About project
Sex Dialogues – is an international collaborative project, which proposes to raise awareness and expand tolerance of sex & sexuality. Sixteen media artists, interactive artists and sound designers from Austria, Ukraine, USA, Italy, Lebanon, Slovenia and Japan will meet on the 1st of June and begin working on a large interactive exhibition, related to the main topic of the project.
This project is intended to be an exchange of knowledge: ukrainian artists will learn how to use modern media and interactive techniques while teaching the other artists how to work with concrete, glass, wood and other traditional media for creating sculptures and installations.
The main goal is to integrate the various skills, achieving various forms of hybrid artworks: traditional with digital art.
Sex & Sexuality is the topic we want to address in order to compare issues, knowledge and backgrounds from two European poles of understanding. Is there a common ground for confrontation? Why is sexuality still a subliminal message hidden or unnamed in several aspects of society? Why aren’t we discussing it as a matter of fact? Why can’t we face it readily as many other topics floating between minds and culture? We seek to address and answer these questions and more through a 10 day exhibition that will be the result of nearly two weeks of collaboration and dialogue.
Project management
Nick Acorne
A Composer and Sound Designer. He has studied traditional Composition at the University of Art in Kharkiv, Ukraine. After that Nick has completed a Masters in Composition and Computer Music at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, Austria. Now Nick studies at FH Joanneum as a Sound Designer. He has taken part in a lot of different festivals, among them Ars Electronica (Linz), Make Munich (Munich), Lendwirbel (Graz), Next Generation 5 (ZKM, Karlsruhe), etc. He also participated in different sound and interactive workshops, held by such prominent artists, as Natasha Barrett, Nicolas Collins, Miller Packet, Andrey Smirnov as also workshops organized by Steim (Amsterdam) and lAbo#4 (Antwerpen).
Viktoriia Bavykina
Manager of cultural project, critic, publicist.
PhD student at the Kharkiv National University of V.N.Karazina. Her research area is the interaction of political actionism within social space. From 2012 to 2015 worked in Kharkiv City Gallery where she coordinated a biennale of young artist NonStopMedia and the international project “Unrespectable” (retrospective of Borys Mykhaylov).
Participants
Gamlet Zinkovskiy
(Ukraine)
One of the brightest representatives of Ukrainian contemporary art, Gamlet is a painter, street-artist and photographer. He has been nominee of Pinchuk Art Centre Prize and participant of Ukrainian pavilion in Venice Biennale 2013. His a member of numerous solo and group exhibitions in Europe. He tutors in School of Science Art and lectures at the School of Contemporary Art.
Takuto Fukuda
(Japan)
A composer and sound artist based in Graz, Austria. He has been focusing on the enhancement of liveness by using computational technologies. His pieces have been awarded at several competitions such as CCMC 2010, Musica Nova 2011 and WOCMAT 2013, and selected for performance at numerous international festivals in Europe, Asia, South and North America.
Vitalii Kokhan
(Ukraine)
Graduated from the Kharkov State Academy of Design and Arts specializing in “Monumental painting”. He is a regular participant of the Land Art Project «Space of Frontier» (Mogritsa village,Ukraine) and Art Festival “ArtPole” (Ukraine). In 2013 and 2014 he was invited at Contemporary Art Project Biruchiy (Biruchiy island, Ukraine). In 2013 he participated in the residence program K.A.I.R. (Kosice, Slovakia). In 2012 was selected as the winner of the prize for young artists organized be Steadley Art Foundation. Vitalii is a painter, graphic artist, author of objects, installations and performances, “land-artist”. He is a lecturer at the School of Contemporary Art and lives and works in Kharkov.
Anahi Meyer
(Lebanon / Austria)
Lebanese-Austrian media designer. After finishing high school in the French Lycée of Beirut, she came to Graz to study Information Design in the FH Joanneum. She is now finishing her Master’s in Media Design and starting to learn a 7th language. Anahi mostly works with video but is lately setting her focus in multimedia art in space and interactive installations with the Association “Some Designers” she created with four international colleagues also living in Graz.
Konstantin Zorkin
(Ukraine)
An artist, performer and culturologist. Creates his own mythology and embodies it in objects and public art installations. In recent years he has several individual and group performances which combined experimentation with sound and traditional perceptions of art.
Jonathan Carter
(USA / Germany)
A composer of electronic & acoustic music. His works emphasize a connection between the two genres, ever in pursuit of a style that seamlessly combines them. With performances at venues including the Brevard Music Center Summer Festival, Ars Electronica Linz, and ZKM Next Generation 5 Karlsruhe, Jonathan’s music reaches an increasingly broadened spectrum of audience. In addition to his solo activities, he is a founding member of Elektrichka – an electronic media ensemble.
Oksana Solop
(Ukraine)
Graduated from Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts. Her field of artistic activities includes wood-working, street-art, painting, and public-art. She is involved in the Biruchiy contemporary art residency (Biruchiy Island, Ukraine), the German-Ukrainian art-project “Understanding” and numerous of Ukrainian and European exhibitions.
Valerio Zanini
(Italy)
Sound Designer & Interactive Media Artist. After the bachelor’s degree at the music conservatory “C. Pollini” in Padua (Italy) in 2014, he began studies in Sound Design (Communication, Media, Sound and Interaction design) at the FH Joanneum in Graz. As drummer, he has also played in several bands of various genres. His specialties include sound, video, interaction, and coding.
Anton Tkachenko
(Ukraine)
An architect, graphic artist, painter and installation artist. Graduated from the Kharkiv National University of Construction and Architecture. Participated in group exhibitions in Ukraine and abroad (Portugal, Slovakia, Czech Republic, China). lives and works in Kharkov.
Nicola Lecca
(Italy)
Born and raised in Sardinia. Interaction Designer who graduated from the University of Architecture in the department of Design/Industrial Design in Sassari, Italy. In 2011 he was a “Designer Analyst” at Aaron Marcus & Associates, Berkeley California, where he worked on an APP concept for long distance learning and massive online open courses. In 2014 he was the “Head of Testing” in a startup company focusing on Learning Management Systems in Berlin. Since 2014 he is Master student at FH-Joanneum Graz.
Oma Shu
(Ukraine)
A graphic artist and painter. She is the winner of the competition in the field of contemporary art “David Burliuk” (2015) in Sumy, Ukraine. Oma was a finalist of the contest of young artists “MUHі 2015”, Kiev, Ukraine. She has taken part in the Street Art Fest (Kharkov), festival TERRA FUTURA (Kherson), Street Art Fest RESPUBLICA (Odesa), and Land Art Khortytsia (Zaporozhye).
Barbara Borko
(Slovenia)
A communication design master student from Slovenia, studying at the FH Joanneum in Austria. Barbara is a graphic designer, who worked on several exhibition identities. In 2015 she was selected as a finalist for the Brumen-Biennial of Slovene Visual Communications, for one of the designed works.
Daria Titarenko
(Ukraine)
Graduated from Kharkiv College of Textile and Design (fashion design faculty). In 2010-2015 she studied at Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts. In 2015, Daria graduated with a graphic design bachelor diploma. Since 2010 she has been the manager of the Ukrainian Association of Graphic Designers “the 4th Block” and curator of the International Eco-poster Triennial “the 4th Block”. Since 2013, she has worked in the Grafprom studio as a graphic designer. Daria takes part in many international poster competitions such as Golden Bee Biennale (Moscow); Henryk Tomaszewski Golden Debut (24th Poster Biennial in Warsaw), finalist of the 6th World Biennial of Student Poster in Novi Sad, Poster Biennial in Bolivia, Italian Poster Biennial, Trnava Poster Triennial etc.
Sebastian Wöhrer
(Austria)
An interaction design student based in Graz. His focus on human computer interaction is lately shifting from screens and user interfaces to interactive installations and interactive media. With the collective „_bert“ he has worked on media installations for smaller festivals and music-videos.
Workshops
A series of interactive workshops will be held as part of the Sex Dialogues project. 3. – 5.06 by Participants of the project and on the 8. of June by Prof. Joseph Gründler, head of master degree programme in communication, media, sound and interaction design at University of Applied Sciences – FH JOANNEUM.
3rd of June
Interactive Installations. Webcam, Kinect, Motion Tracking Systems.
Tutors: Takuto Fukuda, Valerio Zanini, Nicola Lecca.
4th of June
Interactive Installations. How to work with Arduino and sensors.
Tutors: Sebastian Wöhrer, Nick Acorne, Nicola Lecca.
5th of June
Sound Installations and Interactions. How to build DIY Controllers, based on Arduino and Sensors.
Tutors: Jonathan Carter, Takuto Fukuda, Nick Acorne.
8th of June
Build Your Electronic Instrument/Sound-Object (working with Raspberry and Satellite CCRMA)
Tutor: Joseph Gründler
Opening
On the 10th of June at 8 pm in Yermilov Center is an official openning of the interactive exhibition Sex Dialogues.
10th of June 9 pm Opening concert of experimental electronic music. (Free Entrance)
21:00 ELEKTRICHKA (USA, Japan, Ukraine)
22:00 Seppo Gründler (Austria) “Doing what happens anyway”.
The title „Tun Was Geschieht“ [Doing What Happens Anyway] is a quote from The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil. The structured improvisation with electronic-guitar starts with one of the possibilities to trigger sounds on the intruments. The processing softare reacts on tiny changes. The resulting and following sounds and acoustic dramaturgy develops in real-time alongside the evolving sounds and playing techniques. The acoustic impressions are created instantly, in the area of conflict between the flow and the immanent structure.
Elektrichka, the russian word for an electrical multiple unit train, is an international music project launched in 2013 by Jonathan Carter (USA), Takuto Fukuda (Japan) and Nick Acorne (Ukraine) in Graz, Austria. Influenced by their combined experience in composition and sound-design, the trio’s projects combine experimental audio and visual elements with experimental electronics. Connecting an audience with electronic music is often challenging and compels Elektrichka to seek new methods of communication. Audio and video streams are produced and manipulated live on the stage, either using laptops or self-made electronic instruments. The project has since appeared throughout Austria at venues as diverse as art galleries to clubs to electronic music festivals, among them Ars Electronica (Linz), Make Munich (Munich), Next Generation 5 (ZKM, Karlsruhe).
Josef (Seppo) Gründler.
Born 1956, lives in Graz/Austria. He is the head of master degree programme in communication, media, sound and interaction design at University of Applied Sciences – FH JOANNEUM, visiting professor of sound design at Donau-University Krems, member of the board of the Institute for Media Archeology, president of the Society for Dissemination and Distribution of New Music. He aquired a PhD in medicine, was a staff member of the Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustic and is a sound and media artist, “tinker“ of software and electronics. His main instruments are guitar, electronics and software. He has been working in the field of new media since 1982. He has composed music for computer games, music for theatre, film, media and sound installations. He has presented his works at Ars Electronica, Wiener Festwochen, Steirischer Herbst, the Knitting Factory New York, Sonambiente Berlin, Transmediale Berlin, “See the Sound”, City of Women Festival Ljubljana, Fine senca fine – Venice, Trentino, Budapest, Graz, etc.