Cybersalon for Art’s Birthday
January the 17th 2022
Author: Julianna Krzywiec
Musicians, amateur artists and people hungry for connection face an obstacle in their path: the Covid-19 pandemic. This is the third year that cultural activity has moved into the online sphere. The structure, experience, as well as the values of arts audiences have changed. In these turbulent times, cultural amateurs are struggling to find stability and a way to communicate their work, DJ’s had to learn how to stream and build new online audiences.
The question is how can you adjust as you shift from in real life experience to online?
Art’s Birthday online Festival
17th of January is a date of special importance. First proposed by a French artist Robert Filliou as the Birthday of Art. Responding to this day are gatherings organized by Cybersalon- a UK-based collective and think-tank focusing on the process and effects of the digital revolution on industry, society and emerging digital cultures.
This year’s Art’s Birthday celebration took place online, connecting individuals from around the world. It gathered a fascinating collective of DJs to introduce their work created during the Pandemic era. Guests included Lucy from Heavy-Lifing.org, Irina (aka Miss Naivety from Reikiavik), Simon Sarginson , John Horsley (aka LongShore Drift), Alexis K Scott (from Hackney but his heart is in Croatia), Dannyboy Stapleton , Hypnaton from snowy Moscow, Ryan Battles (POV London) and Austrian Sound Collective Alex & Paul from Vienna.
The first part of the online event was a presentation of musical sets opening with electronic music, moving through experimental music from Hypnathon (Moscow), and ending with some folklore elements from Miss Naivety, with live coding visuals from Simon Sarginson over Dan S new piece. There was also a new commission from Lucy from Heavy-Lifting.org, created for this year theme ‘New Beginings”.
The tools we used were wide ranging- Lucy used Tidal Cycles, Simon is a fan of Hydra for live visuals, Hypnathon writes his own software (contact him directly for guidance) and everyone was excited to share the tech and opt for future collaborations.
After the music, guests along with the host Eva Pascoe discussed artists living during the pandemic, the changes in the artistic expression and the attempt to overcome the routine during multiple lockdowns people experienced. The pandemic redefined the concept of loneliness. With social media and initiatives like Cybersalon encouraging remote meetings, people could feel a little less trapped and overwhelmed with the new reality.
However, it is necessary to be aware that new, remote forms of expression required a different approach.
They required overcoming barriers and often stepping out of one’s comfort zone. It can feel overwhelming in its new form, but the reality is that when you bring the right group of individuals sharing a similar goal, in a common digitized space, it’s almost guaranteed that things will work themselves out in the right direction.
For example, Ryan Battles, upon the encouragement of Eva Pascoe, began streaming his DJ sets online. Another Art’s Birthday guest, John Horsley, took up painting again and with photography began noticing anomalies in his seemingly tedious daily walks. For Irina, music became a tool that reconnected her with people.
Sounds were given a new value, different from words and previous pre-pandemic communication. They became much more personal, and in fact with unlimited potential. As Lucy from Heavy-Lifting explained, experimental music allowed for a shift away from the generally understood standards in music. It placed it closer to the art for art itself, and distanced it from the widely imposed rules. The tools determine the form and the final result. So if the tools are no longer conventionally understood instruments, but remote, freely operating codes – the form that is finally created will be equally free and unlimited. Every music and art enthusiast can pick up a particular aspect of creativity for themselves.
Dannyboy Stapleton finds a scientific background in music, analyzing and digging into existing work.
Therefore, for most of artists, the pandemic and living in ‘low noise’ has accelerated the process of moving creativity into a digitized space. It has generated new means of expression, brought once strangers together, and shattered previously existing boundaries.
It also proves that people are thirsty for culture, needing to be surrounded by creativity. So if the global pandemic can’t stop those minds, we can talk about can talk about a revolution in the art world happening right now. With Art’s Birthday and initiatives like Cybersalon, history is being made in front of our eyes and we get to be a part of it.
