SFCINEMATHEQUE

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Friday, March 9, 2012

Jaap Blonk: Soundtracks, Scores, Interactive Animations

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts





Jaap Blonk In Person
presented in association with sfSoundSeries
[members: $6 / non-members: $10]
Order advance tickets here.

Dutch artist Jaap Blonk is a self-taught composer, performer and poet who has worked since the early 1980s almost exclusively in the realm of improvised vocal performance and Dada inspired concrete poetry. Known for his powerful stage presence and exuberant approach to improvisation, Blonk has, over the years, created a rich body of original work while consistently elaborating the repertoire of seminal avant-garde poets and performers, including Antonin Artaud, Hugo Ball, Tristan Tzara, with his various masterful interpretations of Kurt Schwitters’ epic Ursonate being perhaps the best known. Recently, a renewed interest in mathematics has led the artist to explore the possibilities of algorhythmic composition in the creation of works which fuse music, visual animation and poetry. Appearing throughout the Bay Area in early March on an extended U.S. tour, Blonk tonight presents a very rare performance/projection program including live presentations of original graphic scores (possibly to include Rhotic, Proxim and Homage to Antonin Artaud); live tracks to silent films Forest Views (1999, by Bart Vegter) and Emak-Bakia (Man Ray, 1926); an interpretation of Man Ray’s composition Lautgedicht (1924) and examples of Blonk’s solo videos and “interactive animations,” including Song for the Cubists, flababble 1, Traces of Speech and Viceregal Impressions. (Steve Polta)

Note: Jaap Blonk will appear throughout the Bay Area March 4–9. For events listings see www.sfsound.org.

Download program notes (PDF)