There is no end to the description of reality. On Monday, 20 May 2013 at 18:00 Done Lab invites you for the marathon of unfinished documentaries by Eisenstein (Que Viva Mexico, 1931), Godard, Leacock, Pennebaker (1pm.,1968) and Ghatak (Ramkinkar Baij, 1976).

Unfinished may be treated as finished. On Monday, 27 May 2013, Done Lab will be screening raw film and video footage collected from our open call. If you are bored by fancy post-production, tired of trendy special effects, and/or uninterested in obvious plots, then come and enjoy this nonlinear, rugged experience.

A detailed program will be published soon after the raw footage submission deadline of 19 May 2013.

This is a seminar/class that will meet several times this summer to explore the evolution of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). The meetings will begin in the mid-late 1960’s and follow the development of the AACM, mainly looking at the Art Ensemble of Chicago as central figures, up through the late 1970s.

Each week we will listen together to AACM recordings, discuss our thoughts and ideas, and share food and drink. The principal text will be George E. Lewis’s book A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music, but we will supplement each meeting with additional readings that span theory, criticism and other themes related to their work. We will explicitly examine the organisational elements of the AACM, as an association that supports artistic research against the grain of commercial pressure, seeking strategies that may be applicable to our creative ventures today. Additionally, we’ll look for parallel developments in non-AACM art and music from these times.

Schedule:

1. Before the Art Ensemble (3 June)
2. The new sound of Chicago (10 June)
3. A brain for the Seine (17 June)
4. The 1970s in America (24 June)
5. The dawn of the 1980s (1 July)

At our first meeting. we'll begin our investigation in the mid-1960s by looking at movements of black American artists uniting in formal organisations. We’ll look at the Black Arts Movement in New York, which formed around writing and poetry, as an influence on and precursor to the AACM (which was founded in 1965). Recordings from this period will span 1967-1968, specifically the work of prominent members of the yet-unformed Art Ensemble of Chicago, then working in different groups; and Muhal Richard Abrams, whose Experimental Band is considered the genesis of the AACM.

Listening:

• Roscoe Mitchell – Sound, Old/Quartet (1967-68)
• Joseph Jarman – Song For, As If It Were the Seasons (1967/68)
• Muhal Richard Abrams – Levels and Degrees of Light (1967)

Let us know if you are coming and feel free to bring food and drink to share!

Fake It Till You Make It returns on Tuesday, 4 June.

All are welcome, and remember, it's always nice to register so Justin knows roughly how many people are coming.

About FITYMI
Fake It Till You Make It is a workshop/working group for those curious individuals looking to broaden their experience and skill-set. Each session of FITYMI will be on a different subject which could fall under areas of expertise such as construction, making, baking, electronics, mechanics, cooking, jewelry, physics, plants, and whatever else can be imagined. It is the purpose of the workshop to learn new things for the sake of learning and it is for this reason that participants will only discover the subject of each session upon arriving to the workshop. During each meeting there is a short talk about the subject and how to accomplish the objective of the FITYMI session followed by participants choosing how to proceed (experimenting with materials, accomplishing a project, discussion and/or playing) with food available at some point during the workshop.

To cover the expenses of materials and food for the workshop participants are asked to ‘pay what you can’.  We'll have food to share at the end while we reflect on what we made.

Running/organizing the workshop is Justin Tyler Tate who instructs other workshops such as 'Fast and Raw' - Intermediate sushi and 'Under Your Skin' (Tattooing Workshop). Tate has a Bachelors degree in Fine Art, a Doctorate in electronics and has an insatiable curiosity for new materials, techniques and ways of making.

This is a seminar/class that will meet several times this summer to explore the evolution of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). The meetings will begin in the mid-late 1960’s and follow the development of the AACM, mainly looking at the Art Ensemble of Chicago as central figures, up through the late 1970s.

Each week we will listen together to AACM recordings, discuss our thoughts and ideas, and share food and drink. The principal text will be George E. Lewis’s book A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music, but we will supplement each meeting with additional readings that span theory, criticism and other themes related to their work. We will explicitly examine the organisational elements of the AACM, as an association that supports artistic research against the grain of commercial pressure, seeking strategies that may be applicable to our creative ventures today. Additionally, we’ll look for parallel developments in non-AACM art and music from these times.

Schedule:

1. Before the Art Ensemble (3 June)
2. The new sound of Chicago (10 June)
3. A brain for the Seine (17 June)
4. The 1970s in America (24 June)
5. The dawn of the 1980s (1 July)

This week we'll look at some more early AACM recordings, specifically the debut of a young composer named Anhony Braxton. While the Art Ensemble of Chicago was not yet named, Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, Lester Bowie and Malachi Favors were performing under various group names. Like a “super group” of Chicago-based musicians, these four were united in their distinct approach to creating “black music”. At once jazz and not-jazz, this music created a new form of sound expression that did not abandon the roots of jazz, Negro spirituals, and African tribal music yet was distinctly avant-garde and open in form.

This week we'll listen to:

• Anthony Braxton – 3 Compositions of New Jazz (1968)
• Maurice McIntyre – Humility in the Light of Creator (1969)
• Art Ensemble – selections from the 67/68 box set

This is a seminar/class that will meet several times this summer to explore the evolution of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). The meetings will begin in the mid-late 1960’s and follow the development of the AACM, mainly looking at the Art Ensemble of Chicago as central figures, up through the late 1970s.

Each week we will listen together to AACM recordings, discuss our thoughts and ideas, and share food and drink. The principal text will be George E. Lewis’s book A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music, but we will supplement each meeting with additional readings that span theory, criticism and other themes related to their work. We will explicitly examine the organisational elements of the AACM, as an association that supports artistic research against the grain of commercial pressure, seeking strategies that may be applicable to our creative ventures today. Additionally, we’ll look for parallel developments in non-AACM art and music from these times.

 

Schedule:

1. Before the Art Ensemble (3 June)
2. The new sound of Chicago (10 June)
3. A brain for the Seine (17 June)
4. The 1970s in America (24 June)
5. The dawn of the 1980s (1 July)

Some AACM musicians traveled to Paris in 1969, where the Art Ensemble of Chicago solidified, and they underwent their most fruitful period of musical exploration. Anthony Braxton, Leroy Jenkins, Leo Smith and Steve McCall also worked in Paris at this time, playing in various group formations, and with Paris-based musicians. In France, their music was enthusiastically appreciated, though the reception of black American art in Europe was often problematic, tinged with an artificial exoticism.

This week's listening:

• Art Ensemble of Chicago – A Message To Our Folks, A Jackson in Your House, People in Sorrow (1969)
• Art Ensemble of Chicago – The Paris Sessions, Les Stances a Sophie, Live in Paris (1970/71)

This is a seminar/class that will meet several times this summer to explore the evolution of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). The meetings will begin in the mid-late 1960’s and follow the development of the AACM, mainly looking at the Art Ensemble of Chicago as central figures, up through the late 1970s.

Each week we will listen together to AACM recordings, discuss our thoughts and ideas, and share food and drink. The principal text will be George E. Lewis’s book A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music, but we will supplement each meeting with additional readings that span theory, criticism and other themes related to their work. We will explicitly examine the organisational elements of the AACM, as an association that supports artistic research against the grain of commercial pressure, seeking strategies that may be applicable to our creative ventures today. Additionally, we’ll look for parallel developments in non-AACM art and music from these times.

Schedule:

1. Before the Art Ensemble (3 June)
2. The new sound of Chicago (10 June)
3. A brain for the Seine (17 June)
4. The 1970s in America (24 June)
5. The dawn of the 1980s (1 July)

Back in America, the Art Ensemble added Don Moye as drummer and cemented the lineup that would continue until Bowie’s death. Meanwhile, other AACM musicians were moving to New York and expanding their circles, while the AACM approached ten years of existence.

This week's listening:

• Art Ensemble of Chicago – Live at Mandel Hall (1972) , Fanfare for the Warriors (1973)
• Creative Construction Company Volume 2 (1971)
• Anthony Braxton – New York, Fall 1974 (1975)

This is a seminar/class that will meet this summer to explore the evolution of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). The meetings will begin in the mid-late 1960’s and follow the development of the AACM, mainly looking at the Art Ensemble of Chicago as central figures, up through the late 1970s.

Each week we will listen together to AACM recordings, discuss our thoughts and ideas, and share food and drink. The principal text will be George E. Lewis’s book A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music, but we will supplement each meeting with additional readings that span theory, criticism and other themes related to their work. We will explicitly examine the organisational elements of the AACM, as an association that supports artistic research against the grain of commercial pressure, seeking strategies that may be applicable to our creative ventures today. Additionally, we’ll look for parallel developments in non-AACM art and music from these times.

Schedule:

1. Before the Art Ensemble (3 June)
2. The new sound of Chicago (10 June)
3. A brain for the Seine (17 June)
4. The 1970s in America (24 June)
5. The dawn of the 1980s (1 July)

In our final meeting, we will look at how the AACM changes in the late 1970s, responding to the challenges of sustaining continued musical creativity against both the shrinking cultural environment and the organisation’s own institutional nature. We'll check in with the AACM as it exists now, where it has become a storied Chicago institution, and listen to some of the recordings from the late 1970s that hint at the future development of these artists.

This week's listening:

• Roscoe Mitchell – Nonaah (1977)
• Chico Freeman – Chico (1977)
• Art Ensemble of Chicago –Nice Guys (1978)
• Air – Open Air Suit, Montreux Suisse (1978)