Artist Residency Presentation: Daniella Ben Bassat

Participants

Wednesday, November 11, 2015 | 5 to 7
@ STUDIO XX – 4001, Berri (corner Duluth) space 201
Suggested donation:2$, *FREE* for members
Refreshments will be served
Studio XX is proud to present Wednesday November 11, 5pm, the residency presentation of artist Daniella Ben-Bassat (Open residency that took place from September 28 to November 6, 2015), “Taskmaster”.

Come to see Daniella Ben-Bassat’s Taskmaster! This new piece consists of four sculptural sound machines that she produced during her residency at Studio XX (September-November).

Video: Daniella Ben-Bassat | TASKMASTER

Taskmaster aims to counter the absurd idea of “user control” advertised as a feature of digital technology. Instead, Daniella’s point of departure is that users’ actions are enabled but also constrained by the very code of the digital machine. While tech-developers and designers hide the code, “the wires,” and the true nature of their mechanisms, Daniella aims to expose them.

Each one of the sculptural machines functions as a moving diorama enclosed within a cube. The spinning pieces within each cube are programmed to rotate in different directions at different time intervals. The performer can control the speeds of these pre-determined rotations. The result is a series of loops of live sound as amplified motors, violin strings, and tenuously arranged metal scraps knock and scrape against each other.

The sculptures, in both their states of pre-programmed automation and human intervention, will work together with washes of droning guitar and motor tones to create a complex soundscape both industrial in texture and humanly idiosyncratic in nature.

Revealing the hidden systems inherent to mainstream media and technology is not just important as functional users, but as a feminist practice to further deconstruct and make visible the systems which permeate our lives.