Tag Archives: Kristy Farkas

Sounds Good

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If you’re looking for an auditory adventure this weekend, there are two events involving faculty well worth attending: Friday night’s MISTIC concert and Saturday night’s Site & Sound installation.

First up is MISTIC. The final event of the School of Music/Open Space collaboration with Seattle-based sound sculptor and inventor Trimpin on the (CanonX+4:33=100) piano-based sculptural installation, the MISTIC concert promises to be both a fascinating and entertaining evening.

Preparing to get MISTIC: (from left) Darren Miller, Andy Schloss and Steeve Bjornson. Photo: Kristy Farkas

MISTIC—or, Music Intelligence and Sound Technology Interdisciplinary Collective—will feature Dr. Andrew Schloss and UVic students putting into practice the “unique methodologies” they’ve developed over the course of the (CanonX+4:33=100) exhibit, as they “perform” the installation as one enormous musical instrument. (Last Saturday’s exhibit discussion by Darren Miller focused on the “compositional opportunities and challenges of writing for a Trimpin installation,” so it’s bound to be quite the night.) Remember, these aren’t really pianos anymore, more a series of deconstructed and enhanced piano-based constructs into which the MISTIC performers can plug their computers in order to create their own unique style of music.

Open Space says it best: “Created by one of the most stimulating and inventive forces in music today, Trimpin’s installation will skew your everyday assumptions about sound and technology and engage your senses of perception, surprise, and joy in an extraordinary and intricate audio-visual experience unlike any other.”


The MISTIC concert starts at 8pm Friday, April 27, at Open Space, 510 Fort Street. Tickets are $15 or $10



 for Open Space members, students & seniors

Then on Saturday night, it’s the Royal BC Museum’s quite literally fascinating sounding Site & Sound installation. Dubbed “a unique festival of all things auditory,” Site & Sound features an impressive lineup of musicians, poets and sound artists who will be performing after-hours in and around the various RBCM dioramas and displays.

Will new Visual Arts associate professor and sound artist Paul Walde be in the submarine? Will the Victoria Phonographers Union—featuring concert manager Kristy Farkas—be in the old town? Will flautist and School of Music alum Kathy Rogers be in the rainforest? Will Victoria Poet Laureate Janet Rogers be in the longhouse? Will spoken word artists Missie Peters and Dave Morris be riding the wooly mammoth? You won’t know if you don’t go!

All of the nine participating artists and groups have specially crafted sound for this event, which will provide a unique way of experiencing the RBCM. In addition to those already mentioned, the other performers are sound artist Tina Pearson, bluegrass duo Garrett Tompson and Shanti Bremer, Chinese group the Victoria Gum Sing Musical Society and local performance artist Peter Morin, of northern BC’s Tahltan Nation.

Whatever your taste in musical expression, it’s a safe bet you won’t hear either of these two shows again!

Site & Sound starts at 7pm Saturday, April 28, at the Royal BC Museum, 675 Belleville Street. Tickets are $15.

Talking Trimpin

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The School of Music/Open Space collaboration with Seattle-based sound sculptor and inventor Trimpin on his (CanonX+4:33=100) piano-based sculptural piece has been getting good press since its March 16 opening. With the exhibit itself running through to April 27 at Open Space Gallery—closing night will feature a live concert with UVic’s MISTIC group “playing” Trimpin’s creation—there’s still lots of time left to pop down to 510 Fort Street and check it out. We guarantee you’ll never look at a piano the same way again!

In his Times Colonist piece, Adrian Chamberlain talks with Trimpin about the importance of Conlon Nancarrow and how cuckoo clocks in Trimpin’s native Germany may have been an early influence on his work.

Open Space director Helen Marzolf talks to CTV's Adam Sawatsky about the Trimpin exhibibt

To get a sense of the piece in action, check out this interview where Adam Sawatsky of CTV Vancouver Island talks with Open Space director Helen Marzolf (just click on the picture to the right, then slide along to the 1:30 mark for the start of the Trimpin piece).

Meanwhile, in her Monday Magazine article, Mary Ellen Green spoke with project originator (and now School of Music Concert Manager) Kristy Farkas about the idea of music. “Every object is an instrument,” Farkas told Green, while discussing Trimpin’s work. “I don’t always like to play instruments in traditional ways. I always used to play with the inside of pianos and I really connected with his work. It’s very creative, playful, sculptural and imaginative.”

Trimpin (centre) works with UVic students to build (CanonX+4:33=100) Photo: Dallas V. Duobaitis

Trimpin himself offers a breakdown of the (CanonX+4:33=100) project in this article for The Ring, and recently spoke on-air with the campus radio show U in the Ring (scroll down to the February 28 podcast, and it’s about two-thirds of the way through). And the good folks at MediaNet posted this video of the exhibit’s opening night.

If you’re interested in the mechanics of the installation, on-site specialists will be available for demonstrations and Q&A sessions every Thursday from 2:00 to 5:00 pm at Open Space.

And there’s a weekly series of talks and discussions called Plugging In: Talks on Sound, Technology & Art featuring UVic speakers:

• Project co-creator Andrew Schloss of the Music & Computer Science degree program talks about “Approaching Public Art from a Sonic Perspective” at 7:30pm on Wednesday, April 4.

• New Visual Arts instructor Paul Walde will discuss “Composer as Inventor” at 2:00pm on Saturday, April 7.

• Steeve A. Bjorson talks about “Micro-controllers and Their Use in (CanonX+4:33=100)” at 2:00pm on Saturday, April 14.

• And finally, in advance of the MISTIC concert, Darren Miller will discuss “Invention on Invention: The Compositional Opportunities and Challenges of Writing for a Trimpin Installation” at 2:00pm on Saturday, April 21.