Marko Ciciliani
07.05. / 22h/ Marko Ciciliani | Audiovisual Works@ MM centre (65′)
Barbara Lüneburg – electric violin, tablet
Marko Ciciliani – electronics, visuals, tablet
Marko Ciciliani (*1970, Croatia) is a composer, audiovisual artist and researcher based in Austria. The focus of Ciciliani’s work lies in the combination of instruments and electronics, often in audiovisual contexts. Light- or laserdesigns are often integral parts of his compositions. More recently he has focussed on the inclusion of live-video in his compositions, by making the manipulation of images part of an extended instrumental design. The artistic combination of sound and visual was also the topic of his PhD research that he completed at Brunel University London in 2010. It is characteristic of Ciciliani’s compositions that sound is not only understood as abstract material but as a culturally shaped idiom. The exploration of a sound’s communicative potential is as much in the foreground of his work as its objective sonic quality. Ciciliani’s work is characterized by a conceptual approach in which aspects of classical composition, sound- and media-studies play tightly together. The different “genres” in which Ciciliani’s music can be heard and seen, are reflecting his manifold artistic activities. His music has been performed in more than 30 countries in Europe, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. It has been programmed by festivals and concert series of electronic experimental music like Experimental Intermedia/NYC, Club Transmediale/Berlin, SuperDeluxe/Tokyo or the NowNow Series/Sydney; just as much as by festivals for instrumental music as Maerzmusik/Berlin, Wien Modern, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, ISCM World Music Days and many more.
In 2005 Ciciliani founded the group Bakin Zub, an ensemble comprising distinguished musicians with a focus on the use of technology. In the work for Bakin Zub Ciciliani places an emphasis on the combination of instrumental writing, live-electronics and light, laser or video designs. Since the foundation of the group, he has composed four program-length works for this combination, the most recent ones being “Heterotopolis” which was co-produced by the ZKM and premiered as part of the ARD Hörspieltage 2012, and “Suicidal Self Portraits”, premiered in April 2014 at the „Forum Neue Musik Deutschlandfunk“ in Cologne. In 2009 Marko Ciciliani was recipient of the prestigious Villa Aurora Stipend, a three-month artists residency in Los Angeles. Also in 2009 he was composer-in-residence of the 14th Composers Forum in Mittersill/Austria. He received numerous project-residencies at STEIM, ESS, ICST and ZKM.
Ciciliani is full Professor for Computer-Music Composition and Sound Design at the Institute for Electronic Music and Acoustics (IEM) of the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz. In 2014 Ciciliani has taught at the “Summer Courses for Contemporary Music Darmstadt” where he also presented a portrait concert. He also often appears as a presenter on international conferences on computer music and media art, such as ICMC, SMC, ICLI, Sonorities and others.
Program:
Marko Ciciliani: Via, for live electronics, live video and lighting (2015)
Via (2015) is based on film materials of roads and viaducts which have been taken with hand-held devices in Wellington/NZ and across California/USA. The work applies a very tight connection between sounds and visuals. Almost everything that can be seen can also be heard – an approach that is in film theory referred to as Mickey Mousing. Nevertheless, while the synchronous doubling of media is most of the time applied in order to generate congruencies and amplifications of effects, I was specifically interested in exploring couplings between the media that yield unexpected, yet coherent results. Even though the visual material is often processed beyond recognition, the floating character of the filmed roads and passing cars determines the basic character of the work.
Marko Ciciliani & Yannis Kyriakides: 8’66”, for two tablets and video projection (2012)
8′66″ (2012) is a collaborative work created with Yannis Kyriakides for the occasion of Slagwerk Den Haag’s ‘Double Music’ project. Inspired by the John Cage/Lou Harrison work of the same name, composers were asked to compose a piece with one of their closest colleagues. As the title suggest this work has a certain relation to Cage’s seminal work 4’33”. Silence, or non-performance plays a function in this piece, which also refers closely to another work of Cage: One11 – a feature length film consisting of filmed light cones, which is the main source of the visual material, resampled and processed with feedback loops. A quote of Cage is used: “Rhythm is everything that is irrelevant”. It both clarifies Cage’s aesthetic position, but also displays the difficulty of using words to describe music, the confusion of definitions. This quote is de- and reconstructed visually as a text-film overlaid onto the light film, and occasionally re-enforced with low sine tones. The original version of this piece was for six players with tablets and video projection. You will hear and see a compacted rendition for two performers.
Marko Ciciliani: Formula minus One, for electric violin, sensors, live-electronics and live video (2014)
Formula minus One (2014) takes the motor sport Formula One as a point of departure, which is seen as a symbol for masculinity through its combination of force and speed. While all official F1 drivers are male, it is remarkable that – unlike in many other sports – Formula One does not have separate categories according to the sex of the participants. In theory, men and women could compete against each other in the same Grand Prix. While there have been various female test drivers (currently e.g. Susie Wolff for Team Williams) none has made it to a Grand Prix. Formula minus One combines video-excerpts from Formula One races that are manipulated in real time in combination with live electronics. The objective is to aestheticize and de-masculinize this particular sport discipline. The generated video is the main part of the score for the player, who constantly has to react to it, and steer the events similar like in computer games.
Marko Ciciliani: Intersection, for live electronics, live video and lighting (2013)
Intersection (2013) is a work for live-electronics, live-video and lighting. The visual material consists of two video recordings of an intersection in the centre of Zürich that were recorded in the Summer of 2012. Both recordings have been taken from exactly the same position, one during daytime, the other during nighttime. This lively intersection shows people in transit; as pedestrians, on bicycles, in cars or public transportation. In the piece Intersection rapid changes between these two recordings and their color-inverted versions create an illusory impression of the otherwise static image. In a second section, two zoomed-in images from the same footage focus on groups of persons. Here, the visuals are expanded by the additional use of light fixtures, thereby expanding the visual field into the space. Because of the perspective of the camera in the recordings (so-called “military-perspective”), issues of surveillance of public spaces are evoked. This atmosphere is intensified by the use of a chopped up transmission of police radio that has been used as part of the sonic material.
Marko Ciciliani: Alias, for electric violin, live electronics, lighting and laser (20′, 2007/10)
Alias (2007/10) derived several methods from film-technologies. I was particularly interested in the fact that film is based on a fast succession of images, that we see as a continuous motion. Hence, stroboscopic effects (the fast succession of visual information which the brain still recognizes as single images) is very closely related to the film technique. But unlike film, it is perceived as very stressful information. It is a thin threshold of speed difference that separates the strenuous sensation of stroboscopic visuals, from the smooth and continuous reception of motion pictures. However, while we perceive film as a continuous motion, the rattling sound of an analog projector still reveals the mechanisms at work. In Alias, I was interested to transfer various technical principles from film into music. Fast gatings and tremolos are for example applied to the violin signal, emulating acoustically the effect of stroboscopes and visual artefacts as the moiré pattern. Recordings of film-projectors are furthermore used as closely related sonic materials. Furthermore, I used sound excerpts from Japanese Mangas as sound material. This gives the film an acoustic presence, despite its visual absence. In the piece its visual quality is substituted by a composition of lighting and geometric laser projections.
vimeo.com/channels/cicichannel