UNSEEN: Andy Puls and CTRL-Z
Tickets: $8 Presale/ $13 Day of show
Doors 7PM / Show 8PM | Cash Bar for 21+
When we talk about the intersection of art and technology in 2016, what usually comes up are the ways that Silicon Valley influences modes of expression or artistic practice. But scratch just beneath the surface of Bay Area media artists and you’ll find deep, rich connections between contemporary practice and experimental histories that extend back a half century before the first tech boom. Those histories connect multiple fields: film, homemade or repurposed electronics, expanded cinema, video, light and sound art, electroacoustic music, performance works and happenings, as well as analog synth music and modular signal culture.With the new UNSEEN series–highlighting local artists– Gray Area is drawing connections between these wider points in the timeline of Bay Area experimentation.
On Friday Feb 19, Gray Area will present a first-time collaboration between Bay Area media artists Andy Puls and the members of CTRL-Z, the sound and video performance ensemble made up of Daniel Steffey, Ryan Page and Nick Wang. Each of the artists will present individual site specific work created for Gray Area’s Grand Theater. Then in collaboration, Daniel, Ryan and Nick will improvise electronic music using Andy’s live processed video signal as their score. After that the artists will swap roles, and Andy will improvise live visuals using the group’s music as his source material.
Gray Area’s UNSEEN Series brings together media artists to collaborate on site specific collaborative performances between sound and video artists. The UNSEEN series is curated by artist, Matt Fisher.
Artists
Andy Puls
Andy Puls is a video artist, analog electronics designer, and composer/musician. He runs the experimental media production studio, “Whistlehut” in Richmond, CA, where he produces his own and others’ audio and visual recordings, and designs electronic audio and video devices.
His video work centers around live, intuitive, “no source” …
Daniel Steffey
Daniel Steffey is a composer and percussionist located in Oakland, California. His music reflects his interests in sound, and has nothing to do with other things such as: literature, science, economics, nature, or grant writing. Daniel was awarded the opportunity to be an artist-in-residence at WGXC Wave Farm in Acra, …
Ryan Page
Ryan Page is a composer, performer, and sound artist. His work focuses on human interaction with technology, particularly the limitations and biases of communications media and their relation to human perception. Environmental and psychological metaphors are often used as structures in his compositions.
He has worked with artists such as …
Nick Wang
Nick Wang is a musician, audio engineer, and occasional installation and video artist based in Oakland, CA. He holds an MFA in Electronic Music and Recording Media from Mills College, where he studied composition and electronics with James Fei and participated in master classes/performances with Alvin Lucier and Ikue …
Ctrl-Z
Ctrl-Z is an electronics trio made up of Ryan Page, Daniel Steffey, and Nick Wang. Using an array of modular synthesizers, computers, homemade circuitry, junk, and other performers, they play composed material written, or adapted for, live electronics and video; often bringing in other performers to participate in their realizations. …
