Robert Blatt / Michael Winter

here we go: 24.9. , open 7pm, performances 8pm

Robert Blatt creates work rooted in explorations of expanded sonic situations through varying frames and gradations of environment, notation, object, performance, text and tone. The notion of a score in its exhaustive sense makes a regular appearance in his practice, often dissolving within it aspects of site, material, language and presence as vehicles for an unspecified or autonomous encounter with the ambiguities of the work itself. His work is presented in the context of performances, exhibitions, readings, publications and a variety of hard-to-pin-down situations, and has been supported through a fellowship from Akademie Schloss Solitude (DE) and residencies through Initiative for Digital Exploration of Arts and Sciences (CA), Jack Straw Cultural Center (WA) and GEMAK (NL). He co-founded/directed the Miami-based Inlets Foundation for Experimental Practices and the international experimental music/performance art collective Acid Police Noise Ensemble. He holds degrees from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and the University of Washington.

Statement Michael Winter:
My work often explores simple processes where dynamic systems, situations, and settings are defined through minimal graphic- and text-based scores that can be realized in a variety of ways. To me, everything we experience is computable. Given this digital philosophy, I acknowledge even my most open works as algorithmic; and, while not always apparent on the surface of any given piece, the considerations of computability and epistemology are integral to my practice. I often reconcile epistemological limits with artistic practicality by considering and addressing the limits of computation from a musical and experiential vantage point and by collaborating with other artists, mathematicians, and scientists in order to integrate objects, ideas, and texts from various domains as structural elements in my pieces.

I have performed across the Americas and Europe at venues ranging in size from small basements to large museums to outdoor public spaces (some examples of more well known festivals and venues include REDCAT, Los Angeles; the Ostrava Festival of New Music; Tsonami Arte Sonoro Festival, Valparaiso; the Huddersfield New Music Festival; and Umbral Sesiones at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Oaxaca). In 2008, I co-founded the wulf., a Los Angeles-based organization dedicated to experimental performance and art. As a laboratory and hub for exploring new ideas, the wulf. has become an experiment in alternative communities and economies. Similarly, my work subverts discriminatory conventions and hierarchies by exploring alternative forms of presentation and interaction.