OptoSonic Tea @ Diapason

Live sets by :
- Andrew Deutsch (live visuals) with Stephen Vitiello (live music)
- Angie Eng (live visuals) with David Weinstein (live music) and Yumiko
Tanaka (live music)

Invited artist :
- Melanie Crean

OptoSonic Tea is a new regular series of meetings dedicated to the convergence of live visuals with live sound which focuses on the visual component. These presentation-and-discussion meetings aim to explore different forms of live visuals (live video, live film, live slide projection and their variations and combinations) and the different ways they can come into interaction with live audio. Each evening features two different live visual artists or groups of artists who each perform a set with the live sound artists of their choice. The presentations are followed by an informal discussion about the artists' practices over a cup of green tea. A third artist, from previous generations of visualists or related fields, is invited specifically to participate in this discussion so as to create a dialogue between current and past practices and provide different perspectives on the present and the future.

Organized by Katherine Liberovskaya and Ursula Scherrer

About the artists :

2 Andrew Deutsch 2

Andrew Deutsch (b.1968) is a sound, video and graphic artist who lives in Hornell, NY and teaches Sound & Video Art in the Division of Expanded Media at Alfred University. He received his BFA in Video Art and Printmaking from Alfred University in 1990 and his MFA in Integrated Electronic Art from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1994. He is a member of the Institute for Electronic Art at Alfred University and the Pauline Oliveros Foundation Board of Advisors and is a former member of the Pauline Oliveros Foundation Board of Directors (1999 - 2001). Since 1998 Deutsch has released over 26 CDRs of solo electronic music on his Magic If Recordings

2 Stephen Vitiello 2

Stephen Vitiello is a sound and media artist, originally from NYC, now based in Richmond, VA. Stephen's sound installations, objects and drawings have been presented in solo exhibitions at The Project, NY, Museum 52, London and Galerie Almine Rech, Paris. Group exhibitions include the 2002 Whitney Biennial and the 2006 Sydney Biennial (in collaboration with Julie Mehretu). CD releases include Bright and Dusty Things (New Albion Records), Buffalo Bass Delay (Hallwalls) and two recent CDRs, Inductive Music with Andrew Deutsch (Magic If) and Untitled/Exchange with Michael J. Schumacher (A Question of Re-entry). www.stephenvitiello.com

2 Angie Eng 2

Angie Eng is a media artist who works in video, installation and time-based performance. Her current work draws from her peripatetic lifestyle and inspiration from indigenous cultures. Eng was born in 1969 in San Francisco California. In 1993 she moved to New York City to pursue her career in the arts. During this time she became involved in the downtown electronic arts scene and has collaborated on numerous video performance projects. She co-founded The Poool a live video performance group with Nancy Meli Walker and Benton Bainbridge in 1996-1999. Her work has been performed and exhibited at the Whitney Museum at Philip Morris, Lincoln Center Video Festival, The Kitchen, New Museum of Contemporary Art, Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute and Roulette Intermedium. Her videos have been included in digital art festivals in the US and international venues in Cuba, Greece, Japan, Germany, Former Yugoslavia and Canada. She has received numerouse grants and commissions : New Museum of Radio and Performing Arts, Harvestworks, Art In General, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York State Council on the Arts, Jerome Foundation and Experimental TV Center. She recently finished a video residency at VoomLabs HD and is currently developing a cross-cultural project on privacy in urban spaces at Eyebeam, NYC.

2 David Weinstein 2

David Weinstein is a composer and multimedia artist whose musical and site-specific installation works have been shown worldwide. His musical works juxtapose sound effects, traditional and non traditional instruments, synthetic sound, ancient and exotic tunings, and noise. As a keyboardist Weinstein has recorded and performed with musicians including Shelley Hirsch, Elliott Sharp, John Zorn, Ned Rothenberg, Paul Dresher, Rhys Chatham and many others from Arto Lindsay to Zeena Parkins. Weinstein also makes theatrical, installation and site-specific multimedia pieces and is expert in computer assisted audio and animation including streaming and interactive media. His multimedia collaborations with video artist Doris Vila earned them a jury prize at Ars Electronica in 2002 and a NYSCA grant in 2004. Born in Chicago in 1954, David Weinstein studied music composition at the University of Illinois with Ben Johnston and Salvatore Martirano. A founder of the New York new music series Roulette, he co-directed the day-to-day operations from 1978 to 1994. He has taught music, sound, and multimedia at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Yale, and the City University of New York. He has worked as a consultant, panelist, curator, and organizer for arts organizations and companies from Morgan Stanley to MTV. He is managing director at PS1 Museum. He has lived in Brooklyn since 1979.

2 Yumiko Tanaka 2

Yumiko Tanaka is a Japanese Shamisen player and a singer. She studied and has been performing the traditional Gidayu music. Besides traditional music, she explores and collaborates in comtemporary music, jazz, dance and theater. She worked with Yuji Takahashi, Otomo Yoshihide, Min-Xio Fen, Ned Rothenberg, Kiyohiko Semba, Uchihashi Kazuhisa, Elliott Sharp, David Moss, Carl Stone, Butch Morris, Heiner Goebbels, Basil Twist and among many others. Tanaka has a Master's degree in musicology from Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music. In 1991 she was awarded the Minister of Education's Art Encouragement Prize for Newcomers for the year 1990. In 1999 she received the Committee's Special Prize at the 68th Japan Music Competition. She is an associate professor at Hyogo University of Teacher Education. In 2006, she was awarded a fellowship by Asian Cultural Council (ACC) and stays in NY for five months to research current developments in contemporary performing arts in the US.

2 Melanie Crean 2

Melanie Crean is an artist based in Brooklyn, NY. As the former Director of Production at Eyebeam, she managed a cooperative studio that supported the production of socially based digital media. Previously, Melanie worked at the MTV Digital Television Lab, managing a team of artists designing special effects, motion capture and speech recognition systems. She has produced documentaries in Nepal, India and the United States, on subjects including women trafficking and the spread of HIV/AIDS along trucking routes in South Asia. She has received fellowships and commissions from NYFA, NYSCA, and Creative Time. She currently teaches at Parsons and Pratt, and is working on a commission for Art in General, to be exhibited in April.