Studio XX, Montreal’s foremost women’s digital resource centre, is proud to present Boyfriend – Bernadette Houde and Maija Martin – who have travelled to the RIXC New Media Center in Riga, Latvia for the month of May. Many people are excluded from contemporary electronic music due to its often opaque means of production, limited distribution avenues and over-intellectualized justifications of what is essentially audio masturbation. Boyfriend’s mission aims to demystify electronic music technologies by making their process transparent to their listeners.
Boyfriend will create one song each day for 10 days. The songs will be constructed using computer generated beats, software synthesizers, enhanced midi files, live bass and other sounds collected while in Riga. This process will be documented daily on the internet at: http://projets.studioxx.org/boyfriend/. At the end of each day, the duo will upload the day’s song accompanied by documentation such as sound samples, photos and a daily log. The site will allow listeners to witness their trials, errors and breakthroughs, as well as glean technical information.
On May 30th, Boyfriend will host a listening party “Live from Latvia”, featuring the songs created and streamed to Montreal using RIXC’s server. As part of the Webcast, they will interview Rasa Smite of the RIXC Center about the “Art + Communication – Media Architecture” conference taking place in Riga from May 15th – 18th, 2003. At the party in Montreal, local artist Tricia Middleton will mix video and DJ Cyan will play records.
For further references on gender issues and electronic music, please consult: http://cf.hum.uva.nl/~hannah/genderissuesinelectrovocalmusicindex.html
_Boyfriend
Boyfriend is a female electronic music duo starring Bernie Bankrupt and Mix Master Maija. This duo represents an opportunity to combine their musical talents and technical capacities, bringing together disciplines such as theatre, new media and music. Boyfriend has been working together since 1999 on video, music, and Web art projects.
_Tricia Middleton
Tricia Middleton is a cross-disciplinary artist working with a variety of forms including sound, video, sculpture, drawing, text, installation, and curation. Originally from Vancouver, she completed her BFA from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design (Honours, 1995), and is now newly enrolled in the MFA programme at Concordia University, Montreal. Her videotapes have been exhibited widely at national and international festivals.
_DJ Cyan
DJ Cyan has been dropping beats on Montreal’s airwaves since 1996 with the launch of Third Ear Movement on CKUT Radio, which garnered respect as one of the city’s most popular electronic music shows. Another initiative, Traktion (www.traktion.com), evolved in 1998 as a late night excursion into techno rhythms. She now co-hosts Modular Systems, a magazine show highlighting local artists and music. Her style can vary from abstract downtempo to deep house to dancefloor rocking techno.
_RIXC Center for New Media Culture, Riga (Latvia) – http://www.rixc.lv/
The aim of the RIXC Center is to bridge the traditional gap between ‘high’ and popular culture and the divisions between various youth, sub- and minority cultures. RIXC is the member of NICE network (Nordic-Baltic-North-East European network for small scale innovative initiatives in the field of new media culture – http://nice.x-i.net). It takes part in other international and cross disciplinary networks, co-projects and mailing-lists in Europe, Canada and other parts of the world. It intends to become a meeting place for different types of culture on local and international scales.
Studio XX thanks Hannah Bosma for her references on gender issues in electronic music.
Infos: 514.845.7934 / www.studioxx.org / programmation@studioxx.org