| HyperTropics. 18th Subtropics Experimental Music & Sound Arts Festival |
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The Subtropics Experimental Music & Sound Arts Festival turned 18 this year and continued to bring new beats and sounds to Miami’s art scene. As the largest and oldest festival of its kind in the region, Subtropics... stands out as one of South Florida’s true Cultural treasures. Headquartered again at Dorsch Gallery in Miami’s Wynwood Art District and hosted for a night by ArtCenter / South Florida and Miami Beach Cinematheque in Miami Beach, the festival presented sound works and experimental music from a selection of local and international composers and performers. Why we celebrate the arrival of this event? And why it flawlessly got to its 18th anniversary? If we are eager to listen, the work of these artists will tell us why. Its not only their aesthetics or the ways they present their works, but their clear intentions to break through traditional art forms by proposing an art that can truly engage with the audience in a dialogue. With the current avalanche of decorative art productions arising from the high demands of the local real estate industry, participatory art in Miami like performance, poetry readings or experimental music, etc, are rarely found in our art spaces.  On the contrary, this edition of Subtropics came plenty of public appearances and interventions. Lincoln Road became the perfect arena for many of the participants. During the opening night, Bio-acoustician David Dunn flooded the air with simultaneous performances of In Air, In Water, In Earth, In Trees, an autonomous computer-controlled sound installation that uses audio samples recorded with a systems created by the artist. The work included sounds coming from several hundred of different species and additional sounds of the earth itself like rivers and streams, tree interiors or natural radio signals, just to name a few. Not only for pedestrian across Lincoln Road, Subtropics reached the airways with the remarkable intervention Talking Head Transmitters by Eugenia Vargas and Odalis Valdivieso. Talking Head Transmitters is an experimental and interactive performance using the airwaves with a specific programming designed by the artists. It uses a low frequency transmitter that can be heard by tuning your portable receiver or car radio to 1610 AM. Broadcasting live from Lincoln Road, the performers asked questions, sought for answers, and included a guest list as diverse as the listening audience making it the perfect breeding ground to address the “burning issues” of contemporary art and culture. Another participant artist, Ben Manley, who has worked extensively in noncommercial music and audio in New York City since 1986, explored unpredictable interactions between diverse electroacoustic sources as a mean of creating musical environments. In his Subtropics performance, Manley employed ordinary objects such as fans and radio interference from light bulb filaments to see how the natural variability of wind and certain resonant objects can trigger a real-time process that a performer can participate and respond to. Not short of resources, local artists also participated. Initiated by faculty composer Orlando Jacinto García, NODUS is the faculty new music ensemble in residence at Florida International University’s School of Music. Specializing in the Art music of our time, the makeup of the ensemble varies for each concert depending on the works being presented. For this festival performance, their presentation ranged from controlled to free improvisation, exhibiting a variety of contemporary instrumental and vocal techniques. Also, Following their experience with Cars & Fish, Charles Recher and Gustavo Matamoros have developed Hypersonic Test: Florida I + II, experimental essays on themes portraying the good, the bad, and the boring of Florida living to further their exploration into the nature of hypersonic technology. This technology uses sound generators that produce audible directional sound beams that exist outside the human hearing range. In celebration of Subtropics’ 18th anniversary, Dorsch Gallery showed an encore screening of We Jam Econo – The Story of the Minutemen, a feature length documentary directed by Tim Irwin chronicling the early 80’s punk rock band from their humble beginnings in the harbor town of San Pedro, CA. Told by those who witnessed; the film weaves together footage from over fifty newly shot interviews with archival interviews and live performances of the band to capture the dynamic energy and do-it-yourself spirit of these punk rock pioneers. Video is also part of this year’s Subtropics Festival edition, celebrating Visual Music as an art form that merges the VJ and the abstract film tradition. Some of these works were originally performed live as concert-style presentations, while others, such as those by Bill Alves and Beth Warshafsky, produce interactive relationships between computers, music, and dance. March 4th, 2006 marked the end of this multidisciplinary event with the celebration of the Subtropics Marathon. The closing event united in one lively evening artists and sound practitioners who have come to the medium from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines. Local and international participants shaped the all-star performance that over the years has become an outstanding springboard for interchange and collaborations. While the echoes of Art Basel Miami Beach and Art Miami are still resounding, the 18th Subtropics Experimental Music & Sound Arts Festival came to fill the gap created by the mega-events aftermath with an incredible roster of artists and art interventions pleasing the curiosity of those that come to visit Miami for something else than the usually magnificent art market. Ring the bell?, It should because if we want to keep the pace of the international art world besides being a four days host, we should be ready to step out of our Florida Rooms. |
