Stranger no more

Rather than create another blog, we've decided to co-op this project and add some new content.

New times!!!


It seems that people need to be in the box longer, so new times have been added.

Bios 2

Bengala

BENGALA are actually two people, a matrimonial art collective composed of B. Tischer and Gala Verdugo. Their photography and writings have appeared in numerous publications (Deliciae Vitae, Honcho, K48, Oui, Parkett) and galleries (D'Amelio Terras, Deitch Projects, John Connelly Presents, The Tank, Lucky Tackle, Kunsthalle St. Gallen). as have their video collaborations and multi-media work. Previously Bengala worked in performance art, performing at venues such as P.S.1, The Walker, Gavin Brown Enterprises, etc. While ongoing projects include a muse project and video series, plus Reichian craftwork with Ramona Banzaca, their new focus is upon creating "experientials"--art which provides a physical experience normally unfound in everyday life.

Breyer P-Orridge

Beginning in the 1960s, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge experimented with various disciplines and practices to apply the cut-up to behaviour, to identity, and to gender; de-conditioning as far as possible the fictional character written by consensus reality and all who would impose their expectations upon him. Breyer P-Orridge worked throughout the 1970s as a performance artist and actionist (COUM, Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV); and during the 1980s s/he studied and practiced ritual and shamanic techniques and was deeply involved in the body modification movement known as “modern primitives”. In the early 1990s Genesis Breyer P-Orridge met Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge and their ever more rigorous collaborations began.

Just as Burroughs and Gysin collaborated together, subsuming their separate works, individuality and ego to a collaborative process by cutting-up the Word to produce a third mind, so, in our current practice, Breyer P-Orridge have applied the cut-up system and third mind concept directly to a central concern, the fictional SELF. The un-authorised Astory of our lives so far. Breyer P-Orridge both supply our separate bodies, individuality and ego to an ongoing and substantially irreversible process of cutting-up identity to produce a third being, an “other” entity that we call the PANDROGYNE. For more info, see: www.genesisp-orridge.com

M.V. Carbon

Founding member of Metalux, Carbon is a musician currently based in Brooklyn, NY.

Todd A. Carter

Audio engineer from Chicago, member of TV Pow.

William Chesley

Bill Chesley is one of New York’s leading sound designers.

D. Edward Davis

D. Edward Davis is an emerging young composer, working primarily in the field of electronic music. Many of his works use digital processing, blending, and manipulation to extend the timbres of traditional acoustic instruments. Prerecorded computer-processed sounds often serve as a layered backdrop for live instrumentalists. Davis's works have been performed around the globe, with recent performances in New York, San Francisco, and Chicago, as well as Finland and Japan. His music was performed at the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt, Germany in 2002. In 2004, he was honored with a four-week residency at the Ragdale Foundation in Lake Forest, Illinois. He currently lives in Brooklyn, New York, where he is pursuing his Master's Degree in Composition at Brooklyn College with Amnon Wolman.

Daniel Gleason

Dan Gleason is a short story writer whose jottings (including The Unexpected Gratification I Received From Taking Part in the Sexual Act with a Homeless Person..., My Homoerotic Youth..., The Gospel According to Dan Gleason, and Thoughts That Surrounded the Time When I Cut My Penis Masturbating and Fainted at the Sight of Its Blood...) can be found at Quimby's Bookstore in Chicago. Also, he occasionally dables in sound works with the great American artist Michael Dietrich Wolf, which include the one submitted here. Live to Love.

Richard Holland

Raphael Lyon

Raphael Lyon is the creative organizer behind the experimental sound play and noise label FreeMatterfortheBlind and the producer of the recently released Haunted Cobblestone Concert Series of live recordings.

This work, Psicklops, which is a modern sequel to Kafka’s “The Trial”, was put together in collaboration with over a dozen independent writers and sound designers. Using scripted and unscripted sound pieces- it circles the territory described by interrogation- both of the capitalist and home land “security” varieties- as well as their many intersections. It will be released as a limited edition cd through FreeMatterfortheBlind and under the Creative Commons copyleft code of conduct.

Gen Ken Montgomery

Gen Ken Montgomery is a sound artist living and working in New York since 1978. He has created soundworks for tape, vinyl and compact discs, soundtracks for film and video, concerts for stage, performance art for public spaces, sound and music for theater, sound for elevators and sound art for galleries. Since 1985 he has been creating and performing eight channel concerts for presentation in total darkness inspired by his mentor and collaborator, Conrad Schnitzler. Montgomery was one of the original founders of Generation Unlimited and the Pogus Productions record labels, and in1989, founded Generator, the first sound art gallery in New York City. He has been awarded Artist Residencies in Hamburg and New York City. In addition to his own work, he continues to produce concerts and publish recordings of dedicated sound artists through Generator Sound Art, Inc.

“I am involved in events which bring people together to focus on the experience of listening. I’ve become increasingly appreciative of enduring impressions arising out of transitory moments — using sound as a form of transportation.”

Pilow

Pilow is composed of Paul Börchers of the Rotterdam-based art collective ANTISTROT and installation artist Julia Hamilton.

Michael Skinner

Currently on tour with Kevin Devine, Mike Skinner is a musician and artists based in Brooklyn.

Philip von Zweck

Philip von Zweck is a Chicago artist currently stationed in New York. Visit: www.stopgostop.com/pvonzweck

FAQs

What is this?

STRANGERS IN THE DARK is a new "experiential" by matrimonial art collective Bengala. You are invited to share a unique experience with a small number of strangers in a light-tight environment.


That didn't really explain. Tell me more.

Well, people reaffirm experience primarily in two ways, through sight and discussion. By removing these possibilities, STRANGERS IN THE DARK intends to test the common experience among visitors through touch and sound. Participants are invited to explore osmosis and empathy within soundscapes and collages by a variety of audio artists.


I'm still not getting it. Can you put it in simpler terms?

You will be locked in a small dark room with people you don't know and listen to soundtracks.


Who made the soundtracks?

The Amsterdam-based collective Antistrot, Breyer P-Orridge (PTV, Thee Majesty), M.V. Carbon (Metalux, Bride of No No), Todd A. Carter (TV Pow), Bill Chesley, D. Edward Davis, Daniel Gleason, Richard Holland, Raphael Lyon (FreeMatterfortheBlind), Gen Ken Montgomery, Mike Skinner (Black Moustache), and Philip von Zweck (Something Else, Blind Spot).


I want to hear the Breyer P-Orridge one!

Soundtracks are chosen at random, or by concession of participants. One thing to remember, you will be in the dark for the duration of the track.


How long are the tracks?

The range from five minutes to an hour.


Wait, I could be trapped in there for an hour?

Yes, your experience is determined by the length of the soundtrack.


Can I leave early if I want?

No.


Okay, I'm still interested. How do I make an appointment?

See the following post, entitled SCHEDULING A SESSION.

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