South Plug Monthly Hypes!
South Plug presents “Monthly Hypes”, an open call for artists to participate in a monthly showcase, a festival specialized in audiovisual works that have electronic music as a main element, opening new spaces for artists and creators, an opportunity and exhibition window for audiovisual works related to electronic music in all its forms.
Each month we highlight projects that meet the requirements according to each category, these projects reach an open and global community, but most importantly, focused on the electronic and film scene. This is an opportunity to give a digital window to each project. If you want to invest so that your project reaches the right people, this is an ideal channel. Featured projects will have visibility on our various platforms, through articles and social media content.
Awards
DOCUMENTARY SHORT / FILM [≤ 30′]
DOCUMENTARY [+ 30′]
EXPERIMENTAL [≤ 45′]
INSTALLATION[presentación AV]
LIVE PERFORMANCE [presentación AV]
MULTIMEDIA [presentación AV]
YOUNG SIGHT [- 30]
UNDERMATRESS [inédito]
By submitting a work you are ensuring that it is not restricted in any way. Each presenter is responsible for the rights and permissions of each work and what they are presenting.
Works must be from 2022 onwards, except for the “UNDERMATRESS” category, which can be from any year, but has not had the recognition it deserves.
All submissions must be less than 60 minutes.
All selected works are eligible for recognition at the end of the cycle.
Video art legacy in Colombia
In a country like Colombia, where the art economy struggles to find its place and the cultural sector faces significant challenges, unique stories emerge of individuals who have defied these challenges by pioneering currents that transform the paradigm of traditional art using unconventional technologies for their time and transgressive narratives of the conservative status quo that has characterized the country since the institutionality of the creative sector. Artists, spaces, movements and events that have served as an island of inspiration and beings that have become those “path openers” for an entire generation that now approaches with much more confidence the fields of digital art and the arts of time thanks to their legacies.
Sin titulo: Javier Cruz
The beginnings of video art and experimental art in Colombia arose in parallel to the dominant power of television and radio as mass media. The advent of new videographic technologies favored the artistic appropriation of the electronic image and the international influences of video, which went beyond the traditional structures of cinema, were already becoming relevant in the art world with influences such as Nam June Paik and Wolf Wostell.
Particularly in Colombia the creative potential of these media was being strongly promoted by Gilles Charalambos, perhaps one of the most significant figures in terms of video and digital art in Colombia. Gilles instructed a whole first generation of digital pioneers and visual artists who were beginning to show experimental alternatives to audiovisual storytelling.
Distorsión Intermitencia Falsificación en esta información- Gilles Charalambos (1978)
Some of these were artists like Santiago Echeverry and Javier Cruz, who from an early age had the opportunity to access pioneering technologies in digital graphics and programming such as the Atari or the Commodore… These machines, which were even used by Andy Warhol himself, came into the hands of Santiago and Javier between the 80s and 90s, and allowed them to freely explore their creativity, in what would become the new media in art.
Javier Cruz is one of the first video artists who explored the transition from painting to pixel, quickly understanding that his canvas was the television screen, observing this device as an almost sculptural object that could house the moving image.
In a particular way Santiago Echeverry stood out by forging a conceptual identity rooted in interactivity and live creation whose archives were displayed on the emerging web servers of the time. Through solid programming skills and the opportunity to train abroad, he was able to test equipment that was unavailable in Colombia, which allowed him to create animated videos, user interactions through cameras and image generation software.
Octobre – Santiago Echeverry (1992)
These experiences enriched his technological skills and pushed him to forge creations that challenged both the technical and conceptual conventions rooted in the conservative and radical country that prevailed at the time. Profound themes such as the body, sexuality, artistic activism and death have been addressed by Santiago using non-linear and poetic narrative resources. Works such as “Con Game” could be considered pioneers in the field of interactive video narratives. In addition, his works with the use of the Kinect show his interest in involving the viewers as fundamental elements in the process of the works in real time. These videos, often autobiographical and spontaneous, captured their environment, nightlife, relationships and family life.
Con Game – Santiago Echeverry (1998)
Likewise, the contributions of Francisco Javier Hurtado, Jose Alejandro Restrepo and Mirian Luisa Diaz, who taught in the country, mainly at the Universidad de los Andes and the Universidad Nacional in Bogotá, where their contributions on video art, interactive multimedia, interfaces and installations, were very valuable for understanding the electronic arts in our country.
Another teacher and one of the artists most involved in the creation, promotion and diffusion of real-time video in Colombia is Carmen Gil, who between the 90s and 2000s began to explore with black and white scanners, software such as Flash, Director, Photoshop, Isadora and Modulate and to use projection surfaces with video beams, televisions and web content.
Manual de Persuasión Ilustrado – Carmen Gil- La quinta del lobo
Carmen has excelled especially in her audiovisual performances, monumental projections and Fulldome experimental formats. She has also played a fundamental role in the promotion and support of new generations of digital artists in Colombia. Her influence extends to the creation of specialized spaces in the field of real-time video, highlighting the formation of collectives such as retroVISOR and La Quinta del Lobo. Carmen has also managed exhibition events such as Voltaje in Bogotá, contributing significantly to the construction and consolidation of an artistic ecosystem of digital arts, interactive and non-conventional technologies.
La quinta del Lobo – Carmen Gil Vrolijk
It is important to mention that academic spaces specialized in this field have emerged transversally, such as the Festival de la imagen de Manizales, some spaces of the Laboratorio de Experimentación MAMM and El exploratorio de Medellín, but also, and perhaps even more importantly, events, self-managed spaces and collectives such as the International Independent Film Fair of Bogota, Bogotrax, Platohedro, MASA Manifestación Social Audiovisual, Aleph Experimental, El validadero, Estratosfera among many others, whose efforts have built an ecosystem of learning, feedback and connection of new artists interested in electronic and digital arts.
Real-time video continues with a certain margin of freedom in the transformation and interpretation of pre-existing visual content, widening the scope for creative experimentation in the moving visual field.
The constant growth of spaces dedicated to the exploration and promotion of real-time video has provided the opportunity to analyze in detail the characteristics that increasingly differentiate this discipline from video art, and bring it even closer to the field of performance or expanded cinema. Its transdisciplinary nature is nourished by the synesthesia between image and sound, the ability to manage rhythm and synchronize time, the capacity to use space creatively and the direct interaction with the audience. Moreover, in one way or another, the flexibility and ability to improvise could become almost the superpower of this discipline that precisely resorts to live creation, exalting the value of evidencing the creative process and spontaneous action that characterizes it.
A diferencia de la industria de las distribuciones de Betamax y VHS en el videoarte que lidiaron fuertes restricciones sobre la reproducción libre de material de archivo, el video en tiempo real continua con cierto margen de libertad en este aspecto del uso, transformación e interpretación de contenido visual preexistente, ampliando el margen de experimentación creativa en el campo visual en movimiento. Sin embargo el uso decorativo de efectos en los softwares utilizados y la incorporación común de material de archivo son dos elementos fundamentales que han generado tanto críticas como admiración en los recientes años del video en tiempo real dentro de la era digital. Esto subraya la relevancia de mantener una vigilancia constante sobre cómo se manejan estos elementos de manera creativa y poética, que vayan más allá de los “efectos especiales” o la simple reproducción que no es revitalizada de un nuevo mensaje o estilo propio.
Hybris FullDome,Carmen Gil (2017)
Nowadays, real-time video has conquered scenarios beyond the television screen and web servers to which it was initially conditioned, now it is taking more and more prominence in theaters, music festivals, performing arts venues, domes and planetariums, museums and galleries. It also has a strong momentum of development thanks to artists who continue to strengthen the modes, spaces and techniques of creation such as Celeste Betancourt, Julian Medina, Laura Ramirez, to mention just a few, have assumed a key role in this evolution, which has been consolidating a solid niche in the artistic and creative possibilities of video in real time in Colombia.
Túnel de Tiempo- Santiago Echeverry (2019)
30 years of Sónar: a close up…
More than 120,000 attendees from 100 different countries gathered in Barcelona this year to celebrate Sónar’s 30th anniversary. What makes this festival so transversely unique and interesting? We tell you about it here.
If we had to highlight one element of the world-renowned Sónar Festival it is that, throughout its 30-year history, it has been able to remain at the forefront of connecting art, science, and technology as a culturally valuable network and source of inspiration for different disciplines.
Its anniversary version was no exception, providing spaces for meeting, innovation and education in which 3,500 professionals and experts of various nationalities and ages gathered around creators from different parts of the world.
The words of Sergio Caballero, co-director and responsible for the festival’s image, sum up its spirit:
“When we set out the image of the festival to celebrate 30 years, as always and as is the nature of the festival, is to look to the future and not to the past, but also recognizing that there is a past. So, we worked with artificial intelligence precisely with all the old campaigns, but looking towards the future.”
Sonar + D is the festival’s initiative that aims to explore how creativity inspires our present, feeds on our past, and draws lines for possible futures. It is actually an international congress and fair, where professionals and amateurs of music, arts, technologies and sciences find their common ground. This year, the initiative invited attendees to interact around the application of AI to music and audiovisual production, along with its consequent ethical, industrial and social debates.
It is in this context that we had the opportunity to talk in more depth with some of the exhibitors of this year’s Project Area, whose work and dedication to bring music, science and technology to the public, weaving cultural networks around the world.
ANTONUS SYNTHS
This small local company from Barcelona, impresses with their impeccable work developing sequencers inspired by the ARP 2600, and taking them to the next level. All their work is done by hand by three specialists, who are also passionate about conveying the team’s philosophy.
“We love what we do, we love the music and what we make, so for us it’s really important to pass on the knowledge and share it” (Antonys Synths team).
Despite being a family business, their equipment is sold all over the world, and they have the support of the family that originally created ARP.
BASTL INSTRUMENTS
From the Czech Republic, Bastl Instruments creates different types of instruments, modular and semi-modular synthesizers, along with stand-alone units for creating music.
While their production range is quite wide, they explain that their instruments are mainly for people who already have experience creating electronic music and are looking for something that other companies can’t offer.
“Our products are for a more demanding user, and those who are leaning towards something more experimental” (Bastl Instruments team).
HYPHA
It is a deliciously sensory virtual reality work developed in Santiago, Chile, produced by Nanai Studio from an artistic residency at the Mushroom Museum.
The immersive experience, designed to be viewed through virtual reality headsets, allows the user to observe the complete life cycle of the fungi kingdom, focusing specifically on the concept of bioremediation, which is the unique ability of the fungi kingdom to transform, regenerate and rehabilitate our ecosystem.
With a strong call for attention to the imbalance we humans generate in the environment, Hypha proposes that we learn from the fungi kingdom the alternatives available to be able to have a more positive impact on our environment.
“We worked with mycologists, scientists and researchers to develop the play’s narrative.” (Selva Gonzalez, executive producer).
CHEMICAL ECOSYSTEM
Chemical Ecosystems is a fascinating olfactory and sound work by artist Yolanda Uriz. It is a series of artifacts of organic forms that collect chemical particles from the air around them through specialized sensors, responding by translating the particles into sounds and smells emanating from them. In a way, it emulates the interaction of certain living organisms, which communicate through pheromones.
WASTELANDS, ESPACIOS RESONANTES
Artistic research project that explores the acoustics and sounds of abandoned industrial spaces, to use them for artistic creation. The creators of the project, Chileans Mathias Klenner and Sofía Balbontín, embarked on an acoustic journey through Europe and Chile, searching for and collecting sounds in these places of human reminiscences, in which they perform sound interventions. “We went into an oil tank in Scotland, which has the largest echo in the world, for example, which was crazy,” says Mathias.
From the material they have created installations and performances around the world, and has found an outlet for virtual reality by the hand of Joan Lavandeira, who has transferred the sound research to the level of video games, developing an immersive experience of spatial sound that has been awarded as the most innovative video game in major fairs in Spain.
As Mathias comments, the project has an important message for the audience, beyond the captivating experience:
“There is a political charge in this project. For us these are monuments, in a way, “monuments”, of human society that have been abandoned. Industrial spaces for oil, for gas, for coal, for floods, that somehow show the history of the last century of the human being. On the one hand the progress, and on the other hand the decadence. And also how nature has reactivated them.”
Sónar’s 30th anniversary celebrations will continue in September, with the festival curating the soundtrack to La Mercé’s Piromusical, and will return to fill Barcelona with art, science and technology in June next year.
