Decision Making’. The album was #11 on Rolling Stone Magazine’s 20 Best Avant Albums and #3 on Boomkat’s Favourite 100 Albums of the year and it was played by Aphex Twin at multiple festivals including Field Day London and Primavera Sound Barcelona which was described by The Quietus as one of the most head-spinning moments of Aphex Twin’s set. Later in 2017 he released a new album called Crisis of Representation on Shelter Press then in 2018 he turned back to The Death of Rave to release a new album called ‘Unfold’ which marks a new era of his works.
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Thomas McConville is.
www.facebook.com/mcconvillemusic
soundcloud.com/thomasmcconville
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Paul Stapleton is an improviser, sound designer, musician, researcher and inventor originally from Southern California, currently based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He designs and performs with a variety of modular metallic sound sculptures, custom made electronics, found objects and electric guitars in locations ranging from experimental music clubs in Berlin to remote beaches on Vancouver Island. Since 2007, he has been lecturing at the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC), where he teaches and supervises MA & PhD research in improvisation, performance ecosystem design and site-specific sound art. His album ‘FAUNA’ with saxophonist Simon Rose has received acclaim from music critics such as Ken Waxman (Jazzword), Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg (Orynx), Mark Corroto (All About Jazz), Marc Medwin (New York City Jazz Record) and others. His sound design and composition work as part of the immersive audio theatre piece Reassembled, Slightly Askew (2015) has received widespread critical praise, including 4 star reviews in The Guardian, Time Out London and the Evening Standard. Other major works-in-progress include the distributed instrument project Ambiguous Devices with Tom Davis, and the Translating Improvisation research group co-directed with Sara Ramshaw.
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John Harding is a designer and researcher who works within various areas which oscillate between the fields of Music and Creative Technologies. John’s work has particular focus on the development of new interfaces for musical expression and he owns and operates the popular creative tech blog site brrr.ink, which details forays into areas spanning Synthesis, Creative Coding, Music Technologies, Electronics, Rapid Prototyping and Creative Visuals. He is also Co-Cheif Technology Officer at Delta Sound Labs, based in the USA a company that develops new Music Technology related hardware and Software with worldwide distribution both in Europe and the USA. John has been part of the core teaching team at Creative Technologies at Ulster University Magee for over a decade.
www.brrr.ink
https://instagram.com/brrr.ink
https://www.deltasoundlabs.com
Kindly supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.