Transmissions Festival, Chicago, 8/6-8/12

[JCoker <jcoker@five12.com>]

Should be of interest to any adventureous loopers,
for details, check out http://transmit.org.
Here's the article from the Chicago Reader:

Jim

**************************************************

http://www.chireader.com/hitsville/010803.html

By Peter Margasak

August 3, 2001

Beginning Transmission

It was July 12, 1998, and Trans 001, the first installment of the
Transmissions experimental music festival, had gone pretty well so far.
After almost three days of improvisation, noise, sound art, and
post-rock
in collegiate Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the organizers were readying
the venue, a sports bar called Bub O'Malley's, for the final sets -- a
series of collaborations between Eugene Chadbourne and three other
improvisers. "They had said we could stay there until about eight or
nine
o'clock," says director and founder Keenan McDonald. "But as we were
setting up...the owner turned on all these TVs to watch a pay-per-view
pro
wrestling match. We realized that Transmissions was over at that
moment."

The event had been a grassroots effort from top to bottom: McDonald,
then
a grad student in communications, and her two primary co-organizers,
Ethan
Clauset and Julie Shapiro, relied on the generosity of more than a dozen

friends and acquaintances to pull it off. All three had dabbled in
promoting shows, but none had ever planned anything on such a large
scale
-- they spent months negotiating with artists, finding venues, obtaining
a
sound system, and arranging lodging, and while the festival was in full
swing they managed to stream most of the nearly two dozen performances
over the Internet using a single dial-up account. McDonald ended up
about
$400 in the hole.

Since then Transmissions has grown considerably, becoming arguably the
most cutting-edge electronic and experimental music festival in the
country. Trans 004, which runs from August 6 through August 12, is by
far
the most ambitious edition yet. And it will take place in Chicago --
where
McDonald, Clauset, and Shapiro, who are all in their late 20s, moved
last
summer. (Shapiro is now the assistant director of the Third Coast
International Audio Festival, a radio-feature competition hosted by
WBEZ,
and McDonald and Clauset work for Internet companies.) There will be no
repeat of the Bub O'Malley's fiasco here: among the Chicago institutions

and venues involved in presenting Transmissions are the Chicago Cultural

Center, the Chopin Theatre, HotHouse, Subterranean, and Rednofive.
Twenty-four artists from eight different countries will perform; among
the
biggest names are electroacoustic composer Carl Stone, New York
improviser
and no-wave legend Ikue Mori, and Austrian laptop-music pioneer Pita.
The
schedule also includes four programs of experimental film and video (all

at the Chopin), curated with the help of Abina Manning and Blithe Riley
from the Video Data Bank at the School of the Art Institute.

At its inception Transmissions focused on experimentation in the analog
realm, highlighting the droney space rock of Azusa Plane, the fractured
rock of Storm and Stress, and the raggedy free jazz of the Gold Sparkle
Band; over the years it has grown increasingly digital, and now almost
every performer uses computers in some way. This year's schedule is the
first to embrace club culture: an impressive bill next Saturday, August
11, at Rednofive features three major figures in Europe's abstract
techno
scene, Hecker, Dettinger, and Monolake, all of whom manipulate the
fierce
synthetic pulse of techno into remarkably organic music. But many of the

other artists this year, from La Monte Young-affiliated composer Michael

Schumacher to electroacoustic percussionist Jason Kahn to
microscopic-sound artist Richard Chartier, are unabashedly cerebral,
sometimes creating music with no discernible pulse at all.

All in all, the program paints an impressively broad picture of the
current experimental music landscape, although Clauset insists that it
still isn't all-inclusive. "We're not so concerned with representing the

range of current work as we are in putting together a bill that we would

like to see ourselves," he says. Considering the level of experimental
activity around town, it's perhaps surprising that this includes only
three local acts -- Kevin Drumm, Ben Vida, and the duo of Helen Mirra
and
Ernst Karel. According to McDonald, this has angered at least one
better-known Chicago electronic-music artist, whom she declines to name.

"I kind of expected that in a small place like Chapel Hill," says
Shapiro.
"I guess, naively, I didn't expect it to be the same here."

Transmissions did present a number of "pre-series" events this spring,
which were designed to raise festival awareness and to involve locals.
"We
tried to focus more attention on local people, but consequently some
people have felt like they were relegated to just this series," says
McDonald.

The unfortunate reality may be that Chicago audiences have come to take
local experimenters for granted -- they perform too regularly at places
like the Empty Bottle and the Nervous Center to draw enough people to a
special event. And McDonald has too much riding on the festival to play
the booster: her out-of-pocket losses over the last two years total
nearly
$6,000. Previous Transmissions festivals were long-weekend affairs, but
this year's program stretches out over a week, and the budget has
tripled
since last year. McDonald admits that the success of the festival this
year will determine whether or not it returns in 2002. "I've had to put
in
a lot more money on the front end than I've ever had to before," she
says.
"This year is definitely a turning point."

For more information about the festival and the performers, visit the
Transmissions Web site, www.transmit.org. For a complete schedule, see
the
sidebar in this section.

Postscript

After five years as associate editor of the Illinois Entertainer, former

New City columnist Ben Kim has been promoted to editor, taking over for
Michael C. Harris, who'd worked for the Entertainer in some capacity for

16 years. Harris left to work as communications director of APTE, an
Evanston-based educational software publisher. Kim says he has no major
upheavals planned, but he hopes to devote more coverage to world music
and
rock en español.



Send gripes, leads, and love letters to Peter Margasak at
postnobills@chicagoreader.com.

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Copyright © 2001 Chicago Reader Inc.



SCHEDULE:

opening reception/
film screenings:
Feedback and Other
Signals: Early Video
Experiments of the
1970's
7-9pm
location: chopin theater

        performances:
        ben vida
        carl stone
        9-11pm
        location: chopin theater

**************************
8/7/01

film screenings:
[Block A]
7-9pm
location: chopin theater


**************************
8/8/01
        performances:
        helen mirra, ernst karel
        steve roden
        michael schumacher
        8pm
        location: hothouse


**************************
8/9/01

film screenings:
[Block B]
7-9pm
location: chopin theater

        performances:
        janek schaefer
        vote robot
        randall jones
        dj kevin drumm/pita
        9pm
        location: subterranean

**************************
8/10/01

        performances:
        loren chasse
        jason kahn
        richard chartier
        hecker
        pita
        9pm
        location: hothouse

**************************
8/11/01

live interactive
broadcast of
performances [from
vienna, austria]:
farmer's manual
3pm-6pm
general magic

location: tba
        performances:
        sutekh
        kit clayton
        tujiko noriko
        hecker
        dettinger
        monolake
        -collaborations
        9pm
        location: rednofive

**************************
8/12/01

film screenings:
rescreening of Block A & B
1-4pm

location: chopin theater


        closing reception:
        5pm

        performances:
        skuli sverrisson
        ikue mori
        6-8pm

        location: chicago cultural
        center


**************************


LOCATIONS:
:: Chopin Theater
1543 W. Division
(773) 278-1500

:: The Chicago Cultural Center
78 E. Washington
312 - FINE ART

:: Hothouse
www.hothouse.net
31 E. Balbo, between State & Wabash
Chicago, IL 60605


:: Rednofive
440 N Halsted
Chicago
Nightclub
312-733-6699


:: Subterranean
2011 W. North @
Damen / Milwaukee
773-278-6600