Botborg present live audio-visual performances using a complex feedback web, consisting of audio and video mixers, screens and camera. In this web, sound and vision are blended into a self perpetuating synaesthesia of interdependent colour and rhythm, generated (in real time) entirely by device feedback. All performances are completely improvised and no outside source material is used in addition to the no-input feedback system. Botborg performances fuse sound and light into intensely visceral experiences which do not fit into the established categories of cinema or music, and explore the boundaries of analogue and digital technology; art and science; reality and magic.awards & exhibitionsPrevious noteworthy performances include:
What Is Music? (Brisbane 2005)
Australiaâs longest running, largest and most diverse experimental music festival. Botborg perform alongside Sunn O))), Black Dice, The Residents, Pan Sonic, Chicks On Speed and many more.
Liquid Architecture (Melbourne 2005)
Established Australian experimental music, sound art and multimedia festival featuring performances, screenings, workshops and installations. Botborg perform in an audio/visual program with Wetgate, Severed Heads, Thomas Brinkman, Will Guthrie, Robin Fox and many more.
Australasian Computer Music Conference (Brisbane 2005)
The conference for the Australasian Computer Music Association â âa community of composers, performers, teachers and technologists who are making or supporting music making with computersâ. Botborg perform alongside Warren Burt, Camilla Hannan, Lloyd Barrett and more.
Electrofringe (Newcastle 2005)
Long running electronic music/culture festival featuring both performances and workshops. Botborg preform and discuss the conceptual and technical aspects of their work.
TransAcoustic (Auckland 2005)
New Zealand festival exploring ideas of sound informed by light, including film-based performances, photosensitive circuitry, audio/visual collaborations, etc. Botborg perform with Robin Fox, Abject Leader (Joel Stern and Sally Golding), Rosy Parlane, Tim Coster and more.
The NOWnow (Sydney 2006)
Largest Australian festival dealing exclusively with spontaneous music and film. Botborg perform alongside Pita, Xavier Charles, Coh Fuller, Clare Cooper, Clayton Thomas and many more.
Articulating Space (Melbourne 2006)
Australian festival showcasing groups who have developed a shared language through long term group improvisation. Botborg perform alongside Oren Ambarchi, Brendan Walls, Anthony Pateras, Tony Buck, Jim Denley and many more.
Other Film Festival (Brisbane 2006)
Festival dedicated to âcinemaâs wild, performative, immersive, formal tendencies and expanding conceptions of what film is, may be, has been, and will be againâ. Botborg perform alongside Australian expanded cinema pioneers Arthur and Corrine Cantrill, Abject Leader, Pia Borg, Mark Harwood, Van Sowerwine and more.
Botborg have also performed alongside a very rare screening of the expanded cinema classic âLine Describing a Coneâ (Anthony McCall 1973).
| |
Botborg began from experiments into feedback, both sonic and visual. It was found that the two could be combined, in an interactive way, with fascinating results. As the feedback system grew more complex and included more elements (audio mixer, visual mixer, laptop, camera, monitors, etc.), gradually a system was created when sound and light are forced into a self-perpetuating interaction unique to the space in which they occur. Rather than giving a âmusical performanceâ or a âfilmic presentationâ, Botborg âactivates a spaceâ by expanding the already complex audio/visual feedback system with the unique features of every venue. Although this system is highly manipulable, it is equally unpredictable and uncontrollable, allowing Botborg to look and sound vastly different on every occasion.