International Residency 2006: Hybrid Sonicscapes

In contemporary artistic practices sonic art has emerged as a 'new media' which challenges the defined categories of sound /art /visual art /music /science /engineering. Creative experiments with sound play on the fringes of our often-unconscious aural experience in spaces at a time when the mainstream engagement is moving increasingly towards the visual.

KHOJ organized a one week intensive sound workshop between Jan 16- 22, 06. At a time when the mainstream engagement is moving increasingly towards the visual, we at KHOJ hope to be able to explore the nexus between technology, soundscapes and creativity and their role in defining alternative spaces.

s a conscious intervention in the landscape of 'Contemporary Art in India', the workshop aims to interrogate whether technology and exploration with new technology is the point of departure or a central element of a lot of current engagements with creative sound.

Sonic practitioners of divergent sensibilities, and different takes on sound have come together and through the week explored their art through an interactive residency. On the 22nd of Jan 2006 is the open studio day, please join us for an evening of innovation.

The artists:

Rajesh Mehta (Berlin)
Fascinated by the mysticism of numbers and symbols and their relation to music, the Calcutta-born trumpeter is one of the few performers whose instrumental ventures actually break new ground. Architectural thinking permeates various aspects of Mehta's work as a musician and composer and these are integrated into his ongoing Music-Architecture project "Sounding Buildings".

Goh lee Kwang (Kuala Lampur)
Artist Goh lee Kwang believes that a certain purity in communication is possible to achieve only in the realm of the aura. A discomfort with the trends towards the dominance of the visual in the public sphere motivates him to practice sound art and his aesthetic engagement with the medium is through the exploration of and the possibilities of pure sound.

Salil Subedi ( Kathmandu)
"Sound is a medium that helps me to connect"...... "sound has the quality....a quality that invokes pure colour" ............. "it is so easy to make people react with sound" . Are these statements in contradiction? As an artist who would employ any medium that enables him to connect, Salil Subedi often introduces the performance aspect of visuals into his performances. An artist based in Kathmandu , Salil finds it too restricting to be classified as a sound/performance artist. He tends to work with pure nature using undefined forms of musical/performing arts and instruments and weaves them with newer forms of technological innovations of all medias. He has been the lone didgeridoo player in Nepal for the past six years.

Brin Desai ( New Delhi)
Brins engagement with the aural is through exploring the new media possibilities of sound. A sound engineer based in New Delhi Brin Desai explores sound through new technologies and softwares using mixing and sound editing techniques.

Himanshu Desai (Mumbai)
Himanshu's engagement sound is essentially through its intertextuality with the image.........in his works the creative visual and the creative sound merge. A performing guitarist, Himanshu has has performed with the jazz-fusion group, The Neelkanth Pardigm. He is studying new media art practices, while also creating a series of short sound-videos , one of which will be screened at the Khoj Studios. His work stand at the edge of the workshop's thematic framework.....the playing with the visual in a domain dominated by sound.

Sophea Lerner (Helsinki)
Sophea Lerner is an Australian radiomaker, sound engineer and new media artist currently based in Helsinki where she teaches media and sonic arts at the Centre for Music & Technology. Her work combines experimental radio and new media art into a collaborative practice that explores audience interaction through movement and sound.

Rajeevan Ayyapan( Bangalore / Paris)